1909. | Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. xciii 
n officer or chamberlain, whose duty, apparently, is to 
screen the person of the king from the vulgar gaze is called the 
parda-dar. I fail to understand how Mr: Gupte could introduve 
a zenana lady (which by the by has no meaning) to embellish 
his fanciful picture, and why he should separate one hemistich 
rom the context of the other. When Sultan Muhammad, the 
Conqueror, saw the palace of the Roman Emperors at Constanti- 
nople, ‘‘ a melancholy reflection on the vicissitudes of human 
greatness forced itself on his mind ; and he repeated an elegant 
distich of Persian poetry ” supposed to have been composed by 
Firdausi. Here is the distich :— 
Parda-dari mi kunad 4 quasr-i-Qaisar’ ankabut 
Bim naubat mi zanad bar gumbad-i-Afrasiyab. 
Translation. 
The spider is screening the palace of the Czsa 
The owl'is beating the naubat on the turrets of Atcasiyab, 
The first word parda-dari means the office of a pa arda-dar, 
or holder of screen. The poet here draws inspiration from the 
remains of the palaces of ancient sovereigns, and says that 
The following papers were read :— 
. The Primitive Drawings of Baluchistan.—By B. A. 
GUPTE. . 
2. Gehlots.—By D. R. Pee Communicated by 
Basu Monmonon A Rita feo 
3. Supplement to Punjabi See No. i Rev. T. 
GraHaM Bartey. Communicated by Mr. H. A. Ros 
4. Glossary or on of the Pahari eeu —By 
Panpit Tra Ram JosHr. Communicated by Mr. H. A. Rose. 
5. Notes on Gaur and’ other old Places in Bengal.—By 
Mosacsie: Capea cine: 
6. Two Inscriptions of Kumara Gupta I.—By RakHaL 
Das Banerast. 
7. Note on a 'photograph of seven old Cannon.—By H. E. 
STAPLETON 
These | papers will be published in a subsequent number of 
the Journal. 
