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THE REALM OF THE PAURAVA 249 was a shrewd politician of the type of Charles Emanuel III of Sardinia. When the Macedonian invader arrived in Taxila he informed him that he was ready to surrender himself and the land which he ruled. And yet before the battle which was fought between Alexander and the famous Poros, Abisares intended to join his forces with those of the latter.
9. The kingdom of the Elder Poros :
This territory lay between the Jhelum and the Chenāb and roughly corresponded to parts of the modern districts of Guzrāț and Shāhpur. Strabo tells us that it was an extensive and fertile district containing nearly 300 cities. Diodoros informs us that Poros had an army of more than 50,000 foot, about 3,000 horse, above 1,000 chariots, and 130 elephants. He was in alliance with Embisaros, i.e., the king of Abhisāra.
Poros probably represents the Sanskrit Pūru or Pau. rava. In the Rig-Veda the Pūrus are expressly mentioned as on the Sarasvati. In the time of Alexander, however, we find them on the Hydaspes (Jhelum). The Brihat Samhitā,5 too, associates the 'Pauravas', with ‘Madraka' and 'Mālava.' The Mahābhārata, also, refers to a "Puran Paurava-rakshitam”, city protected by the Pauravas, which lay not far from Kaśmira. It is suggested in the Vedic Index? that either the Hydaspes was the earlier home of the Pūrus, where some remained after the others had wandered east, or the later Pūrus, represent a successful onslaught upon the west from the east.
1 Chinnock, Arrian, p. 276. Inv. Alex, 112. 2 It apparently included the old territory of Kekaya. 3 H. & F.'s tr., III. p. 91. + Invasion of Alexander, p. 274. 5 XIV. 27. 6 IT. 27, 15-17. 7 Vol. II, pp. 12-13. Q. P. 90—32.
