MIRZA ZU-L-QARNAIN, A CHRISTIAN GRANDEE. 187 



Xo. 4. + 



AQVI FA CDRE DA 



LECEO RI CRVS AO 



TA EM B S 10 DE D 



HARAT EZEMBR 



PVR FILH DE 1761 A 



A DE ALD NNOS. 



[Translation) : Here died Rita at Bharatpur, daughter of Aldcdre da Crus on 

 the 10th of December of the year 1761. 



The meaning intended is evidently: Here lies Rita, daughter of . . ., who died at 

 Bharatpur on ... . The Agra MS. read Aldecore where I saw Aldcdre. This is pro- 

 bably an abbreviation for Aldcandre, itself a corruption of Alexandre, Alexander. 



With two companions, two boys, I explored the fields in a radius of 5 minutes 

 from X0.4. We examined the stones to be seen in the fields and at the wells, but 

 found no other tombstones. At the wells, worked into the rude masonry, were a 

 number of red sandstone blocks, with carvings, which could not have been brought 

 from very far. I conjecture that they formed the facings and floors of the platforms 

 on which the fashionable cenotaphs we had found must have been resting. 



On our way from Puya Ghat Road to No. 4, our first discovery, we came upon 

 an erect tombstone with a Persian inscription of 5 lines each on the two faces of the 

 stone. Scrolls of flowers emerging from a vase were insculped on both (?) faces. 

 As it bore no cross, we paid little attention to it. It is a noticeable landmark. 

 There were hardly any people in the fields; hence, we elicited little or no information. 

 Another, not a stranger to Agra as myself, and with more leisure than I had, might be 

 more successful in settling whether others of the Zu-1-Qarnain family were buried there. 



To the inscriptions above I must add a fifth one mentioned in the Agra MS., 

 as in the same direction. Neither I nor the Agra Arch. Soc. Trans. (1876) noticed it 

 in the fields. 



It ran as follows : — 



No. 5. 



[AQJUI IAS ECEO EM 



[MJADALE [BJHARATPUR 



[NJA CARD A 10 DE 1768. 



OZA FAL. 



The parts within [ ] are mine. — AIO (last line) represents, perhaps, ANO, since 

 the month is left out. The meaning would be : — 



Here lies Madalena (Magdalen) Cardoza, [who] died at Bharatpur. Year 1768. 



Cardoza is a feminine ending for the family name Cardozo. I have come across 

 not a few other examples in India of making Portuguese family names in subject to 

 gender. 1 



1 I now find this inscription figured in Trans. Arch. Soc. Agra (Jan. — June 1875), where the 2 last lines are: 

 [B] harat ptjr aos 19 / [M] AIO DE 1758. The Agra MS. might therefore be later than 1876. 



