534 COSMOS. 



go further back than to the beginning of Che sixth century 

 before our era." 



The direct result of the contact of the Hellenic races with 

 nations of Indian origin at the time of the Macedonian expe- 

 dition is wrapped in obscurity. In a scientific point of view 

 the gain was probably inconsiderable, since Alexander did not 

 advance beyond the Hyphasis, in the land of the five rivers 

 (the Pantschanada), after he had traversed the kingdom of 

 Porus between the Hydaspes (Jelum), skirted by cedars* and 

 the Acesines (Tschinab) ; he reached the point of junction, 

 however, between the Hyphasis and the Satadru, the Hesi 

 drus of Pliny. Discontent amongst his troops, and the appre- 

 hension of a general revolt in the Persian and Syrian provinces, 

 forced the hero to the great catastrophe of his return, not- 

 withstanding his wish to advance to the Ganges. The coun- 

 tries traversed by the Macedonians were occupied by races 

 who were but imperfectly civilised. In the territories inter- 

 vening between the Satadru and the Yamuna (the district of 

 the Indus and Ganges), an insignificant river, the sacred Saras- 

 vati, constitutes an ancient classical boundary between the " pure, 

 worthy, pious" worshippers of Brahma in the east, and the " im- 

 pure kingless" tribes in the west, which are not divided into 

 castes. f Alexander did not, therefore, reach the true seat of 



* The magnificent groves of Cedrus deodyara, which are most fre- 

 quently met with at an elevation of from 8,000 to nearly 12,000 feet 

 on the Upper Hydaspes (Behut), which flows through the Pilgrim's 

 lake in the Alpine valley of Kashmeer, supplied the materials for the 

 fleet of Nearchus (Burnes' Travels, vol. i. p. 60). The trunk of this 

 cedar is often forty feet in circumference, according to the observation 

 of Dr. Hoffmeister, the companion of Prince Waldemar of Prussia, 

 who was unhappily too early lost to science by his death on the battle 

 field. 



t Lassen, in his Pentapotamia indica, pp. 25, 29, 57-62, and 77; 

 and also in his Indische Alterthumskunde, bd. i. s. 91. Between the 

 Sarasvati in the north-west of Delhi, and the rocky Drischadvati, there 

 lies, according to Menu's code of laws, Biahmavarta, a priestly district 

 of Brahma, established by the gods themselves ; on the other hand, in 

 the wider sense of the word, Aryavarta, the land of the worthy (Arians), 

 designates in the ancient Indian geography the whole country east of 

 the Indus, between the Himalaya and the Vindhya chain, to the south 

 of which the ancient non-Arian aboriginal population began. Madhya- 

 Desa, the middle land referred to in the text, see p. 15, was only a 

 *>rt ; .on of Arvf- rta. Compare my Asie centralc, t. i. p. 204, and 



