230 Essay on the Ancient Geography of India. [No. 3. 



Zac to be pronounced Zauk, is an ancient hero, who according to 

 tradition was inimical to the followers of Brahma, when they came to 

 India ; for they unanimously acknowledge, that they are not natives of 

 this country, and that they came from the N. W. He is of course 

 considered as a Daitya, or evil spirit by them : and Zdc, or Zaco is the 

 devil all over the western parts of India, as far as Ceylon. In the 

 month of January, in the year 1809, I saw a statue of his, between 

 Furreh, and AcKhanerd y and about ten cos S. by W. of Muttra. It 

 might have been originally about fifteen feet high, but it is now broken 

 to pieces. It is still an object of worship among some low tribes, who 

 call him Zdc-Bdbd, or Zac our lord, and father. He is the same with 

 Mdhis'a-pati, or lord of the Buffalo tribe, called in the Puranas Ma- 

 hlsasura ; and who resided at Nausha-pura, according to the Bhuva- 

 na-Sagara, and the Dionysiopolis, or Nagara of Ptolemy, towards 

 Cabul. He worshipped gods different from those of the followers of 

 Brahma, whom he opposed, and was defeated near Cabul. He fled 

 toward the Indus, where he was put to death, near the rock called 

 Yulluleah, where they show the place where his tomb stood formerly. 

 According to the natives, he was a shepherd called Yulluleah, from the 

 Sanscrit Luldya, another name for Mahisdsura : and this story is 

 related by the younger Plutarch who calls him Lilaios.* 



In Sanskrit he is also called Rhambha and in the Dekkin Erumai is a 

 Buffalo and Heramba is another name of his. Pie was the grandson of 

 the famous Bali, who resided at Baroche ; and was emperor of India. 

 He was also an incarnation of Siva, and his father Rambha, or Vdnu 

 reigned on the banks of the Indus, according to the Pauran'icas. There 

 we must look for the country of the Erembi, or Arimi, where lived Ty- 

 phosus, and there was the rock of Typhon, who is represented riding 

 upon an ass, which was also his symbol, for Mahisa is also the name 

 of the Cdsara, or wild ass. From Mahis'a comes Bhaisa or Bhainsa, 

 in the spoken dialects, and Bhaisonh in the plural. The Greek and 

 Latin name Bis' on for a Buffalo claims the same origin. In the north, 

 and N. W. of India, this animal is called Zac, and Yac ; which, in 

 some dialect, there, is restricted to the Saurya-gdbhi : and I suspect 

 that the countries of Sacai, and Abasan are the same. The above 

 passage from the Bhuvana-Sagara is noticed by Sig. Bayer, and others 

 * Plutarch de Flumin. voce Indus. 



