[677] ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. v. p. 49.

[678] ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. iv. (N.S.) p. 129.

[679] ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. viii. p. 119.

[680] Ibid.

[681] Ibid., vol. ix. p. 238; see also Bhandarkar, MS. translation.

[682] ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. viii. p. 28.

[683] Essay on the Sah Kings of Saurastra, ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. xii. p. 16; and ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. xxiv. p. 503; see also Thomas’s ‘Prinsep,’ vol. ii. p. 95.

[684] Thomas’s edition of ‘Prinsep,’ vol. i. p. 242, et seqq.; see also p. 365, et seqq.

[685] ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. vii. p. 634.

[686] The Vishnu Purana has Maunas, the Vayu and Matsya, Hunas. Wilson’s ‘Vishnu Purana,’ vol. iv. p. 209.

[687] Wilson’s ‘Vishnu Purana,’ vol. iv. pp. 201-218.

[688] I need hardly say that this is not universally admitted by Indian archæologists. Some indeed of the most eminent among them place the Guptas considerably earlier. My conviction, however, is that they never would have done so, had it not been that they place a mistaken confidence on a passage in a foreign author of the 11th century, translated by Rémusat to the following effect: “Quant au Goupta Kala (ère des Gouptas), on entend par le mot Goupta des gens qui, dit-on, étaient méchants et puissants, et l’ère qui porte leur nom est l’époque de leur extermination. Apparemment Ballabha suivit immédiatement les Gouptas, car l’ère des Gouptas commence aussi l’an 241 de l’ère de Saca.” (‘Journal Asiatique,’ 4me série, tom. iv. p. 286.)

Albiruni, from whom this passage is taken, lived at the court of Mahmúd of Ghazni, in the 11th century, and was learned beyond his compeers in the learning of the Hindus. He collected facts and dates with industry, and recorded them faithfully. But he would have been a magician if he could have unravelled the tangled meshes with which the Hindus had purposely obscured their chronology, and could have seen through all the falsifications invented six centuries earlier. We could not do so now without the aid of coins, dated inscriptions, and buildings. None of these were available in his day, and without their aid, the wonder is, not that he blundered in his inductions, but that he went so near the truth as he did. His facts and figures are valuable, and may generally be relied upon. His mode of putting them together and his inductions are, as generally, worthless—not from any fault of his, but because they had been purposely falsified by those who presented them to him.

[689] ‘Indian Antiquary,’ vol. ii. p. 312.

[690] ‘Journal Asiatique,’ series iv. vol. iv. p. 285.

[691] ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. vii. p. 634.

[692] Thomas’s ‘Prinsep,’ i. p. 250.

[693] This date is from an unpublished copper-plate grant, in the possession of Gen. Cunningham, and is in addition to the three others of the same reign quoted in my previous paper, p. 112.

[694] ‘Indian Antiquary,’ vol. ii. p. 312; see also vol. iii. p. 344.

[695] ‘Topographia Christiana,’ lib. xi. p. 338, edit. Paris, 1707.

[696] ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. x. p. 60.

[697] ‘Histoire des Huns,’ vol. i. part ii. lib. iv. pp. 325, et seqq.

[698] Malcolm’s ‘Persia,’ vol. i. p. 118. Briggs’s translation of Ferishta, introd. lxxvii. et seqq.; Dow’s translation, p. 13.

[699] ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. vi. 1837, p. 963; also Thomas’s ‘Prinsep,’ vol. i. p. 234.

[700] Ibid., vol. v. plates 36 and 37; also Thomas’s ‘Prinsep,’ vol. i. p. 277, plate 23.

[701] Thomas’s ‘Prinsep,’ vol. i. p. 407, et passim.

[702] ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ 1866, p. 273. See also Cunningham’s ‘Archæological Reports,’ vol. iii. p. 136.

[703] ‘Journal Asiatique,’ 4me série, tom. iv. p. 286.

[704] Tod’s ‘Annals of Rajputana,’ vol. i. p. 801.

[705] Lassen’s ‘Ind. Alt.’, vol. ii. p. 752, et seqq. to 987; Dowson, ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society’ (N.S.), vol. i. p. 247, et seqq.; Thomas’s ‘Prinsep,’ vol. i. p. 270-276; Cunningham’s ‘Archæological Reports,’ vol. iii. p. 56; Babu Rajendra Mittra, ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. xliii. p. 372, &c., &c.

[706] ‘Annals,’ vol. i. p. 216, et seqq. At p. 230 he quotes another account, which places the destruction of the Ballabhi era at 305, instead of 205, as in the previous statement. These are evidently clerical errors. If he had found another 405, it would probably have been correct within a year or so—405+319=724.

[707] ‘Vie et Voyages,’ pp. 206, 254, 260; ‘Relations,’ &c., vol. ii. p. 163.

[708] ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. viii. p. 245.

[709] Ibid., vol. viii. p. 245.

[710] Forbes’ ‘Ras Mala,’ vol. i. p. 18; Tod, ‘Annals,’ vol. i. p. 230.

