service received the title which had been borne by his adversary, viz. KHÁN JEHÁNG

IRÁDAT KHAN (the well-wishing lord). He was governor of the province of Khándesh, and during the rebellion of Lodi was raised to the title of AZIM KHÁN, the great lord; but not being successful, was superseded by the Vizir ASAF.

IBRAHIM KHÁN (the Lord Abraham). He was married to the sister of the Empress NUR JEHAN, and being a distinguished officer, was appointed in the year 1618 Governor of Bengal. It was during his government that the English first visited Bengal. He also had the honour of defending the province against the Prince SHAH Jehán, and lost his life in the contest.

I'TIKÁD KHAN (the trustworthy lord). He was son of the Vizír ASAF KHÁN, and, consequently, nephew of the Empress NUR Jehán. During the short period that Sultán SHUJÁ was governor of Kábul, this nobleman acted for him in Bengal; but not being desirous of employment, relinquished his charge and returned to court. ABDALLAH KHAN (the lord-servant of God). celebrated general; was employed in the pursuit of KHÁN Jehán LODI, and in quelling the insurrection at Kanauj, when 20,000 of the rebels were destroyed.

HAZIR KHAN (the lord in waiting).

KHIDMATGÁR KHAN (the chief of the servants).

RÁJÁ SARIK DEO (a Hindú chief).

He was a very

NÚR-AD-DIN KULÍ KHÁN (the lord the light of religion). When the emperor was about to visit Kashmír, the sum of ten lacs of rupees was advanced to his officers for the purpose of making the road, and building bridges, &c.

MUATAMID KHÁN (the trustworthy lord).

KHÁNAZAD KHAN (the son-adopted lord). This personage was the son of the celebrated MAHABAT KHÁN. When the latter was appointed to the government of Bengal, he nominated his son as his deputy, and sent him to take charge of the province; he did so, and collected a large sum of money, which he forwarded to court; but, before it arrived, the dispute between the emperor and MAHABAT had taken place; in consequence of which KHÁNAZAD KHÁN relinquished his post, and was allowed to retire in safety.

RÁJÁ KISHEN DASS (a Hindú chief).

FEDÁI KHÁN (the devoted lord). When MAHÁBAT KHAN had seized the emperor, this personage, with some others of the nobles, endeavoured to rescue him, and was severely wounded in the contest; for which he was rewarded with the government of Bengal, and

retained it till after the succession of SHAH JEHÁN, when he was superseded by KASIM KHÁN JOBUNÍ, who drove the Portuguese out of Bengal.

HABSHÍ KHÁN (the Abyssinian lord). It is probable that this name belongs to the preceding, who has much more the appearance of an African.

Míán Tán Sín, a very celebrated musician and wit, at the court of Akbar.

The Torchbearer (Masalji).

N.B. More detailed accounts of these personages will be found in Dow's Translation of FERISHTA; Major STEWART'S History of Bengal; Major PRICE'S Autobiography of Jehángír, &c. &c.

ART. XXIX.--Biographical Sketch of the Literary Career of the late Colonel COLIN MACKENZIE, Surveyor-General of India; comprising some particulars of his Collection of Manuscripts, Plans, Coins, Drawings, Sculptures, &c. illustrative of the Antiquities, History, Geography, Laws, Institutions, and Manners, of the Ancient Hindús; contained in a letter addressed by him to the Right Hon. Sir ALEXANDER JOHNSTON, V.P.R.A.S. &c. &c.

[THE Catalogue of the Mackenzie Collection published at Calcutta by Professor WILSON, in the year 1828, being with difficulty procurable in England, it has been thought that the following account of that Collection might not be unacceptable to those persons who feel an interest in the subjects which it was intended to illustrate, and who may not be aware of its nature and extent.

This sketch was communicated by Colonel MACKENZIE himself in the year 1817, to Sir ALEXANDER JOHNSTON, whom he had known from his earliest youth, with a view to its publication in the event of Col. MACKENZIE'S decease before any accurate and complete catalogue of the Collection should be prepared; and it is the document alluded to by Sir ALEXANDER, in the evidence given by him before the Committee of the House of Commons, in the year 1832; on which occasion he proposed that the government should take the necessary measures for authenticating and completing the collection, in all its different departments of science and literature.

As this subject was also referred to at the anniversary meeting of

*

the Royal Asiatic Society, held in May last, it may be proper to state, that the Council transmitted an application, through the Right Hon. the President of the Society, to the Hon. Court of Directors of the East India Company, soliciting it to avail itself of the ready means now in its power, of laying open and bringing into use the whole of this valuable collection.]

MY DEAR SIR ALEXANDER,

1. No one can have a fairer claim than yourself to expect some account, however concise, of the nature of those inquiries in which, you are aware, my curiosity, if not my attachment to useful research, has induced me to embark, for a great part of the term of a residence in India which has now extended to several years. The chief predisposing causes of a course so foreign to the general habits of military men, and so little prepared for by early instruction, it were unnecessary to enlarge upon on the present occasion; I must, however, attribute some part of them to the early seeds of passion for discovery and acquisition of knowledge, and to ideas first implanted in my native isle; to these I may add a further stimulus, in the contemplation of the opportunities too often neglected or passed over in doubt, for want of a conviction of the utility of those efforts, that, if steadily directed, could, in many instances, acquire and preserve a body of information, available for those more regular processes of investigation which may be conducted on more permanent principles.

