326 Major Tod's Account of Greek, Parthian, and Hindu Medals. 



the geographer especially mentions Menander and Demetrius; and though 

 it is not asserted by him that they were contemporary, it is by no means 

 improbable. " Having passed the Hypanis (he says), they advanced to- 

 wards the east, even to the Isamus." 



Several authors, and amongst them Bayer, have put a construction on 

 this passage which entirely fetters the meaning of the original, this being 

 descriptive of the wide sweep of the Bactrian arms. They have corrected 

 the reading, by substituting Imaus for Isamus. These are Bayer's com- 

 ments :* " They advanced as far as the Imaus, where are the sources of 

 the Ganges, in order to reduce the tracts which had been in the possession 

 of Sandrocottus." Would this be advancing from the Hyphasis to the east, 

 either in the common sense, or according to Hindu geographical accepta- 

 tion of the east country ? The misnomer has been noticed, in a note of 

 the French translation of Strabo;t and the opinion here expressed would 

 remove all difficulties, if it were admitted tiiat " L'Isamus serait un fleuve 

 nomme aujourd'iiui Zemna ;" but this is advanced on autiiorityt in the 

 interpretation of which the commentators do not coincide. They are 

 inclined to conclude, from a subsequent passagc,§ that it is the river 

 Hydaspes whicii is meant, a construction that cannot be supported, as it 

 would imply absolute retrogression, and a westerly, instead of an easterly, 

 movement from the Hyphasis. The Yamuna would well answer our 

 purpose ; but I know of no authority which recognizes Isamus as one of 

 its many appellations. In the ancient cities that were on its banks, were 

 found almost all the Greek and Parthian medals I obtained. W'ilford liad 

 conjectured the Isamus to be the small stream which flows into the Ganges, 

 called the Isa, which would so far apply, as it pointed to an eastern progress 

 of the Greek arms ; for, although small, it had geographical importance, 

 as we learn from the bard Chand, being the boundary of the Hindu 

 kingdoms of Dehli and Canouj, seven centuries ago. It migiit be so in tiie 

 days of Alexander and Menander, when the sons of Puru and Cuju 

 reigned, and when " the palace of Pandion (Pandu)|| was at Madoura 

 (Mat'hura)." 



Strabo proceeds: " They subjugated the Patalene, then spread over the 

 coast, and conquered the kingdom of Tessarioustus and that of Sigestis." 



• Hist. Reg. Gr. Bact., page 81. f Strabo, note 2d, liv. xi., torn. iv. 



|. Mannert Geog. § Strabon, liv. xv. || Bayer, quoting from Ptolemy. 



