FROM BENARES. 4G7 



most probably the later Hammira, the prince who lived in the 14 th not in 

 the 12th century, and has no relation with the name that occurs in the Bena- 

 res inscription. 



The inscription at Behli thus referred to is the Ndgari portion of that 

 upon the Lat of Firoz Shah, translated by Mr. Colebrooke: it is dated in 

 Sumbut 1220 or A. D. 1164. This records the occupation of Dehli by the 

 Sakambhari princes, and there is little doubt that Sakambhari is the same 

 with Sambher in Ajmere, as Mr. Colebrooke supposes, or at least that it is 

 Amber the ancient capital. The inscription calls the princes also Chahu- 

 vanas or C/iouhans, the tribe of Rajputs still numerous in that part of Raj- 

 putana, as well as in other places, and giving name to a small principality 

 still called the Chouhan Raj adjoining to Jodhpur. The traditionary histo- 

 ries of Jaipur or anciently Amber further confirm a connexion between this 

 state and Dehli ; for one of the ancestors of the present ruling family was 

 married it is said to the sister of Pithaura. It appears therefore that soon 

 after one martial clan the Rathore Rajputs had established a sovereignty 

 for themselves at ]£anoj, another tribe of Rajputs, the Chouhans, succeeded 

 in extending their power from Ajmere to the upper portion of the Doab and 

 Dehli. The inscription on the staff of Firoz Shah was engraved either in 

 the reign of Visala-deva or of his immediate successor Vigraha Raja-deva, 

 if the same person be not intended by both names ; the father of Visala-deva 

 is Vella-deva or Bella, and he may probably be the same as the Bil Deo 

 the Chouhan, of the Ayin Akberi, who conquered the principality of Dehli. 

 Abulfazl it is true, places this event in the ninth century, but his list of the 

 princes of the dynasty contradicts his own statement. Pithaura, the seventh 

 and last, was killed in 1 J 92 : the aggregate of the seven reigns, is made in the 

 Ayin Akberi 83 years, which being deducted from the date of Pithaura' s 

 death, brings us to 1109 for the era of the Chouhan conquest; this agrees 

 well enough with the date of the inscription on the Ldt, which alludes to 

 a third or perhaps only a second generation anterior to 11G4, and conse- 

 quently places Vella-deva in the period at which J3il Deo must have lived 

 according to the Ayin Akberi. 



Gsg2 



