(30-1 On a Sculpture from the site of Bucephalia. [July, 



On a Sculpture from the Site of the Indo-Greek city of Bucephalia ; 

 by Captain James Abbott, Boundary Commissioner,' fyc. 



Herewith I have the pleasure to enclose you a drawing of a sculptured 

 red freestone, dug from the Site of the Indo-Greek city of Bucepha- 

 lia on the Hydaspes, by, I believe, General Ventura, and now lying in 

 front of the castle of the present city of Jelum. It is one of many 

 relics disinterred from time to time, in searching for bricks, all those 

 used in Jelum being thus derived. The tracery is evidently Greek ; 

 for there is no such design to the best of my belief in Hindoo sculpture, 

 and it seems to have been the lintel of a temple to Ceres or to Bacchus. 

 Many Indo-Greek coins are found in the same spot, and it is here that 

 the Empire seems to have found its eastern limit. The sculpture is in 

 good preservation owing to having been buried so many hundred years. 

 Its style is as decidedly Grecian, as its outline, being altogether deeper 

 and more massive than that of the Hindoos, although I am not sure 

 that it has any advantage in delicacy or grace. The square panels 

 upon the pilaster, seem to me Hindoo ; but both the lozenge and the 

 ellipse are Greek or Egyptian, as is the Thyrsus, if I rightly designate as 

 such the two undefaced figures of the beading. I do not know whe- 

 ther the maize represented in this sculpture was known to the Greeks 

 previous to the conquest of Alexander ; but it seems probable that 

 Osiris, whose conquest of the Punjaub appears almost as well authenti- 

 cated as that of Alexander, must have brought it with him from India, 

 if indeed he did not first introduce it there. It seems to me that I 

 have met with it in sculpture brought from Greece. Other portions of 

 the same temple are said to have been removed by General Ventura, I 

 shall not omit any opportunity of observing them, should I return to 

 Lahore, where they are supposed to be. This fragment is very massive, 

 being about six feet in length and 20 inches thick. If you consider 

 it worth removal, which I should doubt, it could be conveyed by water 

 free of expense to Ferozpoor or Loodiana. 



My professional duties have so little leisure for transcribing sketches 

 that I have found it impossible to complete this until now. Mean- 

 while, on a visit to Aknoor, a town on the right bank of the Chenaub, 

 where it debouches from the mountains, I was attracted by the novelty 



