1.58 ESSAY OX 



iieously before Ra'ja'-Bhoja. Tliis is the Vicra- 

 ma'ditya, who is made to wage w^ar against Ma- 

 iiacha't and the j\IahabliatacUcas, MuiiAMMEDand 

 the Muhammedans. No Hindu prince could liave 

 wao-ed war aoainst Muiiammed: but the whole is 

 an allusion to the subsequent wars with his followers; 

 and in the same manner we must probably consider 

 the wars of the other Vicramas with 'Sa'liva'haxa. 

 The Hindus have confounded Sultan Mahmood 

 with AIuHAMMED, whom they claim as their own 

 countryman, as well as Sa'liva'hana, whilst neither 

 of them ever was in India. 



The propensity of the Hindus, to appropriate every 

 thing to themselves, is well known. We have no- 

 ticed before their claims to Bahram-Gur, and his 

 descendants; and in the same manner, they insist, 

 that Acbar was a Hindu in a formergeneratiou. The 

 proximity of the time, in which this famous emperor 

 lived, has forcerl them, however, to account for 

 this in the following manner. There was a holy 

 Brahmen, who wished \ery much to become em- 

 peror of India; and the only practicable way for 

 him was to die first, and be born again. For this 

 purpose he made a desperate Tapasya, wishing to 

 remember then every thing he knew in liis present 

 jreneration. This could not be fully ^-ranted; but 

 he was indulged with writing upon a brass plate, 

 a few tilings which he wished more particularly 

 to remember; then he was directed to bury the 

 plate, and promised that he would remember the 

 place in the next generation. IVIucunda, for such 

 was his name, went to Allahabad, buried the plate, 

 and then burned himself Nine months after he 

 was born in the character of Acbar, who, as soon as 

 he ascended the throne, went to Allahabad, and 

 easily found the spot Mhere the brass plate was 

 buried. Thus the Hindus claim Muhammed and 

 Acbar as their own; exactly like the Persians 



