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النشر الإلكتروني

هزار و پنج و شش سال هجرت آن سرور

که شد تمام بماه صفر بخیر و ظفر

At the distance of about three miles west of the town is a singular hill called Peer Puhury, from the tomb of a Peer, or saint, situated on the summit. His name was Huzrat Ibraham Byjoo, who from the subjoined copy of the inscription over the tomb appears to have died in 753 Hijree, (1352 A. D.,) or nearly five centuries ago, during the reign of the Patan monarch Feroz Sooltan, and about forty or fifty years before the invasion of Tymoor. This inscription is so far important that it verifies the date assigned to Feroz Shah being Slārā Rajab by Ferishta.*

سنه ٧٥٣ هجري

تاریخ وفات حضرت ابراهیم بیو

بعهد دولت شاه جهان گیر که بادا در جهان ملک نور و ز شهنشاه جهان فیر و ز سلطان که برشاهان گیتی گشت فیروز ملک بیو براهیم که بد دردین چو ابراهیم کین توز سیرت ملک بماه ذي الحجه يکشنبه از روز

(Line illegible.)

به هجرت هفتصد و پنجه سه تاریخ مسافر شد ملک در جنت این روز خداوندا بفضل خويش بروي كني آسان حساب آخرین روز

The tomb is a common square building, surmounted by a dome. The hill on which it stands is a very remarkable one. It is composed of cuboidal masses of crystallized sandstone having a fanciful resemblance to horn, and thence called by the learned, “Hornstone.” The upper part of many of the rocks is soft sandstone, while the lower is crystallized; this is probably owing to decomposition, but the natives conceive it to be a new accretion, and maintain that the rock grows, "jeeta," a not uncommon idea even in England.

* Vide Prinsep's Useful Tables, page 147.

THE LIBRARY
OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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The hill is about 300 feet high, composed of stratified masses of the Hornstone. It is quite perpendicular to the east, and sloping down to

the west at an

Other hills are

angle of about 40°

C

+

B

+

E.

generally in the shape of cones, but this seems to have been upheaved by a sudden force in the direction A в or of c D, snapping the subjacent crust, without disturbing the contiguous plain E. This perpendicular rock extends about a mile or more north and south, and there is no other hill within twelve miles.

The charac

ter of the Behar Hills in general is very peculiar, being unlike that of any other country I have visited. They rise up out of the level plain in small conical isolated peaks from 200 to 300 feet high, apparently unconnected with each other, or any range of mountains. They are composed of a variety of rocks, coarse granite, hornstone, jasper, hornblende, &c. all mixed together without order, and all appearing to have undergone some degree of fusion. They suggest the idea that they existed previous to the plain which surrounds them, for if they had been forced up from below, the adjacent plain would have been upheaved with them in some degree; whereas it is as flat as possi

up to their very base. It seems not improbable, therefore, that they originally formed the summits of a range of mountains, the vallies of which were subsequently filled up, forming the bed of some preBut I have forgotten the inscriptions in this geologi

adamite ocean.

cal speculation

The inscriptions numbered 4, 5, 6, and 7, were taken from the pedestals of statues of Boodha found at Baragaon, about seven miles West from the town of Behar, which Buchanan conceives to have been the residence of the Maga Rajas. Three or four high mounds composed of ruins of some large brick buildings are all that remain to attest its ancient grandeur. The Boodhist images lying about in all directions are very numerous; that of Bhyroo is of colossal dimensions, and made of granite.

Enclosed is a rough sketch* of a very remarkable tower about sixty feet high, and as many in circumference, situated on the summit of a hill 800 feet high, near Girick, about seven or eight miles from Rajgeer (Rajgiri) the ancient capital of Jarasanda, an Asur, or Assyrian, the contemporary of Chrishna, and who is supposed to have reigned over the country of Magadha, or Madhyades, about 1200 years before Christ.

* See Plate.

According to tradition, and the Mahabharut, Chrishna murdered the Raja of Mathurah, who was the son-in-law of Jarasanda, in order to obtain his dominions; upon which Jarasanda waged war with the Eastern Apollo, and compelled him to fly with all his milk maids to the west coast of India. Some years after, however, having obtained the aid of the Pandava Princes he returned with an army headed by Bheem and Arjuna. At Girick a pitched battle was fought, and Jarasanda is said to have fallen by the hand of Bheem. A detailed description of the pillar is to be found in Buchanan, page 79. It is called by the natives the Bythaki, or seat of Jarasanda; but it is not improbable that it may have been erected either in commemoration of his victory over Chrishna, or of his death in the final battle. It is a solid brick building, without any inscription or image; about twothirds of the height from the ground there are three projecting cornices about a foot apart, the intervals being decorated with carved ornaments, the principal of which is a gurha, or vessel for holding

water.

The inscriptions of Nos. 8, 9, and 10, were presented to me at Sasseram by Shah-Kubeerood-Deen, the Syjadah Nusheen of a religious endowment at that place.

No. 8 was taken at Tarachundee, two miles south-west from Sasseram; the date is 3rd Jeyte 229 Sumbut (A. D. 172), and Raja Dowul Pertab is the author.

No. 9 is an inscription on a rock by the same Raja, at a place called Amjur, near Phoolevaria, ten miles south from Sasseram-the date is Bysack 2nd, Sumbut 229, or A. D. 172.

No. 10 is an inscription found on a stone at the summit of a hill near Sasseram, called Chundun-Shaheed. It is in the ancient character of the Allahabad and Bettiah Pillars, the decyphering of which has conferred immortal honor on the name of JAMES PRINSEP. The following inscription is taken from the gateway of the palace on the summit of the celebrated hill fortress of Rhotas. From this it appears that the palace was built in 1005 Hijree, (1596, A. D.) by Raja Man Sing, viceroy of Behar and Bengal in the time of Akbar.

آنچه بر دروازه محل قلعه رهتاس نوشته است

دروازه مقيم بناي چوشد تمام دروازه سپهر زرشکش سقیم شد سال عمارتش چو نمودم بطبع گفت از راجه مان سکه بناي مقيم شد تحرير في التاريخ بست و هشتم شهر رجب المرجب سنه هزار و پنج

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