546 Note on an inscription [No. iOi, 



ing to general accuracy. Of the two great authorities, Ferishta and 

 Abool Fuzl, the former makes no mention of the early conquests of the 

 Mussulmans towards the Nurbudha, while the latter merely enables us to 

 conclude, that the country after having been overrun, was either left 

 for years together unvisited by the conquerors, or was confided to the 

 charge, perhaps, of a Hindoo tributary chief. Let what may have been the 

 case, there is little doubt but that subsequent to the Mussulman invasion, 

 the country must have been a prey to disorder, the efforts of the Mussul- 

 mans on the one hand striving to reap the fruits of their conquest, and on 

 the other, of the Hindoos endeavouring to re-establish the power of the 

 ancient dynasties, tending equally to destroy the semblance of a social 

 system, and set at nought the efforts of the historian, did he attempt to 

 delineate the principal events of times so troubled. As regards the certain 

 record before us, I will merely observe that the coincidence (within nine 

 years) of the accession of the so-called Jitpal Chohan to the throne of 

 Malwa, and the exertion of regal authority in that country by the raja 

 who in the inscription is represented as having recovered his domi- 

 nions, is a valuable fact. The subsequent history of the Hindoo princes 

 of Malwa gives us instances of scions of the royal house returning 

 (a. d. 1192) after a long sojourn in a distant land (Kamroop), and 

 achieving by, it would appear, their personal prowess, a restoration 

 of their authority over their patrimonial possessions. This suffices to 

 prove the little security which Mussulman ascendancy could have 

 obtained in Malwa after the lapse of even more than a century from the 

 date of our inscription ; the natural inference is, that the dispossession 

 of Kemal-ood-deen might have been at that earlier period still more easily 

 effected by one who in recording his deeds, proves his hereditary right 

 by mention of his immediate ancestors, though unable to say more of 

 them than that, landless as they were, he won back his sovereignty in 

 right of his descent from them. The total dissimilarity of the name of the 

 Chohan Raja of a. d. 1069, and of the scion of the Pavara dynasty, a. d. 

 1060, recorded, the former by Abool Fuzl, the latter by himself, as having 

 recovered his possessions in Malwa, is not on reflection so startling as it 

 might at first sight appear to be, when we remember the incorrectness 

 with which indigenous names are usually given by foreign writers, and 

 the practice among Hindoo princes of assuming a titular appellation on 

 accession to their throne. The coincidence of date is of course the only 

 point of real importance. 



The incorrectness of the Sanscrit in which the inscription is written, 

 I take as a strong indication of the state of the country at the time of 

 its composition. Fatigued by years of war and desolation, and oppressed 



