VICRAMADITTA AND SALIVAHANA. 179 



This list, called also Vam-avali, contains the 

 names of the rulers of these countries, under the 

 title, QxXhti' o^ Bala-riijds, or Raj/ as, ov Mahd-Rqjas, 

 Sprung- from various trib?s, or belonging to dilierent 

 dynasties. Many of them were only petty kings, 

 and vassals to the more fortunate -dngs of another 

 tribe, sitting then upon tiie imperia! throne. For 

 these various tribes were always struggling for Su- 

 preme power; and the imperial dignity was con- 

 stantly shifting from the one to the other. Un- 

 fortunately, th.e compiler has not pointed out those 

 who were Rdje'ndras ; and there were, of course, 

 many of these inferior sovereigns, in a collateral suc- 

 cession with the emperors, The whole is compiled 

 with the usual negligence and carelessness of the 

 Hindus, and the author carries the beginning of this 

 lisk as far back as the beginning of the Cali-yuga., 

 and yet he mentions only thirty-six kings, or ratlier 

 nine and twenty, in the list, from tliat period to the 

 year of Christ 74-6. It is customary with Hindu 

 genealogists to re-ascend to the beginning of the 

 Cali-yuga, whenever they fancy they can do it with 

 propriety; otherwise, these families would be looked 

 upon as a new race, and their princes as men of 

 yesterday. But these nine and twenty reigns cannot 

 cairy the origin of the Bakt-Rdyds beyond the be- 

 ginning of the Christian era. This idea, however, 

 is by no means novel ; for, among Musulman writers, 

 sonie make Dabsuelim the first Eala-Rdyd, con- 

 temporary with HusHENK, the second king of the 

 Pislidadian dynasty in Persia; but, according to 

 j\f AS'»uci, he must have lived a little after the be- 

 e-innina: of the Christian era. 



o 



The title of Bala-Rdja, Bala-Rdyd, or Bala-Rau 

 in the spoken dialects, signifies the great king, and 

 is unknown in India, as belonging to the ancient 

 sovereigns of Gujjardt'. According to our compiler, 

 there were two sorts of these sovereigns, some were 



