AFTER a similar account of the battle of Shânoor with that given to Mahommed Baig Khân Humdâny and others, under the same date (see Letter CCCLXXXI), the present letter proceeds to give some immaterial orders, respecting the periodical dispatch of Kâsids (or messengers) from Dehli. Then follows an explanation of the new notation, according to which the Sultan had recently named the months and years of the Malabar cycle, and of which this is the substance.
The letters to which numerical powers are assigned are stated to be thirty; being the number, including <Arabic> (lâm-alif) and <Arabic> (humza) which occur in the Koran. Of the two last mentioned letters, the former, or <Arabic>, represented a half, and <Arabic> (humza) a quarter. The powers of the remaining twenty-eight letters were regulated according to their order in the alphabet; the first nine, to <Arabic> (zal) inclusive, representing units; the next nine, to <Arabic> (ain) inclusive, tens; the third series to <Arabic> (hé) inclusive, hundreds; the last letter, or <Arabic> (yé), standing for a thousand.
The foregoing rule is conveyed in the following verses, which are inserted here for the gratification of the Persian reader. Whether they may be considered as a specimen of the Sultan’s poetical talent I cannot affirm; but, however this may be, they do no great credit to their author.
<Arabic>
It would appear by these verses, that this scheme of notation was invented, or, at least, first established, by Tippoo Sultan, who may possibly have given it the name of Hisâb e Zur, or the golden computation, in allusion to the circumstance of its being composed of the letters used in the Koran; which is not so exactly the case in the Ubjud scheme, as by that both lâm-alif and humza are rejected.
The remainder of this letter is occupied by an enumeration of the names of the months and years, according to the new nomenclature. The former of these, and as many of the latter as were deemed necessary, have been already given in another place.