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MARCH, 1907.)
AHMAD SHAH AND 'IMAD-UL-MULK.
55
This opinion is based on the very advanced character of the grooved work on the bottom of one of the vessels, and a similarly late description of the bottom, as well as shape, of the other'; supported by the fact that the owners of Major Sikes' objects buried their dead. I have not followed up these references. The Professor is anxious to get more data from Persia itself.' Perhaps some reader of the Indian Antiquary may be able to supply them. Professor Ridgeway possesses a copper arrow-head found in a grave near Koban in the Caucasus, associated with a bracelet and beads of glass, which seems to date from the second century A. D.
Mr. Gatty tells me that a copper celt, quite plain, and roughly made, was found some years ago by a keeper, under a heap of stones on the moors above Sheffield, in the parish of Bradfield. Mr. Gatty lived in that parish for twenty years, and collected flint implements, but never heard of any other copper or bronze article being found. The shape, so far as he remembers, was like this:-
These sapplementary notes exhanst for the present all the information which I possess concerning the ancient copper and bronze antiquities of India. Perhaps the publication of them, like that of my previous paper, may attract the attention of observers and scholars interested in prehistoric archwology, and help in the elucidation of problems now very obscăre.
AHMAD SHAH, ABDĀLI, AND THE INDIAN WAZIR, IMÄD-UL-MULK (1756-7). ( Contributed by William Irvine, late of the Bengal Civil Service.)
(Continued from p. 51.) Rubrio. - The Sbāb marches from Faridābād towards the territory of Suraj Mall, Jāt; he pitches
bis camp close to Sherkot; on the same day at the request of Imūd-ul-mulk he seizes by force the fort of Ballamgadh, which lay three kos from the camp, towards the left; Bight of Juwābir Singh, son of Suraj Mall, Jāt, Shamsher Bahādur, Marbattab, and Antā Mānkher, Marhatfah, who were within that fort; slaughter of the rest of the garrison.
Be it known that the following was the order of the Shāh's march and encamping. One march was never more than five kos. When there remained one watch of the night be started ; and performed his morning prayers upon his arrival at his advanced tents. He had not a single kettle-drum sounded, nor music at fixed hours, nor trumpets (karrah-näe) and such like,
Before the Shāh mounted, twelve thousand special slaves assembled, three thousand on each side of the Sbāh's tent. The title of these men was Durrant (the pearl wearers), and from their ears hung gold rings, mounted with very large pearls. They remained drawn up in ranks at a distance of one hundred paces, seated on their horses. When the Shāh placed his foot in his stirrup, the twelve thousand slaves, at one and at the same moment, with a single voice, shouted aloud : " Blessed be the Names, in the Name of God, peace be uuto His Majesty the Sbäh !" This sound rose to heaven and reached the ears of the army, thus enabling them to know that the Shāh had started. Then the rest of the army from that time got ready, and at the moment of dawn began its march, and reached its new quarters at one watch after daybreak. The general rule was to march one day and halt the next; but on some occasions there was a halt of even two days.
The mode of the Shāh's progress was as follows: The Shāh advanced alone amidst the ranks of his slaves, riding a horse, his sword slung from his shoulder, and his quiver on. There were four bodies of slaves, each of three thousand men, one division in front, one behind, and one on each side. Each division of them wore a hat of a different style. It was prohibited for a slave belonging to one division to ride with another division; he must keep with his own set. It by chance any one disobeyed the rule and the Shāh noticed bim, the man received a beating so severe that ho was left half-dead, or with perhaps only a gasp of life left in him.
