Annual Reports

INTRODUCTION

Excellency Nawab Saadat Ullah Khan, Nawab of Carnatic’. The text, however, clearly mentions that Todar Mall was the alias (‘urf) of Srīnivās Dās, son of Tekchand, son of Hans Gopal, an inhabitant of Chakwa Khurd in the Pargana of Etāwah and that he was deputy (nāib) to Nawwāb Sa’ādatu’llāh Khān, the dīwān and śubēdār of Karnāṭak ; he is further mentioned as having had the darśan of (i.e. visited) Varāhasvāmin before ordering the grant. According to this account, Śrīnivās Dās was the original name of Todar Mall, the latter being in all probability a title. The Telugu version (App. A., No. 15), however, mentions Śrīnivāsa Dāsa as ‘the protege of Tōdarmalla, a deputy of the Emperor, while an inscription from Conjeeveram (No. 639 of 1919) mentions ‘Rājā Lālā Toḍaramalla, as having brought back at the request of Śrīnivāsa alias Āttān Tiruveṅgaḍa Rāmānuja Jīyar, the image of Varadarāja from its place of retreat’ (A.R. Ep., 1920, p. 121).

  Of the provincial dynasties, the Sultāns of Bengal are represented by 12 inscriptions (Nos. 7-13, 16, 18-20, 22), all from the Indian Museum, Calcutta. Most of these have been published (with facsimiles of one or two) in JASB ; but unfortunately their readings are not free from mistakes. In No. 71, for example, the name of the builder, viz. Khān-i-Mu’azzam Khurshīd Khān, has been left out (op. cit., Vol. XLIII, part i, 1874, p. 295). No. 10 is stated to record the construction of ‘a vault (?)’ (ibid., 1874, p. 300) while, in fact, the construction of a gateway to a fort has been referred to.

   Of the four inscriptions (Nos. 113-16) of the Sultāns of Gujarat, all stored in the Museum at Junagarh, the text of a bilingual one (No. 116) was published by Major Watson in Ind. Ant., 1879, p. 183 ; it was later edited by G. Yazdani in Ep. Ind.-Mosl., 1935-36, p. 48, Pl. XXXV b, where it was assigned to Qutbu’d Dīn Mubārak Shāh Khaljī, the date having been left unread. On his attention being drawn to Watson’s reading, Yazdani accepted (ibid., 1939-40, p. 47) the ascription of the inscription to Qutbu’d Dīn Aḥmad Shāh II of Gujarat and Watson’s reading of the date, viz. 862 (actually 860 ; cf. loc. cit.) ; but he preferred his own reading mīnār (tower) to Watson’s khāna (house). The structure referred to in the record is, however, neither mīnār nor khāna, but hiṣār (fort, or fort-wall) which is also supported by the word koṭ in the Sanskrit version. Likewise, the name of the builder is ‘Malik Asad, son of Muḥammad’ and not Malik Sayyid Muḥammad as read by Yazdani nor Malik Muḥammad as read by Watson. The Sanskrit version in addition gives the name of the town also.

  The Sultāns of Malwa find mention in five records (Nos. 62-65, 70), the first four of which are stored in the Gwalior Museum and the remaining one in the Central Museum, Nagpur. Of the former, the one of Hū shang Shāh was published in Ep. Ind.-Mosl., 1925-26, pp. 21-22, where the builder of the structure, namely, ‘Umar, son of Husain, is mentioned as the ‘then governor of the province’ (p. 21). The governor of the province was, however, Nasīru’d Duwal as mentioned in the record itself (p. 22), while the office the builder held was that of the sahmu’l ḥasham in the army. This confusion arose from the fact that expression sahmu’l ḥasham was not read. No. 63 from the same place, hitherto unnoticed, speaks of the same monarch as the ‘conqueror of Orissa and Jājnagar’. It is significant that Jājnagar and Orissa are separately mentioned. No. 64, a record of Maḥmūd I, was edited in Ep. Ind.-Mosl., 1939-40, p. 45. Apart from the fact that the deciphered portion is not free from mistakes, a few words defied decipherment with the result that the name of the builder could not be ascertained. It was stated that ‘besides the name of the king, two more names Subḥān (?) and Yūsuf occur in the epigraph’. Correctly speaking, Subhān is a misreading for Shaikhā who is mentioned in the record as ‘Shaikhā-i-Yūsuf’ and ‘Shaikhā ibn-i-Yūsuf’ which show that Shaikhā was the son of Yusuf.

   Of the later rulers, the Nawwābs of Audh and of Kurnool are represented by one (No. 146) and four (Nos. 81-85) inscriptions respectively.

   Among the miscellaneous records, a bilingual inscription (No. 35) from the Baroda Museum, dated A.H. 785 (1383 A.D.), is a sort of a deed authorising Dūngar Tīkam and Nāthā, who repaired with their own money a ruined well in the village of Sādod, to cultivate 16 bighas of land given by a person (name lost). The inscription is fragmentary, its upper portion, probably bearing the name of the king, having been lost. It belongs to the reign of Fīrūz Tughluq. No. 159 from Jatara, Tikamgarh District, Vindhya Pradesh, is very interesting. It records the construction of a step-well by Bhola Mahrāj, the Khummār (wine seller), who was an inhabitant of the town of Jatara, during the