1835.] Gen. Ventura, Dr. Gerard, and Syed Kerdmat AH. 339 



181 B. C. He was a cotemporary of Mithridates I. of Parthia, who 

 assisted him in repelling Demetrius, king of India, as he is termed, 

 beyond the Indian frontier, and finally driving him from his throne at 

 the advanced age of 78 years. On the division of the conquered em- 

 pire, Mithridates had the provinces between the Hydaspes and Indus 

 assigned to him ; and Eucratides, all the remainder, east and south, 

 of his Indian possessions : — ' all India' is the term used, but it is 

 uncertain to what limit southward this expression should apply. 



It has not yet been remarked by those who are curious in reconciling 

 the names of Indian legend and Grecian history, that the names 

 Eucratides and Vicramaditya bear a close resemblance both in sound 

 and in signification : while the epoch and the scene of their martial 

 exploits are nearly identical. The Hindu accounts of Vicramaditya 

 are not to be found in the regular Puianic histories, but only in sepa- 

 rate legends, such as the Vicrama Cheritra and others, mentioned 

 by Wilfokd, (As. Res. IX. 117,) all teeming with confusion, contra- 

 dictions, and absurdities in an extraordinary degree. The genealogical 

 tables of the solar and lunar lines contain no such name, neither 

 does it occur among the few notices of embassies to and from India to 

 Syria and Rome, in the authors of the westj. Eucratides' empire was 

 so extended and matured that he assumed the title of &<*<ri\eus peyaKos : 

 thus the peaceful coin, fig. 6, was doubtless struck before his expedi- 

 tions ; those with the armed head, and the addition of " the great," 

 after his return: anditis remarkable that the latter only have a Pehlevi 

 legend on the reverse, being intended for circulation perhaps in his more 

 southern provinces, or imitating in this respecY the coins of Menan- 

 der, whose reign in India had been so glorious. If the date assigned 

 by Bayer (146 B. C.) to Eucratides' death, be thought too far remov- 

 ed from the commencement of the Samvat era of Vicrama'ditya 

 (56 B. C), it may be argued, that as Eucratides is acknowledged to 

 be the last but one of the regular Bactrian kings, all the hew names 

 recently discovered — Agathocles, Mayus, Philoxenus, Antimachus, 

 &c. must find their places before him in the list, which may easily 

 bring down his date even a century. 



The analogy between the Bactrian and the Indian heroes is, it 

 must be confessed, of very slender texture, just enough to be hazard- 

 ed as a web of speculation, which more skilful antiquarians may in- 

 dulge their ingenuity in spinning out, or brushing aside as visionary. 



X The embassy of " Porus" to Augustus must have been immediately 

 after Vicrama'ditya. — It is stated that his letters were written ia the Greek 

 character. The Scythians were then pressing the country. 

 u u 2 



