Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c20: Appendix VI. Western India as Known to the Greeks and Romans

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarát c20

Language: English

c20.s1 Megasthenes — 7 parts
c20.s2 Strabo — 1 part
c20.s3 Pliny — 20 parts
c20.s4 Klaudios Ptolemaios — 38 parts

Appendix VI. Western India as Known to the Greeks and Romans

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¹ Contributed by Mr. A. M. T. Jackson, M.A., I.C.S.

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Herodotos and Hekataios, the earliest Greek writers who make mention of India, give no information in regard to Western India in particular.

Ktesias (c. 400 B.C.) learnt in Persia that a race of Pygmies lived in India in the neighbourhood of the silver mines, which Lassen places near Udaipur (Mewar). From the description of these Pygmies (Photios. Bibl. LXXII. 11-12) it is evident that they represent the Bhils. Ktesias also mentions (Photios. Bibl. LXXII. 8) that there is a place in an uninhabited region fifteen days from Mount Sardous, where they venerate the sun and moon and where for thirty-five days in each year the sun remits his heat for the comfort of his worshippers. This place must apparently have been somewhere in Marwar, and perhaps Mount Abu is the place referred to.

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Alexander (c. 326-25) did not reach Gujarat, and his companions have nothing to tell of this part of the country. It is otherwise with

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Megasthene's (c. 300 B.C.) who resided with Candragupta as the ambassador of Seleukos Nikator and wrote an account of India in four books, of which considerable fragments are preserved, chiefly by Strabo, Pliny, and Arrian. His general account of the manners of the Indians relates chiefly to those of northern India, of whom he had personal knowledge. But he also gave a geographical description of India, for Arrian informs us (Ind. VII) that he gave the total number of Indian tribes as 118, and Pliny (VI. 17ff) does in fact enumerate about 90, to whom may be added some seven or eight more mentioned by Arrian. It is true that Pliny does not distinctly state that he takes his geographical details from Megasthenes, and that he quotes Seneca as having written a book on India. But Seneca also (Pliny, VI. 17) gave the number of the tribes as 118 in which he must have followed Megasthenes. Further, Pliny says (ibid) that accounts of the military forces of each nation were given by writers such as Megasthenes and Dionysius who stayed with Indian kings: and as he does not mention Dionysius in his list of authorities for his Book VI., it follows that it was from Megasthenes that he drew his accounts of the forces of the Gangaridae, Modogalinga, Andarae, Prasi, Megallae, Asmagi, Oratae, Suarataratae, Autoutola, Charmae, and Pandae (VI. 19), names which, as will be shown below, betray a knowledge of all parts of India. It is a fair inference that the remaining names mentioned by Pliny were taken by him from Megasthenes, perhaps through the medium of Seneca's work. The corruption of Pliny's text and the fact that Megasthenes learnt the tribal names in their Prakrit forms, make it extremely difficult to identify many of the races referred to.

