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370
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1873.
rence afford all we wish? Whither such fanciful Alex. vi. 2) that Alexander, when about to descend theories must lead, will be seen best from Prof. the Hydaspes, sent in advance two divisions of Hoernle's fourth essay, which has just reached me. his army under Craterus and Hephaestion, one on That the Marathi kardvema has sprung from the each bank, appointing the rendezvous, where his Prakritic causative kardivemi (Vararuchi, VII. 27) arrival with the fleet was to be awaited, at the Prof. Lassen saw forty years ago.
Residence of Sopeithes. This rendezvous was
R. PISCHEL reached by the king after a voyage of three days London, August 27, 1873.
down-stream from Bucephalia.
Strabo says that in the territory of Sopeithes Str.-In re-reading Professor Weber's Essay on
there was a mountain of fossil salt sufficient for the Ramayara in your journal, I find that he twice
all India. This is a reasonable hyperbole if np. (pp. 123, 176) touches the question whether "So
plied to the salt-mines of Kheora, near Pind DA.
dan Khan. It is true there are said to be salt. peithes, king of the Knkeol, who entered into friendly personal relations with Alexander the Great, may
mines also in Mandi, where Lassen places the Kobe identified with Aśrapati, king of the Kekaya,
kaya, Kykeol, Asvapati and Sopeithes, but they who is mentioned in the Ramayara."
must be comparatively insignificant. Certainly As Prof. Weber quotes Lassen (I. 300, II. 161),
they are very little known.
For the rest of the argument I refer to Gen. it is possible that he allowed Lassen's words to
Cunningham's book. My present object is only to supersede his own recollection of the original au
bar what seems an unproved assumption on the thorities about Alexander. (1. 300.)
other side, to which such high sanction has been Lassen's first note, in which he identifies the Kykeol with the Kekaya, both with the people of
lent incidentally Sopeithes, and Sopeithes with Asvapati, is too
H. YULE. long for extract. In the second passage he says: "Alexander went northward from Sangala with the main body of his army, into the land of the
DEAR SIR.-In reply to a query in the last Kekaya, whose king was called Sopeithes. This
number of the I. 4., I send a line to state that we would not, however, be his proper names, but
have many villages here where the Patil's vatan rather his title, for already in epic story there is a
is divided into two holdings or bans, each enjoyed king of that people called Aquapati."
by a family entirely distinct from the other, and There is nothing in the world so easy as to be
usually of a different caste. mistaken, but I have twice carefully searched
Thus, for instance, one family will be LingaArrian, Diodorus, Strabo, and Curtius, without
yats, and the other Marathas, or Kanarese Brih
mans. being able to find a word to indicate that Sopeithes was king of the Krkeol, or in any way con
The same is often the case with Kulkarni
vatans nected with them. That name seems to occur only once anywhere, and then in a doubtful read.
Yours faithfully, ing. It is where Arrian (Indica, cap. vi.) speaks
H. B. BOSWELL. of Hydrastes as receiving a tributary called Sa- Belgaum District. 13th November 1873. ranges ik knkéw, or ek Kyvéov, or ik Myków. Nor is there anything in the four authors just named to the effect that Alexander went northward from
Calcutta is a place known from remote antiSangala.
quity. The ancient Hindus called it by the name I notice this matter because it bonrs on General of Kalikshetrat It extended from Bahula Cunningham's identification of Sangaln with the to Dakhinashar. Bahula is modern B&. site in the Rechna Doâb still so called, an identi- hala, and the site of Dakhina shar stillexists. fication which seems to me, if I may presume to
Aecording to the Purdņas a portion of the mangled say no, eniinently satisfactory. According to that
corpse of Sati or Kali fell somewhere within view, Alexander, after his destruction of the city, that boundary; whence the place was called Ka did go north into the country of Sopeithes, but I likshetra. Calcutta is a corruption of K&instead of being in the sub-Himalaya, this country
likshetra. In the time of Baldl Sen it was Apparently lwy à cheval on the Hydaspes and Ac. assigned to the descendants of Sera. esines, and included the Salt Rango or a part of it.
PUDMA NAV GHOSAL. This is confirmed by Arrian's statement (Erp. i Calcutta, July 1873.
I cannot find any recognition of this passage in Lamen. +" Dukhinashar mara vya yabacha Bahoola pooree Kalikshetrant beejaneeyath, Se."
