Indian Antiquary Vol 12

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 99

MARCH, 1883.1
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA.
87
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA. THE NOMENCLATURE OF TAWAF. tions the names of Vikramaditya and Nanda. To the Editor of the Indian Antiquary. It is true that the reading of this passage is not Sir-Would any of your readers kindly supply yet quite settled. Mr. Fleet translates : "The the information sought in the following queries: son of this A ha vamallad êva was king Sô
1. What are the names of the two Tawdfe which mês vara, whose younger brother was the em. the pilgrims perform at the mosque at 'Arafat, peror Vikram a, possessed of the beauty of Chaand at the mosque at Mina P
kradhara (Vishnu);" having said, "Why should 2. May the final Tawdf of Hajj and the first the glory of the kings Vikramaditya and of 'Umra overlap one another (in other words, will Nanda be a hindrance any longer he, with a one and the same Taraf suffice when the per loudly uttered command, abolished that (era) formance of Al 'Umra immediately succeeds the which has the name of Saka, and made that (era) performance of Al Hajj), or must the two Tardfs which has the Châlukya figures P" There is one be performed in succession ?
word in the text for which Mr. Fleet is obliged to 3. Burckhardt speaks of pilgrims performing make a conjecture, that however does not touch Al 'Umra immediately on returning from Mina, the two names of Vikramaditya and Nanda, nor and without changing the Ihrdm. What is Tawaf the fact that they were presumed to have esta. . called when so performed P
blished eras of their own like Vikrama VI. 4. The Ihram being removed between the First As to Vikramaditya there is no doubt Lapidation and the ceremony of Sacrificing, what about his era, though the first indisputable date are we to understand Burckhardt to mean when
is only known from Vikrama Samvat 1043 in one he thus speaks of his having performed the cere- of Dr. Bühler's Chaulukya grants (vol. VI, p. 180 mony of Al 'Umra without changing the Thram of seqq.); for as regards the earlier dates that of Al HajiP
Samvat 486 is not clearly marked on the plate, 5. Is there a special name for Tawdf when it is as I learn from a letter of Dr. Bühler's, kindly performed after doffing the Thrim of Hajj and communicated to me by Professor Max Mül. before donning it again for the ceremony of ler; the other date of Samvat 802 is regarded as Al 'Umra?
doubtful by the Editor of this Journal in a foot6. Are the Tawaf before going out to 'Umra note to vol. V, p. 112. and the Tawaf after returning thence called by
As to Nanda--this is the part of the passage two separate names, or by the one name Tawdfu'l. to which I intend to call special attention. It 'Umra P
has not yet been noticed by any scholar so far as 7. Could any reader mention why the Mustajab I know, that there ever was a Nanda era. But is an object of special veneration? The term we find in a Kalinga inscription of Aira MêghaMustajab, I may add, is the proper name of the
ame of the vahana' (see General Cunningham's Corpus Inscr. long, narrow slip of red sandstone which is insert- plate XVII.) line 6, the very remarkable passage: ed perpendicularly in the wall of the Ka'ba near Nanda-raja ti-vasa-sata-oghátitai. When king the Yamant angle of the building, and is often Nanda (or the Nanda kinge) had been destroyed mistakenly called Al-Ruknu'l-Yamani.
three "hundred years before." Unfortunately this Allahabad, Jan. 20, 1883. J. D. BATE. inscription is not yet published in a satisfactory
manner, though General Cunningham's copy has SAMVAT AND MAURYA ERAS
corrected many passages left doubtful by the SIR, -May I be allowed to call attention to a previous copyists, we shall not be able to make passage in your invaluable periodical. There are full use of this, the oldest dated inscription, until many questions which have been settled already we have a photolithographic copy in the same by Mr. Fleet's unwearied publications, and I am way as the Editor prepared those of the Asöka sure numerous uncertainties in Indian chronology inscriptions in his Archæological Report, vol. II, will still be removed by that careful and accurate 80 we cannot yet finally conclude from that scholar. There is a passage in one of Mr. Fleet's passage that the Nanda era was in fact a Maurya articles in vol. VIII, p. 187, which will perhape era, because it dated from the extirpation of the acquire great importance. We learn from it Nandas. On the other hand, I have great doubts that in one of the three cases, where Vikrama VI myself as to the supposition that in the time of speaks of having abolished the Saks era, he men- Vikrama VI, there was anything known about a I This is mianomer the inscription is of RA
If we are right in explaining the passage, the inscrip Kharavela.-ED. I. A.
tion dates from the year 19 B.C. As to the supposed
date. " 256 aftor Buddha," in an inscription supposed to Major Kittoo and General Cunningham transcribe
be of Asoka, see Professor Oldenberg's criticism in the uglo instead of ogh.
Journal of the German Oriental Soc. vol. XXXV, p. 473.