93 
1891.] H. Be veridge —Major Francklins description of Gaur. 
Francklin attests liis Historical Memorandum as being a “ True trans¬ 
lation,” but it is evident that it is not merely a translation from tbe 
Persian, but contains comments of his own, or of Mr. Ellerton’s. The 
opening paragraph refers to “ A manuscript account which I procured 
at Pandua; ” but I do not feel sure who the I is. Ellerton lived at 
Goamalty in Gaur, but perhaps it was he who procured the MS. at 
Pandua. Or the I may refer to the Persian Munshi. 1 
Francklin also writes the words “ True translation ” at the end of 
his Chronological Table, though that is a compilation from various 
authorities, and is described by him, and also in Buchanan’s Eastern 
India , II, App. H., p. 28, as “ Selected from native historians.” It may 
be however, that Ellerton’s Munshi drew up the Table and that 
Francklin only translated it. 
The point of the origin of the Historical Memorandum and of the 
Chronological Table is an interesting one, and I am unable to 
clear it up entirely. It is something to be able to trace it back to Gaur 
and to Mr. Ellerton. What I imagine to have occurred is that Ellerton 
got the Persian materials and made them over to Francklin, that 
Francklin translated them, and gave copies to his friends Ellerton and 
Buchanan, and that the latter by an oversight failed to note from 
whom he had received them. Though the Memorandum agrees pretty 
closely with the Riyazu-s-salatjn, it differs from it about Sultan Ibrahim, 
or Ibrahim Shah. The Riyaz makes him the Sultan of Jaunpur, but 
the Memorandum describes him as the grandfather of Husain Shah, and 
as having been put to death by Jalalu-d-din. 2 
1 Francklin was an accomplished Persian scholar, but Buchanan was not, and so 
could not have made any direct use of a Persian MS. 
2 It may be noted for the benefit of future inquirers, that at the beginning of the 
Dinajpur Volume I, of the Buchanan MSS., pp. 5-8, eight Arabic inscriptions from 
Pandua are given, including that on the Adina Mosque, which gives the inexpli¬ 
cable date 707. The inscriptions are, I think, all known ones, and have been already 
published, but it may be worth while to examine transcripts which are now some 
90 years old. 
