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



Buk'har,* on the Indus, a place celebrated in Alexander's voyage. Its 

 name is pronounced Arore ; and amongst its ruins are the remains of a 

 bridge over a stream, which, branching from tiie Indus at Dura, seven miles 

 north of Buk'har, skirts the desert down to the ocean. On this stream is 

 situated the port of Lukput, formerly so called. As the place bears the 

 name of Sangra lower down, I have little doubt that it is the Lankra which 

 Nadir Shah, in his treaty with Mahmud, made the boundary of Persia 

 and India, thus lopping off from the latter all the fertile valley of Sinde. 



The inhabitants of the desert, or rather one particular tribe, are called 

 Sehrai, but I know not from what circumstance. It is a curious fact, that 

 the tribe, which from time immemorial has had possession of this desert 

 region, and which was, not very remotely, master of y7ro;-c and Buhliar, and ail 

 the valley, was the Hindu tribe Soda, one of the branches oi Pilar. May we 

 suppose that the term Sogdi, applied to the people of Bukhar by Alexander, 

 originated from that tribe ? Tiie best proof of the antiquity of their 

 genealogy is their connecting, in an old couplet, the period of the cessation 

 of the streams flowing through tlie desert, with one of the Soda princes. ' 



In a chronicle of occurrences given me by a learned Yati, mention is 

 made of the same prince, called Raja Sdd ; and it is related that he iided 

 over all the countries east of the Indus, tiiat he was of the Pilar (^Pranuira) 

 race, and contemporary with Vicratnddilj/a. Tradition further adds, that the 

 Desert, now constantly increasing to the eastward, had no existence in his 

 time. Seld, or Sul, was also the name of one of the Pandu league in the 

 Great War, and Samanagar and Arore were in the route of retreat of the 

 remains of the Yadus and Pandtis, under Yudhishthira and Baldeva, when 

 they left India, after Crishna's death, on tlic siiores of Saurdshtra. 



I have visited the spot where the Apollo of India (CuTshna) received 

 the wound from tiie Bhilla's arrow ; and also that, where his remains were 

 burnt on the banks of Rtipavali (Argentina). A never-dying Pippala 

 {Ficus religiosa) marks the spot ; but tlie scion of this immortal stem of 

 •3,000 years, appeared to be a sapling of about five years' growth. The 

 intolerant Muhammedan had polluted the spot, sacred to tiie Hindu votary, 

 by erecting a Mesjid almost in contact with the altar of Crishna. It is all 

 holy ground to tlie Hindu : the ruins of the Temple of the Sun are very 



* The Mansoora of the Arabians, and erroneously supposed by some to be Minagara. 



