Ινδικη 4.11

4.11

κωφὴν δὲ ἐν Πευκελαΐτιδι, ἅμα οἷ ἄγων Μάλαντόν τε καὶ Σόαστον καὶ Γαρροίαν, ἐκδιδοῖ ἐς τὸν Ἰνδόν.

IV. But I am unable to give with assurance of being accurate any information regarding the regions beyond the Hyphasis, since the progress of Alexander was arrested by that river. But to recur to the two greatest rivers, the Ganges and the Indus. Megasthenes states that of the two the Ganges is much the larger, and other writers who mention the Ganges agree with him; for, besides being of ample volume even where it issues from its springs, it receives as tributaries the river Kainas, and the Erannoboas, and the Kossoanos, which are all navigable. It receives, besides, the river Sonos and the Sittokatis, and the Solomatis, which are also navigable, and also the Kondochates, and the Sambos, and the Magon, and the Agoranis, and the Omalis. Moreover there fall into it the Kommenases, a great river, and the Kakouthis, and the Andomatis, which flows from the dominions of the Madyandinoi, an Indian tribe. In addition to all these, the Amystis, which flows past the city Katadupa, and the Oxymagis from the dominions of a tribe called the Pazalai, and the Errenysis from the Mathai, an Indian tribe, unite with the Ganges. Regarding these streams Megasthenes asserts that none of them is inferior to the Mai-

Kosoanos. — Cosoagus is the form of the name in Pliny, and hence it has been taken to be the representative of the Sanskrit Kausikî, the river now called the Kosi. Schwanbeck, however, thinks it represents the Sanskrit Kosâvâha ('treasure-bearing'), and that it is therefore an epithet of the Sôn, like Hiranyavâha, which has the same meaning. It seems somewhat to favour this view that Arrian in his enumeration places the Kosoanos between the Erannoboas and the Sôn. Sonos. — The Sôn, which now joins the Ganges ten miles above Dinâpur. The word is considered to be a contraction of the Sanskrit Suvarna (Suvanna), 'golden,' and may have been given as a name to the river either because its sands were yellow, or because they contained gold dust. Sittokatis. — It has not been ascertained what river was denoted by this name, but St.-Martin thinks it may be the representative of the Sadâkântâ—a river now unknown, but mentioned in the Mahâbhârata along with the Kausadhâra (the Kosi), the Sadânîra (the Karatoyâ), and the Adhrishya (the Âtreyî), from which it is evident that it belonged to the northern parts of Bengal.

Solomatis. — It has not been ascertained what river was denoted by this name. General Cunningham in one of his maps gives the Solomatis as a name of the Saranju or Sarju, a tributary of the Ghagrâ; while Benfey and others would identify it with the famous Sarasvatî or Sarsuti, which, according to the legends, after disappearing underground, joined the Ganges at Allahâbâd. There is more probability, however, in Lassen's suggestion, that the word somewhat erroneously transliterates Sarâvatî, the name of a city of Kôsala mentioned by Kâlidâsa and in the Purânas, where it appears generally in the form Srâvastî. This city stood on a river which, though nowhere mentioned by name, must also have been called Sarâvatî, since there is an obvious connexion between that name and the name by which the river of that district is now known—the Rapti. Kondochates. — Now the Gandak, — in Sanskrit, Gandakî or Gandakavatî (ῥινοκερόεις), — because of its abounding in a kind of alligator having a horn-like projection on its nose. It skirted the eastern border of Kôsala, joining the Ganges opposite Palibothra. Sambos. — This has no Sanskrit equivalent. It perhaps designated the Gumtî, which is said to go by the name of the Sambou at a part of its course below Lucknow. andros, even at the navigable part of its course; and as for the Ganges, it has a breadth where

Magos. — According to Mannert the Râmgaṅgâ, but much more probably the Mahânada, now the Mahona, the principal river of Magadha, which joins the Ganges not far below Pâtnâ. Agoranis. — According to Rennel the Ghagrâ — a word derived from the Sanskrit Gharghara ('of gurgling sound'), but according to St.-Martin it must be some one or other of the Gaouris so abundant in the river nomenclature of Northern India. The vulgar form is Gaurana. Omalis has not been identified, but Schwanbeck remarks that the word closely agrees with the Sanskrit Vimala ('stainless'), a common epithet of rivers. Kommenases. — Rennel and Lassen identify this with the Karmanâsâ (bonorum operum destructrix), a small river which joins the Ganges above Buxar. According to a Hindu legend, whoever touches the water of this river loses all the merit of his good works, this being transferred to the nymph of the stream. Kakonthis. — Mannert erroneously takes this to be the Gumtî. Lassen identifies it with the Kakouttha of the Buddhist chronicles, and hence with the Bagmatti, the Bhagavati of Sanskrit.

