16 H. S. Jarrett — Note on an Inscriiytion found in Kashmir. [Xo. 1, 



Note on an Inscription found Upon a stone lying near the ruins of a Masj id 

 on Lanha Island, Wular Lake, Kashmir. — By Majoe H. S. Jab- 



EETT, B. S. C* 

 The inscription which is in Persian, is as follows : — 



May this edifice be as firm as the foundations of the heavens, 

 May it be the most renowned ornament of the universe, 

 As long as the monarch Zayii Ibad holds festival therein 

 May it be like the date of his own reign, — " happy." 

 As is well-known the letters of the Arabic alj)habet, like those of the 

 Hebrew or Phenician and consequently of the Greek, are used as numerals, and 

 the grouping of certain letters into a suitable word is frequently made to serve 

 as a memoria teclmica among the Easterns to recall a date. In the above 

 inscription, the numerical value of the letters in khurram hapj^y) 

 is SJiT which is the year of the Hijra it is intended to record. This 

 date is equivalent to A. D 14Jj3-4 during which Zayn-ul-Aabidin (the 

 Zayn Ibad of the inscrijjtion — for both have the same meaning, viz., orna- 

 ment of the Adorers) ruled in Kashmir. 



It may be interesting to glance cursorily over the events which pre- 

 ceded the accession of this prince from the period of the close of the last 

 Hindu dynasty in the eleventh century of our era. 



The Hindu history of that country has been discussed in a short Essay 

 by Horace Hayman Wilson which will be found in the XVth Vol. of the 

 Ti'ansactions of the Asiatic Society. He takes as his guide the first of the 

 series of the Raja Tarangini, by Kalhan Pandit who commences his history 

 with the fabulous ages and carries it down to the reign of Sangrama Deva 

 the nephew of Didda Kani in Saka 949 or A. D. 1027 appi-oaching to 

 what Wilson considers to be the Pandit's own time Saka 1070 or A. D. 

 1148. The next two works of the series, viz., the Eajavali of Jonah Raja 

 and the Sri Jaina Raja Tarangini of his pupil Sri Vara Pandit, continue the 

 record to the accession of Path Shah, which Wilson places in A. H. 882, 

 but is given by Muhammad A'azam author of the Persian history of Kash- 

 mir, as in A. H. 897 (A. D. 1491-2). 



* [A rubbing of this inscription was sent to the Society by Mr. Ai-ch. Constable. 

 The stone bearing the inscription is apparently a slab of black slate, well polished 

 and finished, and measiu'es 21 -J- by 12 inches and 2^ inches thick. The rubbing was 

 taken on the 22nd September, 1874. The inscription, as shown in the rubbing, con- 

 tains several inaccuracies ; thus in the 2nd line J is wrongly spelled j the 1st 

 and 4th lines have instead of two dots being omitted apparently for want of 

 space. Er>.] 



