44 
H. Beveridge-— A short Notice of a Persian MS. on Gaur. [No. 1, 
A short Notice of a Persian MS. on Gaur.—By H. Beveridge, Esq. 
[ Read 6fch November, 1901.] 
The attention of students of the history of Bengal is hereby drawn 
to a thin folio in the India Office Library, p. 1541, No. 2841 of 
Dr. Ethe’s catalogue. It is an account of the buildings and inscriptions 
at Rajmalial Gaur and Panduah, and it also has a chapter containing a 
list of the rulers of Bengal from the days of Laksmana Sena. It is the 
result of local investigations made by Shy am Prasad in November and 
December, 1810, when he visited Gaur, etc., in attendance on 
Major Francklin. The report was drawn up for Major Francklin and 
appears to be the source of the information given in Francklin’s Journal 
of which good use has been made by Mrs. Ravenshaw and Mr. Grote in 
Ravenshaw’s Gaur. Most, if not all, the inscriptions quoted in the 
notes to that work are to be found in Shyam Prasad’s report. The latter 
does not contain much that is new about Gaur or Panduah, but as it is a 
very small work—only thirty-two pages of Persian, and is our 
earliest topography of Gaur, I beg to suggest that it should be published 
in our Society’s Journal. For this purpose it would be advisable to 
borrow the original from the India Office. Shvam Prasad tells one story 
about Firuz Shah’s Minar which is new. He says that the builder was 
one Plrlr and that when Firuz Shah visited the Minar after its comple¬ 
tion Plrir said to him that he could have made a still finer column. 
This enraged the King, who said: “ Why didn’t you then ? ” and had 
him toppled down from the summit. 
In Ravenshaw’s Gaur, p. 53, the inscription on the tomb of a child is 
given. This is also given by Shyam Prasad, and it is interesting to 
observe that the child must have been the son of the Tahir Muhammad 
who wrote the Rauzat-Tahirin. Tahir Muhammad’s work shows 
unusual knowledge of Bengal, and this inscription helps us to understand 
how he got his information. In the list of the Kings of Beugal we find 
Shyam Prasad giving Qadir Sen as the original name of Sultan Jalal- 
ud-din whom he calls the son of Kashi, or (Kasi) Rai. It may be 
remembered that Buchanan, who got his information from Francklin, also 
gives Qadir Sen as Jalal-ud-din’s name. 
The really new part of Shyam Prasad’s report seems to be his first 
chapter which gives an account of Rajmahal. So far as I know the 
particulars he gives have not been recorded elsewhere, though there is 
an account of Rajmahal in Buchanan. 