Andomatis. — Thought by Lassen to be connected with the Sanskrit Andhamati (tenebricosus), which he would identify, therefore, with the Tâmasâ, (now the Tonsa), the two names being identical in meaning; but, as the river came from the country of the Madyandini (Sanskrit Madhyandina, meridionalis), — that is, the people of the South, — Wilford's conjecture that the Andomatis is the Dammuda, the river which flows by Bardwân, is more likely to be correct. The Sanskrit name of the Dammuda is Dharmodaya. Amystis. — The city Katadupa, which this river passes, Wilford would identify with Katwa or Cutwa, in Lower Bengal, which is situated on the western branch of the delta of the Ganges at the confluence of the Adji. As the Sanskrit form of the name of Katva should be Katadvîpa ('dvîpa, an island'), M. de St.-Martin thinks this conjecture has much probability in its favour. The Amystis may therefore be the Adjî, or Ajavati as it is called in Sanskrit. Oxymagis. — The Pazalai or Passalai, called in Sanskrit Pañkâla, inhabited the Doâb, and through this or the region adjacent flowed the Ikshumati ('abounding in sugarcane'). Oxymagis very probably represented this narrowest of one hundred stadia, while in many places it spreads out into lakes, so that when the country happens to be flat and destitute of elevations the opposite shores cannot be seen from each other. The Indus presents also, he says, similar characteristics.

The Hydraotes, flowing from the dominions of the Kambistholi, falls into the Akesines after receiving the Hyphasis in its passage through the Astrybai, as well as the Saranges from the Kekians, and the Neudros from the Attakenoi. The Hydaspes again, rising in the dominions of the Oxydrakai, and bringing with it the Sinaros, received in the dominion of the Arispai, falls itself into the Akesines, while the Akesines joins the Indus in the dominions of the Malloi, but not until it has received the waters of a great tributary, the Toutapos. Augmented by all these confluents the Akesines succeeds in imposing its name on the combined waters, and still retains it till it unites with the Indus. The Kophen, too, falls into the Indus, rising in Peukelaitis, and bringing with it the Malanis, and the Soastos, and the Garroia. Higher up than these, the Parenos and Saparnus, at no great distance from each other, empty themselves into the Indus, as does also the Sanos, which comes without a tributary from the hill-country of the Abissareans. According to Megasthenes most of these rivers are navigable. We ought not, therefore, to whose country it flowed, were called in Sanskrit, according to Lassen, Sekaya. Nendros is not known. The Attakenoi are likewise unknown, unless their name is another form of Assakenoi.

Hydaspes.—Bidaspes is the form in Ptolemy, which makes a nearer approach to its Sanskrit name—the Vitasta. It is now the Behut or Jhelam; called also by the inhabitants on its banks the Bedusta, 'widely spread.' It is the "fabulosus Hydaspes" of Horace, and the "Medus (i.e. Eastern) Hydaspes" of Virgil. It formed the western boundary of the dominions of Poros. Akesines.—Now the Chenab: its Sanskrit name Asikni ('dark-coloured') is met with in the hymns of the Veda. It was called afterwards Chandrabhaga (portio lunae). This would be represented in Greek by Sandrophagos,—a word in sound so like Androphagos or Alexandrophagos ('devourer of Alexander') that the followers of the great conqueror changed the name to avoid the evil omen,—the more so, perhaps, on account of the disaster which befell the Makedonian fleet at the turbulent junction of the river with the Hydaspes. Ptolemy gives its name as Sandabaga (Sandabala by an error on the part of copyists), which is an exact transcription of the Prakrit Chandabhaga, of which word the Cantabra of Pliny is a greatly altered form. The Malli, in whose country this river joins the Indus, are the Malava of Sanskrit, whose name is preserved in the Multan of the present day. Toutapos.—Probably the lower part of the Satadru or Satlej.

Kophen.—Another form of the name, used by Strabo, Pliny, &c., is Kophes, -etis. It is now the Kabul river. The three rivers here named as its tributaries probably correspond to the Suvastu, Gauri, and Kampana mentioned in the 6th book of the Mahabharata. The Soastos is no doubt the Suvastu, and the Garoea the Gauri. Curtius and Strabo call the Suastus the Choaspes. According to Mannert the Suastus and the Garoea or Guraeus were identical. Lassen, however (Ind. Alterthums. 2nd ed. II. 678 ff.), would identify the Suastus with the modern Suwad or Svat, and the Garoea with its tributary the Panjkora; and this is the view adopted by Cunningham. The Malamantos some would identify with the Choes (mentioned by Arrian, Anabasis iv. 25), which is probably represented by the Kameh or Khonar, the largest of the tributaries of the distrust what we are told regarding the Indus and the Ganges, that they are beyond comparison greater than the Ister and the Nile.

In the case of the Nile we know that it does not receive any tributary, but that, on the contrary, in its passage through Egypt its waters are drawn off to fill the canals. As for the Ister, it is but an insignificant stream at its sources, and though it no doubt receives many confluents, still these are neither equal in number to the confluents of the Indus and Ganges, nor are they navigable like them, if we except a very few,— as, for instance, the Inn, and Save which I have myself seen. The Inn joins the Ister where the Noricans march with the Rhaetians, and the Save in the dominions of the Pannonians, at a place which is called Taurunum. Some one may perhaps know other navigable tributaries of the Danube, but the number certainly cannot be great.