head around a sick man. This is a very ancient ceremony, and is called Nachravali. Col. Tod frequently had a large salver filled with silver coin waved over his head, which was handed for distribution amongst his attendants. It is most appropriate from the ladies from whom also he had this performed by their proxies, the family priest or female attendants. It is also a mahomedan rite.-Tod's Rajasthan Vol. i. p. 618. See Bulain Lena. Sacrifice. NACHU TEL. Lemna orbiculata, also Blyxa octandra, Rich.-Vallisneria octandra, R. iii. 752; Cor. 165. Also applied generally to small aquatic plants. NACRE, Fr. Mother of Pearl. See Molluscs, Mother o' Pearl. NACSHATRA, HIND. The Tyajya (wrongly spelt Thyajum and Thyagum); that portion of a Nacshatra, which is deemed unlucky, is called Varjya, and the period of its duration is the Tyajya.-It is called Devi when it occurs at day time, and Ravi when at night. It is therefore an astrological element: but is nevertheless registered every day in the Ephemerides; where the instant of its commencement is registered. Its mean duration is about 4 guddia (1h 36′ European time), so that the beginning being known, the end may be supported, with sufficient accuracy for practical purposes, without actual computation. NAD, CAN. A territorial division. NADANAR KARU, an agricultural tribe; of Mysore, who pretend to be pure sudras...: NADA UMDALUM, a district midway: between Madura and the Pulitaver country. NADAUN, see Jawala mukhi. NADDI, HIND., a river, a streamlet. NADHYA-DESA, see Inscriptions. NADI or NARI, BENG. A caste who make ornaments of lak for mahommedan women. NADIR SHAH, a native of Khorasan. His name was Tamas Kuli Khan. His country had been conquered in 1722 by the Ghilji, he freed his country from the Ghilji, expelled the Turks and Russians from their possessions and at the request of the people resumed the throne which he had bestowed on Thamasp, son of Shah Hussain the Sufi monarch of Persia. In 1738, he commenced the seige of Candahar, but on the emperor of Delhi refusing to restore some fugitives, he crossed the Iudus with 65,000 veteran soldiers; the emperor however made his submission and Nadir Shah, in March 1739, entered the palace of Delhi with him. On the following night a false report was raised, that Nadir Shah had been murdered, on which the people of Delhi rose and murdered nearly 1000 of his soldiers. Nadir Shah on learning this, in the morning ordered a general massacre of the people. In this, 8,000 were slain, and the city was pillaged for fifty-eight days and he returned to his country with immense plunder: Nadir Shah's plunder destroyed the Mogul empire. The Mahrattas, the nabob of the Carnatic, the Asof Jahi family of Hyderabad, the subadars of Bengal and Oudh, and the Jat of Bhurtpore, all declared for independence and set the imperial power at defiance. In the fifty-eight days that he remained, Nadir demolished, burnt, and ransacked all Delhi, and undid the doings of several hundred years. The amount of booty that he is said to have carried off is, by the highest computation, seventy crore, and by the lowest thirty-two, Among it was the throne representing the tail of a peacock displayed, composed of precious stones, which still adorns the audience chamber in the palace at Teheran. Nadir Shah's route into India was the ordinary one, by Attock and Lahore, and he returned, as appears by Abdul Karim and M. Otter, by nearly the same route; save that instead of crossing the Indus at Attock, he went higher up, and passed the borders of Sewad, in his way to Jalalabad and Kabul. Ahmed, styled khan or shah, king of the Abdalla accompanied Nadir Shah to India in 1739. In 1747, Ahmed with an army of 15,000 men overran the Panjab, but at Sirhind he was met and defeated by Ahmed Shah, the son of the emperor of Delhi Mahomed Shah, and he returned to Afghanistan. In 1741, he returned to India, and Lahore and Multan were ceded to him. He, a third time, invaded India, took and phurdered Delhi, but left for his native country, pestilence occurring amongst his troops. He had displaced Ghazi-ud-din from the post of Vizier of the emperor, and on his withdrawal, Ghazi-ud-din obtained the aid of the Mahrattas, who advanced on and captured Delhi, re-instated Ghazi-ud-din; Raghoba, the commander of the Mahrattas, then marched on Lahore, defeated Timur, son of Ahmed, and wrested Lahore and Multan from the Abdalla. Ghazi-ud-din assasinated the emperor Alamgir in 1759; but in September, Ahmed had again crossed the Indus and invaded India. In 1760, he overtook the Mahratta chiefs and defeated them one after another. Sada Siva Rao, Bhao, who had replaced Raghoba, marched to meet Ahmed. His army was composed of Mahrattas, Rajput cavalry and the Jaundar Surj Mull, the whole numbering about 270,000. Surj