370

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

rence afford all we wish P

[DECEMBER, 1873.

Whither such fanciful

Alec. 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 his army under Craterus and Hephaestion, one on each bank, appointing the rendezvous, where his

Hoernle's fourth essay, which has just reached me. That the Mârathi karáven has sprung from the Prākritic causative karūvemi (Vararuchi, VII. 27) Prof. Lassen saw forty years ago. R. PISCHEL.

London, August 27, 1873.

arrival with the fleet was to be awaited, at the

IResidence of Sopeithes.*

This rendezvous was

reached by the king after a voyage of three days down-stream from Bucephalia. Strabo says that in the territory of Sopeithes

SIR,-In re-reading Professor Weber's Essay on the Rāmāyala in your journal, I find that he twice (pp. 123, 176) touches the question whether “So peithes, king of the Knkeot, who entered into friendly personal relations with Alexander the Great, may be identified with Ašvapati, king of the Kekaya, who is mentioned in the Rāmāyarn.” As Prof. Weber quotes Lassen (I. 300, II. 161),

there was a mountain of fossil salt sufficient for

all India. This is a reasonable hyperbole if ap plied to the salt-mines of Kheora, near Pind Dā dan Khán.

It is true there are said to be salt

mines also in Mandi, where Lassen places the Ke

kaya, Knkeoi, Ašvapati and Sopeithes, but they must be comparatively insignificant.

Certainly

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 supersede his own recollection of the original au thorities about Alexander. (I. 300.) Lassen's first note, in which he identifies the

Knkeot with the Kekaya, both with the people of Sopeithes, and Sopeithes with Ašvapati, is too long for extract. In the second passage he says:

Cunningham's book. My present object is only to bar what seems an unproved assumption on the other side, to which such high sanction has been lent incidentally. H. YULE.

“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 T. A., I send a line to state that we have many villages here where the Pâtil's vatan

would not, however, be his proper names, but rather his title, for already in epic story there is a king of that people called Açvapati.”

There is nothing in the world so easy as to be mistaken, but I have twice carefully searched Arrian, Diodorus, Strabo, and Curtius, without

is divided into two holdings or bans, each enjoyed by a family entirely distinct from the other, and usually of a different caste.

Thus, for instance, one family will be Linga yats, and the other Marāthās, or Kanarese Brâh Inans.

being able to find a word to indicate that Sopei thes was king of the Knkeoi, or in any way con

The same is often the case with Kulkarni vatams.

nected with them.

That name seems to occur

Yours faithfully,

only once anywhere, and then in a doubtful read.

H. B. Boswell.

ing. It is where Arrian (Indica, cap. vi.) speaks of Hydrastes as receiving a tributary called Sa ranges ék Knkéov, or ex Knvéov, or ék Mmkéov. Nor is there anything in the four authors just named

to the effect that Alexander went northward from Sangala.

Belgaum District, 13th November 1873.

Calcutta is a place known from remote anti

quity. The ancient Hindus called it by the name

-

I notice this matter because it bears on General

of Kalik she tra.f It extended from Bahula

Cunningham's identification of Sangala with the site in the Rechna Doāb still so called, an identi

to D a k h in a s h ar. Bahu la is modern Ba h a 1 a, and the site of Dakh in a s h ar stillexists.

fication which seems to me, if I may presume to say so, eminently satisfactory. According to that view, Alexander, after his destruction of the city, did go north into the country of Sopeithes, but instead of being in the sub-Himälaya, this country apparently lay & cheval on the Hydaspes and Ac esines, and included the Salt Range or a part of it.

According to the Puránas a portion of the mangled corpse of Sati or Kali fell somewhere within that boundary; whence the place was called Ka

lik she tra. Calcutta is a corruption of Ka lik she tra. In the time of Balál Sen it was assigned to the descendants of S era.

This is confirmed by Arrian's statement (Erp.

PUDMA NAV GHosal.

Calcutta, July 1873.

• I cannot find any recognition of this passage in Lassen.

t “Dakhinashar maravya yabacha Bahoola pooree Kalikshetram beejaneeyath, &c.”