Ινδικη 10.2

10.2

πολίων δὲ ἀριθμὸν οὐκ εἶναι ἂν ἀτρεκὲς ἀναγράψαι τῶ Ἰνδικῶν ὑπὸ πλήθεος. ταύτας μὲν ξυλίνας ποιέεσθαι·

The same writer tells us further this remarkable fact about India, that all the Indians are free, and not one of them is a slave. The form of Pâtaliputra, the name of the ancient capital of Magadha, and a name still occasionally applied to the city of Pâtnâ, which is its modern representative. The word, which means the son of the trumpet-flower (Bignonia suaveolens), appears in several different forms. A provincial form, Pâtaliputrikâ, is common in the popular tales. The form in the Panchatantra is Pâtaliputra, which Wilson (Introd. to the Dasa Kumara Charitra) considered to be the true original name of the city of which Pâtaliputra was a mere corruption, — sanctioned, however, by common usage. In a Sanskrit treatise of geography of a somewhat recent date, called the Kshetra Samâsa, the form of the name is Pâtalibhatta, which is a near approach to Palibothra. The Ceylon chroniclers invariably wrote the name as Pâtiliputto, and in the inscription of Asôka at Girnâr it is written Pâtaliputta. The earliest name of the place, according to the Râmâyana, was Kausâmbî, as having been founded by Kusa, the father of the famous sage Visvâmitra. It was also called, especially by the poets, Pushpapura or Kusumapura, which has the same meaning — 'the city of flowers.' This city, though the least ancient of all the greater capitals in Gangetic India, was destined to become the most famous of them all.