1860.] The Kirán-us-Sá'dain of Mír Khusrau. 227 



others who witnessed them, — the story of the contest between the 

 Sultán Kai Kobád and his father, and that of the Mahratta Princess 

 Dawal Devi, and her marriage with the crown prince Khizr Khan. 

 We have a copy of each of these poems in the Society's Collection ; 



1. No. 541. ^**~J\&\y, 163 foll. 12 lines in a page * 



2. No. 990. j>j~*^ j&o\ ^aíu&s, or, as it is sometimes called, 

 ij\jdj¿ j &\Á J ¿£J**4J 1 — it contains 4200 baits. 



The present paper will confine itself to the former poem, the latter 

 may be similarly taken up at some future opportunity. 



Dr. Sprenger has given a brief notice of the Kirán-us-Sá' dain in his 

 Catalogue of the Oude MSS. but his account lacks his usual accuracy, 

 as the more detailed analysis in the following pages will suínciently 

 testify. He says of it that " It is an historical poem, the héroes are 

 Násir-ud-Din and Moizz-ud-Din, but the facts are so much ciad in 

 allegories that the only historical valué of the book is, that it offers 

 us a specimen of the singular taste of the age in which it was com- 

 posed." The style of the poem (as of all Khusrau's works) is full 

 of exaggeration and metaphorical dcscription, but the facts of the 

 history are generally given with tolerable fidelity. In fact, few 

 historical poems in any language adhere more closely to the actual 

 order and character of the events, and when we compare Ferishta's 

 account with the poetical versión, we are struck by their great agree- 

 ment in the main points. 



The poem is composed in a singular form, and I do not remember 

 any Persian work from which Khusrau may be said to have borro wcd 

 it. The main body of the poem is like an ordinary Masnavi, as 

 for instance any one of Khusrau's own Khamsah, composed in the 

 Metre — kj yj — — o kj — — w — 

 Jane pater Jane tuens, omniuin 

 Principium fons et origo Deura ; 

 but the rubrics of the diíferent Chapters are (like those in Spenser's 

 Faery Queen) in a different metre 



\J \J \J xj KJ \J kj ,f 



* The Kirán-us-Sa'dain was litliographed, with a eomnientary, at Lucknovv, 

 A. H. 12G1, but, since the mutiuy, copie3 have becorao very acaree. 



t Dr. Sprewger, not observiiig this peculiar novelty, lias apparcntly confused 

 these two dillerent initial lines of the poem. 



2 ii 2 



