I860.] The tenth Book of the Sahitya Barpana. 225 



c. The third is where an impossible thing is supposed by the force 

 of if or its equivalent, as — 



" If the orb of the treasury of ambrosia (the moon) were void of 

 spots at its full, then would her face endure the defeat of having its 

 parallel found." 



d. The fourth consists in mentioning the effect first, to impress 

 on the reader the rapid efficiency of the cause, as in these lines from 

 the drama of Malavika and Agnimitra. 



" Malavika's heart was first possessed by the god with the flowery 

 b 0Wj — and then by thee, beloved of the fan - , standing as the object 

 of her eye." 



The Kirdn-us-So'dain of Mir Khusrau. — By E. B. Cowell, M. A. 



Among the poetical names of Muhammadan India, none stands 

 higher than Tamin-ud-Dfn Abu-'l-Hasan, more commonly known 

 as Mir Khusrau. His great faidt is his boundless prodigality of 

 authorship, — it is said that he has left behind him some half million 

 of verses ! 



Amongst his various works, the most celebrated are his five Masna- 

 vis, in imitation of the Khamsah of Nizami ; containing the Matla'-ul- 

 Anwar on Sufeyism and morals, the loves of Shirin and Khusrau, 

 Laili and Majnun, the Mirror of Alexander, and the Eight Paradises, 

 or adventures of Bahram Grur. But beside these better known poems, 

 there are two of a different class, which are, for many reasons, much 

 more interesting to a European reader. In his more ambitious poems, 

 Khusrau had given the reins to his fancy, and let it carry him as it 

 willed far away from the actual world into the ideal land of a remote 

 antiquity ; in the eras of Shirin and Sekandar he had no fear of facts 

 or dates, every thing was lost in distance and obscurity, and the 

 traditions could be moulded at his pleasure. He had indeed but 

 followed the example of his predecessors ; all Persian poets in their 

 narratives had similarly thrown themselves into a legendary past, 

 and it is only in their smaller lyric effusions, that we can trace the 

 lights and shadows of their own time. But in two of his poems, 



2 H 



