Image: Atashgah-inscription-jackson1911

Description: Sanskrit (above) and Persian (below) inscriptions from the Ateshgah (fire temple) of Baku, Azerbaijan. The Sanskrit inscription is a religious Hindu invocation in old Devanagari script while the Persian inscription is a couplet. The Sanskrit invocation begins with: I salute Lord Ganesh (श्री गणेशाय नमः), a standard beginning of most Hindu prayers. The second line venerates the holy fire Jwala Ji (जवालाजी). The inscription is dated to Vikram Samvat 1802 (संवत १८०२, i.e. 1745 CE). Unlike the several Sanskrit (written in Devanagari) and Punjabi (written in Gurmukhi) inscriptions in the temple, the Persian quatrain below is the sole Persian one and, though ungrammatical, also refers to the fire (آتش) and dates it to Hijri 1158 (١١٥٨, i.e. again 1745 CE). (From the source, "a quatrain in not very good Persian, the mistakes of which might have been made by a Hindu imperfectly acquainted with the language ...".)
Title: Atashgah-inscription-jackson1911
Credit: From A. V. Williams Jackson's book "From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam"
Author: A. V. Williams Jackson (1862 – 1937)
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