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 SEPT. 6, 1872.]

THE PRITHIRAJA RASAU.

interesting language. The pronunciation of Kash miri is different in different parts of Kashmir, but, on the whole, the above attempt, which was made in 1865, to commit to Roman letters a connected specimen of the Kashmiri language, may be consi

269

dered as fairly successful.” At any rate, the readers of the “Antiquary” are now offered the first instal

ment of Kashmiri Literature, no portion of which has been hitherto published in Kashmiri for Euro-. pean readers.

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TRANSLATION FROM THE FIRST BOOK OF THE PRITHIRAJA RASAU. By KAVI CHAND BARD31. THE following pages are a paraphrase of the whole of the first book of Chand's vast poem, with the exception of the introductory portion, that is the first 136 stanzas containing about 1,500 lines. The book opens with invocation to Vishnu and Siva and their wives. Then Chand holds a long conversation with his wife, in which he recites the names and number of verses in the eighteen Purāns, then follow some more hymns to gods. At stanza 48 begins the well known legend of Parikshita, and the serpent sacrifice of his son Janamejaya, after which comes the story of the foundation of Mount Abu by the Rishi Vasishtha, and the celebrated sacrifice thereon, which led to the preparation of the fire-fountain (sia* #3 anal kund), from which sprung in succession the Prati hár, Chālukya, and Panwār, and finally, as these were unable to cope with the demons,the Chahuvâns.f The first of the race was called Anal because he

sprung from the fire; and after recording his vic tories over the Daityas, Dānavas, Rákshasas and objectionable beings in general, the bard briefly recounts the list of his descendants, saying nothing particular about any of them until he comes to Bisal Deb, the twenty-third in descent from Anal.

short. Here and there descriptions of scenery or of festivals are omitted. In all narrative parts, however, the paraphrase is close and exact, almost approaching to a literal translation.

I have compared it with the original as con tained in a fairly correct manuscript in my posses sion, and made such alterations as were necessary to bring it into more accurate correspondence with the original.

J. BEAMEs.

PRITHIRAJA RASAU. THE causer of calamity to the world was

Bisal Räi [the son of Bălan Räij-a great sinner, fond of riches: he did things that ought not to be done and things that ought to be done; terrible as an Asura, from mines he dug up wealth, he was blinded by lust (kam), he recol lected not death (kal); right and unright he regarded as equal ; he acted not according to Rajniti, in many places, though a king he fixed customs not sanctioned ; he paid no respect to

religion; he abandoned the Vedas and followed the Tantras.

Abandoning the bounds of right

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he abandoned also the bounds of good fame. He Here the present version begins, and I leave it to tell its own tale.: It is not in all cases a literal word for word translation.

To those who read Chand for

the sake of the historical, legendary, and geogra phical information which his poem contains, the following rendering will be highly useful and satisfactory; on the other hand, it is much less useful to the philologist, who, while caring com

paratively little for the facts related, scrutinizes minutely every noun and verb in order to detect the ancient forms of inflexion, and the archaic pho nesis of the language. It is properly speaking a paraphrase. All Chand's

repetitions, his long-winded and rambling style, his unnecessary heaps of epithets are ruthlessly cut

abandoned justice and followed injustice. No Atith (mendicant) was to be seen in his darbār. He heard his own ill name among men. For sixty-four years he ruled. He enjoyed not the happiness of a son. His body was subjected to age; he became like a stalk of poison. All his life was devoted to the desire of wealth and

to kam.

He was possessed by an evil spirit, he

became Dhuñqhā

the Asura.

The Yoginis

worshipped him, riding in a lofty chariot with four wheels, he had swords in both hands, fire issued from his mouth. Stamping on the earth he shook it.

His shout was like the shout of


 * Most of the explanatory words and phrases have been

f The version is taken partly from the Rás Málá of the

omitted in the interlinear translation, in order to bring each

line of the original within the width of our column and thus

late Hon. A. K. Forbes, (vol. I. pp. 92-99), and partly from his notes written down from a virá voce translation into Guja

present a complete specimen of rhymed Kashmiri-Ed.

rati, read off from the Hindi by the well-known Dalpatrâm

Dāyābhai, the Kaveshwar, who was five years in his service. + Conf. Tod, Rajasthan, vol. I. pp.94, 95, where an extract from this part of the book is given.—Ed.

Some verbal changes were made in copying the notes five years ago.—Ed.