NAKSH-BANDI. HIND. A sect of the Muhammadan fakirs or darvesh, characterized by carrying a lighted lamp in one hand, and going about singing verses in honour of the prophet, etc. They derive their institution and name from Khaja Baha-ud-Din of Naksh-baud. See Khaja.
NAKSH-i-RUSTUM. On cliffs near Persepolis are the sculptured tombs of the Achmmenids and the monuments of the Sassanians, the latter being carved lower down on the same rocks. The rocks on which the bas-reliefs of Naksh-i-Rustum are sculptured bear the name of Koh-i-Husain. They form the continuation of the ridge lying south of the valley of Kamin, and serve for a northern boundary to the district of Hafrek. They are rugged cliffs of white and yellowish marble, with hardly any slope towards the plain. The more ancient sculptures are known as royal tombs. These are seven in number, of which four are at Naksh-i-Rustum, and three in the rocks of Rahmat, at Takht-i-Jamshid. The former are supposed to contain the four Persian monarchs who immediately followed Cyrus, namely, Cam byses, Darius 1., Xerxes, and Artaxerxes r. The remaining three kings of the Ackernenid race are supposed to have been interred in the three other tombs in the rock of Rahmat, at Takht-i-Jamshid. Ardeshir (Artaxerxes), a grandson of Sassau, in three great battles overthrew the Parthian king Artabauus. Artabanus was slain, and the Arsacid empire, which had lasted 476 years, replaced by the Sassanide. Ardeshir caused a bas-relief to be
sculptured on the rock at Naksh-i-Rustum, repre senting himself on horseback trampling on the prostrate figure of Artabanus, close to the portrait of Darius, his reputed ancestor. The inscription is triliteral, in the Pahlavi of E. and W. Iran, with a Greek translation. His son, Shahpur I. (A.D. 241-272), recorded his victory -over the Romans on the same rock,—Shahpur on horseback, and Valerian kneeling before him as a suppliant. Shahpur i. has also left his effigy on the rock at Naksh-i-llajab, near Persepolis, and in the cave at Haji-abad. Some of the monuments of Persepolis and other ancient sites were erected by the Achmmenia.n princes,—Darius, the son of Hystaspes, and his successors,—and the inscrip tions on them were in three different systems of cuneiform writing. These were placed side by side, and were addressed to the three chief popula tions of the Persian empire. One of them is in the ancient Persian language, and has 40 distinct characters.
The clue to the successful decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions was discovered by Grote, and Rawlinson followed. Naksh-i-Rustum has an inscription by Darius giving a list of Persian satrapies. There is a long inscription of Darius on the rock of Behistun, which was discovered by Sir Henry Rawlinson.—Baron C. A. De Bode's n•arels in Luristan and Arahistan, p. 97.