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AUGUST, 1874.]
ON MUHAMMADAN CHRONOGRAMS.
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the chanting is repeated, when the soothsayer takes the right hand of the inquirer, and touches with it either the chin or the ear of the latter, the former indicating a mar and the latter a female as the source of her trouble. She then advises the offering of sacrifices and other rites, to propitiate the family god. When the oracle is not satisfactory, or the matter in the inquirer's mind is not rightly divined, the process is repeated ad nauseam, and either her chin or her ear is always touched, the former signifying sickness, and the latter health, and so on. At the end of the
Kani the Korachar woman walks away with the offerings to attack fresh victims, whilst her late dupe returns to her daily avocations with her perturbed spirit much allayed, and with the firm belief that she has secured her future prosperity.
In the attempt to rise above ourselves, we seek, though in vain, to dive into the dark future; and the uneducated Hindu, with his mind impressed with the ignorance and superstition of countless ages, is easily deceived by the plausible tricks of the wicked and artful.
ON MUHAMMADAN CHRONOGRAMS.
BY H. BLOCHMANN, M.A., CALCUTTA MADRASALI. The Muhammadans have a convenient way | Muhammad 'Abdul Ghani, because he was born of expressing the date of an event by means of in 1255 or 1259 A.H. words the letters of which have a numerical But, like every branch of literature, the hisvalue. These letters when added up give the tory of the composition of chronograms exhidate of the event; and a date thus expressed is bits gradual development under the bands called a tarikh.
of writers of genins, and the subjection to cerIt is almost useless to remark that tarikhs tain rules fixed by the taste of art-critics. are of great importance to the historian. Copy- First of all, we observe that the collected ists of MSS. make frequent mistakes when works of the pre-classical poets, i.e. poets who dates are merely expressed in numerals; but no lived before the time of Nizami, contain no confusion is possible when dates are expressed chronograms; and, further, we look in vain for in chronograms.
them in the writings of most of the poets of the The Hindas, too, have chronograms. I may classical period, which ends with Jami. But refer to a Bihar inscription, deciphered by the poets after the time of Jami have left nu. Rajendralâla Mitra, * of Samvat 913 (A.D. 856), merous târikhs. It is, therefore, only from the end in which the date is expressed by the words of the 9th century of the Hijrah that the compoagni (3), rágha (1), and dvdra (9); and to the sition of chronograms has engaged the skill of numerous examples given in Brown's Sanskrit poets. The development of the art was sudProsody, p. 49.
den; but as it was diligently cultivated, its The Muhammadans pay much attention to rules and usage became fixed, and no further chronograms. No work is now-a-days issued change has since taken place. without one or several tarikhs, composed by the What I have said regarding the historical author or his acquaintances, and in many cases origin of the art of composing chronograms the very title of the book conceals in its letters may also be verified from Muhammadan inthe date of composition. The death of a saintly scriptions. Before the tenth century of the friend or a rich patron is lamented in chroro Hijrah, we find, in inscriptions, no verses the grams, and on the birth of a son the happy hemistichs or distichs of which, eithe. wholly father is overwhelmed with tarikhs of congra- or partially, yield tårikhs. Hence, raversely, if tulation. Many Mubammadans have even a we find in an inscription a verse with a chronotárikhe name or a chronbgrammatic alias, and gram, should it even refer to an event that an 'Abdullah is also called Mazhar 'Ali or happened before the tenth century, we may be
• Jour. As. Soc. Beng. for 1873, Pt. I. p. 310. [It would be interesting to learn when the Hindu really began to use chronogrims. Some of the older supposed ones have turned out to be nothing of the kind. Conf. Ind. Ant. vol. I. pp. 128, 195, 227.-ED.)
