That the Mers of the Árávalí mountains and Káthíwár are descendants of the same family, is also not beyond the bounds of probability. The native pronunciation, especially in the western and north-western provinces of Hindústan, tends so much to an intermixture of the cerebral letters r and d,—the written character, indeed, being the same in both, and the diacritical marks being a mere modern innovation—that Mer and Med may be identical: and the addition of the aspirate, which sometimes makes the former into Mher, or, as we commonly write it Mhair, offers still no argument against identity, for that also is an optional excrescence, especially in the names of peoples and families. For the same reason, the connection of the Mahr of Úbáro, and other tracts in the Upper Sind, where they are reckoned by their neighbours as the aboriginal inhabitants of the country between Bhakkar and Baháwalpúr, is equally plausible.*
Tod pronounces the Mers to be of Bhattí origin, and derives their name from Meru, “a mountain.” But at the same time that he pronounces them to be Bhattís, he says they are a branch of the Mína, or Maina, one of the aboriginal races of India. These statements are obviously incompatible, and the Bhattí hypothesis must be rejected. During the whole period of their known history, they have been conspicuous for their lawless and predatory habits, from the time when four thousand Mer archers defended their passes against Pirthí-Ráj,* down to A.D. 1821, when their excesses compelled the British government to attack them in their fastnesses, and reduce them to complete obedience. Since which period, it is gratifying to observe that they have emerged from their barbarism, and, under the judicious management of European officers, have learnt to cultivate the arts of peace, and set a notable example of industry to the surrounding tribes.
Taking into consideration, therefore, the fact that the Mers of the Árávalí are but little advanced beyond the tract where the Meds are known, a thousand years ago, to have formed a numerous and thriving population; that their brethren, the Mínas, can themselves be traced in their original seats to the banks of the Indus; that Káthíwár, or the Saurashtran peninsula, was the very nursery of the piractical expeditions for which the Meds were about the same period celeberated and feared, and where Mers still reside, we may conclude that to declare them identical, is doing no great force to reason and probability.*
The simple permutation of a letter—not unnaturally forced, but based upon a law of common observance—introduces us to a new connexion of considerable interest; for we may make bold to claim, as an ancient representative of this race, Meris, or Moeris, the king of Pattala, who, on the approach of Alexander, deserted his capital, and fled to the mountains. The site of this town, at the head of the Delta of the Indus, answers well to the position which we may presume the chief of the Meds to have occupied at that period; and, that the name was not personal, but derived from his tribe, we may be satisfied, from the common practice of Alexander's historians, as exemplified in the instances of Abisares, Porus, Sambus, Musicanus, Assacanus, and Taxiles, who have these names severally attributed to them from the nations, countries, or towns over which they ruled. Dr. Vincent, in admitting, as the etymon of Moeris, the Arabic words Mír Rais, “the ruling chief,” has suffered his too easy credulity to be played upon by an ambitious young orientalist. Bohlen has attempted to trace in the name of Moeris a corruption of Mahárájá, “the great king,” in which he is followed by Ritter; but, independent of the fact that his kingdom was circumscribed within very narrow limits, he is expressly noticed by Arrian, under the humble title of <greek>, which invariably implies subordination, and not supremacy.* A more probable, but still unlikely, origin has been suggested, from the tribe of Maurya;* but they were far away in the east, remote from Sind, so that altogether locality and verbal resemblance are most favourable to the present hypothesis, that Meris is a Grecised form for the “chief of the Mers.”
We may even extend our views to a still more remote period, and
indulge in speculations whether this tribe may not originally have
been a colony of Medes. There is nothing in the distance of the
migration which would militate against this supposition, for Hero-
They may either have been transplanted to the banks of the Indus when the Medo-Persian empire extended so far to the eastward; or they may have migrated thither at some indefinitely early period; or they may have sought an asylum there upon the occupation of their country by the Scythians; or during the persecution of the Magi, who consituted one of the six tribes of Medes, just as the Pársís did in Guzerát, at a later period and on similar occasion. It is worthy of remark that Ibn Haukal places the Budhas, or Budhyas, in the same category with the Mand, representing them as comprising several tribes to the west of the Indus. Now, the Budii were also one of the six Median tribes, and the juxtaposition of these two names in the province of Sind should not escape notice, for they also may have formed a body of similar emigrants.*
All arguments against the probability of such dispersions stand
self-confuted, when we consider that Sindians were on the Euxine;*
and that, besides the familiar instances of Samaritans and Jews
under the Assyrians, we read over and over again in Persian
history, of the deportations of entire tribes, expressly termed
<greek> by Herodotus.*
Thus we have the removal of Pæo-
There is another curious coincidence worthy of notice. It is well
known, that from below the junction of the Panjáb rivers down to
Sihwán, the Indus takes the name of Sar, Siro, or Sira, and from
below Haidarábád to the sea, that of Lár. It is more correct, but
unusual, to add an intermediate division, called Wicholo, “central,”
representing the district lying immediately around Haidarábád, just
as on the Nile, the Wustání, “midlands,” of the Arabs represented
the tract between Upper and Lower Egypt.*
Sir A. Burnes says
that Sir and Lár are two Bulúch words for “north” and “south.”
But the first is a Slavonic word also, which Gatterer and Niebuhr
tell us is retained in Sauro-matæ, signifying “northern” Medes.
There were also a province of Siracene, and a tribe of Siraceni, and
other similar names north of the Caucasus.*
The Slavonic and
Persian show a great similarity: thus, spaco signifies “a bitch”
in both, and the same with the first syllable of Sauromatæ, or Sar-