140 Captain Ton's Comments on a Sanscrit Inscription. 



Arabullah, dividing the rich lands of central, from tlie more sterile of wes- 

 tern India, and serving as a great bulwark to the further drifting of the 

 sands of the great desert. 



From Agni-pala, the first Chdhtimdna (or him who was fostered, or 

 reared by fire), we have a long list, to MAnikya Raya,* the sovereign of 

 Sdjnbhar, or Sdcambhari, and of Ajamer, to whom is allotted the period of 

 S. 740, or A.D. 695. Between Agni-pala and Manikya Raya, we have 

 a Chandragupta, who would certainly answer much better, as far as loca- 

 lity, for the ally of Seleucus, than the monarch of Rtij-griha, in Bengal. 

 I have an inscription also of a Ciianduagupta, stiled Avanti-Ndt'/i, or lord 

 of Ujjayan, in a very ancient character, and given to me by one of the 

 Jain hierarchs, bearing date 427, hut whether of the Virata or Vicramdditya 

 Samvat, I can but surmise. With this exception, there is but one other 

 name in the list, from Agni-pala to Manikya Raya, of whose actions his- 

 tory has kept any record. This one is Ajaya-pAla, the reputed founder of 

 Ajamer, or the hill of Aja, which interpreted, is a goat.t not the hill of 

 Ajaya, victory, as its general acceptance would induce to believe. It is 

 even said, that Ajaya-pala was posterior to Manikya Raya, in whose time 

 this celebrated fortress is called in their poetical legends, Garh-Bitli. 



Manikya Raya appears to have been one of tlie first who suffered, when, 

 to use an Oriental metaphor, " the star of Islam first slione on the plains of 

 Hind." Tradition has handed down a very bare outline of the event ; and 

 this by the bard, always more solicitous to amuse and surprise, than to 

 instruct : but we have no other guide. He is our sole historian ; and we 

 are compelled to follow wherever he leads, though it is unnecessary to re- 

 peat all which he says. But even where reason is sacrificed to rhyme, we 

 may be allowed sparingly to glean. This, the first invasion of India, is to 

 be traced, at the same time, in the annals of Meyudr, at the period to which 

 I have already alluded. Upon this invasion, Garh-Bitli was captured from 

 the ChoMns. On this occasion Lot, the infant heir of Manikya Raya, 

 was slain by an arrow, while playing on the battlements ; and ever since. 

 Lot PuTRAhas been worshipped amongst the penates of the Chohdns .- and, 



* Generally written Ma'nicca Ra'i. Mdn'icya, in Sanscrit, is a ruby — H.T. C. 

 t Aja, goat ; and mer, hill — J.T. 



Aja is in Sanscrit a goat ; and m/iru, the sacred and central mountain at, or towards, the 

 north pole, called Sumeni. Jaya, signifies victory; and ajaya, invincible — H, T.C. 



