NOTICE OF

An Inquiry concerning the Site of Ancient Palibothra, by LIEUTENANT-COLONEL WILLIAM FRANCKLIN; of the Hon. East India Company's Service, &c. Parts III. and IV. 4to. Lond. 1820, 1822.

IN the 34th Number of this Journal, (for June, 1818,) we briefly noticed the two first parts of Colonel Francklin's work, designed to prove that the modern district of Bhaugulpoor in India comprehends the site of ancient Palibothra; an opinion confirmed by successive researches on the spot. Part 111. contains an account of our author's journey through some tracts of the adjoining country, hitherto but little known; Part IV., also, describes a tour from Bhaugulpoor to Mandar, and a circuit of the Curruck poor hills. In the course of this expedition, (Jan. 1819.) Col. Francklin discovered the site of an ancient city, called Jynughur-a position, coinciding, he says,

In a remarkable manner with the western extremity of the royal city of Palibothra, as assigned by the Purannas, which has been detailed in the former part of the essay. It will there be seen, that the extent of that royal city, from its eastern boundary, opposite the Cosi river, to its western termination near Sooruj Ghurra, gives a distance by perambulator of seventy six miles. (P. 34.)

At the ruined fort of Indra Pye, in a country abounding with spots, consecrated as places of worship among the sectaries called Jeynes, or Jainas, our ingenious traveller found a sculptured human figure, represented sitting, and on the pedestal which supports it, an inscription of three lines in ancient characters. Of this figure and inscription an engraving is given in a plate, which likewise exhibits a Jeyne coin, discovered at Sooruj Ghurra. In the appendix (No. 1.) Col. F. endeavours to reconcile with probability the account of Palibothra, and its immense extent, by an examination of the space assigned to various ancient and modern capitals; Thebes, Babylon, Nineveh, Palmyra, Carthage, Persepolis, Delhi, Kinnouj, Bisnagur, or Beejanuggur, Beejapore, &c. No. 2. contains a supposed conversation between Alexander the Great, and Dindamis, a Brachman philosopher; from the "Anonymous Collections, Lond. 1668," with the remarks of Palladius. These, as our author imagines, throw some light on the tenets of the modern Jeynes. An extract from the Herbuns Puran, is given

in No. 3, respecting an Indian prince and the fort of Jeynuggur; and No 4. contains,-

An account of certain tribes inhabiting the Jungle Terry district, especially in the Curruckpoor hills; with their religious institutions, customs, and manners. Translated from the Persian.

Those tribes are supposed to be aboriginal, and differ in their appearance from the Indians of other places. The Kole tribe worship Ram Thakoor; no Hindoo will drink of water which any person of this tribe may have touched: they will eat with a Hindoo, but not with a Musulman. The Musahir tribe worship Rama Deota: this divinity is said to descend upon the head of their priest, who drinks the blood of hogs, goats, and fowls, offered in sacrifice; if a woman commit adultery with one of her own tribe, she is not punished; but if with a stranger, she is expelled from society. A widow may marry again. The Purghas worship Hurdyah: they burn their dead, and throw the ashes into the river. A woman guilty of adultery, even with one of her own tribe, is excommunicated. The Burswars worship Kalee, to whom they offer flowers, the leaves of a creeper called Pawn, fruits, rice, &c. The priest is clothed in white, and the deity is supposed to descend upon his head: this tribe eat all animals except the cow and bullock. However these inhabitants of the Jungle Terry district may differ in some slight respect among themselves, they all agree in one grand characteristic-a love of truth; and it is said that they would sooner die than wilfully utter a falsehood. The four parts of Colonel Francklin's work form a very handsome quarto volume, illustrated with maps and other engravings, and his researches concerning the ancient Παλιμβόθρα or Παλιβόθρα of Arrian and Strabo, and the river 'EppavuoBóas evince the ingenuity and perseverance of our accomplished author, to whose former publications on various subjects we have already paid the due tribute of commendation. (See Classical Journal, No. 34, p. 322.)

NOTICE OF

A Dissertation on Semiramis, the origin of Mecca, &c. from the Hindu sacred books. By LIEUT. FRANCIS WILFORD. Printed in the fourth volume of the Asiatic Researches; with some observations on the first Assyrian empire.

IN illustrating ancient history with modern discoveries, writers are apt to wrest the subsidiary accounts to what they find in classical authors, and reject every thing which does not suit their hypotheses, as altogether fabulous. But in examining relations of events far removed by time and place, national legends must be the basis of narrative, and parallels introduced from foreign sources for the sake of confirming them. It has, however, been the plan of historians to recognise the accounts of such as could only have a partial knowledge of their subject, or did not care to investigate it with sufficient pains. Herodo tus, on whom we depend for the best as well as the earliest intelligence, frequently disappoints us in questions of the greatest interest; but on this occasion, our lamentations should be addressed to Time: in his compendious chronicle he professedly passes over Assyrian affairs, reserving them for a separate work, which has not reached us. To illustrate our situation with a truism, darkness encroaches in proportion to the absence of light, and where the trusty guide fails, delusive information misleads us; for in his place we have the greedy Diodorus, the doating Ctesias, and the credulous Justin, to encumber the scanty relics of history with a series of romantic tales. But even where the writer reported what he saw with fidelity, or what he heard with judgment, the difficulty is not at an end; garbled stories and mistaken symbols comprising what has survived of Oriental transactions. In this case we naturally turn to the traditions of the natives, which, after the dross of fable and allegory is removed, yield a valuable reward to the labor bestowed on them.

