Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v1.c17.s3.129

v1.c17.s3.129

the first king of the Heraclidae : Yudhishthira has sufficient affinity in name to the first Spartan king not to startle the etymologist, the *d* and *r* being always permutable in Sanskrit. The Greeks or Ionians are descended from Yavan, or Javan, the seventh from Japhet. The Harikulas are also Yavans claiming from Javan or Yavan, the thirteenth in descent from Yayati, the third son of the primeval patriarch. The ancient Heraclidae of Greece asserted they were as old as the sun, and older than the moon. May not this boast conceal the fact that the Heliadae (or *Suryavansa*) of Greece had settled there anterior to the colony of the Indu (Lunar) race of Harikula ? In all that relates to the mythological history of the Indian demi-gods, Baldeva (Hercules), Krishna or Kanhaiya (Apollo), and Budha (Mercury), a powerful and almost perfect resemblance can be traced between those of Hindu legend, Greece, and Egypt. Baldeva (the god of strength) Harikula, is still worshipped as in the days of Alexander ; his shrine at Baldeo in Vraj (the Surasenoi of the Greeks), his club a ploughshare, and a lion's skin his covering. A Hindu intaglio of rare value represents Hercules exactly as described by Arrian, with a monogram consisting of two ancient characters now unknown, but which I have found wherever tradition assigns a spot to the Harikulas ; especially in Saurashtra, where they were long concealed on their exile from Delhi. This we may at once decide to be the exact figure of Hercules which Arrian describes his descendants to have carried as their standard, when Porus opposed Alexander. The intaglio will appear in the *Trans. R.A.S.* [The speculations in this note have no authority.]