THE PALACE OF PORUS - HELIOPOLIS OR PIMPRAMA?

[Dr. Pal]

Dear Nick,The discovery of PorusGÇÖ Palace would be a great boost to not only Indian history but also to Alexander studies. The problem should have concerned Indologists of the London school like A.D.H. Bivar, A.L. Basham or R. Thapar but they tend to be very formula-ridden and doggedly refuse to look beyond the Jonesian horizon. I consider SpiropoulosGÇÖ information about Heliopolis or Suryapura to be very significant. In fact Pimprama may be just another name of the same city. The problem here is the silence of the Indian texts on Porus. Can this be construed as an indication that Porus was a westerner, a King of India like the Suren Gondophernes King of India? We can certainly place Gondophernes at Taxila but his capital was probably Ram Sahristan in Seistan. This is very near Kuh-I Khwaja where I locate GotamaGÇÖs birth-place. On the other hand all the other writers locate GotamaGÇÖs birthplace at Piprawa in Nepal which I consider to be an echo of Pimprama in Seistan. This was the ancient Babil precursor of Babylon. Pippali-vana the home of the Mauryas (vana=forest) may be a transform of Babil.Now can we stretch our imagination and equate Sahristan with Suryastana? After all according to the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang, the capital of Pallava or the Parthians was at Surasthana. N.L. Dey, in his GÇ£The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval IndiaGÇ¥ writes(p. 259) that Suryapura and Suruashtra are the ancient names of Surat in Gujrat but there were other Surats as well. The name is also found in the Seistan-Baluchistan area.Regards,Dr. Pal

[Dr. Pal]

Dear Nick,'Suryapura and Suruashtra' should be read as Suryapura and Saurashtra'Dr. Pal