Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 1.djvu/490

440 average amount, to bring him to the year 408 ; these identifications, however, whether made out precisely or not, bear favourable testimony to the accuracy of the Hindu lists, as to the existence of the individu- als about the time specified : we can scarcely expect a close concur- rence in the annals of different nations, at best imperfectly known to each other.

The succession of races which follows the Andhras is evidently confused and imperfect ; seven distinct dynasties are detailed, extend- ing through 1390 years, and two others through a period of 406 years : 47 princes of different tribes succeed them, to whom less than four centuries cannot be ascribed, the whole throwing the last of the Andhras back 2190 years, and computing that 4055 years of the Kali age had elapsed : the last periods, grafted probably, as Colonel Wilford has supposed, on the coetaneous existence of different dynasties at undefined intervals, are in all likelihood calculated to fill up the years expired of the Kali age, and so furnish a clue to the date of this Purdna : if 4055 years of Kali had passed when the work was compiled, it was written 870 years ago, or in the year 954.

The notices that follow would present an interesting picture of the political distribution of India at the date at which it may be supposed the author wrote, if the passages were less obscure : as it is, consider- able uncertainty pervades the description. It appears from it that the Kshetriya rule was very generally abolished, and that individuals of various castes, from Brahmans to Pulindas (mountaineers or foresters) reigned in Magad'ha or Behar, at Allahabad, at Mathurd, Kdntipuri, Kdsipuri or Kanyapuri, probably Benares or Kanouj, and in Anu- gangam or Gangetic Hindoostan. The Guptas, a term indicating a Sudra family, reigned over part of Magad'ha, and Devarakshita, an individual so named, over the maritime provinces of Kalinga, &c. the Guhas in another part of Kalinga, the Manidhanas in the Nai- misha, Naishada, and Kalatoya countries, or the districts to the east of Benares and Bengal. Sudras and cowherds ruled in Surat, in Mewar, along the Nermada and at Ougein ; and Mlechchhas possessed the country along the Indus, along the Chandrab'hdga, or in the Punjab, Ddrvika, and Cashmir : this last statement is corroborative of the accuracy of the detail, as well as of the date assigned to the composition, as although in the middle of the tenth century, the Ghaznivide princes had not occupied Cashmir, yet they had extended their influence along the Indus, and into the upper parts of the Punjab.

The fifth book is appropriated to the history of Krishna, and is possibly a graft of more recent date than the original. Although the