1854.] On the Ballads and Legends of the Punjab. 81 



"We may therefore with some security adopt the traditionary era 

 of Eussaloo, son of Salivahana, as A. D. 171, or the 453rd year 

 after the conquest of the Punjaub by Alexander. This was about 

 the era of the introduction of Boodhism into the Punjaub ; to judge 

 by the coins found in topes. 



Those topes, in the traditions of the country are always asso- 

 ciated with the great enemy of Eussaloo, viz. the Eakuss. Upon the 

 Bullur Tope he is said to have sat. Raja Srikup the other enemy 

 of Eussaloo is associated in tradition with the Tope of Maunkyala 

 and has a tope of his own near the ruins of his palace in Pukli. 

 The contests therefore of Eussaloo with the Eakuss may figure the 

 strife between two religions ; the Boodhist faith on the one hand, 

 and the Hindoo or the Christian* faith on the other. Or it may 

 denote merely the struggle of two distinct races, the Hindoo and the 

 Scytho- Greek. 



The Eakuss, Eakush or Eukshasa, is represented as a gigantic 

 monster in the human form, having a certain degree of command 

 over the elements, but amenable to death in a violent form. The 

 number of the race is variously recorded ; but the most general 

 tradition gives four brothers and a sister. Their chief haunts were 

 Gundgurh and Alooli of Huzara, but they brought upon themselves 

 the vengeance of Eussaloo by their depredations at Lahore, then 

 called Oodinugri. Establishing themselves in the forest westward 

 of that city, they daily demanded a human victim to be devoured by 

 them. Eussaloo's battles with these monsters, are the most favourite 

 theme of the bards of the Punjaub. 



As in Persian history the white Scythian invaders of the empire 

 are believed to be figured under the type of the Deeve Sofaid or 

 white Demon, so the introducers of a creed, monstrous in the eyes 

 of Brahmans, may have been held up to detestation under the title 

 and attributes of the Eakuss. That the Grecian colonists of the 

 Punjaub were eventually converted to this creed we have reason 

 to believe from the continuance of Grecian inscriptions upon the 

 coins of the country, after the appearance upon them of Boodhistic 

 emblems. 



* See, farther on, Salivahana's connection with emblems of the Christian reli- 

 gion. 



M 



