1837.] A Grammar of the Shidhi language. 349 



the Indus, still famous in Alexander's time, should no longer he 

 mentioned by the author of the Periplus, in whose time Minagara 

 (Mahd Nagar ?) had become the capital of the country. 



Pdtala, in further support of our argument that Sindh was one 

 focus of Indian civilization and colonization, is accounted by the 

 Hindus the seat of government of the very founder of the Solar races, 

 the Rajputs of modern India ; Mr. Csoma Koros extracts the fol- 

 lowing particulars regarding it from the Tibetan authorities. 



" Polala or Potalaka (Tib. ej 'qjs§ gru-hdsin, or vulgo kru-dsin, 

 boat- receiver, a haven or port) is the name of an ancient city at the 

 mouth of the Indus river, the residence of Ixwaku and his descen- 

 dants of the Suryavamsa. Four young princes (who afterwards were 

 surnamed Sha'kya) being banished from that city by their father, 

 took refuge in Kosala on the banks of the Bhagirathi river (in the 

 modern province of Rohilkhand) and built the city of Capilavastu. 

 The residence of the Dalai Lama at Lassa (built about the middle of 

 the 12th century) is likewise called Potala, zj'T) T q[ because Chen- 

 rezik (|{3j'X.<\r ff l^ iK l i V) tne P atlon °i the Tibetians, the spiritual son 

 of Amitabha, is said to have resided at Potala in ancient India, and 

 to have visited Tibet from that place*." 



The Sindhian origin of the Rajput tribes derives no inconsiderable 

 support from the evidence of the grammar and vocabulary before 

 us. Here we find the mass of the language (excluding of course the 

 Persian infusion) merely a little different in spelling and inflexion from 

 the Brijbhdkd or pure Hindi of Upper India ; while there is a strong ar- 

 gument that the Sindhi is the elder of the two, in the more regular and 

 elaborate inflexions of its cases and tenses ; and particularly in the 

 complete conjugation of the auxiliary verbs huwan and thiyan, to be, 

 of which, in the Hindi, we find but a single tense of the latterf, and a 

 few tenses and a present and past participle of the former, extant. 

 Although we cannot attempt to enter upon a critical examination of 

 the grammar, which would indeed require a knowlege of Sanskrit, and 

 perhaps Zend in addition to the vernacular, we feel it impossible to 

 resist inserting these two verbs, as well for the important part thev 

 enact in modern dialects, as for the philological interest of these almost 

 universal auxiliaries, particularly in regard to the pronominal affixes, 

 elsewhere become nearly obsolete. The infinitives, like the Persian 

 and Sanskrit, terminate in an. 



* Csoma's MSS. Seethe Observations of M. Burnouf in the preceding num- 

 ber, page 291. 



f Or rather, none at all in the Hindi ; for thd (he thi belong to the Hindu- 

 sthdui or Urdu. 

 2 z 



