1/6 Miscellaneous. [Feb. 



Addendum on the Battle field of Alexander andPorus, by Capt. James 



Abbott. 



Since the despatch of my remarks upon the battle field of Alexander 

 and Porus, I have by cross-examining persons acquainted with the 

 mountain Mahabunn, discovered that the ruined fort which I supposed 

 to be Aornos, upon the crest of that mountain, is called Balimah : and 

 that there is anothermined fort further north upon the same crest, called 

 at present Shah kote, or the king's castle. As this Balimah is imme- 

 diately above Umm, we have here beyond a doubt the Umb Balimah 

 to which Alexander moved his camp for the attack of Aornos : for it 

 is scarcely possible that there should be a second union of two names 

 which are so uncommon. Umb is on the western brink of the Indus, 

 overshadowed by the Mahabunn and Balimah. And a camp at Umb 

 (the highest point upon the Indus to which a camp can ascend), could 

 be useful only for the assault of a fortress upon the Mahabunn. It 

 seems therefore probable either that Shah kote is the Aornos of history, 

 or that Aornos is merely a corruption of Awur (a fort) as supposed by 

 Professor Wilson : and that it has been used in preference to the name 

 Balimah, to distinguish it from the Umb Balimah where the camp was 

 established. Immediately below Shah kote, the mountain having been 

 cleft by the Indus, forms a natural wall of about 4 or 5,000 feet alti- 

 tude, and as the attack seems to have been made from the river side, 

 where Mahabunn has far more the character of a rock than of a moun- 

 tain, it is easy to account for the appellation of rock given it by the 

 Greeks to describe its extreme abruptness. It is common in this coun- 

 try to amalgamate together, for the sake of distinction, the names of 

 two proximate villages or places. But as this Balimah is in the clouds, 

 and Umb is in the river basin, it seems probable that in Alexander's 

 day both belonged to the same chief, which 'is no longer the case : 

 Balimah appertaining to the Suddoons, a race of Pathans, and Umb to 

 Jehandad Khan son of the celebrated Poyndah Khan who so long held 

 the Sikhs at bay. Umb is the capital of that chief. Immediately opposite 

 and across the Indus the valley of that river is closed by projecting 

 rocks called Durbund, and possibly so named by iUexander or his suc- 

 cessors, after a similar process upon the coast of the Caspian. Durbund 

 is the only locality in this neighbourhood connected by tradition with 



