1883.] 
F. S. Growse —The town of Bulandshahr. 
2S3 
the cause of the rightful heir by a lavish distribution of the treasure that 
he had captured at Deogiri; the leaders receiving twenty, thirty, and 
some even fifty mans of gold, and all their soldiers 300 tankas each.* He 
is described as holding his levy in the open space before the town mosque. 
The present Jama Masjid was not built till 440 years later, but an earlier 
structure probably preceded it on the same site. This is on the verge of 
the hill, but in front of the main gate there is an area of considerable ex¬ 
tent, which is fairly level, though now completely covered by a labyrinth 
of narrow lanes, with mud hovels reaching up to the very walls of the 
Mosque enclosure and even built on to the staircase, which is its only ap¬ 
proach. As the claim for compensation cannot involve any very large 
outlay, I now propose to pull down some of these miserable tenements, 
and again open out a small square in front of what is the principal 
religious building in the place. That such encroachments should have been 
allowed, or rather committed by the Muhammadan guardians of the Mosque 
is an illustration of the carelessness with which the citizens of an Indian 
town ordinarily administer their own public institutions. 
The new Governor, Mayid-ul-Mulk, whom Ala-ud-din put in charge 
of Baran,—though of no celebrity himself—is noteworthy as the father 
of the only distinguished literary character that the town has produced. 
This was Zia-ud-din, called Barani from the place of his birth, who wrote 
the history entitled ‘ the Chronicles of Firoz Shah. ’ It is brought down 
to the year 1356, at which time the author was 74 years of age. His 
grave, according to local tradition, is at the spot called the Kala Am— 
from an old mangoe tree that once stood there—at the junction of the six 
roads near the District Courts. Every Thursday evening a cloth is 
spread over it and lamps are lit at its head, but there is no monument nor 
inscription. Indeed, it is asserted by some authorities that he was not 
buried at Bulandshahr at all, but at Delhi, in the Nizam-ud-din cemetery, 
near his friend, the poet Amir Khusro, who died in 1325. Prof. Bloch- 
mann, a thoroughly competent critic, speaks of him as a most mise¬ 
rable writer, so far as style is concerned ; his language being Hindi lite¬ 
rally translated into Persian. As regards matter, however, which in an 
historical authority is the point of most importance, he is by no means 
devoid of merit. Despite his literary defects, Prof. Dowson describes him 
as a vigorous, plain-spoken writer, who may unhesitatingly be indicated 
as the one most acceptable to a general reader, and whose pages may be 
read without that feeling of weariness and oppression which the writings 
of his fellows too commonly produce. His work was intended as a con- 
* The tanka is the name for the current coinage of the time, the exact value of 
which is uncertain. Fifty mans of gold would he more than 35 cwt.! 
