Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c30.t1.39

v2.c30.t1.39

Amenophis, and that they are the Hyksos, or ‘shepherd-kings,’ who subjugated Egypt. On this account a comparison of the ancient architectural remains of Abyssinia and Aethiopia with those of the ancient Hindus is most desirable. It is asserted, and with appearance of truth, that the architecture of the Pyramids is distinct from the Pharaonic, and that they are at once Astronomic and Phallic. In India, the symbolic pinnacle surmounting the temples of the sun-god are always pyramidal. If the forthcoming history of the Berbers should reveal the mystery of their first settlements in Abyssinia, a great object would be attained; and if search were made in the old cave-temples of that coast, some remains of the characters they used might aid in tracing their analogy to the ancient Pali of the East; an idea suggested by an examination of the few characters found in the grand desert inhabited by the Tuaregs, which have a certain resemblance to the Punic, and to the unknown characters attributed to the Indo-Scythic tribes of India, as on their coins and cave-temples. Wide asunder as these regions, the mind that will strive to lessen the historical separation may one day be successful, when the connexion between Aethiopia (qu. from aditya and contracted ait, the Sun ?) and Surashtra, ‘the land of the Sun,’ or Syria of India, may become more tangible. Ferishta (vide Briggs’ translation, vol. iv. p. 402), quoting original authorities, says, “the inhabitants of Selandip, or the island of Ceylon, were accustomed to send vessels to the coast of Africa, to the Red Sea, and Persian Gulf, from the earliest ages, and Hindu pilgrims resorted to Mecca and Egypt for the purpose of paying adoration to the idols. It is related also that this people trading from Ceylon became converts to the true faith at so early a period as the first caliphs”; all which confirms the fact of early intercourse between Egypt and India.—See Vol. II. p. 702. [It is unnecessary to criticize in detail the etymologies suggested in this note, a good instance of the Author’s manner. The etymology of Calcutta is unknown, the most recent suggestion being that it is Khālkata, ‘a place where a flood cut a creek’ (Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 2nd ed. 146; Hoernle, JASB, 1898, p. 48 f.; K. Blechynden, Calcutta Past and Present, 1905, p. 5). Bhatner means ‘city of the Bhattis.’ Berber is either Greek βάρβαροι, or a tribal term, Barabara; that of Aethiopia is unknown (EB, 11th ed. iii. 764, ix. 845). The story of fixing the limits of a territory by riding round it or by encircling it with strips of hide, as in the story of Carthage, is common in India (Bradley-Birt, Chota Nagpore, 16 f.; Brett, Chhattisgarh Gazetteer, i. 192; BG, xiii. Part i. 169, and many others.]