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AUGUST, 1874.]
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA.
235
a cloger examination, however, it appeared that Colonel Gardner, in describing the course of the Oxus and its affluents, had not in reality relied on his own independent reminiscences, which were probably hazy in the extreme, but had merely followed a map drawn up by Arrowsmith in 1834, to illustrate Burnes's Bokhara Travels; and this map, it was further ascertained, embodied a largo portion of the spurious information contained in the Russian MS., Klaproth's precious report having
en placed by the Foreign Office at our great cartographer's disposal, as the latest official authority on Central Asian geography.
The mystification, moreover, did not end here. Veniukoff and his friends, being entirely ignorant that there was a third Klaproth forgery in Eng. land, cited the supposed independent authority of Arrowsmith's map in support of the genuineness of the German and Chinese Itineraries; the truth,
however, being-which they were very slow to recognize-that the map in question merely followed another branch of the fiction, and that the argument thus proceeded in a vicious circle. It would not have been worth while, perhaps, to have dwelt at such length on this piece of literary forgery, had it not been for the extraordinary publicity which the forgery has attained ; a pub. licity which has caused the spurious delineation of the hydrography of the Upper Oxus to be introduced into almost every Russian and Ger. man map of Central Asia that has been recently published, and has thus hitherto vitiated all our geographical knowledge and produced universal confusion. Fortunately, though continental goo. graphers have not yet thought fit to do penance for their credulity, we are now in a position in England to pronounco authoritatively on the question."
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA. ON THE VALABHI CHRONOLOGY.
were it not that a paper by Major Watson in the To the Editor of the Indian Antiquary.
last November part of the Indian Antiquary SIR, - In the last number (No. 28) of the Journal
enables us to settle the disputed point within very of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
narrow limits. there is a paper on a new Valabhi Copper-Plate From that paper we learn that “The Senapati by Professor R. G. Bhandarkar,t in which (at page
Bhattaraka, taking a strong army, came into 75) the following passage occurs "Mr. Fergusson
Saurashtra and made his rule firm there. Two refers the dates in the grants to the Valabhi era,
years after this Skanda Gupta died. The Senabut it is difficult to conceive how it should have pati now assumed the title of king of Saurashtra." escaped his notice that 272 years, or according to According, therefore, to this account, which I do the old reading 330 years, is far too long for the not see any reason for doubting, the foundation of reign of Bhatarka, his four sons, and his grandson the Balabhi dynasty took place either two years Guhasena."
before, or the year after, Skanda Gupta's death. The passage to which the Professor refers is the Luckily we have, among others, several inscriptions following: -“We have, according to the longest of Skanda Gupta dated between the years 129 list, six names," those above referred to," before Sri and 141 of some era. The latest is on a Pillar at Dhara to Batarka, the progenitor of the race, and Kahaon, || and, with those on the rock at Girnar, allowing 20 years to each, which is more than they leaves no doubt as to the correctness of the probably are entitled to, this would take us back readings of the figures. Now according to Professor to 528 for the earliest date for the Balabhi dynasty, Bhandarkar, in the paper just referred to, Sri Dhara if we adopt Watben's date, or 508 i Bhâu Sena dated one of his inscriptions in 272 of some Daji's." | Instead, therefore, of the 272 or 330 with era, probably the same, whatever that may be. which the Professor credits me, I allowed 120 The interval, consequently, between these two years, neither more nor less, for these six reigns. dates is 131 years, but as it is not improbable that
This is so evidently a mistake, and these mis. Sri Dhara made his grant in the first year of his takes are so common in Indian periodicals, that reign, or that Skanda Gupta set up the Kahaon I would not think it worth while correcting it, pillar in the last of his, we may fairly distribute
Darwas, and passed a season on the Pamfr Steppes. It was understood some years back that Mr. Cooper, our Commissioner at Lahor, had brought Colonel Gardiner's journals to England, with a view to their publication, and much geographical interest was excited in conseguence; but the work has never appeared, and since Mr. Cooper's I death it is uncertain what has become of the MSS. Colonel Gardner, in a ripe old age, still retains his military com. mand in Kasmir.
• Edinburgh Review, vol. cxxxv. (Jan. 1872), pp. 14-17. The third portion of Col. Yule's essay is a very careful geographical sketch of the basin of the Owns, which space does not allow us further to notice..
1 Conf. Ind. Ant. vol. I. pp. 60, 61. I Jour. R. As. Soc. N. S. vol. IV. p. 9C
Ind. Ant. vol. II. p. 312.
Jour. Beng. As. Soc. VII. 37, and Jout. Bomb. B. I R. As. Soc. VIII. p. 115, 124, and 246.
