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SEPTEMBER, 1885.]
MISCELLANEA.
261
near Jabalpur. Sakara, as I imagine, must be Soron, in the Etâ district, where a great fair is held on the festival of the Varaha Avatara. Kasi requires no elucidation. Kali may be Calcutta. Batesar in the Agra district is the scene of a great gathering on the full moon of Kártik. Kalanjar is the celebrated fort in Bundelkhand, and Mahakiya is Argal. But I cannot localize Kala, nor Ukhala, nor do I understand why Vateávarau should appear in the dual number. It is also probable that considerable license has been allowed to local panegyrists and that other versions of the bloka are current, with variations in some of the names, which it would be interest. ing to compare.
F. S. GROWSE.
ing of 15 arches, of which 7 are open and 8 closed. Its construction is ascribed to a Qazi Ya'qub, who, it is said, was afterwards put to death by the Emperor Akbar, and that the circumstances are related in the Zuher-i-Qutbt. I find it recorded by Badioni that Qazi Ya'qub was suspended by the Emperor for maintaining that it was illegal for a Musalman to marry more than four wives; but I have no access to other authorities, and should be glad of further information.
(4). The Fatehpur district is the original home of the great Gautam Clan, who claim the Rishi Gotama as their remote ancestor. His descen. dant in the 6th degree married the daughter of Ajaypal, a Gaharwår Råjå of Kanauj, and received as her dowry the whole extent of country from Prayag to Haridvår. From the date of this event the family came to be reckoned as Thakurs, instead of Brahmans as they first were, and the issue of the marriage took the title of Raja of Argal, which is still borne by the head of the clan ; Argal being a village situated in the ravines of the river Rind, in the Kora Pargana, about 30 miles west of the town of Fatehpur. Successive Rájás greatly reduced their territory by lavish grants of land, especially by a dowry, to a Bais chieftain, of 1,400 villages, lying to the north of the Ganges. This tract is now popularly known as Baiswara, and constitutes the district of Råe Bareli, in Oudh. About the same time, 62 other villages were conferred upon Parmál, the Chandel Rajå of Mahobå, after his defeat by Pirthi Raj in 1183. Ten years later the Raja of Argal, Ratan Sen, shared in the ruin that had overtaken his brother-in-law, Jay Chand, the Gaharwår (or R&thor) Råjå of Kanauj. For the next four centuries the family was always in arms against the Muhammadan Emperors, but uniformly with ill success, till at last the Raja's power was finally crushed, his forts razed, and all his possessions confiscated. The present holder of the empty title is reduced to the most extreme poverty, and his eldest son, with a pedigree of 78 degrees of descent, has been glad to accept a post in the subordinate ranks of the Police, with a salary of Rs. 10 a month.
The Fort at Argal is said to have been first called Mahakaya, from a temple of Mahadeva under that designation, and in evidence of its ancient celebrity the following sloka is quoted :Renukah, Sukarah, Kdbi, Kali, Kala, Vatesvarau, Klanjara, Mahakaya, Ukhala, nava muktidah.
Some of these places are unkuown or uncertain, and I shall be glad of help to identify them. Renuka, I am told, is on the Narmadå
CURIOSITIES OF INDIAN LITERATURE.
MACARONIC VERSES OF GUMANI KAVI. यावद्रामः शस्त्रधारी
नायातीह स्वत्संहारी। तावत्तस्मै देया नारी
ज्यों भी त्यों कम्बल भारी॥ [Mandodari says to Rävaya after the carrying off of Sita),Before Rama, bearing weapons, cometh here to fight thee, return thou his wife to him ; for - "The wetter a blanket gets, the heavier it is."
प्रिया लोकनाथस्य लड़ेश्वरस्य
प्रसूर्मेघनादस्य कन्या मयस्य । रता देवरं हन्त मन्दोदरी सा
भई राण नारी गई लाज सारी॥ Even Mandödari, the beloved of Ravana, who was emperor of the universe and king of Lanka. -she who was the mother of Mêghanada and the daughter of Maya,-even she intrigued with her husband's brother; for"Brother, when once a woman becomes a widow, her shame is gone."
G. A. GRIERBON.
THE PROVERBS OF ALI EBN ABI TALEBI. Translated by K. T. Best, M.A., M.R.A.8.,
Principal, Guserat College.
Continued from p. 236. 273. He prepared the food, but did not eat of
it.
274. A man is happy in the society of those who are happy.
275. Admiration of oneself is a sign of folly. 276. Anger is the fire of hearts.
277. A man who prays without working is like & bow without a string.
In the Raja's family pedigree, upon which this note is based, the Bathor Jay Chand is styled simply Gahar. wer, precisely in the same way as AjaypX1, who preceded
him by 38 generations. This supports the suggestion made by Dr. Hoernle in his paper on the Gabarwars and Bathors : vide supra, page 58.
