Captain Ton's Comments on a Sanscrit Inscription. 143 



whenever the Rajput instances the sacrifices, which the rights of sanctuary 

 and hospitaUty demand. 



Hammir ChahamAna, Prince of Rin-tliam-bhor* gave asylum to a noble 

 of the great Alla-uddin, when disgraced by his sovereign. This sove- 

 reign, who assumed the name of Sikander Sani, or Second Alexander, and 

 who scarcely yielded to him in the rapidity of his conquests, called on 

 Hammir to surrender his suppliant, to whom he thus gives assurance of 

 protection : " The sun will rise in the west — the sandal-tree be changed 

 " into the thorny Thiir — the streams will cease to flow — Sumtru become 

 " level with the earth — the pledge of Parasu-rama a bye- word, ere Ham- 

 " MIR fails in his faith. The walls o? Rin-tham-bh6r shall fall, and my head 

 " be crushed in their ruin ; but, till these things occur, security is thine." 



There are two works, very popular in the poetry of the Hindus, relative 

 to the deeds of this prince — not the Hammir of our Inscription, as he lived 

 a century earlier. These are the Hammir-Rdsa, and the Kurya ; the last 

 is the most esteemed performance, and was composed by the grandson of 

 Chand, the friend and poet-laureate of Prat'hiraj. Hammir did fall in 

 defending his guest ; on which occasion the grand sacrifice of the Jdhard t 

 was performed, when all the females were immolated, and the males rushed 

 on the destruction which they could not avert. 



Alla-ud-din was the angel of destruction to every tribe in India, but 

 especially to the race of Chdhuns. During the twenty years (from A. D. 

 12C'5 to 1316) he swayed with most absolute power the sceptre, he almost 

 extirpated these, the bravest of his foes : JdU>r, Seu^dna, Nadol, Aser, 

 Deogir, Pawagarh, Gdgraun, all independent Chdhdn principalities, and 

 though last not least, Rin-tham-bhor ; each fell, and in turn was sacked by 

 Alla. 



He was detained, upwards of a year, before the last, from thegreat dif- 

 ficulty of approach ; and it is considered still, in this point, the most inac- 

 cessible of the Indian fortresses, being situated in the middle of several 

 ranges. In Ferishta's account of the siege, he mentions the death of one 

 of Alla's generals by a stone thrown by a Balista (from the walls), which 

 he terms Munjdnika. 



* Sometimes written Ran-t'hnmb-bhdxtier, which is nearer to the Sanscrit Ran'a-st'hamba-bhra- 

 marq, the bee of the pillar of war. — H.T. C. 



f Most commonly a grand funeral pyre, in which the whole are congumed. 



