140  Lieut.-Colonel Tov’s Comparison of the Hindu and Theban Hercules. 
over his right arm, extended ; on which is perched a figure presenting him 
a wreath, or coronet. In his left he grasps a club; adjoining which is 
a monogram, composed of two letters, of an ancient and still undeci- 
phered character, found on monumental rocks and pillars wherever the 
PAnvts colonized. In various points of view, this gem will be consi- 
dered a relic of more than ordinary curiosity. 
First, As confirming the fact asserted by Arrian more than two thousand 
years ago, of the analogy in costume and attributes of the Hindu and 
Theban Hercules. 
Second, The consequent confirmation of the antiquity of the existing 
martial mythology. 
Third, As proving the antiquity of the art of engraving gems amongst 
the Hindus. 
Fourth, For the antiquity of the characters forming the monogram ; and, 
vice versd, the antiquity of the gem, from the use of this now incognate 
but once widely-disseminated character. 
Arrian, when sketching the history of the family ruling on the Jumna, 
in Alexander’s invasion, clearly indicates that he had access to the genea- 
logies of the PAnpt race, a branch of which ruled in these regions eight 
centuries subsequent to that memorable conflict, the Mahabharat, which 
forms an era in the very dawn of Hindu history, and which, from astro- 
nomic and genealogical calculation, has been calculated about 1,100 years 
before Christ.* However briefly the Grecian historian touches on the 
history, genealogy, manners, or geography of the race ruling on the Jumna 
three centuries before Christ, there is sufficient to identify it, and, aided by 
the intaglio, to establish several singular analogies between the legends 
handed down by Arrian, and the sacred writings and traditions still current 
amongst the Hindus. The discussion may gratify curiosity, if not add 
much to our instruction. 
There is no name so widely disseminated in the local traditions of India 
as that of Pandié. From the snowy Himachil to Cape Comorin, every na- 
tion and tribe has some memorial to exhibit of this celebrated race. Yet 
although the name has been perpetuated through the lapse of ages, in the 
geographic nomenclature of the regions they inhabited ; although nations 
far remote and without intercourse possess monuments which they attribute 
* Bentley: Asiatic Researches. Annals of Rajast’han, vol. i. p. 56. 
y i] 
