[328] Bahrám Gur (Varanes V), the son of Yezdejird badkar (the iniquitous), was educated out of Persia. After the death of his father, the throne having been given to Kisra, a stranger, Bahram came to dispute the crown, which he proposed should be placed between two famished lions, and belong to him who should seize it there. Kisra accepted the proposal, but would not attempt the first to snatch what he already possessed. Bahram then, after having killed the fierce animals, took and kept the prize with universal applause. He was the 13th (or 14th) king of the Sássáníans. After having repulsed an invasion of the Turks, and secured his empire, he left Persia, and travelled in disguise to India in search of adventures; by a series of daring actions, he gained a great reputation, and the hand of an Indian princess, with whom, after two years of absence, he returned to Persia. Fortunate in war against Greeks and Arabians, he lost his life in a hunting party, after a reign of 23 (some say 18) years, which is placed from 420 to 438 of our era.—A. T.
[329] This passage is very obscure—the occurrences here mentioned must have been local.—D. S.
[330] Akbar Abad (Akbar’s town) was Agra.
[331] Sadah is the name of the 16th night of the Persian month Bahman (the 11th of the year, January). This night is solemnized by fires lighted in towns and in the fields (Herbelot).—A. T.
[332] Jamasp, a great priest of the religion of Zoroaster, and supposed author of a Persian work upon the great conjunctions of the planets, and upon the events which they produce. This work was translated into Arabic by Lalí, in the year 1280 of our era. According to the Shah-namah and to some historians, Jamasp was the brother of Gustasp, the Vth Persian king of the Péshdadían dynasty (Herbelot). In the book Múgjizat Farsi (see Hyde, Prefatio), Jamasp is the VIth of ten Persian prophets, who are enumerated as follows: I. Feridun; II. Alexander; III. Anushirvan; IV. Baheramgor; V. Rustam; VI. Jamasp; VII. Buzurgjmihr; VIII. Barbud; IX. an anonymous sculptor of the beautiful horse Shabdiz, which had belonged to king Parviz; X. Ferhad, a celebrated architect, enamoured of Shírín, the wife of Parviz.—A. T.
[333] The Lulees in Persia and in other parts of Asia are women of the same description as the dancing girls in India, devoted to pleasure, and exercising their art of pleasing at all festivals, public and private.—A. T.
[334] These verses of Hafiz, p. 56, edit. of Calcutta, are again quoted, p. 6, of the same edit.; but instead of ازپی جانام; which occur in the first of these pages, we find in the last درپی جانام; which last reading was adopted.—A. T.
[335] چمچمہ chamchamah, “a skull,” answers to कपाल kapála, which signifies skull, and a skull-like bowl, in which beggars receive alms.—A. T.
[336] कपाल आसन.
[337] These verses have been quoted before, [page 119].