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That part of Pliny's account of India which may with some certainty be traced back to Megasthenes begins with a statement of the stages of the royal road from the Hypasis (Biás) to Palibothra (Patna) (Nat. Hist. VI. 17). The next chapter gives an account of the Ganges and its tributaries and mentions the Gangaridae of Kalinga with their capital Pertalis as the most distant nation on its banks. In the 19th chapter, after an account of the forces of the Gangaridae, Pliny gives a list of thirteen tribes, of which the only ones that can be said to be satisfactorily identified are Modogalinga (the three Calingas: Caldwell Dray.-Gr.), Molindae (compare Mount Malindya of Varaha Mihira Br. S. XIV.), and Thalutae (McCrindle reads Talutae and identifies with the Tamraliptakas of Tamluk on the lower Ganges). He next mentions the Andarae (Andhras of Telingana) with thirty cities 100,000 foot 2000 horse and 1000 elephants. He then digresses to speak of the Dardae (Dards of the Upper Indus) as rich in gold and the Setae (of Mewar, Lassen) in silver, and next introduces the Prasi (Pracyas) of Palibothra (Pataliputra) as the most famous and powerful of all the tribes, having 600,000 foot 30,000 horse and 8000 elephants. Inland from these he names the Monades (Munda of Singbhum) and Suari (Savaras of Central India) among whom is Mount Maleus (Mahendra Male ?). Then after some account of the Iomanes (Yamuna) running between Methora (Mathura) and Chrysobora (McCrindle reads Carisobora, Arrian Ind. VIII. Kleisobora = Krishnapura ?) he turns to the Indus, of some of whose nineteen tributaries he gives some account in chapter 20. He then digresses to give an account of the coast of India, starting from the mouth of the Ganges, whence to Point Calingon (Point Godavari) and the city of Dandaguda (Cunningham's Raja Mahendri, but more probably the Dhanakataka or Dhenukakata of the Western cave inscriptions) he reckons 625 miles. The distance thence to Tropina (Tirupanara near Kochin according to Burgess) is 1225 miles. Next at a distance of 750 miles is the cape of Perimula, where is the most famous mart of India. Further on in the same chapter is mentioned a city named Automula on the sea shore among the Arabastra (or Salabastra and Oratae, McCrindle) a noble mart where five rivers together flow into the sea. There can hardly be a doubt that the two places are the same, the two names being taken from different authorities, and that the place meant is Chempla or Cheul (Ptolemy's Simulla) the five rivers being those that flow into Bombay Harbour northward of Cheul. The distance from Perimula to the Island of Patala in the Indus is 620 miles. Pliny next enumerates, as hill tribes between the Indus and Jamna, shut in a ring of mountains and deserts for a space of 625 miles, the Cesi (the Kekioi of Arr. Ind. IV. and Kekayas of the Puranas, about the head waters of the Sutlej), the Cetriboni of the woods (..... Vana ?), the Megallae (Mekalas) with 500 elephants and unknown numbers of horse and foot, the Chrysei (Karusha) Parasangae (Parasava, corrupted by the likeness of its first three syllables to the word parasangya), the Asmagi (Asmaka of Varaha Mihira) with 30,000 foot 300 elephants and 800 horse. These are shut in by the Indus and surrounded by a circle of mountains and deserts for 625 miles. Next come the Dari and Sura, and then deserts again for 187 miles. Whether these are or are not correctly identified with the Dhars and Saurs of Sindh, they must be placed somewhere to the north of the Ran. Below them come five kingless tribes living in the hills along the sea-

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EARLY GREEKS AND ROMANS.

Megasthenes

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coast—the Maltecoræ, Singhae, Maroheæ, Rarungæ, and Morund-none of whom are satisfactorily identified, but who may be placed in Kachh. Next follow the Nareæ, enclosed by Mount Capitalia (Abu) the highest mountain in India, on the other side of which are mines of gold and silver. The identification of Capitalia with Abu is probable enough, but the name given to the mountain must be connected with the Kapisthala of the Purāṇas, who have given their name to one of the recensions of the Yajur-Veda, though Kaithal, their modern representative, lies far away from Abu in the Karnāl district of the Panjāb, and Arrian places his Καμβίσολοι (Ind. IV) about the head waters of the Hydrastis (Rāvi). After Capitalia and the Nareæ come the Oratae with but ten elephants but numerous infantry. These must be the Aparāntakas of the inscriptions and purāṇas, Megasthenes having learnt the name in a Prakrit form (Avarāta, Orāta). The name of the next tribe, who have no elephants but horse and foot only, is commonly read Suarataræ (Nobbe) but the preferable reading is Varetatæ (McCrindle) which when corrected to Varetatæ represents Varatata, the sixth of the seven Konkaṇs in the purāṇic lists (Wilson As. Res. XV. 47), which occupied the centre of the Thāṇa district and the country of the wild tribe of the Varlis. Next are the Odonbœres, whose name is connected with the *Ficus glomerata* tree, and who are not the Auḍumbarī Sālvas of Pāṇini (IV. i. 173) but must be placed in Southern Thāṇa. Next come the Arabastræ-Oratæ (so read for Arabastræ Thoracæ of Nobbe, and Salabastræ Horatæ of McCrindle) or Arabastra division of the Oratae or Konkaṇs. Arabastra may be connected with the Arava of Varāha-Mihira's South-Western Division (Br. S. XIV. 17) where they are mentioned along with Barbara (the seventh or northernmost Konkaṇ). This tribe had a fine city in a marsh infested by crocodiles and also the great mart of Automula (Cheul) at the confluence of five rivers, and the king had 1600 elephants 150,000 foot and 5000 horse, and must therefore have held a large part of the Dakhan as well as of the sea coast. Next to this kingdom is that of the Charmæ, whose forces are small, and next to them the Pandæ (Pāṇḍya of Travancor) with 300 cities 150,000 foot and 500 elephants. Next follows a list of thirteen tribes, some of which St. Martin has identified with modern Rajput tribes about the Indus, because the last name of the thirteen is Orostæ, "who reach to the island of Patalē" and may be confidently identified with the Śaurāṣṭra of Kāthiā-vāḍa. We must however assume that Megasthenes after naming the tribes of the west coast enumerates the inland tribes of the Dakhan until he arrives at the point from which he started. But the only identification that seems plausible is that of the Derangæ with the Telingas or Telugas. Next to the Orostæ follows a list of tribes on the east of the Indus from south to north—the Mathæ (compare Mānthava, a Bāhika town Pāṇ. IV. ii. 117), Bolingæ (Bhāulingi, a Sālva tribe Pāṇ. IV. i. 173), Gallitalutæ (perhaps a corruption of Tāilakhali, another Sālva tribe, ib.), Dimuri, Megari, Ardalæ, Messæ (Matsya of Jaipur?), Abi, Suri, (v. l. Abhis Uri), Silæ, and then deserts for 250 miles. Next come three more tribes and then again deserts, then four or five (according to the reading) more tribes, and the Asini whose capital is Bucephala (Jalālpur) (Cunningham Anc. Geog. 177). Megasthenes then gives two mountain tribes and ten beyond the Indus including the Qrai (Urasē) Taxilæ (Takshaśilā) and Peucolitæ (people of Pushkalavati). Of the work of Deïmachos, who went on an embassy to Allitrochades (Bindusāra) son of Candragupta, nothing is known except that it was in two books and was reckoned the most untrustworthy of all accounts of India (Strabo. II. i. 9).

