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0171 Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2
Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 / Page 171 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000042
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INTRODUCTORY NOTICE.   411

by the principles of his religion to grant such a demand, unless in favour of persons paying the poll-tax as subjects of his Government. If the Emperor would go through the form of paying this he would be allowed to rebuild the temple.'

The embassy, headed by Ibn Batuta, was to convey this reply, and a return present of much greater value than that received. This was composed of 100 high-bred horses caparisoned, 100 male slaves, 100 Hindu girls accomplished in song and dance, 100 pieces of the stuff called bairami (these were of cotton, but matchless in quality),2100 pieces of silk stuff called juz,100 pieces

who maintained the practice. In our own day I have seen such at Hard-wir, who had crossed the Himalya, from Mahachin as they said, to visit the holy flame of Jawâlamukhi in the Punjab. Karachil is doubtless a corruption of the Sanskrit Kuverachal, a name of Mount Kailas, where lies the city of Kuvera the Indian Plutus, and is here used for the Himalya. In another passage the author describes it as a range of vast mountains, three months' journey in extent, and distant ten days from Debli, which was invaded by M. Tughlak's army in a most disastrous expedition (apparently the same which Firishta describes as a project for the invasion of China, though Ibn Batuta does not mention that object). He also speaks of it as the source of the river which flowed near Amroha (in the modern district of Moradabad, probably the Ramgunga ; iii, 326 ; ii, 6 ; iii, 437). The same name is found in the form Kalârchal, applied to a part of the Himalya by Rashid, or rather perhaps by Al-Biruni, whom he appears to be copying. This author distinguishes it from Harmakût (Hema-Kota, the Snow Peaks, one form of the name Himalya), in which the Ganges rises, and says that the eternal snows of Kalarchal are visible from Tdkas (Taxila ?) and Lahore (Elliot's Dlah. _?istorians, p. 30). Samhal is probably Sambhal, an ancient Hindu city of Rohilkhand (perhaps the Sapolus of Ptolemy ?), also in Zillah Moradabad. From other passages I gather that the province was called Sambhal at that time, and indeed so it was up to the time of Sultan Baber, when it formed the government of his son Humayun. I do not find that Sambhal itself has been recognized as the site of Buddhist remains, but very important remains of that character have been examined by M.-Gen. Cunningham, following the traces of Hwen Thsang, at various places immediately to the north of Sambhal, and one of these mayhave been the site of the temple in question.

1 The Jezia or " poll-tax...was imposed, during the early conquests, on all infidels who submitted to the Mahomed rule, and was the test by which they were distinguish from those who remained in a state of hostility" (Elphinstone, ii 457). Its abolition was one of the beneficent acts of Akbar, but Aurangzib imposed it again.

2 Probably Dacca muslins. Beirami is a term for certain white Indian cloths which we find used by Varthema, Barbosa, and others, and in Milburn's Oriental Commerce we have the same article under the name