1869.] Further Notes on the Prithircij-rdyasa. 5 



the Mainpuri MS. contains nothing -which is not also to he found in 

 the Benares MS. It omits, however, a great deal ; yet the excision 

 is generally so cleverly made, that the loss would not be noticed, were 

 there no other copy at hand for collation. Take the following pas- 

 sage as a specimen (Mainpuri MS. page 29). 



" The army of the Chauhans has come ready for battle ; prepare 

 ye to meet them. Leave untried neither charm nor spell, nor aught 

 else that may avail." Spoke Queen Malhan and said : " Delay the 

 battle, king, for two months ; send Jaganak to summon Alhan, and 

 collect the materials of war." All accepted the Queen's advice, say- 

 ing, " Make proffers of friendship to Prithiraj, send Jalhan to present 

 him with a nazr, and invite him to an interview." So they sent 

 5000 leaves of betel, &c, &c* These ten lines are coherent enough, 

 but in the Benares MS., canto 8, they are widely scattered ; 20 addi- 

 tional lines occur after the word ' avail ;' 70 after ' war,' and 8 after 

 ' interview.' 



The way in which these two MSS. mutually supply each other's 

 deficiencies, while at first sight they appear altogether dissimilar, is 

 highly interesting ; since it affords a complete refutation to a theory 

 which has prevailed in some quarters, viz. that such fragmentary 

 pieces form the genuine Chand ballads, and that the complete poem 

 is a much later and comparatively worthless compilation. The com- 

 parison now made, shews in the clearest light that the two MSS. under 

 consideration, and it may be presumed their fellows also, have been 

 extracted from some one large and ancient original ; and that the 

 great epic, in some such form as we see it in the Agra copy, is not 

 an accretion of ballads, but the genuine production of a single poet, 

 which all later generations of bards have freely plundered. 



Wherever the two MSS. coincide, the verbal differences of reading 

 are found to be very numerous ; as will appear from inspection of the 

 following parallel passages, wherein is described the commencement 

 of Parmal's attack on the 50 wounded Chauhans, who had encamped 

 in one of the royal gardens. 



* In the list of offerings occur the words ' badhukh, barakshi :' the latter 

 no doubt is for barchhi, a spear ; the former perhaps a corruption of badhaha, 

 destructive, and the origin of the modern hancluk, a gun, the derivation of 

 which word, has never before been ascertained. In the Benares MS. the 

 corresponding word is mahohsh, an ox. 



