Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c30.102

v2.c30.102

⁴ This incidental mention of the race of Tak, and of its being in great consideration on the settlement of the Yadus in the Panjab, is very important. I have given a sketch of this tribe (Vol. I. p. 123), but since I wrote it I have discovered the capital of the Tak, and on the very spot where I should have expected the site of Taxila, the capital of Taxiles, the friend of Alexander. In that sketch I hesitated not to say that the name was not personal, but arose from his being the head of the Takshak or Naga tribe, which is confirmed. It is to Babur, or rather to his translator, that I am indebted for this discovery. In describing the limits of Banu, Babur thus mentions it: “And on the west is Dasht, which is also called Bazar and Tak”; to which the erudite translator adds, “Tak is said long to have been the capital of Daman.” In Mr. Elphinstone’s map, Bazar, which Babur makes identical with Tak, is a few miles north of the city of Attok. There is no question that both the river and city were named after the race of Tak or Takshak, the Nagas, Nagvansi, or snake race, who spread over India. Indeed, I would assume that the name of Omphis, which young Taxiles had on his father’s death, is Ophis, the Greek version of Tak, the ‘serpent.’ The Taks appear to have been established in the same regions at the earliest period. The Mahabharata describes the wars between Janamejaya and the Takshaks,