CHRISTIAN RELIGION IN INDIA. 115 



say from the year Q55 to 126 B. C. Even some of 

 them were in possession of the western parts of the 

 Gangetic provinces : and Demetrius is mentioned as 

 one of them; and according to Sig. Bayer, he 

 never was King of Bactriana or Balk, but of some 

 inland part of India, extending beyond the Ganges, 

 about the year 195 B. C. According to Strabo, his 

 predecessor Menander conquered the countries to 

 the east of the Hypanis, as far as the Jumna* His 

 empire extended from Pattalena, to Zizerus, which I 

 take to be the smrdi, but famous lake called Jid-jer, 

 or the spring of Jid noticed by Ctesias, under the 

 name of Sid, and a httle to the westward of the Jumna 

 and DHli,-f 



To these conquests Demetrius added some mari- 

 time countries to the eastward of Patalene, such as 

 Sigertis, and the kingdom of Tessariostus, now the 

 countries of Caclilia and Gujjardt, as 1 shall show in 

 the appendix. 



There are now numerous Hindus roving all over 

 Arabia and Persia, as far as Astrachan, or settled in 

 some places of trade for a few years only, when they 

 return to India.\ for I take no notice here of nu- 

 merous tribes of Hindus, who are considered as na- 

 tives of Persia, Taran and Colchis or Georgia : they 

 are called Hindi all over these countries, and have 

 been settled there from time immemorial. ^^ 



* Strabo, Lib. 11. p. 516. 



t See Maurice's Modern History of Hindoston, vol, ]. p. 95. 

 It is called erroneously Bhedar in the Ayin-Acberi, vol. 2. p. 107 . 



X Forster's Travels, vol. 2. 



§ According to the late Nabob Mehdi-Ali-Khan, a native of 

 Mesched. See Essay on the origin of Mecca, Asiatic Researches, vol. $. 



I2 



