Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 2.djvu/135

 121 CORRESPONDENCE, Ac. AriuL, 1873.] dimensions and a hundred tanks in its vicinity, and should offer a black kid at her shrine. The fort was made, ninety-nine tanks were dug, and the hun¬ dredth tank was nearly completed; the kid was being led towards that shrine, in order to be ready to be offered on the completion of the hundredth tank, when the goddess, transforming herself into a cock, crew. The conditions not having been completed, the marriage was not performed. The Mughuls, however, frightened at her power, fled* from this portion of the country. The fort allud¬ ed to I have seen, as also the tanks; the fort is situated near the village of tJti. The tanks, although I have not counted ninety-nine, exist in great numbers, but appear to have been dug mere¬ ly to obtain earth for making the earthwork of the fort, which extends over about one square mile of ground. About the centre of the oblong-shaped site is a spot very much higher than any other portion of the fort. There are no legends which explain when or why this shrine was neglected as a place of worship, but it is quite clear that for a long time such was the case; for comparatively lately the stones I have described were dug up, and a Go&la built a shed over them, and from this time all castes of natives have continued to worship Mahe^vari there, under the name of Ch&ndi. From the first Go&la family which looked after this shrine, sixteen hundred families now exist in the villages adjacent to Barantpur. These Go&las are called Debahar, the exact meaning of which is not known, but it is only a man of this class who can attend to the duties of this shrine. This class of Go&la did not exist till the stones were discovered, nor do they exist, as far as I know, in any other part of India. I should here tell you that the goddess or figure of the woman is only half visible, the natives being afraid to unearth it. To the south-west of the place where the goddess stands is an immensely deep, per¬ fectly round tank, from which, rumour says, all the water used for the shrine was taken. The whole of the land round is high, but the natives decline to allow it to be dug. Inscription on a granite door-frame found in Barantpur, March 1872:— ‘The conquering Sarba Singha Deba, who is adorned with all good qualities, the blessed of Mahesvari, the joy-bestowing moon of the lotus lineage of Budhesa.' CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA. ON PROP HOERNLE’S THEORY OF THE GENITIVE POST-POSITIONS. Sir,—The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Ben¬ gal (Part I. No. 2.—1872) contains four essays of Prof. Hoernle’s “ in aid of a Comparative Grammar of the Gaurian languages.” The greatest interest attaches to the second essay (pp. 124-144), in which Prof. Hoernle endeavours to prove that the Sanskrit participle krita is, in one form or other, the original of the genitive post-positions in. the modern Aryan languages of India. Prof. Hoernle no doubt shows a considerable amount of acumen, but it is unfortunate that his acumen is not supported by a more thorough knowledge of the Pr&krit language. Thus (at p. 154) he in¬ stances several times a Prakrit word ‘ bhramarako’, and apparently is unaware that some of his inter¬ pretations, which he believes to be new, are very old and have been refuted long ago. Every Pra¬ krit scholar will be struck by the assertion (at p. 141) that the Prftkyifc of the plays is founded upon the Sfltras of Vararuchi. On the contrary, it is a well known and often discussed fact that the Pr&lqrit of the plays is far from being the same as that taught by Vararuchi, and there is scarcely a page of any drama which does not clearly prove this. In my opinion it is not possible to weld into one all post-positions of the modern languages, as Prof. Hoernle does. As for the genitive post¬ positions in the Bang&li and Ofiya languages, it is easy to prove that Prof. Hoernle is in error. He derives them from a Prakrit word kefahd or kerika, which he asserts to be only found in the Mrichchha- katikd, and even there only about fourteen times. This sweeping assertion, twice repeated, is at variance with fact. I have noticed thirty- eight passages where this word occurs in the Mrichchhakatikdt viz. (ed. Stenzler) p. 4, 3, mama kerakena; p. 21, 21, attanakelik&e; 37, 13, palake- laam’; 88, 3, attakerakam; 53, 20, vess&janakerako ; 63,16,ajju&kerao; 64,19,ajjassa kerako; 65,10, tassa kerao; 65, II, attakeraam; 68,11, amhakerakam; 74, 8, attanakeraketti; 88, 27, attanakeraketti; 90, 14, mama kerifl; 95,6,-keri&e; 96, 21, kaSSa kelake; 96, 22,-kelake; 97, 3,-kelake; 100, IS, kassa kerakam 100j 20, ajjach&ludatt&ha kelake; 104, 9, appano kerikarii; 112, 10, kelake; 118, 17, attanakelake; 119, 5, bappakelake ; 122, 14, mama kelakado; 122, 15, rtmmn. kelik&im; 130,10, attanakelakehim ; 132, 4, mama kelake; 132, 16, mama kelak&e ; 133,2, in this part of the country. If a person is unsucoessful in an undertaking, people say, “ Wan, ’Alt Khan kt karnt hat.”
 * The name of this general is said to have been ’All KhAn, and his speedy retreat has given rise to a proverb used