Mull advised Sada Siva Rao, Bhao to harass Ahmed. This advice was not followed, and the Jat and Rajpoot armies consequently withdrew. The Bhao occupied Delhi, and came in contact at Paniput, with Ahmed's army of 38,000 foot, 49,000 cavalry, besides the Rohilla and Oudh auxillaries. Several indecisive encounters ensued, but, on the 7th January 1761, an obstinate battle was fought. The result continued doubtful until the Bhao fled from the field, leaving his troops in disorder, and Ahmed's victory was The numeral values of the letters composing these few words, being added up, give 1193, the year of the IIijra, corresponding with A.D. 1779, in which this good king died. Ouseley mentions that one of the attendants who at a levee presented to him pipes and coffee, was a grandson or great grandson of the mighty Nadir Shah.-Tr. of a Hind., Vol. ii. p. 320; Rennells Memoir, p. 112; Cunningham's History of the Sikhs, p. 121; Masson's Journey's, Vol. ii, p. 297; Burnes; Ouseley's Travels, Vol. ii. p. 222. See Afghan, India, Iran, Kaffir, Kandahar, Kazzilbash. NADOONG-GASS, SINGH. Dalbergia mooniana.-Thw. NADULEE, HIND. A stone engraved with a verse of the koran, and suspended as a charm round the necks of children.-Herklots. NAEK. A Tamil race who have adopted brahminism, they have few lands and are largely employed as farm servants. NAEK, or Naidu, a term in use by a class of the Tiling sudra, as an honorific distinction. NAEK, in the British Indian Army a rank Nadir biduzakh raft. "Nadir is gone to the abyss of hell." These letters give 1161, the year of the Hijra Ei va'e Kureem Khan moord. NE-MEN, BURM. Eurycles Amboinensis. -Sal. NAET or Nao-ait, a mahomedan race in the peninsula of India. NA-FARMAN, HIND. Delphinium ajacis. NA-FARMANI, HIND. A blue colour from the flower of Cheiranthus annuum. Lilac, mauve. NAFIEL, ARAB. Galbanum officinale. Don. NAFR, PERS. HIND. A servant. In the west of Bengal the Nafr and his offspring are slaves for ever and are transferable and saleable. In Purneya the Nafr is sometimes a domestic slave, sometimes an agricultural slave. In the native cavalry of India the term is applied to a horsekeeper or groom, also, though rarely, to a person who is hired to ride a horse, equivalent to assami. NAF-TALNA, HIND. Lit. shifting of the navel, a disease. NAG, HIND., a serpent, See Naga; Takshak. NAG, HIND. Pyrus communis, pear tree, see Naspati. NAGA, a powerful Scythic race who appear to have invaded India about six centuries before Christ and occupied it prior to the appearance of the Aryans. In the mythology of India they are described as true snakes. In the Persepolitan inscription, Xerxes calls himself Nagua or Nuka, the Greeks anax, and some writers have surmised that this may the true meaning of the Naga dynasties of Kashmir and Magadha. The Naga race scem to have ruled in Magadha until dispossessed by the Aryan Pandava; the Mannipur rulers were also of that Scythic race and most of the Mannipur people continued to worship snakes till the beginning of the 19th century, as is still the custom amongst Aryan and non-Aryan tribes throughout the Peninsula of India. Naga and Takshac are Sanscrit names for a snake or serpent, the emblem of Boodha or Mercury. The Naga race are said to have occupied Ceylon on the northern and western coasts before the Christian era, and to have worshipped snakes. Strabo calls the people of Phrygia and the Hellespont the Ophio or serpent races, and the snake tribe was, till recently, one of the greatest of the tribes of N. American Indians. The Naga race extended their power over the country of Magadha in Bahar, and ruled there for ten generations. The brahmanical body being the chief source of learning, endeavour to deduce all descents from their ancient books, and Arjuna is said to be the ancestor of the Naga, by Ulupi. Colonel Tod is of opinion that the Naga or Takshak were buddhists. He considers the Ay of the Tatars, the Yu of the Chinese, and the Ayu of the Poorans, to indicate the great Indu (Lunar) progenitor of the three races. Boodha (Mercury), the son of Indu (the moon), became the patriarchal and spiritual leader; as Fo in China; Woden and Teutates, of the tribes migrating to Europe. Hence he believes the religion of Budha must have been coeval with the existence of the Naga nations; that it was brought to India Proper by them, and guided them until the schism of Krishna and the Surya worshippers of Bal, in time depressed them: When the Boodha religion was modified into its present mild form, the Naga race were so numerous in Ceylon that it was called Nagadwipo, the island of Snakes, as Rhodes and Cyprus received the ancient designation of Ophiusa, from their being the residence of the Ophites who introduced snake worship into Greece. According to Byrant, Euboea is from