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up into heaven," and still continue to expect his teacher" Sankaracharya wme, as Malayali tradi deacent; on which acoount they assemble at tion asserts, a contemporary of Cheraman-PoruCranganore and keep ready there wooden shoes mal, his probable date wwe in the first onarter of and water, and on a certain night of the year the ninth century A.D., and this agrees with Mr. burn lamps as a kind of festival in honour of his K. B. Pathak's view of the evidence cited memory."
by him. The tradition that he went to Mecca is as strong
W. LOGAN. How as it was in the time when the Tahafat. Easthill, Calicut, February 4th, 1887. ul-Mujahidin was written; and it is certainly very curious in this connection that the Maharajas of Travancore, on receiving the sword at their coro
THE ARYAN SECTION AT THE SEVENTH nations, have even nowadays to declare* :-"I
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF will keep this sword until the Uncle who has gone
ORIENTALISTS HELD AT VIENNA. to Mecca returns." I inserted a query, asking
The Seventh International Congress of if any of your readers could verify for me the Orientalists which met at Vienna in the last days fact, which I had on the authority of an Arab of September, 1886, was marked throughout by living on the outskirts of Zafhør, the place men. the numerical strength of the attendance, the highe tioned in the Tahafat-ul-Mujahidin ; namely that average of the papers read, and the hearty recep Abdul Rahiman Samiri, a Hindu (SAmiri = Samari- tion given to its members by the Government and tan = worshipper of the calf; Koran, S. 20) king public of the Austrian Capital of Malabar lies buried at that place, and that on The Congress held its first sitting on Monday, his tombstone, still in existence, there is inscribed September 27th; and, after opening speeches from that he reached that place in A. H. 212, and died its Patron, His Imperial and Royal Highness the there A.H. 216. These dates correspond with the Archduke Regnier, the Minister of Public Instrue. years A.D. 827-28 and 831-32.
tion, Dr. Gautach von Frankenthurm, and the I am not aware that any one has answered that Burgomaster of Vienna, Dr. Uhlt, the President query, either in this Journal, or elsewhere. And Baron von Kremer, lately Minister of Commerce, I myself have done my best to obtain exact in- gave a spirited account of the growth of Oriental formation on the subject, both from the Resident science in the past and of its present aims, at Aden, and from other sources; but so far with. dwelling especially upon its great importance for out result.
a country like Austro-Hungary, which is connec. If, therefore, my Arab's information is correct, ted by so many links with the East. it is pretty nearly certain that Cheraman-Peru. Immediately after the opening sitting the Conmal," the Uncle" of the MahardjAs of Travancore, gress broke up into sections, which were as "who has gone to Mecca," vacated his throne follows:- I. a. Arabic; I. b. Semitic; II. Aryan; some time about A.D. 827.
III. African-Egyptian; IV. Central and Further This date obtains additional probability from Asian; and V. Malayo-Polynesian. In the followthe fact that the Kollam Era of the Malayalis ing report we intend to give, as far as the commenced on the 25th August, A.D. 825. And it abstracts of the papers and summaries of the can be very easily understood how an important discussions kindly sent us will allow, a complete event like the vacating of his throne by a poten- record of the Aryan Section's work, restricting tate like Chéraman-Perumal, was selected to ourselves in respect to the rest of the Congress' mark the commencement of the era. It may be proceedings to a notice of such communications, further noted in this connection that the Tahafat. as may interest Indian readers. wl-Mujahidin, and a number of Mappilla manu. After unanimously electing Prof. Von Roth, of scripts that I have seen, all say that Chéraman Tübingen, as president, and Profs. Weber, of Perumal resided for some time at Shahr on the Berlin, and Lignana, of Rome, as vioe-presidenta, Arabian Coast, before moving on to Zalhar where the Aryan Section listened first to Mr. G. A. he died. This accounts naturally for the interval Grierson, of the Bengal Civil Servido, who laid between the end of the year 825 A.D. and the before it a note by himself and Dr. A. T. Rudolf year 827 A.D., when he is said to have reached Höernle, suggesting a systematto survey of the Zuthar
modern languages of India. This was supported It follows from the above that if "the gracious by written communications from Meers Barth, O.
Probably an allusion to the tradition embodied in date it is needlem to point out the Prophet had not boon the chronogram marking the event-Syarpasand haprd- born. pyammon he went to heaven with his body," the value of which is, in the Kaliyuga ohronology, 1, 288, 784 days,
Mateer's Native Life in Travancore, London, 1888; and which corresponde with oth July A.D.-on which p. 191.
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