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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[August, 1874.
total sum of the letters of the tarikh. Thus when Abul Fazl was murdered by Bir Singh Deo Bundelâ in 1011 (12th August 1602), who cut off his head and sent it as a present to Prince Salim, one of Akbar's courtiers made the following chronogram (metre short ramal) :
برید
تیغ اعجاز نبي الله سر باغی
ical value, it must be confessed, has but little suffered. *
The fertile genius of Târikhgos, or writers of chronograms, soon led them not only to make collections of striking tarikhs, but also to compose chronograms for all important events of the Prophet's life, and of the history and the great men of Islâm. Among the richest mines I may mention Badaoni's Muntakhab (written in 1004 A... or 1595 A.D.); the Mir-átul 'Alam by Bakhtawar Khân (written in 1668 A.D.); and the fine chapter on chronograms and riddles in Tahir's Tazkirah (written in 1672 A.D.). The last work also proves strikingly the fact mentioned above, that the composition of târikhs according to the present fashion dates from the 9th century; for Tahir cites the chronograms of Babar's birth and of Mir 'Ali Sher's Madrasah as the oldest apparently known to him. There are also several collections of chronograms belonging to our times, as the Mukhbir ul Wásilin, which was printed about forty years ago at Calcutta, and is & chronological register of Muhammadan saints; the excellent Miftah uttarodrikh, by Mr. T. W. Beale, of Partâbpura, Agrah; and the Khazinat ul Asia and the Ganj i Tarikh, by Mufti Ghulam Sarwar, of Lahor.
It is not my intention to select chronograms as examples-there is a perfect embarro de richesse; but it may be more acceptable to note the classification and the rules of composition of târikhg.
The following kinds of tårikhs are mentioned :
(1.) The Tarikh i Mutlaq, the absolute chronogram,' when the year is obtained from the simple addition of all the letters of & sen. ence, distich, or parts of a sentence or distich. Thus the building of Shahjahânâbâd, or modern Dihli, by Shahjahan in 1058, or A.D. 1648, is referred to in the following chronogram by Mir Yahyâ of Qum
The wonderful sword of God's Prophet cut off the head of the rebel.
Here the chronogram lies in the words, i.e. 1013; but the head is cut off, i.e. the first letter of the word or, 2; hence we get 1013-2, or 1011.
(3.) Taushth, when the chronogram is in form of an acrostic, the first letters or the last letters of each line, or both together, forming. the tårikh.
(4.) The Tarikh i śúri o ma'nawi, when the poet clearly expresses the year in metrical language, and the letters on addition give the same year. Thus the death of the emperor BAbar in 937 A.H. (A.D. 1530) led to the following chronogram (metre khafif) :
تاریخ وفات شاه بابر در نهصد و سی و هفت بوده
The date of Babar's death lies in the words, It was in 937.'
Here the date is clearly expressed, and yet on adding up the letters of the hemistich we get 937.
The following are the principal rules followed in the composition of chronograms :
(1). The value of the letters is the same as in the Arabic alphabet, arranged in the wellknown form of abjad, huwaz, &c. Letters peculiar to the Persians, Indians, or Malays have the same value as the corresponding letters in Arabic; thus p, g, ch, and ch are counted as b, k,,. In the same manner the Hindustâni would count as , 4.
(2.) In every târikh we count the letters that are written (maktúb), not those that are pronounced (malfuz). Hence tashdids, madds, and the small raised Alif, as in way, are not counted. But exceptions occur. For example, the Arabic sirr, a secret, is generally counted 460, to distingăish it from the Persian sar and the Hindustani sir, a head. When madde
آباد
شد شاهجهانا باد از شاهجهان
Shahjahandbad was made abád by Shahjahan.
(2.) The Tarikh i Ta'miyah, 'the enigmatical chronogram,' when hints are given to add or subtract certain quantities to or from the
• If brevity is the soul of wit, we must however sward the palm to Mir Haidar (Ain translation, p. 593, No. 81), who found & chronogram of Shah Ism&ll's socession in the words pddishah i ri camin' (984); and when the Shah died in the following year, he said, 'pddishah ser samin' (985) the king of the face of the earth,' and the king below the earth.'
