Early India and Pakistan to Ashoka c4.3

c4.3

No logical system has here been followed in the transcription of Indian names. Since 1947 a number of them have been corrected from the sort of Hobson-Jobson into which time and the British had corrupted them. In some instances this revision has perhaps been tinged with pedantry, in others a blundered or Anglicized spelling has merely been corrected. I have pursued a middle course which will please no one. Thus for Yamunā and Gangā I have retained the more widely familiar Jumna and Ganges. On the other hand, I have used the more seemly spelling of Mathurā for Muttra. In the case of the old Benares I have gone so far as to adopt Banaras but have shrunk from the archaistic Vārāṇasi. My aim has been to retain sufficient affinity between old and new to ensure recognition by the English reader, for whom this book is primarily intended.