Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of IndiaTod, James
History
Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3: or the Central and Western Rajput States of India
Tod, James
Rajasthan (India) -- History; Rajput (Indic people) -- History
How invaluable such remnants of the ancient race of Harikula! How
refreshing to the mind yet to discover, amidst the ruins on the
Yamuna, Hercules (Baldeva, god of strength) retaining his club and
lion’s hide, standing on his pedestal at Baldeo, and yet worshipped by
the Suraseni! This name was given to a large tract of country round
Mathura, or rather round Surpura, the ancient capital founded by
Surasena, the grandfather of the Indian brother-deities, Krishna and
Baldeva, Apollo and Hercules. The title would apply to either; though
Baldeva has the attributes of the ‘god of strength.’ Both are _es_
(lords) of the race (_kula_) of Hari (Hari-kul-es), of which the
Greeks might have made the compound Hercules. Might not a colony after
the Great War have migrated westward? The period of the return of the
Heraclidae, the descendants of Atreus (Atri is progenitor of the
Harikula), would answer: it was about half a century after the Great
War. [These speculations are worthless.]
It is unfortunate that Alexander’s historians were unable to penetrate
into the arcana of the Hindus, as Herodotus appears to have done with
those of the Egyptians. The shortness of Alexander’s stay, the unknown
language in which their science and religion were hid, presented an
insuperable difficulty. They could have made very little progress in
the study of the language without discovering its analogy to their
own.
Footnote 2.2.17:
Arrian generally exercises his judgment in these matters, and is the
reverse of credulous. On this point he says, “Now to me it seems that
even if Herakles could have done a thing so marvellous, he could have
made himself longer-lived, in order to have intercourse with his
daughter when she was of mature age” [_Indika_, ix.].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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