62 Remarks o?i the Sequel to the [Jan. 



mountainous country on the southern, instead of the western, part oi' 

 Serica. They are the Betse of Ptolemy and are referred by him to the 

 latter situation. The Essedones are the Issedones of Ptolemy, describ- 

 ed by him as a great people. The other nations of Serica mentioned 

 by Ammianus Marcellinus cannot be identified with any people of As- 

 sam in the present day. It is probable that they occupied the rich and 

 fertile parts of the valley. That Assam was anciently inhabited by an 

 industrious and civilized people is abundantly proved by the remains of 

 various and extensive works of public utility, as embankments, tanks, 

 bridges, and forts, which are still to be seen. The ruins of temples, 

 also, are scattered over the country. " These temples," says Major 

 Jenkins, " all completely overthrown, speak of long periods of prosperity 

 and great revolutions of which we are entirely ignorant." — From one of 

 the temples at Hajoo being frequented by pilgrims from all parts of 

 Thibet and Tartary he imagines that the Buddhist faith formerly pre- 

 vailed in Assam and that this may account in part for the destruction 

 of the temples. " That faith," he remarks, was succeeded perhaps by the 

 Brahminical under the Pals, i. e. the Pal dynasty : they were swept 

 away by the Koches, who probably were not Hindoos till they ceased to 

 be conquerors, as was the case with the Ahoms, who with the Mahome- 

 dans then contended for Kamroop, and both perhaps destroying the 

 temples which fell into their power."* 



Asmira and Essedon are mentioned, as the largest, and Asparata and 

 Sera, as the most noted cities of Serica. Sera, which was the capital or 

 metropolis of the Sinse, is described by Ptolemy as the city of Serica, 

 situated farthest to the east. It seems, therefore, to have stood in Sa- 

 diya in Upper Assam, and as its site is laid down in the map attached 

 to Ptolemy's Geography, as being close to the mountains called Ottor- 

 rocorras which bounded Serica on the north-east, and near one of the 

 rivers which formed the Bautes, it would seem to be identical with the 

 site of one of the forts which have lately been discovered by Lieut. 

 Rowlatt, close to the hills east of Sadiya. He has given an account 

 of these forts in a highly interesting Report of his expedition to the 

 Mishmee hills in November 1844; published in the Journal of this 

 Society— (Vol. XIV. p. 477.) He states:— 



" Soon after my return from the Mishmee hills I again left Saikwah 

 * ,lonrn. As. Soc. No. 104. p. 777. 



