1865.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 119 



for the continuation of the history, is clear from the statement he has 

 made in his preface, that, having none such, he compiled it from several 

 trustworthy sources. 



But if whether or not Jahangir wrote the second edition or larger 

 work, is doubtful, there is no doubt whatever that he did write with 

 his own hand, a history of his life up to the seventeenth year of his 

 reign. 'Abdal-Hamid-i-Lahauri the author of the BadsJmh-ndmeh, a 

 history of the reign of Shah Jahan, says, that at the time he was 

 writing his work, this copy was in the Royal Library, that the greater 

 portion was written by Jahangir himself, and the lesser by Shah 

 Jahan, whom his father, having a disinclination to writing, ordered 

 to imitate his hand-writing, and a fine specimen of the hand-writing 

 of this emperor (Shahjahan) will be found in the very beautiful 

 copy of the second volume of the Badshah-nameh which I have laid 

 on the table. 



Turning to the first or smaller edition, it will be found that the 

 copies differ considerably. One in my possession is interspersed with 

 verses, some tolerably lengthy, which were not in that used by Major 

 Price. Of the three copies consulted by Mr. Morley each differed more 

 or less from the other in fulness, in the preface, or in the moral 

 precepts appended. The author of the Siyaral-Motakharin has 

 transferred this book to his pages, but his MS. is not the same as 

 two copies I have had access to, or else, for purposes of deception, 

 he has taken very great liberties with it. The author of the Tarikh- 

 i-Saldtin-i-Chaghtai, whose name, by-the-by, was also Mohammad 

 Hadi, quotes the Jahangir-nameh, but the passage bears no similarity 

 to any to be found in any of the MSS. of either of the editions of 

 that work which I have had the opportunity of consulting. 



Now these discrepancies in texts do not, at first sight, certainly help 

 us to a solution of the difficulty ; but it is stated that w T hen Jahangir 

 had written the account of the first twelve years of his reign, he distri- 

 buted copies of the work largely amongst his children and the principal 

 officers of his court. Hence, in my opinion, the greater frequency of 

 the first edition, and as it was no doubt subsequently touched and 

 re-touched by the master's hand, hence from the number of copies 

 made at one and the same time, the discrepancies which are so notice- 

 able, have crept into the work. 



