the publication of treatises on obscure and unimportant details of an ancient, and for the most part obsolete, phase of Hinduism. We look in vain for translations of the works of the great Mahommedan jurists, though they exercise a powerful and living influence on the faith of millions in Western Asia, Egypt, and Northern Africa, not to mention the immense Musulman population of India and the adjacent lands. With all these countless masses of believers in a vigorous and combative faith we have relations of the most important nature. Surely the Clarendon Press would be doing much better service to Englishmen by making them acquainted with all that is believed and venerated by the Muslim, than in dragging to light useless mystical speculations of dreamy old Brahmins, dust- and cobweb-covered treatises of long-forgotten schools, childishly minute instructions for the conduct of ceremonies, which were probably never really performed at any time, and are certainly in the present day as dead and forgotten as the races that lived before the flood.

For facility of reference we publish with some of our quarterly reviews of one or more of "The Sacred Books of the East" Series, a complete list of them, brought up to date, which we hope our readers and Oriental scholars generally will consider to be a useful addition. The Series now stands as follows (1st January, 1899):

BOOKS OF THE

EAST.* (Translated by various Oriental Scholars, and edited by the Rt. Hon. F. MAX MÜller.)

* Published at the Clarendon Press, Oxford.

BĀBAR'S DIAMOND: WAS IT THE KOH-I-NUR?

BY H. BEVERIDGE.

LES SIX VOYAGES DE JEAN BAPTISTE TAVERNIER,
PARIS, 1677.

LIKE the great Gustavus, the Emperor Babar, the founder of the Mogul dynasty, came forth from the North on his career of conquest, for he issued out of the Highlands of Farghana, on the northern verge of Central Asia, and, moving southwards, subdued the kingdoms of Cabul and India. To him also therefore may justly be applied the epithet of Lion of the North, and this all the more aptly in that the name Bábar, by which he is commonly known, but which was not conferred on him at birth, appears to be a prolongation of the Arabic and Persian Băbar, signifying Lion or Tiger.

There is always a fascination in historical parallels and synchronisms, and so it is worth remembering that Babar invaded India and conquered the upper part of the Eastern Peninsula about thirteen months after the unsuccessful invasion by Francis I. of Italy, the corresponding peninsula of the West, and his defeat and capture under the walls of Pavia.

Babar defeated and killed Ibrahim, the Afghan Sultan of Hindustan, on April 21, 1526, on the plain of Panipatthat Indian Armageddon where so many decisive battles. have been fought. On the very day of the victory he despatched two bodies of light troops to take possession of the cities of Delhi and Agra and of their treasures. Delhi was the old capital, and was the place where Babar afterwards had himself proclaimed as sovereign, but Ibrahim's father, Sikandar, had resided much at Agra, and it was at the time of Babar's invasion the wealthiest city in Upper India. It was also more remote from Panipat than Delhi

was, so that the expedition to it was the more difficult and responsible of the two. Hence Babar despatched only inferior captains to Delhi, while he sent his eldest son, Humayun, then a youth of eighteen, and his famous general Khwaja Kilan to take possession of Agra. At that time the city lay on the left or eastern bank of the Jamna, and it was this side which Babar afterwards made his capital. When Humayun arrived, he found that the mother of the late Sultan, and other ladies, and some of the principal officers, had shut themselves up in the Fort. Humayun was either unable or unwilling to take it by assault, and so contented himself with guarding the exits that no one might remove the treasures unobserved, and then awaited the arrival of the main army. As his father writes in his Memoirs :

"The people of the fort had put off Humayun, who had arrived before me, with excuses; and he, on his part, considering that they were under no control, and wishing to prevent their plundering the treasure, had taken a position to shut up the issues from the place."

Among the persons in the Fort were the family and clansmen of Vikramaditya, the former Rajah of Gwaliar. This Prince belonged to the race of Tanwar Rajputs, and was the last of his line. His ancestor Pamal Dev had served with his brother under 'Ala-ed-din Khilji, and had won the approbation of that warrior by their fidelity as sentinels. 'Ala-ed-din rewarded them by the grant of the fortress of Gwaliar. This was about 205 years ago, and Vikramaditya was the tenth in succession. His reign was but a short one, for after three years he had been compelled to give up Gwaliar to Ibrahim's general, and to accept the insignificant fort and territory of Shamsabad in exchange. Having thus become a vassal of Ibrahim, he followed him to Panipat and was killed there along with. him. Shamsabad lies a good way to the east of Agra, and is 18 miles north-west of Fatehgarh, but either the family had not yet removed then from Gwaliar, or they had come into Agra for greater security. When they heard that

Vikramaditya had fallen, and saw Humayun at the gates of the fort, they tried to escape, but were caught by Humayun's guards. He, however, treated them with delicacy and respect, and would not suffer these Hindu women to be plundered--a point in which he contrasts favourably with the conduct of our own officers some 250 years later, when they, violating a capitulation, searched and plundered the mother and family of Cheyt Singh, the Rajah of Benares, as they were issuing out of the fort of Bijaigarh. In gratitude for his clemency, the ladies voluntarily presented Humayun with a quantity of jewels and precious stones, and among them was a celebrated diamond, weighing, we are told, eight misqals, which, perhaps, may correspond to 187 carats. This is the diamond known as Babar's Diamond, from the circumstance that the first historical mention of it occurs in his Memoirs, though if the facts of acquisition and possession be regarded, it might more justly be called Humayun's Diamond. The passage in the Memoirs is as follows, for it deserves to be quoted in full as the classical passage in the history of the Diamond:

"Bikermâjit, a Hindu, who was Rajah of Gwaliâr, had governed that country for upwards of a hundred years. Sekandar had remained several years in Agra, employed in an attempt to take Gwaliâr. Afterwards, in the reign of Ibrâhim, Azim Hûmâiûn Sirwâni invested it for some time, made several attacks, and at length succeeded in gaining it by treaty, Shamsâbâd being given as an indemnification. In the battle in which Ibrâhim was defeated, Bikermâjit was sent to hell.* Bikermâjit's family, and the heads of his clan, were at this moment in Agra. When Hûmâiûn arrived, Bikermâjit's people attempted to escape, but were taken by the parties which Hûmâiûn had placed upon the watch and put in custody. Hûmâiûn did not permit them to be plundered. Of their own free will they presented to Hûmâiûn a peshkash, consisting of a quantity of jewels and precious stones. Among them was one famous diamond, which had been acquired by Sultan Alâeddîn. It is so valuable that a judge of diamonds valued it at half of the daily expense of the whole world. It is about eight mishqals. † On my arrival, Hûmâiûn presented it to me as a peshkash, and I gave it back to him as a present." (Erskine's translation, p. 308.)

* The charitable mode in which a good Musulman signifies the death of an infidel. (Erskine's Note.)

Or 320 ratis. (Erskine's Note.)