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JULY, 1890.]
DELHI INSCRIPTIONS OF VISALADEVA.
215
The Gerrei or Agræi derived their name from Gerra or Gherra (Ghara), perhaps the most famous emporium of antiquity, which Forster, on the authority of Ptolemy and others, places at the foot of the deep bay or inlet on the southern shore of the Persian Gulf, at the mouth of which are situated the islands of Bahrain. He shows that the name is probably an anagram for Hagar, and hence that the Agrei of Ptolemy are identical with the Hagarites, an Ishmaelite tribe whose destruction is recorded in the Bible (I. Chron., V). The city of Ghara or Hagar is said by Strabo to have been founded by Chaldean exiles, but the primitive Chaldeans were Cushite Beduins.43
Probably the remnant of the Gerrei, after the complete defeat which they suffered at the hands of the sons of Reuben, fled southwards, and so came to the maritime strip of country now occupied by their descendants the Garas. Further persecution may have induced some of them to take the sea: and Sokotra is the first land they would come to.
This appears to me to be the most probable origin of the earliest inhabitants of Sokotra, whose religion corresponded with that of the Chaldeans, from whom sprang the Gerrei, or Gâras. Of course, many important links are wanting in the chain of evidence, the chief of which is due to our entire ignorance of the Gârawi dialect. If this, on investigation, prove to be identical or nearly so, with Sokotran, the common origin of the two races will be an established fact. The language of people residing in such isolated situations as do the Gâras and Sokotrans would undergo very little change in the course of ages, except by the addition of foreign words to supply the wants entailed by the slight advance in civilisation.
DELHI SIWALIK PILLAR INSCRIPTIONS OF VISALADEVA;
THE VIKRAMA YEAR 1220.
BY PROFESSOR F. KIELHORN, C.I.E.; GÖTTINGEN.
An impression of these inscriptions was presented to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, more than hundred years ago, by Lieutenant-Colonel Polier; and from it an account and partial translation of the inscriptions, as explained by Râdhâkântaśarman, were given, in A.D. 1788, in the Asiatic Researches, Vol. I. pp. 379-382. About the beginning of this century, the same Society was presented with another, apparently very accurate, impression of the inscriptions, "prepared under the inspection of their late member Captain James Hoare;" and from this copy a facsimile and a transcript of the text in modern Dêvanagari, and a transcript of the text in Roman characters with an English translation by H. T. Colebrooke, were published, in A.D. 1801, ib. Vol. VII. pp. 179-181. Afterwards, the inscriptions were referred to, ib. Vol. IX. pp. 188-189, by Captain Wilford, who was the first to point out that the king, whose name occurs in them, is mentioned also in the Sárngadhara-paddhati, nearly in the same words with the inscription; a remark which caused Colebrooke, in a note, ib. p. 445, to amend his reading of the text, and to state that the anthology, referred to by Captain Wilford, actually contains two whole stanzas of these inscriptions. Colebrooke's text and translation, together with his supplementary note, were reprinted in his Misc. Essays, Vol. II. pp. 232-237; and his rendering of the text, verified by H. H. Wilson, was also reprinted, in Prinsep's Essays, Vol. I. p. 325, by Mr. E. Thomas, who pointed out that one of the names of minor importance, occurring in the inscriptions, had been misread by Colebrooke. I now re-edit the inscriptions, of which a correct text and translation have not been hitherto published, from excellent impressions, which have been supplied to me by Mr. Fleet, and from which the accompanying photo-lithograph has been prepared under his supervision.
These inscriptions are now at Delhi, on the pillar which is known as Firôz Shâh's Lât or the Siwâlik Pillar, and which contains the inscriptions of Asôka of which photo-lithographs from Mr. Fleet's impressions are published in Vol. XIII. of this Journal. According to
45 Vide Forster, I. pp. 186-189, 198 and Intr. LXXV. n.
