THIS work, which is also called Akhbáru-l Nawádir, “Accounts of Rare Things,” was composed by Ráí Chatar Mán Káyath in the year 1173 A.H. (1759 A.D.), the last sheets being finished only a week before his death. As it was left in an unconnected shape, it was arranged and edited, after his death, by his grandson, Ráí Bhán Ráízáda, in 1204 A.H. (1789-90 A.D.), as is shown by a chronogram in the Preface; but as the work ends with the accession of the nominal Emperor Sháh Jahán the Second in A.H. 1173, it is evident that the Editor has added nothing to his grandfather's labours.

The Editor states that when Chatar Mán had travelled the road of eternity, he, as a dutiful grandson, was anxious to display this nosegay of wisdom to some effect, in order that those who wander in the garden of eloquence might, by a close inspection of its beauties, which are endowed with perpetual verdure, feel the bud of their heart expand with delight.

The Chahár Gulshán or “Four Gardens,” is, as the name im­plies, divided into four Books, and is said by the Editor to contain so much information in a small compass that it resembles the ocean placed in a cup. The historical part is a mere abstract, and of no value, nor are any authorities quoted for its state­ments; but the work has other points of interest, especially in the matter of the Biographies of the Muhammadan saints, which are written in a true spirit of belief, though the writer is a Hindú. The accounts of the Hindú fakírs, the Itine­raries, and the Statistical Tables of the twenty-two súbas of Hindústán, are also useful, though it is to be regretted that the latter are not given in sufficient detail to enable us to institute safe comparisons between its results and those given in the Áín-i Akbarí.