Ras Mala
Book by Alexander Kinloch Forbes
Râs Mâlâ: Hindoo Annals of the Province of Goozerat, in Western India is an 1856 historical work by British colonial administrator Alexander Kinloch Forbes. Divided in two volumes, the work has four sections documenting the history and chronicles from 8th century Gujarat (now in India) to arrival of British and folk literature of Gujarat as well as an historical account of the place and people he came to know during his stay in Gujarat. It was later translated into Gujarati in 1869.
Origin
Alexander Kinloch Forbes (1821–1865), a British colonial administrator, appointed in 1842 came to Ahmedabad as an assistant judge in 1846 where he began to learn Gujarati language first from Bhogilal Pranavallabh, and then from Dalpatram, a Gujarati poet. Forbes also had a deep interest in archaeology, ancient monuments and manuscripts, which made him intensely interested in the old archaeological and historical remains of Gujarat.
Forbes, along with his colleagues, established Gujarat Vernacular Society in 1848. Dalpatram was associated with Forbes since the establishment of Gujarat Vernacular Society and they became close friends. Dalpatram became instrumental, assistant guide and interpreter for Forbes in his attempt to draw the history of the province. Forbes furnished Dalpatram with necessary assistance to travel extensively and collect the chronicles and inscription from different parts of the province. Dalpatram had profound knowledge of Braj Bhasha and Charani dialect, which were popular languages in poetry gatherings at that time.
“Ras Mala” enters the record as book by Alexander Kinloch Forbes. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mala, Book and Alexander can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Ras Mala” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Mala, Book and Alexander provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q50694187. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1856, 1869, 1821 and 1865.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ras Mala” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.