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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JANUARY 5, 1872.
MISCELLANEA. MR. RAVENSHAW'S HISTORY OF GAU R.
IN reply to a letter from the Government of India to the Director-General of the Archaeological Sur
vey of India, asking him to state whether he was prepared to revise and edit Mr. Ravenshaw's histori cal sketch of the kingdom of Gaur, General Cun ningham wrote as follows:– “I beg to state that I feel some delicacy about meddling with Mr. Ravenshaw's historical sketch without his permission, as he states that he spent much time and labour upon it, and evidently be lieves that he has made a very good job of it. But if he has no objection to my revision of his sketch, I would undertake to edit the work, merely making the necessary corrections in his text, and adding such notes as are absolutely necessary to illustrate the subject. I would, however, give an introduc tory chapter, treating of the style of architecture compared with that of Northern India, as shown in the existing buildings at Delhi and Joungur. “I should like also, if possible, to obtain some further illustrations of the Muhammadan architecture
of Bengal from the eastern capital of Sonárgaon, which still exists about 20 miles from Dacca.”
General Cunningham has been asked to place himself in communication with Mr. Ravenshaw with
reference to the proposed editing of the sketch. We have been favoured with a copy of a letter, dated 6th September, from the Bengal Government to the Commissioner of Dacca, asking that official to “be so good as to report, for the Lieutenant Governor's information, whether there is any one in Dacca or its neighbourhood who is willing to take photographs of the Muhammadan architectural ruins
of Sonárgaon, and to supply Government with
Rajasekhara's account of the age of the Shri Harsha is confirmed by the fact, that the latter states, at the end of his Naishadhiyakavya, that he was honoured by a king of Kanyakubya. THE SELONS.
CoLoREL BRowNE, the Deputy Commissioner of the Mergui district, British Burmah, gives a very interesting account of the Selons, a peculiar race of people living under our rule. This they have been doing ever since Mergui became ours, some fifty years ago, and yet they are described as perfectly uncivilized, and not a bit the better for our rule.
The number of this race living in British territory is about 1,000. They have no written language, nor have they any traditions regarding their origin. Dr. Mason, the well known American Missionary of the Karens, is of opinion that they have a Poly nesian origin, but their Mongolian cast of features completely upsets this theory. Their spoken lan guage is quite distinct from the Burmese. They are
divided
into families ; these we are told,
are free to intermarry with each other, but the bride becomes a part of her husband's family. The wealth consists of boats and fishing apparatus. Each family appears to understand its own bound aries, and no encroachment is allowed by one into the preserves of another.
The race is described as
strong and well-built but very ugly. They go about almost naked. They live in small huts of a most primitive description, in which the whole family is huddled together. Their principal weapon appears to be the spear, with which they capture fish and wild pigs, which constitute their principal articles of food.
Turtles and shell-fish also afford them
copies of those views at a moderate cost.”—English
subsistence, together with yams, which grow on the islands, and are sometimes found of 30 pounds
man, Oct. 20.
weight. They are very fond, we are told, of opium, SHRI ILARSHA.
AT the monthly meeting of the Bombay B. R. Asiatic Society, on the 9th Nov. Dr. George Bühler read a paper entitled “A Note on the History of the Sanskrit Literature,” of which the following is a brief abstract :—
A Jaina writer, Rajasekhara, gives in his Prabhan dakosha, composed A.D. 1348, a life of Shri Harsha. He states that Shri Harsha, the son of Hira, was born in Benares, and composed the Naishadha-charita at the request of a king at that town, named Jayanta chandra
the son of Govinda Chandra.
Various
details which Rajasekhara gives regarding Jayanta
chandra, especially the statement that he had the surname Panjula, that he was contemporary of Kumarapala of Anahillapattan, and that he and his dynasty were destroyed by the Musalmans, show that Raja Sekhara's Jayantachandra is nobody else than the Kashtrakuta prince, Jayachandra, who reigned over Kanyakubya and Benares, in the latter half of the 12th century, probably from 1168-1194.
arrak and tobacco. Weaving cloth is unknown to them, but they manufacture neat sleeping mats of a certain kind of leaf, and the sails of their boats are constructed of the same material. They are without religion of any sort, and have no idea of a future
existence. Like the Dyaks of Borneo they believe in the existence of spirits, which haunt streams, forests, &c. When a Selon dies, his body, with his spear, &c., is placed on a mat on the sea beach. His
friends then vacate the spot, and return after a year to bury the bones and the weapons. They are said to be very truthful, and polygamy and conjugal infidelity are unknown among them. They are moreover of a mild and peaceable nature, and offer no resistance to the attacks frequently made upon them by Malay pirates.—Delhi Gazette. -
ROCK TEMPLE AT HARCHOR A.
At the last meeting of the Asiatic Society at Cal cutta, an interesting letter was read from Captain W. L. Samuells, Assistant Commissioner, Parhumba, Chord Line, regarding a rock-cut temple which he
