[1] The proclamation of the Marquis Wellesley, after the formation of the college of Fort William; encouraging the pursuit of Oriental literature among the natives by original compositions and translations from the Persian, &c, into Hindustani.
[2] "The Bagh O Bahar," i.e. "The Garden and Spring;" which may be better called, "The Garden of Spring," or the "Garden of Beauty." The less appropriate title of "Bagh O Bahar" was chosen merely in order that the Persian letters composing these words, might, by their numerical powers, amount to 1217, the year of the Hijra in which the book was finished.—Vide Hind. Gram., page 20.
[3] Mir Amman himself explains the origin and derivation of these words in his preface, and we cannot appeal to a better authority.
[4] Literally, "in consequence of its being traversed or walked over."
[5] Hakim Firdausi, the Homer of Persia, who wrote the history of that country, in his celebrated epic entitled the "Shah-nama," or Book of Kings.
[6] I have translated into plain prose all the verses occurring in the original. I have not the vanity to think myself a poet; and I have a horror of seeing mere doggrel rhymes—such as the following—
"Mighty toil I've borne for years thirty,
I have revived Persia by this Pursi."
These elegant effusions are of the "Non hominies, non Dî, &c." description.
[7] That is to say, he has introduced the elegance and correctness of the Urdu language, or that of the Upper Provinces, into Bengal. In fact, the Bengalis who speak a wretched jargon of what they are pleased to call Hindustani, (in addition to their native tongue,) would scarcely be understood at Agra or Dilli; and those two cities are the best sites to acquire the real Urdu in perfection; there the inhabitants speak it not only correctly but elegantly.
[8] The Muhammadans believe that the body of their prophet cast no shadow. Mustafa means "The Chosen," "The Elected," one of Muhammad's titles.