1863. | On the Antiquities of the Peshawur District. 15 
Aornos must be the Greek transcription of a Sanserit name, for all 
the other names which have been identified, have been identified 
through the Sanscrit, which therefore, whether the people then spoke 
it or not, was certainly the language of their names, and not only 
then, but for some centuries subsequent yet. In course of time the 
Sanscrit was worn down into Hindi, Panjabi, Pushto, ete. Hence if 
we wish to see how any place bearing a certain Hindi, Panjabi, 
Pushto or other name at the present day, came to be called so-and-so 
by the Greeks, we can only find it by referring the modern name 
back to its most probable Sanserit predecessor or progenitor. Thus, 
the modern Behat was called Bidaspes or Hydaspes by the Greeks, 
because Behat is the modern short for the ancient Vitasta. 
Now we find in the Tubagate Akbari, in the Tartkhe Murassa,* in 
other native works, and even from the mouth of Hindus at the pre- 
sent day, that the place now called Atok was formerly called Atok 
Benares (properly Banaras). The union of two names in this way 
may be explained in one of two ways. Hither we believe, on the 
analogy of Kasi Benares as explained by Dr. Hall in No. 1 of last 
year’s Journal, p. 5, that Benares was the name of the “ cireum- 
jacent territory” of Atok; or else, we adopt an analogy more in 
accordance with the custom along and near the Indus. We find, in 
this region, that when a locality is designated by two names men- 
tioned together, it is either because there are two places bearing 
these names respectively close to each other, as Hoti Mardan, Tart 
Jabba; or else, where there is a river, because they are on the oppo- 
site banks of the river, as Rori Bakar, Thit Naka, Daghi Banda, ete. 
ete. The latter analogy is evidently the aptest in the present in- 
stance ; hence we conclude that in former days, theré was a locality 
opposite Atok, that is, on the right bank of the river Indus, named 
Benares. he old form of Benares is, as is well known, Varanas (or 
Varanasi). How would a Greek of Alexander’s age pronounce this 
name? He would, in the first place, prefix a vowel. Why ? we can 
hardly tell without a discussion much too long for the present object. 
Jt will suffice to know that he was in the habit of doing so. The 
Sanscrit danta he pronounced ddovra ; nakha—évrya; nama (n)— 
évopa. ; bhri—ésdpv-; nri—avnp ; s‘atam—éxardv ; mih—ébuxéo, and 
a hundred like instances which will readily occur to the reader. We 
* A History of the Afghans, by Afzul Khan Khatak, 
