134 Captain Tod's Comments on a Sanscrit Inscription. 



estimation, in the minds of the governed, of those to whom the destinies of 

 a great empire are intrusted, cannot be deemed intrusive. I might say, it 

 was due to his memory : but for my visit to him on this occasion, I might 

 not have trespassed on the indulgence of this Society for the remarks I am 

 about to offer. 



Hdnsi and Hisdr are two conspicuous and contiguous places in the more 

 remote geography of British India ; being on our north-west frontier, 

 touching the commencement of the Desert. Abul Fazil, in the Institutes, 

 according to Akber's division, constitutes Hisdr Firbzeh a subdivision of 

 one of the twenty-two Siibahs, or Satrapies, of the Empire. The great 

 Emperor Firoz bestowed his own name on tiiis subdivision ; which, remote 

 as it was, yet was embraced in his munificent designs for the prosperity of 

 his subjects. The remains of one of his many canals, conducted from the 

 Jamund, flowing past Hisdr, are perfectly distinct ; and the C/iitang river is 

 supposed to be a canal in all its extent. The recent re-opening of the 

 grand canal excavated by this monarch, whereby not only the health and 

 comfort of the great city of Delhi is secured, but irrigation afforded to an 

 immense tract of country, is one of the most conspicuous works of national 

 benefit, we have bestowed on our Indian subjects. 



Firoz had intended this as a royal residence. The remains of the palace, 

 within the fortress (or Hisdr), the noble artificial lake into whicli the canal 

 flowed, with the mausoleums on its banks, are sufl5cient evidence, that a 

 great mind had there been exerting its action. The natural fertility of the 

 soil is seen in the richness of its pastures, and even in its miniature forests 

 of the grand shrub of the desert, the Pilii, an evergreen, if I err not, and 

 in which the lion still finds shelter. To supply the deficiency of water, 

 lying very deep from the surface, these canals were carried on by Firoz, 

 who perhaps contemplated the junction, by these anns, of the waters of the 

 Jamund and the Setlej, which I believe is not physically impracticable. In 

 establishing Hisdr, Firoz appears to have had in view the necessity of a 

 more extensive post than Hdnsi, which the Hindus seemed to think the 

 key to the capital of the empire, covering it in the line of the fords of the 

 Setlej or Garah, by which invasion often came from the west, whether led 

 by Mahmud, by Shahabuddin, or by Timuu. Hdnsi is one hundred and 

 twenty-six miles nearly W.N.W. from Delhi. 



According to the Inscription, A' si is the proper name. It is a singular 

 place ; and if ever fire- worship had been prevalent on those plains, I would 



