166 Discovery of the name of Antiochus the Great. [Fes. 



* The vicinity of A'lasaddd (in the text A'lasannd, but corrected in 

 the errata) the capital of the Yona country' — follows, in this enumera- 

 tion, the mention of Kdsmir, while it precedes the wilderness of Vinjha 

 which is evidently Vindravan, the modern Bindrabund. In situation 

 then as well .as in date I see nothing here to oppose the understanding 

 of Yona as the Greek dominion of Bactria and the Panjab, and I dare 

 even further propose that the name of the capital near which the Bud- 

 dhist monastery was situated, and which Mr. Turnour states in his 

 glossary to be unidentified, is merely a corruption of Alexandria, the 

 right reading being perhaps A'lasanda, halfway between the authorities of 

 the Pali ' variorum.' Thus in lieu of finding any difficulty in regard to 

 the use of the term Yona by oriental authors, we perceive them all rather 

 to admit the interpretation which the sagacity of our antiquarians had 

 long since suggested, but which could only be thoroughly confirmed by 

 such an incontrovertible testimony as it has now fallen to my lot to 

 bring to notice. The particular Alexandria alluded to may probably be 

 that ad calcem Caucasi which is placed at Beghram by Mr. Masson in 

 the 5th volume of my Journal, and in the neighbourhood of which so 

 many stupendous stupas have been brought to light through his able 

 investigations. 



The purport of the edict thus promulgated to the subjects of the 

 Indian monarch and of his Greek ally, now merits a few observations. 



I have said that its object was to establish a system of medical admi- 

 nistration. The word chikichha is the regular Pali form of the Sanskrit 

 ehikitsa (fafafffjl), the administration of medicine, or healing. In fact a 

 medical service seems to have been instituted and supported at the ex- 

 pense of the state, with depots of the herbs and drugs then, and stilb 

 used as remedies by Indian practitioners. The term osudhani, (Sans. 

 aushadhdni ^T^Tfaj) according to Wilson, may even comprehend 

 mineral as well as vegetable medicaments, and it may possibly be thus 

 used in contradistinction to mulcini and phaldni. 



In reading the particular allusion to a separate system of treatment 

 for animals, one is reminded of that remarkable institution at Surat 

 usually called the Banyan hospital, which has been so frequently de- 

 scribed by European visitors of the last century. If proper inquiry 

 were directed to this building, I dare say it would be discovered 

 to be a living example, (the only one that has braved twenty cen- 

 turies,) — of the humane acts of Asoka, recorded at no great dis- 

 tance on a rock in Gujerat — " This hospital consisted of a large 

 piece of ground enclosed by high walls and subdivided into several 

 courts or wards for the accommodation of animals. In sickness they 



