1868.] The Poems of Chand Barday. 119 



The Poems of Chand Barday. — By F. S. Growse, Esq., M. A. 

 Oxon, B. C. S. 



In the cold weather of 1867, I addressed a brief note to the Asiatic 

 Society, in course of which I suggested the desirability of taking 

 some steps towards the publication of the ancient Hindi poems 

 ascribed to Chand Barday. The matter was taken up by Mr. Long 

 and others, and an application made to Government for the loan of the 

 MS. preserved in the Agra College Library. The result was, that in last 

 June, I was formally requested by the Secretary to the Government 

 of the N. W. P. to examine the poem, and write a report upon its 

 value in an antiquarian or general point of view. The MS. was 

 duly forwarded to me through the Director of Public Instruction, and 

 I had made some slight progressjui it when a misunderstanding occurred 

 (which has since been fully explained) in consequence of which I 

 abandoned the task, and returned the MS. But before doing so, I had 

 put myself in communication with Babu Siva Prasad, the well-known 

 Inspector of Schools, who was kind enough to borrow for me another 

 MS. from the Library of the Maharaja of Benares. I had imagined that 

 this would be useful for purposes of collation ; but on inspection found 

 it to be an entirely different poem, and bearing a different name, though 

 written professedly by the same author and treating of the same 

 events. The Agra poem, entitled Prithiraj ras, occupies 1598 folio 

 pages, and is divided into 68 cantos, corresponding apparently with 

 the MS. consulted by Col. Tod. It has all the dignity and propor- 

 tions of an Epic poem, commencing, with an elaborate introduction, 

 and proceeding through a succession of incidents to a grand catastro- 

 phe, viz. the capture of Delhi and the establishment of the Muham- 

 madan dynasty. The Benares poem, entitled the Prithiraj -ray asa, 

 occupies only 786 octavo pages, plunges at once in medias res, 

 terminates abruptly, and is altogether much less ornate in character. 

 Though it bears the same name as the MS. described in the 

 Proceedings of the Society for July last, it does not appear to 

 correspond with it in any other respect, judging at least from the 

 table of contents, and may be another part of the same work. As 

 copies of the poem are exceedingly scarce, and no two seem to agree, 



