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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
( AUGUST, 1922
Babur's Governor and a descendant of the old Sharqi Dynasty (Turki mamlaks) of Jaunpur. Meanwhile, however, Babur had Mahmud Lodi on the run, and Sher Khan's star was once more in the descendant. In 1629. he made his submission and became again the "faithful Vassal" of the Mughals. In the end, Jalal Khân Lohånf recovered most of his possessions in Bihar and Sher Khân his old fief at Sasarâm, resuming his charge of Bihår as the deputy of Jalal Khân.
He worked on his old lines, centralising everything in his own hands, with the old result, the envy and enmity of the nobility, to whom he was an upstart, and popularity with the peasantry. He was about forty-three years of age when he obtained the control of Bihar for the second time, and he retained it for four years, during which period he performed two important acts. He acquired the great fortress of Chunâr and he entered into an alliance with Makhdum 'Alam, Governor of Hajipur (opposite Patna) for Nusrat Shah, the Hussain-Shâht King of Bengal.
The first act was truly in the spirit of the times. Chunar was held for Babur by Taj Khân Sárangkhânî (Afghan), who was suddenly killed in what appears to have been a family quarrel in 1530, and Sher Khân took advantage of the situation thus created to wrest the fortress from his widow, LAd Malika. Just then Bâbur died, and the Afghans in the Eastern Provinces, as a body, rebelled against his successor, Humâyûn. Eventually, Humâyûn gained the day and Sher Khân made his peace with the new Mughal monarch, but a peace that was of the nature of the lull before the storm. The defeat of the Afghan rebels had one result of great importance to Sher Khan in inducing Fath Malika, widow of Shekh Mustafa' Farmali, elder brother of the Afghan hero, Bayazid, an enormously wealthy woman, to place herself in his hands for protection. Unfortunately for her, as the sequel showed, the acquisition of Chunâr made him aggressive.
(To be continued.)
BOOK NOTICE. LIST OY INSCRIPTIONS FOUND IN BURMA, Pt. 1.) and Ava Inscriptions in 1892 with the help of the
Arranged according to dates. Compiled and Edited staff of Mr. Regan, then the capable and energetic by C. DUROISILLE, Rangoon. ABOX.XOLOGICAL Superintendent of the Government Press, Rangoon, SURVEY OF BURMA, 1921.
was Major R. C. Temple, then President of the This is a most welcome addition to the work of Rangoon Municipality. The work of printing the this vigorous Department and will be of watold Inscriptions was carried on by his personal friend, use to the earnest student of Burmese history and
Mr. Taw Sein Ko, after his departure from Burma archeology, even if it does nothing more than draw
in 1897. This all happened so long ago that perhape attention to the vast wealth of epigraphic rooord
it is not surprising that the present Archæological existing in Burma. There is a slip in the Preface Office has lost sight of the facts. It was decided to which may as well be noticed. The Archeological
print copies of the Inscriptions as they stood, errors Ofloor who brought King Bodawphaya's collection of
and all, rather than lose sight of them, there being oopies to the serious notice of the Government, and
at the time no one with the knowledge and the induoed it to collect and house them suitably, and
able and leisure to edit them adequately. afterwards began the printing of the Pagan, Pinya
RC. TEMPLE.
