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Relics found in the Tope of Manikyala.

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II.-Memoir on the Topes and Antiquities of Afghánistán. By J. G. Gerard, Esq. Surgeon, Beng. Est., addressed to the President of the Asiatic Society, from Jelalábád, 4th Dec. 1833.

[Read at the Meetings of the 30th April and 20th May.]

The topes or edifices of which Manikyála is already familiar to us by the enterprising researches of General VENTURA, had appealed to our curiosity in the journey to Turkistán, but three only were visited en passant; viz. Manikyála itself, one at Usmán Khátír in the basin of the Indus, and another at Pésháwer. On my return to Kábul, in November last, ample gratification awaited me, through the zealous exertions of Messrs. MARTIN HONIGBERGER and MASSON, whom I met in that city.

The interest excited by the labours of these travellers (as might be supposed) was not limited to the mere inspection of their collections, which were displayed to me with an open candour that leaves me their debtor. I followed up the inquiry to which they had unfolded to me the clue; and though unproductive of similar results to those which have crowned their exertions, I am enabled to speak to some points from actual experience, and hope to have it in my power to add more hereafter.

The monuments now about to be considered, which were first introduced to our notice by Mr. ELPHINSTONE, are calculated to rouse the attention of the antiquarian and the philosopher, when he surveys the relics they disclose in connexion with dynasties, of which all our knowledge is scarcely more than the faintest lineaments, and of the events to which they yielded and ceased to exist, history gives us little or no account. To have a prospect of filling up a blank in chronological annals is of itself sufficiently interesting, but it is doubly so when these may serve to illustrate the career of one whose exploits are a theme of so much fame, and whose foot-steps have employed so many pens to trace even consistently.

These ancient edifices may perhaps present to us the sepulchral remains of the Bactrian kings, and others who succeeded to their sway; but, whether we view them as cotemporary with the Grecian dynasty of Balkh in Turkistán, or of those subsequent satrapies which emanated from the remains of that kingdom, the same thoughts recur, the same suggestions rise, Who were those kings? and what was the extent of their individual sway in these and other regions? for there is no doubt that the whole of the Panjab, and even a great part of the Gangetic territory and Sind, were the seat of their dominion, whether this was Indo-Scythic or Indo-Grecian ;-by what revolutions their reign termi

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nated, and they themselves became extinct? and who were their successors till the period when the frenzy of Muhammedan religion overturned the whole institutions of the country? These questions, which involve many others, may yet be answered by these memorials.

Ancient history is sufficiently intelligible, and conducts us to the path, and even the allocation of Macedonian conquest in Afghánistán; and if identity in the appellations of places is still perplexing, and even apparently inaccessible, it must be assigned rather to a deficiency in ourselves, than to a result produced by any interchange of language that may have occurred during the lapse of ages; for instance, if a person, familiar with Sanscrit, were to visit these regions, there is no doubt that things would speak to us, instead of awaiting to be interrogated.

We are indebted to Col. WILFORD for a knowledge of the fact, that the names of all the places in ALEXANDER's route from Bamián to Multán, are pure Sanscrit.

The Persian will also assist us in the inquiry. I need scarcely mention the single word Panjab (i. e. panj-áb), five waters; or Hydaspes (Jhilam), the initial syllable of which answers to the Greek term for water, and the last to the Persian word "asp," a horse; and it is notorious, that the Doab (two waters, or rather the land between them), of the Jhilam, is famed for a breed of fine horses called dhaní*, and also of fine women. It is related to us, that so many honors were reported to be paid to beauty in the country of the Cathæi under King SOPHITES, that even dogs and horses were selected for their quality; and farther, that notwithstanding their barbarism, this nation was first in wisdom, being ruled by salutary customs, one of which was, that children born with disproportions in any part of their body were to be killed; nuptials being only influenced by beauty of exterior in children: a commentary upon this will readily occur in the practice of the present day, and the usages which prevail in the territory watered by the Hydaspes. In Turkistán, the field for etymological affinities is equally prolific: the river Jaxartes, we are told, is read in the Mongol Ixiartis; but the Túrks also call it Secandriæ or ALEXANDER's river. The river Sogd retains its name, as we find from IssIT OOLAH'S Journal. The Sogdrians are therefore readily recognised as the people inhabiting the course of that valley. The Getæ must be identified with the Jogatai, who inhabit Zataria; beyond the limit of Yarkand and Kashgar, and of which stock the present king of Delhi and his relative, the sovereign of China, are descendants. Balkh, I think, Colonel WILFORD designates in the Sanscrit Bahalac; also Ba

* Mahá Rájá RUNJEET SINGH gets his best steeds from that district.

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