Oubaia and means serpent island. The books of the hindoos and the thoughts of the people are not without grand conceptions of a father of all and of a future state. But along with this there have ever been atheistic views, a prevalence of nature worship, worship of creatures, like the snake, and polytheism mixed with that first worship of the All-Good,-a reverence of parents, a spirit worship, a hero worship and pure monotheism. Of the religion of the ancient races who dwelt in India, prior to the advent of the Aryans, little or nothing is known. They are alluded to in ancient books, as the Naga, Rakshasa, Dasya, Asura. The whole of the Scythian race are mythically descended from a being half-snake and half-woman who bore three sons to Heracles (Herod, IV., 9, 10), the meaning of which probably is that the ancestral pair were of two races and the offspring, took the snake as their emblem, a The similarly to the Numri or Lumri Baluch of the present day, who are foxes and the Cuch'hwaha rajputs who are tortoises. snake nation seem to have made extensive conquests and to have spread into North America. The Abbe Domenech mentions an Indian race in America, who traced their origin from the snakes of Scythia; the serpents who invaded the kingdom of the Lydians just before the downfall of Cræsus, were probably the Scythian Naga (Herod) race and people of this race seem to have early entered India and to have been ruling there when the Aryans arrived. The dynasty of Maghada or Behar in the time of the Pandava were of the Naga race and they held sway there, for ten generations. A branch of them, the Nagbunsee chieftains of Ramgurh Sirgooja, have the lunettes of their serpent ancestor engraved on their signets in token of their lineage. Whence the Scythic Naga came, whether they preceded or followed the Vedic Aryans, into India, or whether they came from the N.E. whilst the Aryan race advanced from the N.W. is not known. But they seem to have come in contact in the lands where the Jumna joins the Ganges at a time when the Aryans were divided as to the object of their worship between Indra, Siva and Vishnu. One of the opening scenes of the Mahabharata describes the destruction of the forest of Khanduva and a great sacrifice of serpents; and though the application of the term Nag or Naga has come to be taken literally, there can be no doubt that the descriptions in the Mahabharata, and as to Krishna's exploits against snakes, relate to the opposing Naga race. India, the term Nag or Naga, is applied to the cobra serpent, and the race who were so designated, are believed to have paid their devotions to that reptile. There seems no reason to doubt that the Naga rulers of India, were a Scythic or Turanian race, a body of them have preserved their independence, in Munnipur, up to the present day, and until the beginning of the 18th century hinduism had not made any progress amongst them. The Vedic deities, Indra, god of the firmament, Varuna, god of the waters, Yama, the judge of the dead, Agni, god of fire, Surya, the sun, Soma or Chandra, the moon, Vayu, the god of winds, the Marut, the Aditya, were mere personifications of the powers of nature, which were invoked for aid or their wrath deprecated. The Ayrans appear not to have had idols nor temples but they sacrificed often, the elements being clarified butter, curds, wines or spirits, cakes and parched grain, thrown into the fire: also, the roasted ox is named as an offering to Indra, and a horse was occasionally sacrificed to Indra or the sun. These sacrificial rites seem to have been connected with their meals and probably were In libations and first offerings, to the gods. Up to the present day, every morning, when performing early worship, a water libation is poured from the denkna or sacrificial spoon, the Aryan brahmin visits his temple and makes offerings to his gods, every hindoo in India every Saturday, offers to the village deity, flowers, cocoanuts, and at least once a month, the helot races make offering of cakes, and on great occasions, the non-hindoos take rice and flour, saffron, vermilion to the village deities, the Ai, Amma and Amman, and all worship the snake. Herod, IV. 9-10; Wilson; Sonnerat's Voyage, p. 162. of out labour, and that few, not more than one in a hundred, live as celebates, and the personal appearance of these men, sleek, with well covered muscles, supports this view. They wander to very distant places, begging for their math or monastery and have very scanty clothing, only a small strip of cloth between their thighs. Immoralities when detected are punished by fine. The ascetic Gosain can withdraw from the monastery on payment of a fine, can marry and engage in business. Only the brahman, Kshetrya and Vesya are admitted as gosains, the head of the math is