I860.] The Kirdn-us-Sa'dain of Mir Khusrau. 231 



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The pomp and circumstance of the march are of course not allowed 

 to pass by unnoticed, hut we may leave them to the readers of the 

 original. The first halt is made in the district of Talpat and 

 Afghanpiir, a district, according to the Scholiast, five or six cos from 

 Dehli, and there we have the old revelry renewed. It is singular to 

 see hy these ever-recurring scenes of dissipation . and excess, how 

 even the ideal descriptions of the court poet are bound down to the 

 coarse actual world around him, — these days and weeks of debauchery 

 being constantly referred to by the historians of the time as one main 

 evil of the young Icing's reign, and as, in fact, ultimately leading to 

 his early and miserable fall. 



At this place, the court is enlivened by the arrival in the camp of 

 1000 Moghul prisoners from the Punjab. The poet knew only too 

 well the savage cruelty of these barbarians, for he had passed two 

 years in captivity among them in Balkh, having been taken prisoner 

 in the battle a few years before in which his patron prince Muham- 

 mad, then Governor of Cabul, had been killed. These captives are 

 minutely described, the Tartar features, the high cheekbones, flat 

 noses, yellow hue, &c* are dwelt upon with the exaggeration of the 

 poet's hatred, and he evidently gloats on the fact, that they were all 

 put to death by the royal order. 



It is difficult to trace the King's route, as so few indications occur 

 to define it, but we find the army starting from this last place and 

 after two marches reaching the Jumna. 



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The next stage mentioned is the city of Jaipur (^yaa.) ; here 

 Barbik is sent forward with part of the army to the river Sard. There 



* The description is so curious that I subjoin part of it. 



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