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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[NOVEMBER, 1882
High Tartary, Ylrkand, and Kdehgar, 1871, I this miracle, whereas the success of the Akhand noticed that the tales he gives as ascribed to as a Musalman religious leader was achieved long Alexander the Great bear a strong resemblance before any miracle was invented to add to his to those heard in the Panjab ascribed to local glory. But the fact of the same tale being told heroes. I think if a large collection of tales- | about a Musalman and a Sikh hero in places BO especially of miracles-were made, it would be widely separated as the Peshwar Frontier and found that the Oriental superstitious imagination the Firozpur District leads one to suppose that has not been so fertile as one would at first it is really an old tale revived to suit modern imagine, and that the various tales radiate from requirements, and it would be of value to find out a few central stories which are probably very old. if it is traceable to earlier times.
This tale about the Akhond is another instance At page 7 of his tract Mr. Hughes illustrates of this. It is also told with a few variations the Akhund's method of dispensing justice by the regarding the purist Sikh leader, the Koka, Ram following tale :Singh, a man much younger than the Akhand, "A man of the village of Pubbt was convicted who in 1876 was 86 years old, and so was born in of immorality. The Courts of Government were 1790, whereas Ram Singh was not born till 1815, ignored, and the case was submitted to the or 25 years later. Râm Singh was a carpenter Akhand. A fatwah was issued, the culprit was
bhardt) by trade, just as the Akhand was a herds. seized, his face blackened, and seated on a donkey man (Gujar) by caste, and in 1861 on a Sunday he he was paraded round the village amid the shouts is said to have miraculously lengthened a beam of the people and the beating of drums." he was putting up in a poor man's house in This method of punishment is so well-known Firozpur city in order to save his employer and was so universal in India before the advent of expense. The difference in the tale regarding the British rule, that it is scarcely necessary for me to Akhund and in that regarding Râm Singh is, that do more than add that in this fatwah the Akhand the subsequent success of the latter as a Sikh merely followed the custom of the country, Guru or religious leader is popularly attributed to
R. O. TEMPLE.
ASIATIC SOCIETIES. The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, copy is forthcoming nor translation." Here are vol. L, 1881. The parts of this volume have six inscriptions of one dynasty already lost within appeared somewhat irregularly, and the title, a few years, and a seventh, in the hands of a opuļx, &c., for the volume are not issued even private person, is as likely as not to be lost also, like with the first part of vol. LI.
most others that have been so kept hitherto, inThe first part opens with “Contributions to the cluding apparently the Dahi one mentioned above. History of Bundelkhand" by Mr. Vincent A. Mr. Smith's table of the Chandel dynasty is as Smith, in which he brings together a good deal of follows: traditional and other information, partly drawn A.D. 831 ? Nânika, traditional date of the overfrom General Cunningham's Archæological Reports,
throw of the Paribârs at Mahoba. vols. II and IX, and from inscriptions published 850 ? Våkpati. In 862 Bhoja of Kanaujin elsewhere. An important feature of this paper is
possession of Chandêri. the list of inscriptions published and unpublished, 870P Vijaya. which Mr. Smith has compiled with evident care. 890 ? RÄhila. Not a few of the unpublished ones ought to be 910? Harsha. made accessible at least in facsimile, with as little 930 ? Yasovarma ; 954 temple at Khajudelay as possible, for they are evidently in danger
råho built; 978 assisted at the battle of being lost or destroyed. Thus we find that the
of Lamghan. inscription mentioned in General Cunningham's 999 Gandadeva; 1008 assisted Jayapála of Arch. Reports, vol. II, p. 447, but which was
Lahor against Mahmud; 1021 con"never published nor translated," is "not now to
quered Kanauj; 1023 surrendered be found." Of three Jaina statutes mentioned in
Kalaujar to Mahmud of Ghazni. the same (pp. 435 and 448) bearing inscriptions 1025 P Vidyadharadêva. dated Samvat 1211, 1215, and 1220, the locality 1035 P Vijayapaladêva. is "not now known." Another (ib. p. 448) dated 1049 P Kirttivarmîdêva I, or Dévavarmá, or Sam. 1224 is no longer known; and of the Dahi
Bhumip&la. copperplate (ib. 455 and 448) "neither original nor 1100 P Sallakshanavarmadêva. Ante, p. 43.
Ante, vol. X, p. 274.
