Kumbha means an earthen pot, and also the "frontal globe on the upper part of the forehead of the elephant." The latter meaning was, according to Prof. Forchhammer, that intended, being applied to the hillocks on which the town stood, because of their form. But the Burmese applied it to 'alms-bowls,' and invented a legend of Buddha and his two disciples having buried their alms-bowls at this spot.
A correction is made here on Lord Stanley's translation.
Probably not much stress can be laid on this last statement. [The N.E.D. thinks that the Arabic word came from the West].
We owe this quotation, as well as that below from Ibn Jubair, to the kindness of Prof. Robertson Smith. On the proceedings of 'Omar see also Sir Wm. Muir's Annals of the Early Caliphate in the chapter quoted below.
At p. 6 there is an Arabic letter, dated A.D. 1200, from Abdurrahmān ibn 'Ali Tāhir, 'al-nazir ba-dīwān Ifriḳiya,' inspector of the dogana of Africa. But in the Latin version this appears as Rector omnium Christianorum qui veniunt in totam provinciam de Africa (p. 276). In another letter, without date, from Yusuf ibn Mahommed Sāhib diwān Tunis wal-Mahdia, Amari renders 'preposto della dogana di Tunis,' &c. (p. 311).