1836.] Notes on the Antiquities of Bdmidn. 715 



ment at Murghdb, north oiPersepolis, be really the cenotaph of Cyrus, 

 it being nothing but a chaitya or dahgopa ; and we hesitate to believe 

 it not to be the tomb of Cyrus, having the hints of Arrian and Aris- 

 tobulus, and the interpretation of an inscription (we believe found 

 on some contiguous monument, which renders the subject doubtful) 

 by Professor Grotefend. Moreover, if it be, we may inquire, where 

 are the dahgopes of the successors of Cyrus ? 



The most ancient of the topes of Afghanistan, which have been yet 

 examined, we think may be referred to the close of the first or com- 

 mencement of the second century of the Christian era. While we 

 suppose that Bdmidn may be the burial-place of a dynasty of kings, 

 we mean not to infer that it was also their capital, rather supposing 

 that it was not — although the comparatively recent Ghdlgdleh may, 

 nevertheless, be supposed to have been the representative of a preced- 

 ing ancient and considerable city. The Paropamisus had been, pre- 

 vious to the conjectured period of the formation of the Bdmidn idols 

 and caves, the seat of a considerable power, — that of the Pandava prince 

 Subhag, whose son Gaj, the founder of Gajni (Ghuzni), lost his king- 

 dom to Euthydemus and his sons. 



It has been usually conjectured that Bdmidn is the Drapsaca of 

 Arrian, occurring in Alexander's route from Bactra or Bulkh to Alex- 

 andria ad Caucasum. Drapsaca is called Drastoca by Ptolemy, which 

 Wilpord tells us is a substitute for the Sanscrit Drashatca, or " the 

 stone city." Admitting the etymology, we need not credit the ac- 

 companying assumption that " towns before were only assemblages of 

 huts" — an assumption founded on the caves of Bdmidn being hewn, 

 as indeed all caves are, in the rock — and thereby forming a stone city. 

 If our preceding deductions be correct, they never, strictly speaking, 

 formed a city at all ; although one naturally, and as is proved by its 

 remains, grew up and existed in their neighbourhood. Farther, if our 

 conclusions as to the epoch of the formation of the idols be well found- 

 ed, they consequently did not exist at the period of Alexander's expe- 

 dition, which may account for no hints being given of them by the 

 classical historians and geographers of the West. We are not certain 

 therefore that Drapsaca was Bdmidn, or that a city existed there at 

 all, admitting the probability that a valleyso conveniently situated and 

 fertile, was even at that time adequately peopled. The stone city was 

 a term applicable to any substantial one. Timur in his march from 

 Bulkh to India halted for some days, as Sherif-u-din says, at the 

 " fine city" of Khdlm. This is an ancient site, and with Hybuk, 

 Kunduz, and any other locality in the route, may have a claim to be 

 considered Drapsaca. Bdmidn has also been suggested to represent 



