1852.] On the Sites of Nihaia and Boukephalon. 251 



Curtius's and Arrian's description of the people and country beyond 

 the terminal river will answer only the land and people south of the 

 Sutlej. From Loodiana, eleven marches for an army, of eleven miles 

 each, would exactly bring Alexander to Kurnaul, where the " vastse 

 solitudines" (not altogether obliterated by cultivation even in the 

 present day) cease, and he would find himself in contact with the 

 dominions of king Aggrammen and with his countless army. This 

 tract as appertaining to Gangetic India would easily be accepted by an 

 historian so ignorant of geography, for the Ganges : being in fact the 

 land of the Jumna. Kurnaul is about five miles from that river. 

 This interpretation will reconcile many difficulties which Arrian's 

 silence and Curtius's random record have left for our disposal. 



In this case we may assume that Phullore is the modern corruption 

 of Phegela or Phuglore, where Alexander built the twelve gigantic 

 altars* that were to bear record of the limits of his conquest. And 

 we may surmise that Agra (one of the oldest Hindu sites in India) 

 was at that time the capital of Hindustan, and that Maun was the 

 name of the usurping barber. The greater salubrity of the banks of 

 the Jumna has ever given it the preference over its more sacred rival, 

 the Ganges, as the site of capital cities. 



It would perhaps be difficult to imagine any site better adapted to 

 the purpose of Alexander, than that of the present castle of Phullore. 

 The position is conspicuous, yet so remote from the action of the 

 river Sutlej as to allow no cause for apprehension of its being under- 

 mined, and it stands at the grand gateway, so to speak, of the Punjaub 

 southward, which was also the first approach from southern lands to 

 the majestic empire he had just completed, more by his wonderful 

 tact and justice and gentlemanly bearing than even by his military 

 genius and dauntless courage. 



Of these altars Arrian says: "There allotting to the army their several 

 parts, he commanded them to build twelve altars, in height equal to 

 the loftiest towers, in solidity exceeding towers, grateful offerings to 

 the gods, who had so far led him in triumph, and memorials also of 

 his own labours." Curtius says : " Two days were consumed in anger, 

 on the third he came forth and erected twelve altars of squared stone, 

 as a monument of his expedition : he also ordered the defences of the 



* Pliny however says the altars were built on the further bank. 



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