1854.] On the Ballads and Legends of the Punjab. 77 



Bam Chundre, who is the Heri or Hercules of the Hindu, there 

 should turn up a coin, having this horseman on one side, and on the 

 reverse a Greek inscription, of which two words are beoh, and 

 Erak lire 'HpaKAipe, and that where these coins occur, there should 

 be an old fort upon the Indus above TJmb, called to this day Behoh, 

 founded by a Kawfur, i. e. a person of antiquity who with his bro- 

 ther Eaam (according to local tradition) reigned along the Indus, 

 from Behoh to Atuk. 



It is singular also, that the only pure Eajpootre race of India 

 dwelling in Eajpootana have architecture similar to that which is 

 dug out of the ruins of Greek cities in the Punjaub, and which is 

 no where else known in Asia, if we except Cashmere, where the 

 Greeks reigned, as evidenced by their coinage. 



It is remarkable also, that whilst Greek historians mention the 

 divisions of Hindus into castes, and that in battle they bore upon 

 a standard the effigy of Hercules, none of them mention the very 

 remarkable circumstance of one of those classes deriving itself from 

 Hercules. That they were not struck with this remarkable division 

 of the community which is so far superior to the rest. That yet 

 they should mention the %fii (Sibi) or Chibbs (also Eajpootres) 

 as being of Heraklean descent, as evidenced by the use of the club, 

 the dress of hides and the impression of a club upon their cattle. 

 The Kshettri or Khettri division may not then have derived itself 

 from Eaam. May not then have borne the proud title of Eajpootre 

 or royal blood. The Eaam who carried Southward from Aodia his 

 victorious arms may not then have appeared. The Eajpootres at 

 present found in the Punjaub (the Chibbs perhaps excepted) all 

 appear to have come from the South. 



May not then this coin be the currency of that Earn Chunder 

 who conquered from Aodia to the Southward and founded the 

 Eajpootre race ? If so, he was probably an Indo- Greek as implied in 

 the Greek and Sanskrit inscriptions, and then the superiority of the 

 Eajpootre of central India to all other Indian races in beauty, valor 

 and virtue — his startling resemblance in feature, figure and dress to 

 the Greek mountaineers (to which I can bear personal testimony) 

 and his use of the architecture and sculpture peculiar otherwise to 

 Indo Greeks, are all accounted for. 



