1854.] On the Ballads and Legends of the Punjab. 89 



with the Christian faith. That faith spread very early into India. 

 The apostle Thomas is believed to have preached at the court of 

 Gondofares, king of Ariana, as well as to the Indians of the coast 

 of the Peninsula. It is certain also that Christianity in its purest 

 form early overspread Persia. And the Chaldsean church (of which 

 a remnant yet survives in the Koord Mountains,* and which from 

 the purity of its doctrine was in all probability propagated in the 

 first century of our era) has records of Bishops of Merve, Heraut, 

 India, Tabaristan, Samarcund, Mawaralnahr, Kashgar, Toorkistan, 

 Bulkh, Seistan and Pekin of China, and fourteen others who need 

 not here be named. 



It is therefore probable that Salivahana was a convert to the 

 Christian doctrine, which seems to me more reasonable than to sup- 

 pose him an imaginary personage, the personification in fact of the 

 Christian faith in India. For the Hindoos of the Indian Peninsula 

 take their era from his reign, and the traditions of the Punjaub are 

 full of his doings and of those of his son Bussaloo. 



Again to quote the researches of Col. Low. The Aryya Baja is 

 the same as Deva Twashta or Devetat, (i. e. Sala Yahana) who was 

 crucified by order of Boodha, whilst Boodha's disciples are styled 

 Arahan. 



Now as Boodha was contemporary with Salivahana according to 

 the Siamese books : either those books are false or Boodhism arose 

 in the first century of our era. As Christianity flowed down from 

 the North- West into Persia, Ariana and India, so it is highly pro- 

 bable that with it would flow those peculiar doctrines of the Gnos- 

 tics, which had distorted several sects of the church in Egypt, Syria 

 and Persia. This may have been the foundation of Boodhism ; and 

 the rival doctrines being preached to the same people at the same 

 moment, would have become inveterately opposed the one to the 

 other. 



Salivahana or Sahl Bahn reigned from the Jelum to Cape Comorin ; Poorun, 

 his son, did not reign. 



Russaloo, son of Salivabana, reigned in the Punjaub, and with him closed the 

 line, he dying childless. 



* See Layard's Nineveh, vol. 1st, chap. viii. This Church seems to have been 

 protected so long as the reign of the Khaliphs lasted. The Toorks their succes- 

 sors persecuted and almost annihilated the Church. 



If 



