traders from Chittagong, while returning from Cape Negrais in a vessel loaded with turmeric, called at Akyab for water, and the vessel anchored off the Buddermokan rocks. On the following night, after Chan and Manick had procured water near these rocks, Manick had a dream that the saint Budder Auliah desired him to construct a cave or a place of abode at the locality near where they procured the water. Manick replied that he had no means wherewith he could comply with the request. Budder then said that all his (Manick's) turmeric would turn into gold, and that he should therefore endeavour to erect the building from the proceeds thereof. When morning came Manick, observing that all the turmeric had been transformed into gold, consulted his brother Chan on the subject of the dream, and they conjointly constructed a cave and also dug a well at the locality now known as Buddermokan.

"There are orders in Persian [? i.e. in the Persian or Urdu character] in the Deputy Commissioner's Court of Akyab, dated 1834, from William Dampier, Esquire, Commissioner of Chittagong, and also from T. Dickenson, Esquire, Commissioner of Arakan, to the effect that one Hussain Ally (then the thugyi1 of Bhudamaw Circle) was to have charge of the Buddermokan in token of his good services rendered to the British force in 1825, and to enjoy any sums that he might collect on account of alms and offerings.

"In 1849 Mr. R. C. Raikes, the officiating Magistrate of Akyab, ordered that Hussain Ally was to have charge of the Buddermokan buildings, and granted permission to one Ma Min Oung, a female fakir, to erect a building. Accordingly in 1849 the present masonry buildings were constructed by her. She also redug the tank.

"The expenditure for the whole work came to about Rs. 2000. After Hussain Ally's death his son Abdoolah had charge, and after his death his sister Mi Moorazamal, the present wife of Abdool Marein, pleader, took charge. Abdool Marein is now in charge on behalf of his wife.""

1

Thù-gyi (Bur.), a head man. For Bhudamaw read Buddhamaw.-ST. A. ST. J.

Burmese corruptions of Musalman names are always difficult, and those just given are, as stated, impossible. All I can suggest for Marein is that it is a mistake for Karen (=Karim) and that the pleader's name was Abdu'lKarim, "the servant of the Generous"; or possibly, by metathesis, for Rahim, which would make his name Abdu'rRahim, "the servant of the Compassionate." Ar-Rahim is the second and Al-Karim is the forty-second of the ninety-nine "Names" of God. See Hughes' "Dictionary of Islam," p. 141, Herklot's "Qanoon-e-Islam," p. 24 ff., and my own "Proper Names of Panjabis," p. 43 ff. There is no "Most Comely Name of God" at all like Marein. Moorazamal may be merely a misprint of Murazamat, a possible designation for a woman.

Dr. Forchhammer next goes on to describe the "Buddermokan" thus: "The interior is very simple-a square or quadrangular room. There are really two caves, one on the top of the rocks. This has an entrance in the north and south sides; the arch is vaulted and so is the inner chamber. The exterior of the cave is 9 ft. 3 in. wide, 11 ft. 6 in. long, and 8 ft. 6 in. high; the inner chamber measures 7 ft. by 5 ft. 8 in., height 6 ft. 5 in.; the material is partly stone, partly brick plastered over; the whole is absolutely devoid of decorative designs. The other cave is similarly constructed, only the floor is the bare rock, slightly slanting towards the south entrance; it is smaller than the preceding cave. The principal mosque stands on a platform; a flight of brick and stone stairs leads up to it. The east front of the temple measures 28 ft. 6 in.; the south side 26 ft. 6 in.; the chamber is 16 ft. 9 in. long, and 13 ft. wide. The ceiling is a cupola; on the west side is a niche, let 1 ft. into the wall, with a pointed arch and a pilaster each side. [This must be the mihrab that is obligatory in every mosque.] Over it hangs a copy in Persian [? character not language] of the grant mentioned above. A small prayer-hall [if meant for Muhammadans this is (?) an idgah], also quadrangular, with a low cupola, is pressed in between the rocks close by. All the buildings are in

good order. The curiously-shaped rocks capped by these buildings form a very picturesque group. The principal mosque has become the prototype for many Buddhist temples. This pagoda is the most perfect type of the blending of the Indian mosque and the Burmese turreted spire."

