Volume 1

Ras Mala, or, Hindoo Annals of the province of Goozerat, in Western India / [Alexander Kinloch Forbes].

  • Alexander Kinloch Forbes
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ras Mala, or, Hindoo Annals of the province of Goozerat, in Western India / [Alexander Kinloch Forbes]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    furnished me by Premcliimd Sulut, the able architect of the new Jain temple at Ahinedabad, and by hvo very intelligent persons of the carpenter caste—the late Turbhowundas, and Bhoodhur D^yaram. Meanwhile the Goozerat Vernacular Society sprung up, and the Kuveshwur, who was well prepared for the purpose, won prizes for two essays,—on popular superstitions in Goozerat, and on Hindoo castes—of both of which I have made much use in the Fourth Book of the present work. My return, for a limited period, to England, and the valuable permission of the Honorable the Court of Directors of the East India Company to my inspecting the records at the India House for the purpose of illustrating my collections, have enabled me to complete my labors. The result is now placed before the public in the hope that, unworthy as it is, it may still be of use to the local officer, and may interest some few even of my countrymen at home, in the fortunes of their fellow-subjects —the Hindoos in Goozerat. In imitation of the titles of some of the legends from which it is derived, I have called my compilation ‘‘ Ras Mala,” or “ A Garland of Chronicles.”* * As the present work is wholly popular, and advances no pretensions to a scientific character, I have used the common form in spelling names which are in daily use, and I have, in other cases, adopted the mode of spelling which experience has shown me to be most readily accepted by the general reader. Thus, for the correct Khumhayut, T use Cumhaij, a word which has established itself in English literature; and, for the classical Anliilpur, 1 sub- stitute the popular Unliilpoor, which is to be pronounced according to the usual sound of the vowels in English. I have, however, taken the liberty of accenting one letter, the long a, as in Ras Mala. Wherever it occurs it should be pronounced as the a in Mario. l\Iay I trouble the reader so far as to add, that the ye in .7ye Shigh, Shutroonjj/c, &c., should be pronounced as the y in »7/y, //y, S;c., or as the ig/i in Itig/i.
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