218 On the Sites of Nikaia and Boukephalon. [No. 3. 



to break up the boats, — the larger into three pieces, the smaller into 

 two, — and to bring them on carts to the Hydaspes. 



Now, had Alexander with the main army reached Tukht Purri,* 

 which some conceive to be Taxila, the danger for Huzara had for the 

 present been past. Moreover that Lower Tukht Purri, which is eighty 

 miles from the Indus, appears to me inconveniently distant from the 

 board of works. I think Hussein Ubdal, the delight of travellers 

 upon that road, thirty miles from the Indus, and, until the last twelve 

 years, the chief town of the Tarkhaili clan, from whom it was wrested 

 by the Sikhs, a more probable locality. For although Taxiles (the 

 Tarkhaili) was one of the two principal chiefs of that Doaba, yet 

 we have no reason to suppose that he was king of Potawar,f an immense 

 tract abounding in warlike inhabitants. Gamaxus, we see, opposed 

 Alexander, although Taxiles had submitted ; and I am inclined to think 

 that Taxiles' own territory was bounded Eastward by Chehlo Jungi 

 between Rawul Pindi and Jain ke Sungh. 



However that be, there were two routes from either to the Hydaspes 

 for the train of carriages containing Alexander's boats : the shorter to 



teal iKOfitcrdT] auT$, '6<ra fxhv fipaxvTepa, Sixv diaT/xrjdeura, at rpiaKSvropot 5e rpixv 

 irfx-fiOycrav, kcu rot, r(jJ)fxara iirl ^evywv St€KOfxi<r8rt €(TT6 iirl r)]v oxQv\v rod 'Y8ao-7rou* 

 Kotae? %vfnn)xQsv rb vavTiKbv avdiS S^ 6[xou &(pdrj iv t$ 'TSoo-ttij. Aut&s 5e ava- 

 XafSkv H]v T6 hvvafJLiv %x wv "h Keu ^ s Ta|tAa, &c. ib. lib. v. cap. 8. 



* Tukht Purri, the stone throne, or, more properly, Turruk Purri, the Hyaena's 

 rock, is a large village built a mile and a half south of the high road and amongst 

 the ravines. Those who would boast its antiquity say that it was founded by a 

 Gukka faquir named Sheikh Gukka, and called Turruk Purri on account of a 

 mischievous hyaena which haunted the spot. Others say it was founded in the 

 reign of the emperor Hoomaioon, about 320 years ago, by Tukht Banou, princess of 

 Sooltaun Audum Gukka, and called after her, Tukht Purri. Purri is a common 

 terminal to towns here. It signifies a slab of rock. Turruk Purri has no appear- 

 ance of antiquity, nor do its most enthusiastic admirers claim for it an origin 

 anterior to the invasion of Mahmood Ghuznavi. Its position is unfavorable to 

 commerce ; lying" off the main road and amongst impracticable ravines. To sup- 

 pose these ravines formed since the erection of the city, is to suppose the city 

 built previous to the existence there of the water, upon which it is dependent ; 

 that water rising in one of the ravines. Two thousand years is a long period in 

 the estimation of man ; but absolutely nothing as regards the face of nature, in 

 which it produces no visible wrinkle. 



f Arrian calls Taxiles the Hyparch of Taxila ; and Curtius, speaking of Porus 

 and Abisares says, Sed in Poro eminebat auctoritas. 