I cannot quite follow Dr. Forchhammer in mixing up the terms "temple," mosque," and "pagoda" in one and the same building. But I am quite of one mind with him as to the extreme architectural value of the old mosque at Akyab, and have long pitched on its dome and central spire as the connecting link between ancient chaitya architecture and the modern Burmese spired pagoda. From this point of view this building is certainly one of the most important old structures in Burma, and one of the most worth preserving.

I have now allowed such witnesses as I can procure from the Burmese side to tell their story, each in his own way, and the evidence amounts to this: There is a supernatural being worshipped along the Burmese coast by seafarers from Akyab to Mergui at certain spots specially dedicated to him. These spots, so far as yet known, are at Akyab, Sandoway, and Mergui. To the Buddhists he is a nat; to the Hindus a deva or inferior god; to the Muhammadans a saint; to the Chinese a spirit. His worship is precisely that which is common all over the East to spirits or supernatural beings, believed in by the folk irrespective of their particular form of professed belief, and it points, in just the same way as do all other instances, to the survival of an old local animistic worship in "pre-religious" days. As in all other similar cases, one of the contending professed religions has chiefly annexed this particular being to itself, and he is pre-eminently a Muhammadan saint, legendarily that saint best known to the bulk of the Muhammadan seafaring population, namely, Pir Badar of their own chief town Chittagong.

In that remarkably accurate work Beale's "Oriental Biographical Dictionary," 1881, there is an entry, Pir

"Badar," at p. 216, which explains the matter under discussion. Pir Badar or Badar is the great saint of the Chittagonians, Badru'ddin Aulia and Badr Sahib, under the various corruptions above given, being merely variants of his title of the ordinary sort.

Beale says of this saint: "Pir Badar, a celebrated Musalman saint, whose tomb is at Chitagun in Bengal, and is evidently of great antiquity. There is a stone scraped into furrows, on which, it is said, Pir Badar used to sit. There is also another bearing an inscription, which, from exposure to the weather and having on it numerous coats of whitewash, is illegible. There is a mosque near the tomb with a slab of granite, bearing an illegible inscription, apparently from the Kuran. is the masjid of Muhammad Yasin, with an inscription conveying the year of the Hijri 1136 (1724 a.d.).”

At a short distance.

Unfortunately there is not a word about Pir Badar in the "Statistical Account of Bengal," vol. vi. Chittagong, etc. Clearly, in quoting the foregoing extracts, we have not yet dug up all the information procurable from books, records, and reports about Pir Badar himself in his own native town, nor about "Buddermokan." What is wanted as to Pir Badar is a specific account about him, his date, doings, miracles, worship, and so on; and what is wanted about "Buddermokan" is the source from which Sladen's and the official account came, and details about his cult at Akyab, Sandoway, and Mergui, and at other places along the coast, should it happen to exist at any other spots than those already cited.

Perhaps readers of these notes, interested in such things, and possessing information on the point, will kindly add to that herein collected.

R. C. T.

NOTES OF THE QUARTER.

(April, May, June, 1894.)

I. GENERAL MEETINGS OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY.

10th April, 1894.-Lord REAY (President) in the Chair. It was announced that—

Dr. Serge d'Oldenburg, Professor of Sanskrit at the University of St. Petersburg, had been elected a member of the Society.

Mr. J. A. Baines, C.S.I., read a paper on the "Castes of India.” The paper will be published in the October

Journal.

Anniversary Meeting, Tuesday, 8th May, 1894.-The Right Hon. the Lord REAY (President) in the Chair.

It was announced that

Sardar Sir Atar Singh, K.C.I.E.
General G. G. Alexander, C.B., and
Arnold C. Taylor, Esq., M.A.

had been elected members of the Society.

the

Professor T. W. Rhys Davids, Ph.D., etc. (Secretary), read

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL FOR THE YEAR 1893.

The Council regrets to have to report the loss by death, or retirement, of the following sixteen members :There have died

J.R.A.S. 1891.

1. Mr. H. M. Becher,
2. Mr. C. J. Connell,

338