[18]. Ajamidha, by his wife Nila, had five sons, who spread their branches (Sakha) on both sides the Indus. Regarding three the Puranas are silent, which implies their migration to distant regions. Is it possible they might be the origin of the Medes? These Medes are descendants of Yayati, third son of the patriarch Manu; and Madai, founder of the Medes, was of Japhet’s line. Ajamidha, the patronymic of the branch of Bajaswa, is from Aja, ‘a goat.’ The Assyrian Mede, in Scripture, is typified by the goat. [These speculations are worthless.]
[19]. Of this house was Draupadi, the wife, in common, of the five Pandava brothers: manners peculiar to Scythia.
[20]. King of Delhi.
[21]. [Briggs i. 57. The accounts of the size of the city are extravagant (Elphinstone, HI, 332 note; Cunningham, ASR, i. 279 ff.).]
[22]. An inscription was discovered at Kara on the Ganges, in which Yaspal is mentioned as prince of the realm of Kausambi (As. Res. vol. ix. p. 440). Wilford, in his Essay on the Geography of the Purans, says “Causambi, near Alluhabad” (As. Res. vol. xiv.). [The site is uncertain (Smith, EHI, 293, note).]
[23]. [Rājgīr in Patna District.]
[24]. Aror, or Alor, was the capital of Sind in remote antiquity: a bridge over the stream which branched from the Indus, near Dara, is almost the sole vestige of this capital of the Sogdoi of Alexander. On its site the shepherds of the desert have established an extensive hamlet; it is placed on a ridge of siliceous rock, seven miles east of the insular Bakhar, and free from the inundations of the Indus. The Sodha tribe, a powerful branch of the Pramara race, has ruled in these countries from remote antiquity, and to a very late period they were lords of Umarkot and Umrasumra, in which divisions was Aror. Sahl and his capital were known to Abu-l Fazl, though he was ignorant of its position, which he transferred to Debal, or Dewal, the modern Tatta. This indefatigable historian thus describes it: “In ancient times there lived a raja named Siharas (Sahl), whose capital was Alor, and his dominions extended north to Kashmīr and south to the ocean” [Āīn, ii. 343]. Sahl, or Sahr, became a titular appellation of the country, its princes, and its inhabitants, the Sehraes. [See p. 21 above.] Alor appears to have been the capital of the kingdom of Sigerdis, conquered by Menander of Bactria. Ibn Haukal, the Arabian geographer, mentions it; but a superfluous point in writing has changed Aror into Azor, or Azour, as translated by Sir W. Ouseley. The illustrious D’Anville mentions it; but, in ignorance of its position, quoting Abulfeda. says, in grandeur “Azour est presque comparable à Mooltan.” I have to claim the discovery of several ancient capital cities in the north of India: Surpur, on the Jumna, the capital of the Yadus; Alor, on the Indus, the capital of the Sodhas; Mandodri, capital of the Pariharas; Chandravati, at the foot of the Aravalli mountains; and Valabhipura, in Gujarat, capital of the Balaka-raes, the Balharas of Arab travellers. The Bala Rajput of Saurashtra may have given the name to Valabhipura, as descendants of Balaka, from Sahl of Aror. The blessing of the bard to them is yet, Tatta Multān ka Rāo (‘lord of Tatta and Multan,’ the seats of the Balaka-putras): nor is it improbable that a branch of these under the Indian Hercules, Balaram, who left India after the Great War, may have founded Balich, or Balkh, emphatically called the ‘mother of cities.’ The Jaisalmer annals assert that the Yadu and Balaka branches of the Indu race ruled Khorasan after the Great War, the Indo-Scythic races of Grecian authors. Besides the Balakas, and the numerous branches of the Indo-Medes, many of the sons of Kuru dispersed over these regions: amongst whom we may place Uttara Kuru (Northern Kurus) of the Puranas, the Ottorokorrhai of the Greek authors. Both the Indu and Surya races were eternally sending their superfluous population to those distant regions, when probably the same primeval religion governed the races east and west of the Indus. [Much of this is incorrect.]
[25]. [The Chera or Kerala kingdom comprised the Southern Konkans or Malabar coast, the present Malabar district with Travancore and Cochin, the dynasty being in existence early in the Christian era (Smith, EHI, 447; IGI, x. 192 f.).]
[26]. [The Pāndya kingdom included the Madura and Tinnevelly districts, with parts of Trichinopoly, and sometimes Travancore, its capitals being Madura, or Kūdal, and Korkai (Smith, op. cit. 449 f.; IGI, xix. 394 f.).]
[27]. From Chaul on the coast, in journeying towards Junagarh, and about seven miles from the former, are the remains of an ancient city.