Lieutenant Wilford has collected from the Puranas or mythological poems the traditions relating to Semiramis, but his relation is too diffuse, and a slight analysis will suffice for our purpose. It appears that MAHA-DEVA and his consort PARVATI, in one of their progresses, alighted on the summit of the Nish

ada mountains, where a numerous body of nymphs had assembled to receive them: an emotion of jealousy on her part occasioned a separation, and, flying to Cusha-duip, she took up her abode in the hollow trunk of a Sami-tree' for nine years; when the sacred flame which emanated from her, so damaged the 'country, that she recalled it, and confined it to the wood which enclosed her; from the circumstance of her residence she is called SAMI-RAMA, or "She who dallies in the Sami-tree."

2

3

After these transactions a reconciliatiou seems to have ensued, as the two deities travelled under the form of doves, to destroy the long grass which overspread the soil: having consumed it with fire, they ordered water to overflow the ground, and at last peopled Cusha-duip with four tribes. Maha-Deva appointed Virasena, son of Guhyaca, king of St'havaras, or the immoveable part of the creation, whence he was called St'havara-pati. His reign was beneficial, and, to extend his power, he planned an expedition against the fire-mountains in Vahnist'han, which they prepared to repel. The officers of Sami-Rama, who was sovereign of that country, assembled troops in her cause, and ventured an engagement, in which they were defeated: on which she desired, a conference, and allowed him to command the hills, trees and plants, which humbled themselves and paid tribute to the conqueror. In these events we discern the defeat of Semiramis by Staurobates.

The adventures of Maha-Deva were not less remarkable. In one of his rambles he disturbed some Munis at their devotions, and drew upon himself a curse similar to that of Amyntor in the Iliad, but more tremendous in its effects, as he was de

'Fir-tree.

2 This conflagration is minutely described by Diodorus Siculus [1. iv. c. 5.] who says, that in former times a monster called Alcida, who vomited flames, appeared in Phrygia; hence spreading along Mount Taurus, the conflagration burnt down all the woods, as far as India; then, with a retrograde course, swept the forests of Mount Liban, and extended as far as Egypt and Africa: at last a stop was put to it by Minerva. "The Phrygians remembered well this conflagration, and the flood which followed it; but as they could not conceive that it could originate from a benevolent goddess, they transformed her into a monster, called Alcida. Alcida is however an old Greek word, implying strength and power, and is therefore synonymous with Saca or Sacta-devi, the principal form of SamiRama, and other manifestations of the female power of nature." P. 394. The passage in the text seems to relate to the igniting quality of the wood.

3 From that time they were worshipped under the form of doves, by the names of Iswara and Isi.

prived of the Linga or Phallus: his consort gave herself up to grief and wandered over the earth, repeating melancholy songs. The principle of life became extinct in consequence, and to repair the loss, a process of regeneration was undergone by Maha-Deva, who appeared as Baleswara, or Iswara, the infant: to please his subjects, he threw off his childhood, and suddenly became a man, under the name of Lileswara, or Iswara, the giver of delight. Here, we are inclined to believe, he must be associated with the western mythology: the life of Bacchus, from boyhood to maturity, is a blank, and his Indian expedition in every way resembles that of Lileswara. At Asc'halamast'han he met with Sami-Rama, who was chaunting her husband's metamorphosis, but, being under the influence of Maya,' he recollected nothing concerning it however he was charmed with her voice, and offered her marriage. This fortunate union was solemnised in the presence of the gods; and after reducing the world under subjection, Lileswara and Sami-Rama, (or NINUS and SEMIRAMIS) fixed their residence at Lila-St'han, supposed to be Nineveh on the Tigris.

Sami-Rama, observes Lieut. Wilford, is obviously the Semiramis of antiquity: Diodorus informs us that she was born at Ascalon, and the Puranas that her first appearance in Syria was at Asc'halanast'han: her defeat by Staurobates does not admit of a doubt, and the tradition preserved by Ovid,4 that she vanished in the form of a dove, (under which shape she was worshipped,) completes the resemblance.s

Lieut. Wilford has adduced much collateral evidence, which we have not room to examine, nor does it appear necessary. But it must not be forgotten, that he considers Nimus as the Assur of Scripture, and Assur as the Oswara of the Puranas:6 "the word Iswara, though generally applied to deities, is also given in the Puranas to Kings," as the appellation of Majesty

"This is what the Greek mythologists called the wanderings of Damater, and the lamentations of Bacchus." P. 381. The story of Osiris bears some resemblance to it.

2 "Worldly illusion."

3 L. iii. c. 4.

4 Ov. Met. 1. iv. 587.

Lieut.

5 The dove is also used by sacred writers as a type of Assyria. Conf. Isaiah, c. xx. v. 6. where our translators observe that meaning. Wilford imagines it to have been the device of the Assyrian, as the eagle was of the Roman empire.

Assyria is evidently derived from Assur, which is put for Assyrian in Isaiah, x. 5.