2. That in the midst of camps and the bustle of war, and of travel and voyages, the human mind may be exercised to advantage has been long known and acknowledged; and although all " that a CÆSAR wrote, or a CAMOENS sung," may not be reached by every military adventurer, it is nevertheless universally admitted, what a celebrated sage of antiquity writes, "that the human mind can expand to the occasion." That science may derive assistance, and knowledge be diffused, in the leisure moments of camps and voyages, is no new discovery; but, in complying with your wish, I am also desirous of proving that, in the vacant moments of an Indian sojourn and campaign in particular (for what is the life of an Indian adventurer but one continued campaign on a more extensive scale), such collected observations may be found useful, at least in directing the observation of those more highly gifted to matters of utility, if not to record facts of importance to philosophy and science.

3. The first thirteen years of my life in India, from 1783 to 1796, * See Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, No. I. p. 165.

+ This sentiment is in TACITUs, I think (from recollection), in a speech of TIBERIUS.

may be fairly considered as of little moment with regard to the objects pursued latterly, as collecting observations and notices of Hindú manners, of geography, and history; for, with every attachment to this pursuit, to which my attention was turned before I left England, and though not devoid of opportunities, yet the circumscribed means of a subaltern officer, my limited knowledge of men in power or office, and the necessity of prompt attention to military and professional duties, did not admit of that undeviating attention which is so necessary at all times to the success of any pursuit; much more so to what must be extracted from the various languages, dialects, and characters, of the peninsula of India.

4. A knowledge of the native languages in particular, which is so essentially requisite, could never be assiduously cultivated, in consequence of the frequent changes and removals from province to province, from garrison to camp, and from one desultory duty to another. Official encouragements to study the languages of the vast countries that have come under our domination since my arrival in India, were reserved for more happy times, and for those who are more fortunate in having leisure for the purpose. From the evils of famine, penury, and war, the land was then slowly emerging; and it struggled long under the miseries of bad management, before the immediate administration of the south came under the benign influence of the British government.

5. On the whole of this period, in which I have marched or wandered over most of the provinces south of the Kistna, I look back with regret; for objects are now known to exist that could have been then examined; and also traits of customs and of institutions that could have been explained, had time or means admitted of the inquiry.

6. It was only after my return from the expedition to Ceylon in 1796, that accident, rather than design (though ever searching for lights that were denied to my situation), threw in my way those means that I have since unceasingly employed, not, I hope, without some success, of penetrating beyond the surface of the antiquities, the history, and the institutions, of the south of India.

7. The connexion I then formed with one person, a native and a Brahman,* was the first step of my introduction into the portal of Indian knowledge. Devoid of any knowledge of the languages myself,

* The lamented KAVELLI VENKATA BORIA, a Bráhman, then almost a youth, of the quickest genius and disposition, possessing that conciliatory turn of mind that soon reconciled all sects and all tribes to the course of inquiry followed with these surveys. After seven years' service he was suddenly taken off from these

I owe to the happy genius of this individual the encouragement to pursue, and the means of obtaining, what I had so long sought; for which purpose an acquaintance with no less than fifteen different dialects, and twenty-one characters, was necessary. On the reduction of Seringapatam, in 1799, not one of our people could translate from the Kanarese alone; at present we have translations made not only from the modern characters, but the more obscure and almost obsolete characters of the Sassanams (or inscriptions) in Kanarese and in Tamil; besides what have been done from the Sanscrit, of which, in my first years in India, I could scarcely obtain any information: but from the moment the talents of the lamented BORIA were applied, a new avenue to Hindú knowledge was opened; and though I was deprived of him at an early age, his example and instructions were so happily followed up by his brethren and disciples, that an establishment was gradually formed, through which the whole of our provinces might be gradually analysed by the method thus fortuitously begun and successfully followed so far. Of the claims of these individuals, and the superior merits of some, a special representation has been made to this government.

8. For these thirteen years, therefore, there is little to shew beyond the journals and notes of an officer employed in all the campaigns of the time first, towards the close of the war of 1783, in the provinces of Koimbatore and of Dindigul; afterwards on professional duties in the provinces of Madras, Nellore, and Guntore; throughout the whole of the war, from 1790 to 1792, in Mysore, and in the countries ceded to the NIZAM by the peace of 1792; and from that period engaged in the first attempt to methodise and embody the geography of the Dekkan, attempts that were unfortunately thwarted or impeded by measures which it is unnecessary here to detail: the voyage and campaign in Ceylon may be noticed as introductory to part of what followed on my return to resume the examination of the geography

of Dekkan.

9. Some voluntary efforts for these purposes had at last excited the notice of a few friends in the field, in the campaigns in Mysore, too partial, perhaps, to my slender talents, and my ardour for the pursuit; and in 1792, after the peace of Seringapatam, I was sent from the army in Mysore, by the desire of the late revered Lord CORNWALLIS, with the small detachment at first employed in the NIzám's domi

Jabours, but not before he had formed his younger brothers and several other useful persons of all castes, Brahmans, Jainas, and Malabars, to the investigations that have since been so satisfactorily pursued.