31. Sirhind or Sehrind. 



By H. Beveridge. 



The Indian Gazetteer says, xxiii, 20, that the spelling 

 Sirhind is modern and due to a fanciful derivation. But Khafi 

 Khan I, 402, Bib. Ind. ed., says that Sirhind is the old name 

 and that Shah Jahan, early in his reign, changed it to Sehrind. 

 He adds that the style Sirhind was applicable in the time of 

 Grhaznavi princes because their kingdom extended as far as 

 Sirhind, or the Head of India, but ceased to be appropriate 

 when the Indian Empire included Afghanistan. 



Khafi Khan can hardly have been mistaken, and he is 

 supported by the fact that in the earlier Persian histories, such 

 as the Tabaqat Nasiri, the Akbarnama, and the Persian trans- 

 lation of Babur's Memoirs, the name is commonly written 

 Sirhind. The Badshahnama of 'Abdul Hamid is a remarkable 

 instance. In the first volume, Bib. Ind. ed. 65, in recounting 

 the events of Humayun's reign, the word is twice written 

 Sirhind, but in the second volume, which contains Shah Jehan's 

 reign, it is Sahrind. See the Indices ; see also the quotation from 

 General Cunningham in Jarrett's translation of the Ayin Akbarl 

 II, 281. Blochmann also seems to regard Sarhind or Sirhind 

 as the proper spelling. It is quite likely that Sahrind was 

 the old Hindi name, and that this was why Shah Jehan 

 adopted it, but it does not seem correct to say that Sirhind is 

 modern and of a fanciful derivation. I might add that the 

 alteration might be found useful as a means of tracing the ages 

 of undated MSS. Thus if we find Sahrind written in a Persian 

 MS. it cannot be older than Shah Jahan's reign. Thus it 

 seems to show that the Ilminisky MS. of Babur Turk! Memoirs 

 is older than the Haidarabadi one, for the former, p 332, writes 

 Sirhind whereas the corresponding passage in the Haidarabad 

 MS., viz. 257, has Sahrind. I have, however to acknowledge 

 that at p. 289 of Ilminsky, near the top, it is written Sahrind, 

 just as in the Haidarabadi, p. 225&. The latter invariably 

 has Sahrind (see Index II), whereas Ilminsky oscillates between 

 Sirhind and Sahrind. 



NOTE. 



On reflection, it seems to me doubtful that Shah Jahan 

 would revive a Hindu name for the city of Sirhind. It is 

 also doubtful if there ever was a Hindu city called Sahrind or 



