882 Analysis of the Mackenzie Manuscripts, [April, 



tion of many of his people, but that he himself and his army escaped ; 

 that he over-ran the country to the south, as far as Trichinopoly, 

 which he probably first fortified ; that he had a line of princes of his 

 own posterity succeeding him ; that he ruled in a town and fortress of 

 his own construction, not being the capital where Vikramaditya 

 ruled before him ; that Bhoja raja was perhaps another name by which 

 he was known, or was the name of one of his successors ; that as 

 Salivahana stands for the name of a dynasty, (like Caesar, Plantagenet 

 or Bourbon,) so perhaps Vikramaditya may in other books stand for a 

 dynasty, and so help us through the fable of his asserted long reign. 

 These seem to me to be fair inferences for fuller consideration here- 

 after. I will add as mere conjecture that Samana or Savana as it is 

 often spelt, may possibly be none other than the change of y into/ or s y 

 which is a very usual one thus giving us Yavana, and if so then there is 

 a concurrence with a multitude of other indications as to the interference 

 of the Yavanas with the greater portion of India, inclusive of the penin- 

 sula. For the original of the Yavanas we must look most probably to 

 the Bactrians. Besides in the Banta curzis (for which see a follow- 

 ing page MS. Books, No, 14, Section I ) we have the remnants of 

 ancient sepultures of which the people of the present day know nothing 

 beyond conjecture. They accord with Dr. Malcolm son's account of 

 similar ones at Hydrabad, (Bengal Asiatic Journal, vol. IV. p. ] 80,) and 

 with the contents of the mounds in the Panjtb, opened by Honigber- 

 ger and others. In the Carnatic they were found in localities that 

 would rather indicate camps (CastellaJ than towns. At all events 

 such vestiges are foreign. All Hindu records afford traces of foreign 

 interference which they usually mystify. The dark and mystified pe- 

 riod succeeds the term allotted to Vikramaditya ; and the manner in 

 which Salivahana is spoken of sufficiently indicates sectarian hatred, 

 and resolution to conceal the truth. 



The alleged flight by sea of a portion of the garrison at Trinchino- 

 poly, I have not before noticed. It is not however to be entirely disre- 

 garded. The peopling of Java with a race evidently from India, has to 

 be accounted for, and the many concurring Hindu traditions and records 

 that people were driven from India by wars or persecutions, proceeding 

 thence by sea, all require to be noticed as they occur ; seeing that in 

 the end they w:M point to some general conclusion. 



The symbolical language of the Chola purva Patayam, (the docu- 

 ment under consideration,) may be adverted to in passing. It is a 

 regular specimen of Hindu writing ; and that, even in plain prose, in- 

 volves bolder metaphors than would enter the minds of European 



