Moreover, amongst the several tribes of Kshatriyas, who, having neglected to observe the holy customs, and to visit the Bráhmans, became so degenerate that they were expelled their caste, and re­garded as “Dasyus,” or robber tribes, Manu enumerates the “Pah-lavas.” * “They are,” continues the holy legislator, “Dasyus, whether they speak the language of Mlechchhas, or that of Áryas.” Árya in Sanskrit, airya in Zend, means “noble,” “sacred,” “vener­able;” hence a portion of Upper India is called Áryavarta, “the holy land,” or “country of the Áryas.” The Medes being also of the same original stock, were universally called Arii. The Áryas of Manu, therefore, are not necessarily, as some interpret, only de­generate natives, but may likewise have been Medes occupying the valley of the Indus. It is probable that a still earlier, and more degenerate branch of the same family may be spoken of under the name of “Meda,” in the code of Manu, “who must live without the town, and maintain themselves by slaying beasts of the forest.” Allusion seems here to be made to the Mers of the Árávalí.*

These indications need not be enlarged on further in this place. Many will, of course, look upon them as fanciful and extravagant. Others, who feel so disposed, must pursue the investigation for themselves; for it is foreign to the main design of this Note, which has merely been to show that we have the Meds of the Arabs retain­ing their own name to this day, as well as probably under a slightly varied form, in and around the original seats of their occupation. That object has, it is hoped, been accomplished satisfactorily, and with regard to all extraneous matter, to use the words of Cicero, sequimur probabilia, nec ultrà quam id, quod verisimile occurrerit, pro-gredi possumus, et refellere sine pertinaciâ et refelli sine iracundiâ parati sumus.*

[General Cuuningham, in his Report for 1863-64, says:—“The Meds or Mands are almost certainly the representatives of the Man-drueni , who lived on the Mandrus river, to the south of the Oxus; and as their name is found in the Panjáb from the beginning of the Christian era downwards, and in none before that time, I conclude that they must have accompanied their neighbours, the Iatii, or Játs, on their forced migrations to Ariana and India. In the clas­sical writers, the name is found as Medi and Mandueni, and in the Muhammadan writers, as Med and Mand.” To show that these two spellings are but natural modes of pronunciation of the same name, the General notices the various ways in which the name of a village on the Jhelam is spelt in different maps and books— Meriala, Mandiali, Mámriála, Mandyála, Mariála, and Merali.]

[“The earliest notice of the Meds is by Virgil, who calls the Jhelam Medus Hydaspes. The epithet is explained by the statement of Vibius Sequester, which makes the Hydaspes flow “past the city of Media.” Now this is clearly the same place as Ptolemy's Euthy-media , or Sagala, which was either on or near the same river, and above Bukephala. Lastly, in the Peutingerian Tables, the country on the Hydaspes, for some distance below Alexandria Bucefalos, is called Media. Here then we have evidence that the Medi, or Meds, were in the Panjáb as early at least as the time of Virgil, in B.C. 40 to 30, and as we know that they were not one of the five tribes of Yuchi, or Tochari, whose names are given by the Chinese writers, it may be inferred, with tolerable certainty, that they must have be­longed to the great horde of Sus, or Abars, who entered India about B.C. 126, and gave their name to the province of Indo-Scythia.”

[As the date of the Peutingerian Table is not later than A.D. 250, we have a break of upwards of four centuries before we reach the earliest notices of the Muhammadan writers. In these we find the Meds or Mands firmly established in Sindh, along with their ancient rivals the Játs, both of whom are said to be the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah. Rashíd-ud dín further states that they were in Sindh at the time of the Mahá-bhárata, but this is amply refuted by the native histories of the province, which omit both names from the list of aborigines of Sindh. Ibn Haukal describes the Mands of his time (about A.D. 977), as occupying the banks of the Indus from Multan to the sea, and to the desert between Makrán and Famhal. Masudi, who visited India in A.D. 915-16, calls them Mind, and states that they were a race of Sindh, who were at constant war with the people of Mansura. These notices are sufficient to show, that at some time previous to the first appearance of the Muhammadans, the Meds must have been forced to migrate from the Upper Panjáb to Sindh. There they have since remained, as there can be no doubt that they are now represented by the Mers of the Árávalí Range to the east of the Indus, of Káthiáwar to the south, and of Biluchistán to the west.”

[“The name of Mer, or Mand, is still found in many parts of the Punjáb, as in Meror of the Bari and Rechna Doabs, in Mera, Mandra, and Mandanpur of the Sind Ságar Doab, and in Mandali, of Multan. Mera, which is ten miles to the west of Kalar Kahár, is certainly as old as the beginning of the Christian era, as it possesses an Arian Pali inscription, fixed in the side of a square well. The Mers would seem also to have occupied Lahore, as Abú Ríhán states that the capital of Loháwar was named Medhukur or Mandhukur.* This place is said to have been on the east bank of the Ravi, and, if so, it was most probably Lahore itself, under a new name. There is an old place called Mandhyawála, on the west bank of the Ravi, and only twelve miles to the south-west of Lahore, which may possibly be the Mandhukur of Abu Ríhán. But the old mound of Mirathira, in the Gugera district, in which figures of Buddha and moulded bricks have been discovered by the railway cuttings, is a more likely place. This frequent occurrence of the name in so many parts of the Panjáb, and always attached to old places, as in Mera, Mandra, and Meriali, of the Sindh Ságar Doab, and in Med-hukur or Mandhukur, the capital of Loháwar, offers the strongest confirmation of the conclusion which I have already derived from the notices of the classical authors, that the Meds or Mers were once the dominant race in the Panjáb. The special location of the Medi on the Hydaspes by classical writers of the first century of the Christian era, the evident antiquity of Mera, Meriali, and other places which still bear the name, and the admitted foreign origin of their modern representatives, the Mers, all point to the same conclusion, that the Medi, or Meds, were the first Indo-Scythian conquerors of the Panjáb.”

[* * * * “About this time (30 to 20 B.C.) the Meds may be supposed to have retired towards the south, until they finally es­tablished themselves in Upper Sindh, and gave their name to their new capital of Minnagara. As this could scarcely have been effected with the consent of the former occupants of Upper Sindh, whom I suppose to have been the Iatii, or Jats, I would refer to this period as the beginning of that continued rivalry, which the historian Rashídu-d dín attributes to the Jats and Meds.* To this same cause I would also refer the statement of the Erythræan Periplus, that about A.D. 100, the rulers of Minnagara were rival Parthians, who were mutually expelling each other.”]