styled mahant. NAGA, a race, or races, occupying the mountains bounding to the south, the valley of Assam, from lat. 25° N., and long. 93° E. to lat. 26° 40', and long. 95° 30'. But Naga is a term applied by Europeans to forty or fifty tribes who occupy the space between the Khassya hills on the west, the Singpo on the east, Assam on the north and Munipur on the south. They do not call themselves Naga, but each tribe is split up into numerous clans and each is called after its village. The Naga, Mikir, Kachari, Garo and Kassia are the five races, in whose possession chiefly are the broad highlands of the Assam chain extending from the N.E. near the head of the Kynduayn and Nam- . rup, on one side, along the valley of the Brahmaputra to its southern bend round the western extremity of the chain, and on the other side, south-westerly, along the valley of the Burak and Surmu, these highlands are thus embraced by the valleys of the Brahmaputra and its affluents on all sides but the S. E., where they slope to the Kynduayn. The Naga dialects are: NAGA, HIND. A class of hindoo mendicants who go naked and carry arms; they are now almost extinct; but they used to form sometimes mercenary bands in the service of hindoo princes. All hindoo sects have followers to whom this designation is applied. The Naga in all essential points, are of the same description as the Viragi or Sanyasi, but in their zeal, they used to leave off every kind of covering and go naked. They are the most worthless and profligate members of the hindoo religion. They always travel with weapons, usually a matchlock, a sword, and shield, and sanguiary conflicts have occurred between the hindoo Naga mendicants of opposite sects. The Saiva Naga are very numerous in many parts of India, they are the particular opponents of the Viragi Naga, and were no doubt the leading actors in the bloody fray at Haridwar, in 1790, which excluded the Vaishnava from the great fair there, until the country came under the sway of the British. On that occasion 18,000 Viragi were left dead on the field. A party them attacked Colonel Goddard's troops in their march between Dorawal and Herapur, and on a critical occasion 6,000 of them aided Sindhia. On the west, the Naga march and intermix The Saiva Sanyasi smear their bodies with with the Rang-tsa, a branch of the Kachari or ashes, allow their hair, beards and whiskers to Bodo. The term Naga is supposed derived from grow and wear the projecting braid of hair the Hindi, Nanga, naked, because they use little called the jata; like the Viragi Naga, they clothing, and that is manufactured and dyed by used to carry arms, and wander about in their women. They come in contact with the bodies soliciting alms or levying contributions. Mikir, Kuki and Cachari; the Naga villages The Saiva Naga are generally the refuse of the of from 20 to 100 houses are fixed, and they Dandi and Atit orders, or men who have no crop and leave fallow their lands. They inter inclination for a life of study or business. When their dead at the threshold of their doors. The weary of the vagrant and violent habits of the Naga race are described as simple, social, and Naga, they re-enter one of the better disposed peaceful, unless when blood has to be avenged classes, which they had originally quitted. The and then he is treacherous and cruel. Semeo is term Naga is also applied to a class of the Dadu the name of their god of riches, Rupiaba, a maPant hi hindoo sect, they carry arms and serve lignant deity, with one eye in the centre of hindoo princes making good soldiers. A sect of his forehead, and Kangaba, is a blind, malicithe Gosain are likewise termed Naga, because ous deity. The Naga lie north of Munipur and they perform their ablutions (Sth'nanam) in a its dependencies. The Angami Naga are a rude state of nudity. The Gosain profess asceticism, pagan tribe on the range of hills in upper but well informed hindoos believe that almost Assam, on the eastern frontier of the Mikir all of them originally adopt the tenets of the and Cachari. They speak one of the Naga sect, with the object of securing a living with- | dialects. On the southern Assam frontier we Namsang, Mulung, Nogaung, Mozame An- have the numerous Naga and Singpo dialects, the Mikir and Angami, the languages of the Khassia and Jaintia hillmen, the Boro in Cachar, and the Garo in the hills of that name. The Kooki occupy parts of Tipperah and Chittagong, and the Mug race are in Arrakan and Chittagong. The Naga, Dhimali, Hayu, Kuswar, Kiranti, Limbu, Chepang and Bhramu tongues, of which the first is Indo-Chinese, and the rest Himalayan, all belong to the pronomenalized class of languages. The mountain range which bounds Assam on the south is known by a great diversity of names in different parts of its course, according