Page:A Descriptive Catalogue of the Oriental Manuscripts, Vol. 2.djvu/51

4km: the first contains the historical narrative; and the second) the series of territorial acquisitions. In the first the dates are recorded in the year of the cycle only ; and in the second they are reckoned by the number of years which had elapsed from the compilation of the work, or, in the language of the origi- nal, so many years ago. The apparent embarrassment of fix* ♦ing the chronology was easily surmounted by Lieutenant-Co- lonel Mackensie. By ascertaining a single date, all the rest were at once arranged, and the manuscript was proved bey- ond all controversy to have been written Tin the year 17 1 2*1 3. The circumstances which regard the discovery of this ma* nuscript are well knpwu. On the death of Cham Raj Wadey-. ar, the father of the present Raja, in 1796, the family was transferred from the palace to the miserable hovel where they were found on the capture of Seringapatam in 1799. Among the plunder of every thing useful or apparently valuable, which was on that occasion carried off to the stores of the Sultaun, were accidentally thrown two Cudduftums, which attracted his attention nearly two years afterwards, when he ordered them to be examined and translated: and two old Cudduttums, which Lieutenant-Colonel Mackenzie received along with the book in 1799, prove, on examination, to be the actual originals from which it was copied, and are probably the two books men- tioned in the Persian translation. A short time before the real compilation? of this document, the Raja, Chick Deo Raj, who died in 1704, had directed an extensive collection to be made of historical materials, including all inscriptions then extant within his dominions, which were added to a library already reported- to be voluminous : the aboyementioned work is pro- bably one of the memoirs prepared in conformity to his direc- tions, but it appears to have been presented to his successor, and is a brief but correct record of events up to the year lji2. It is, however, to be regretted that the author furnishes no in- cidents beyond a mere chronicle of events, after the occupation VOL. II. Q