60 Ancient Indian Weights. [No. 2, 
second volume of the Arabic text of Masaudi,* where mention is made 
of Alexander’s having, after the conquest of Porus, entered into corre- 
spondence with one of the most powerful kings of India, who is in- 
cidentally stated to have been addicted to magic, named Kand (9), 
Masaudi is not very lucid as to the exact position of this potentate’s 
dominions ; but the Arabs of his day (330 a,n,) had but limited know- 
ledge of the geography of India beyond their new home on the Indus. 
This king, however, I believe to be no other than the Kananda (pro- 
perly, it will be seen, Krananda), monarch of the sacred centre of 
Brahmanism and the valley of the Ganges, whom I have already had 
occasion to refer to, under the numismatic aspect, as having been un- 
scrupulous in the measure of the value of his coins} (a reproach I shall 
perhaps now be in a position to relieve him of). The same name of 
Kananda, obscured under the three letters of Semitic alphabets, re- 
appears in the Shah Namah as oS, Kaid, “the Indian ;” and long 
stories are told of him and his mystic powers in connection with 
similar traditions of Alexander.{ Tbe triliteral designation is preserv- 
ed in other original authors as o4S, with the necessarily imperfect 
transcription§ incident to the Semitic conversion of Indian words, and 
the systematic ignoring of short vowels; but the name occurs, as a 
nearer approach to the apparent original, in a work entitled “ The 
Mujmal-al-Tawarikh,”’ compiled | about 520 a.u., at the court of Sanjar, 
wherein the letters appear as o485\|| a mistake uionEbi for oh33, Kan- 
anda, where the ear perhaps designed to do more in the first instance 
to restore the true pronunciation, than the hands of succeeding copyists 
knew how to follow. 
Before proceeding to examine what the Indians say of themselves 
on this subject, I will revert casually to the incidental references in the 
Greek authors. The leading passage, which contributes the name of 
* Macoudi, “Les Prairies d’Or,” par C. Barbier de Meynard et Pavet de 
Courteille. Paris, 1863. ‘ Aprés avoir tué Porus, un des rois de l’Inde, 
. Alexandre . . . aprit alors que dans les extrémités les plus reculées de 
VInde il y avait un roi, plein de sagesse, trés-bon administrateur, practiquant la 
p été, équitable envers ses sujets. Il avait vécu plusieurs siécles, et il était 
supérieur 4 tous les philosophes et & tous les sages de Inde. Sonnom était — 
Kend,” Vol. ii. p. 260. 
+ Num. Chron. N.S., iv. 128. See also Num. Chron, iii. p. 230, note 8. 
t Macan’s “ Shah Namah,” i ii. p. 1290—1296, &e. 
§ Ibn Badrin, quoted in Masandi, French Edit., iil. 452. 
|| Reinaud, “‘ Fragments Arabes,” p. 44, and “ Mémoire sur l’Inde,” p, 63. 

