146 Lieut.-Colonel Tov’s Comparison of the Hindu and Theban Hercules. 
the purity of its dialect, and in arms, as well as in arts, even in the days of 
the legislator Menu, who enjoins that “ the van in battle”’* should be 
assigned to the soldiers of Suraséni. Baldeva has, therefore, a legitimate 
right to have his city amidst such a people. There he is still enshrined, 
and covered with his lion’s hide and armed with his club, his fane attracts 
the martial pilgrim from all parts of India after a lapse of 3,000 years. 
Had Arrian left us his indigenous epithet, or that of his race (Hericila), 
or of this his city amongst the Suraséni, we should have judged how far 
nominal resemblance had aided his (Arrian’s) hypothesis regarding the 
analogy of the deified heroes of the Greeks and Yadus. 
Arrian continues, chap. viii. ‘“ He, Hercules, had a daughter, when 
advanced in years, and being unable to find a husband worthy of her, 
‘ he married her himself, that he might supply the throne of India with 
‘ monarchs, Her name was Pandea, and he caused the whole province in 
‘ in which she was born to receive its name from her.” 
Diodorus repeats the legend with little variation, both taken from the 
journal of Megasthenes, now lost :— 
«© Hercules was born amongst the Indians, and like the Greeks, they 
“ furnish him with a club and lion’s hide. In strengtht he excelled all 
« men, and cleared the sea and land of monsters and wild beasts. He had 
many sons, but only one daughter. He built Palibothra, and divided 
‘ his kingdom amongst his sons. They never colonized, but in time most 
of the cities assumed a democratical form of government, though some 
“* were monarchical till Alexander’s time.” 
On this curious fragment of the biography of the Hericilas, Arrian, 
though generally blamed for not exercising a sound judgment, both 
indulges his humour and incredulity; yet, by the retention of an appa- 
rently idle anecdote, 800 years old in Alexander’s time, we are enabled to 
trace an historical fact, however distorted, which has floated through 
twenty-one subsequent centuries with little variation, proving beyond a 
doubt, that the Macedonian savans had consulted the Hindu legendary 
histories in which it is thus related. 
6 
n 
river, extends far east of the ‘ Abba-Sin’ (Father Stream) or Indus, which is only known by this 
name high up. Below Ootch, it is termed the ‘ Meeta Murdn,’ or Sweet River; also an Indo- 
Sythic term. 
* Menu “On the Military Class,” chap. vii. p. 217: Haughton’s Edition. 
+ “In strength” dala, whence his epithet Baladeva “God of Strength.” 