[711] Elliot, ‘Historians of India,’ vol. i. p. 417.

[712] Loc. cit., 432, et seqq.

[713] Loc. cit., 441-42.

[714] ‘Ras Mala,’ vol. i. p. 24; Tod’s ‘Travels,’ p. 149.

[715] ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. x. p. 70.

[716] ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. vii. p. 972.

[717] These lists were republished by Professor Dowson in the new series of the ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. i. p. 253, et seqq., but with chronological additions that are by no means improvements.

[718] The advantage of their publication was to strongly felt by the Council of the Royal Asiatic Society that in 1873 they, backed by a letter from Sir Walter, appealed to Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for India in Council, to sanction an expenditure not exceeding £200 for the purpose. It seems, however, that the finances of India could not bear the strain, for in August last a reply was received to the effect that “His Lordship regrets that he cannot consent to charge the public revenues of India with the cost of such an undertaking.” As the Indian Council are responsible, and know best what should be done and what refused, there is no more to be said about the matter, though to outsiders this seems slightly inconsistent with their grant of £2000 to Max Müller for doing nothing that he had not been well paid for doing beforehand. As no other means are available in this country, it is to be hoped that either the French or German Governments will take it up. They have always abundance of funds for such purposes; and had these inscriptions been collected by one of their countrymen, they would have been published without a year’s delay after having been brought home, although they have no interest in India that can for one moment be compared with ours.

[719] ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. iv. p. 12.

[720] ‘Report on Belgam and Kuladgi.’ p. 24.

[721] ‘Mémoires des Contrées,’ &c., vol. ii. p. 150.

[722] ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. iii. p. 206, et seqq.

[723] ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. vi. p. 68.

[724] ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. iv. p. 9.

[725] ‘Vie et Voyages,’ p. 188.

[726] ‘Vie et Voyages,’ p. 215.

[727] ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. vi. p. 69.

[728] ‘Vie et Voyages,’ p. 204.

[729] ‘Relations,’ &c., vol. ii. p. 156.

[730] Loc. cit., vol. ii. p. 42.

[731] When I wrote last on the subject (‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. iv. N.S.) I assumed the figures as they stand, as it did not then appear to me of much importance, and as this is the only arbitrary adjustment I have had occasion to make in the chronology, I have let this stand in the text, leaving the correction to be made when authority is found for it. The twenty years, more or less, do not affect any architectural question mooted in the preceding pages.

[732] ‘Asiatic Researches,’ vol. xv. p. 87.

[733] ‘Asiatic Researches,’ vol. ix. p. 150.

[734] Loc. cit. p. 161.

[735] General Cunningham hesitates between 17 and 24 A.D. for his death (‘Numis. Chron.,’ vol. viii. p. 175); Lassen brings him down to 40 A.D. (‘Ind. Alt.,’ vol. ii. p. xxiv).

[736] ‘Archæological Reports,’ vol. iii. p. 29, et seqq. Ed. Thomas’s Introduction to ‘Marsden,’ p. 46, et seqq.

[737] ‘Journal Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. ix. p. 242.

[738] ‘Archæological Reports,’ vol. ii. p. 266.

[739] Loc. cit. p. 68.

[740] They are all given in Thomas’s edition of ‘Prinsep,’ vol. ii. p. 173, et seqq., to which the reader is referred.

[741] ‘Archæological Reports,’ vol. v. p. 59.

[742] ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. vii. (N.S.) p. 376, et seqq.

[743] Beal’s ‘Life of Fa Hian,’ Introduction, p. xx.

[744] ‘Relations des Contrées,’ &c., vol. i. p. 190, et seqq.

[745] I am indebted for this to Cunningham’s ‘Geography of India,’ p. 91.

[746] Cunningham’s ‘Ancient Geography of India,’ p. 92.

[747] One of the most useful manuals ever published for the use of students of Indian history and chronology was Prinsep’s ‘Useful Tables of Indian Dynasties, &c.’ They were republished by Mr. Thomas in his edition of ‘Prinsep,’ with considerable additions and many improvements by himself, but the edition is exhausted. There could hardly be any better service done for the cause, than if he or some one would republish them in a separate form, so as to render them generally available. It is a pity Government has no funds available for such a purpose, for I am afraid it would hardly pay as a bookseller’s speculation.

[748] ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. iv. (N.S.) p. 131, et seqq.

[749] ‘Journal Asiatique,’ 4me série, tom. iv. p. 282.

[750] Troyer’s translation of the ‘Raja Tarangini,’ vol. ii. p. 43. In Wilson’s translation it is said, “A different monarch from the Saccari Vicramaditya, though sometimes erroneously identified with that prince.”—‘Asiatic Researches’, vol. xv. p. 32.

[751] Loc. cit. p. 76.

[752] From Introduction to Turnour’s ‘Mahawanso,’ p. xxxiii., where the names, places of birth, and Bo-trees of the whole twenty-four are given.