Lieut.-Colonel Tov’s Comparison of the Hindu and Theban Hercules. 145 
The two chief cities of the Saraséni, Methoras and Cleisoboras, are 
Mathira and Strapoora, and the river “ Jobares passing through their terri- 
tory,” the Yamuna or Jumna. 
The Straséni derive their name from Siiraséna* (founder of Siirapira), the 
common ancestor of Heri (chief of Mathtra) and Baldéva. A wreck of Sira- 
pura yet exists about fifty miles below Mathura, placed like it, on the Jumna, 
and must have been known to the Greeks, and probably claimed precedence 
of Methoras: Cleisoboras must, therefore, be an adulterated orthography. 
According to the, traditional topography of the Hindus, the land of the 
Stiraséni, or the pastoral region of Vraja, extended about one hundred 
miles around Mathtra as a centre, comprehending Gwalior and all Yaduvatit 
on the south, from the Chumbull to the Sinde.t This region was famed for 
* There are two princes of this name in the Yadu genealogies: one, the grandfather ; the 
other, nine generations anterior to Heri and Baladeva. We must remain in ignorance which 
of these founded Sarapira. See genealogical table of these races, p. 32, vol. i., Annals of 
Rajast’han. 
+ This wild region continues to be held throughout the vicissitudes of ages, by chieftains of 
the Yadu race, of which the Rao’s of Karowli and Sri Mathiira are the heads. With Rao 
Manohur Sing, of the latter place, I was on terms of real friendship, from my subaltern days to 
the period of quitting India. It was from him I had the first transcript of the genealogy of his 
ancestors, and the copy of the Mahabharata that I presented to the Society (which Professor 
Bopp of Berlin pronounced the best he had seen), was transcribed for me from an antique copy 
in the possession of this representative of the race whose history it developes. 
In hunting with the Yadu Rao, who is one of the most courteous and well-bred men I ever 
knew, I was instructed in the mode of throwing a light javelin, or dart, at objects from the 
horse while at speed. This dart is about twice the size of a common arrow, and like it, fea- 
thered ; and previous to launching it, it is twirled three or four times at arm’s length, holding it 
by the feathered end, and is thrown with wonderful precision, not unfrequently hitting crows as 
they fly past. Although I never absolutely knocked one down, I have made them have recourse 
to all their cunning to avoid the dart. In no other part of Indja did I ever see this amusement, 
which is perhaps a wreck of their old Scythic manners. 
This descendant of Hercules was wofully cast down, when, in the arrondissement of territory 
which followed the battles of Assye and Dehli, in 1803-4, he was placed under the Jaut, or Jit 
(ci-devant Prince of Gohud), as his suzerain,—a feeling, ignorant as we are of their past history 
and associations, which many cannot enter into. Imagine a scion of the Plantagenets holding 
Jrom a clod-pole? 
+ Sinde. Besides the Sinde or Indus, we have two rivers with this appellation in Central 
India, one (that in question) rising at Latouti on the table-land near Seronge, and falling into 
the Chumbull at its junction with the Jumna, forms that sacred spot Triveni, where there is a 
shrine to Siva. The Choota, or Little Sinde, rises in the table-land forming the buttress of 
Malwa, skirting the Nerbudda, and joins the Par. Thus the Indo-Scythic or Tatar term Sin or 
Vou. III. U 
