Proceedings of Societies. 
91 
1831.] 
The Ramayana relates, as is well known, a leading' event in the life of Rama, 
king - of Ayodhya, or Oude. Having been banished by his father Dasaratha, he 
adopted the life of an Ascetic in the forests, at the sources of the Godaveri, accom- 
panied by his brother Lakshmana, and his wife Sita. The latter being’ stolen trouu 
him by Ravana, king - of Lancd , Rama, with the assistance of Sugriva, king of the 
Monkeys, or foresters and mountaineers of Karnata, invaded the capital of the ravish- 
er, took it, killed Ravana in battle, established Vebhishana, that monarch’s brother, 
on the throne, and returned to Ayodhya, of which, his father being dead, he assumed 
the sovereignty. 
The Mahabharat details the dissensions of the Pandava and Kaurava princes, who 
were cousins by birth, and rival competitors for the throne of Hastinapur. The latter 
were at first successful, and compelled the former to secrete themselves for a season, 
until they contracted an alliance with a powerful prince in the Punjab, when a part of 
the kingdom was transferred to them. Subsequently, this was lost by tbe Panda vas at 
dice, and they were again driven into exile, from which they emerged to assert their 
rights in arms. All the princes of India took part with one or other of the contending 
kinsmen, and a series of battles took place in Kurukshetra, the modern Tahnesar, which 
ended in the destruction of Duryodhan and the other Kaurava princes, and the eleva- 
tion of Yadhishthera, the elder of the Pandava brothers, to the supreme sovereignty 
over India. I shall now offer a sketch of that portion of the Dionysiacs which I have 
noticed above, premising, however, that I cannot pretend to have done more than cur- 
sorily inspect the work, and form a general idea of its details. Sir William Jones ac- 
knowledges he never read more than half of it, and those to whom the composition is 
known, will probably be disposed to admit, that to have effected even so much, was a 
proof of no ordinary patience and assiduity. The general character of the poem is 
exceedingly Indian, being of extreme prolixity, and the course of the story being 
incessantly interrupted by mythological episodes, more curious often than instructive 
or interesting. 
The Hero of the Poem of Nonnus, (a Christian Monk, and native of Egypt, who 
flourished in the 5th Century,) is Bacchus, or Dionysos, one of whose exploits is 
the conquest of India. In the thirteenth Book, Jupiters ends his son Bacchus to 
direct him to force the impious Indians to drink wine and celebrate nocturnal 
orgies, or to expel them from Asia. The King of the Indians is named Deri - 
ades, and in this, perhaps, an affinity may he found to the Kura Prince Duryodhan. 
From the thirteenth to the twentieth Books, it requires some ingenuity to find 
any thing decidedly Hindu. The distinguished personage Morrheus, may possi- 
bly, as conjectured by Wilford, be a corruption of Maharaja ; Morieis, (as it was 
pronounced by the Greeks,) being, according to Hesychius, the Indian term for 
King, and Mai implying great. In the twenty-third Book, the followers of 
Bacchus cross the Hydaspes by various means, amongst which is that of in- 
flated skins, still common on the rivers of the Punjab. In the beginning of the 
twenty-sixth Book, Deriaden, after his repulse, again prepares for war, and in the 
enumeration of his forces, some of his troops are said to have come from the strong- 
hold of Rodoes, conjectured, by Major Wilford, to be Rotas, and from the Parapomi- 
san mountains, the western portion of the Imaus or Himalaya chain. There also 
came the Dards, with whom we are familiar in Hindu history, as the Daradas or 
mountaineers of the borders of Kashmir, and the people of Patalinne, with a sah'ne 
soil, which place is readily identifiable with the Indo-Scytliic town Patalene at the 
mouth of the Indus. With these march the hairy-breasted Dusssei Subiri— the 
latter, possibly, the Suviras, or Subiras of the Puranas. We have also, along with 
various others, (adverted to more particularly in the paper,) the Xuthri Arieni 
Za-ori, I-bri, Kaspein, whom we know to be Kashmirians. We have also the Siba/ 
the Sivas of Pauranic Geography. According to Wilford, Gaur-ades is Beno-al’ 
and O-eta, furnishing superior Elephants, he conjectures to be Ayodhya or Oude! 
All these forces obey Deriaden, who is the son of Hydaspes, by the nymph Astris* 
a daughter of the Sun by Ceto the Naiad. The Hindu legend makes - ' Duryodhan, 
not the son exactly, but the descendant of the Sun, through his daughter Tapati 
the Naiad, or Goddess, from whom the Tapti river derives its name. In the 
twenty-eighth Book, a battle takes place betwen the forces of Bacchus and Deria- 
den. The Indians are described as armed with swords and shields, bows and 
arrows; and their chiefs wearing mail, and mounted on chariots, or ridino - on ele- 
phants. In the thirtieth Book, Morrheus falls upon the Satyrs, and wounds 
Eurymedon, the son of\ulcan, who conies to his succour, and involves the victor 
in a flame of fire. Hydaspes comes to his aid, and extinguishes the flame. This is 
undoubtedly Indian, and both in the Mahabharat and Ramayana, we have repeated 
introduction of the counteracting elements, fire and water, employed as weapons by 
the chief heroes.’ After a tremendous conflict, in which the Gods, as in Homer 
espouse different sides, Bacchus finding that the Indians are not to be subdued by 
land, prepares to attack them by sea. With this view he orders the Arab Rhada- 
