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32 wives, Padminī and another, became satī for him, and while this was happening Alā-ud-dīn appeared at the gates of Chitor, and though it was bravely defended, captured it. At the end of the poem Malik Muhammad explains it all as being an allegory. Chitor is the body of man, Ratan Sen is the soul, Padminī is wisdom, Alā-ud-dīn is delusion, the parrot is the guru, and so on, and thus a religious character is given to the story. Malik Muhammad's poem is based on the facts connected with the actual siege of Chitor, which took place in 1303, but he has considerably modified the details and borrowed also from other stories. The poem is written in the vernacular dialect of Malik Muhammad's time tinged slightly with an admixture of Persian words and idioms. It was originally written in the Persian character. It is a work of great originality and poetic beauty, and must be reckoned as one of the masterpieces of Hindī literature.

The following translation of an extract from Malik Muhammad's description of Ceylon will give some idea of his excellence as a poet:—

"When a man approacheth this land, 'tis as though he approacheth Kailāsa the mount of heaven. Dense mango-groves lie on every side, rising from the earth to the very sky. Each tall tree exhaleth the odours of mount Malaya, and the shade covereth the world as though it were the night. The shade is pleasant with its Malaya breeze; e'en in the fiery month of Jyeṣṭha [May-June] 'tis cool amidst it. It is as though night cometh from that shade and as though from it cometh the greenness of the sky. When the wayfarer cometh thither suffering from the heat he forgetteth his trouble in his blissful rest, and whoso hath found this perfect shade, returneth ne'er again to bear the sun-rays.

"So many and so dense are these groves, that I cannot tell their end. The whole six seasons of the year do they flower and fruit, as though it were always spring.

"The pleasant thick mango-groves bear fruit, and the more fruit they bear, the more (humbly) do the trees bow their heads. On the main branches and trunks of the jack trees, the jack fruit ripen, and fair appeareth the baṛhal to him who looketh. The khirnī ripeneth sweet as molasses, and the black wild plum, like black bees (among its leaves). Cocoanuts ripen and ripeneth the khurhur; they ripen as though the orchards were in Indra's heaven. From the mahuā doth such sweetness exude, that honey is its flavour, and flowers its scent; and in these princes' gardens are other good fruits, good to eat, whose