to the different tribes by whom it is inhabited. The Khassia hills rise abruptly on the south from the plains of Silhet to the height of about 4,000 feet, and thence more gradually to 6,000 feet. The culminating point is Chillong hill, the elevation of which is about 6,600 feet. on chari and Assamese wives. The villages are small, and they have but few domestic animals. Like other hill tribes, they acknowledge the power of a plurality of gods; and sacrifices of cows, pigs and fowls are offered on all occasions. The Rengma Naga, like the Angami Naga, inter their dead, and place the spear and shield of the deceased in the grave; a few sticks with some eggs and grains are laid upon it, and the funeral ceremonies conclude with lamentations and feasting, In the Report of the British Association for 1845, Dr. Latham remarks that the distinction between the languages of Thibet and China, as exhibited by Klaproth, must be only provisional: over and above the grammatical analogy there is an absolute glossarial affinity. Of the languages of the trans-gangetic peninsula the same may be asserted. Where languages are monosyllabic slight changes make To the westward of the Khassia hills lie the palpable differences. The vocabularies of Mr. Garo hills which are lower, the maximum ele- Brown, for more than a score of the Burmese vation being probably nowhere more than and Siamese tongues, have provided us with three or four thousand feet. To the east, be- data for ethnographical comparisons. By dealyond Jyntea or Jaintia, which is similar in ing with these collectively, we find in one diageneral character to Khassia, there appears to lect words which had been lost in others. The be a considerable depression in the range, a Chinese, Thibetan, Bhootan, Burmese, Siamese large river with an open valley penetrating far and all the so-called monosyllabic languages to the north. To the east of Cachar, again, hitherto known, are allied to each other. The there are lofty hills, inhabited by Naga tribes, general affinities of the Indo-Chinese tongues but quite unexplored, except in one place, are remarkable. With Marsden's and Sir where they were crossed by Griffith in Stamford Raffles' tables on the one side, and travelling from upper Assam to the Hu- those of Brown and Klaproth on the other, it kum valley, on a tributary of the Irawadi. can be shown that a vast number of Malay The country occupied by the Angami Naga, roots are monosyllabic. The Malay languages south of Now-gong, is bounded the are monosyllabic ones, with the superaddition north by the Dhunseeree river, on the south of inflections evolved out of composition, and by a high range of mountains, forming the euphonic processes highly developed. Dr. Laboundary between the Muneepoor territory and tham is of opinion that the nations on the borNow-gong, Poplongmaee being the most sou- ders of British India, in the north-west, the thern Angami Naga village within the dis- north-east and east, form an ethnological group trict. The western boundary extends as far as which contains the Tibetans, the Nepal tribes, Hosang Hajoo. The limit of the eastern boun- several populations of the Sub-Himalayan dary is still undefined and unexplored; but the range, the Burmese, the Siamese, the Natives Deeyong river on the north-east separates the of Pegu, the Cambojians, the Cochin Chinese Lotah Naga in the Seebsagur district from and the Chinese, in populations which cover the Angami Naga. From a tubular state- perhaps one-fifth of Asia. Their countries are ment it appears, that thirty-two villages con- mostly inland, and mountainous, but contain tained 6,899 houses which, at four persons to the watersheds of mighty rivers, the Indus, the each house, would give a population of 2,756 Brahmaputra, the Irawadi and the Yellow river. persons. The Rengma Naga are evidently The complexion and features of these peoples descended from the Angami Naga; it is is that to which the term Mongolian has been said that, in consequence of oppression and applied. Though wild paganism and mahomefeuds in their own tribe, they emigrated to the danism exist, the majority are of the buddhist high hills occupied by the Tokophen Naga; but religion, but all speak a language the least defurther dissensions and attacks from the Lotah veloped of all the forms of human speech, being and Angami Naga compelled them to take re- generally monosyllabic and with little power of fuge on their present low hills in the vicinity of grammatical inflexions. These people are arthe Mikir; the Rengma Naga appear degenera- ranged under four great political powers, the ting. In physiognomy they differ but little from British, the Burmese, the Siamese and Chinese. the Cachar tribes, and many have married Ca- Ethnologically they are capable of being classed |