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Ptolemy II. Philadelphos (died 247 B.C.) interested himself in the trade with India and opened a caravan road from Koptos on the Nile to Berenikē on the Red Sea (Strabo, XVII. i. 45) and for centuries the Indian trade resorted either to this port or to the neighbouring Myos Hormos. He also sent to India (apparently to Aśoka) an envoy named Dionysios, who is said by Pliny (VI. 17) to have written an account of things Indian of which no certain fragments appear to remain. But we know from the fragments of

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Agatharkhides (born c. 250 A.D.) who wrote in old age an account of the Red Sea of which we have considerable extracts in Diodōros (III. 12-48) and Phōtios (Müller's Geogr. Gr. Min. I. 111ff), states that in his time the Indian trade with Patana (Patala) was in the hands of the Sabaeans of Yemen. (Müller, L 191.) In fact it was not until the voyages of Eudoxos (see below) that any direct trade sprang up between India and Egypt. The mention of Patala as the mart resorted to by the Arabs shows that we are still in Pliny's first period (see below).

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The Baktrian Greeks extended their power into India after the fall of the Maurya empire (c. 180 B.C.) their leader being Dēmētrios son of Euthydēmos, whose conquests are referred to by Justin (XLI. 6) and Strabo (XI. ii. 1). But the most extensive conquests to the east and south were made by Menandros (c. 110 B.C.) who advanced to the Jumna and conquered the whole coast from Patalēnē (lower Sindh) to the kingdoms of Saraostos (Surāshtra) and Sigertis (Pliny's Sigerus?) (Strabo, XI. ii. 1). These statements of Strabo are confirmed by the author of the Periplus (c. 250 A.D.) who says that in his time drachmai with Greek inscriptions of Menandros and Apollodotos were still current at Barygaza (Per. 47). Apollodotos is now generally thought to have been the successor of Menandros (c. 100 B.C.) (Brit. Museum Cat. of Baktrian Coins page xxxiii.). Plutarch (Reip. Ger. Princ.) tells us that Menandros' rule was so mild, that on his death his towns disputed the possession of his ashes and finally divided them.

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Eudoxos of Cyzicus (c. 117 B.C.) made in company with others two very successful voyages to India, in the first of which the company were guided by an Indian who had been shipwrecked on the Egyptian coast. Strabo (II. iii. 4), in quoting the story of his doings from Poseidōnios, lays more stress upon his attempt to circumnavigate Africa than upon these two Indian voyages, but they are of very great importance as the beginnings of the direct trade with India.

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The Geographers down to Ptolemy drew their knowledge of India almost entirely from the works of Megasthenēs and of the companions of Alexander. (Among them Eratosthenēs (c. 275-194 B.C.), the founder of scientific geography, deserves mention as having first given wide currency to the notion that the width of India from west to east was greater than its length from north to south, an error which lies at the root of Ptolemy's distortion of the map.) Eratosthenēs' critic Hipparkhos (c. 130 B.C.) on this point followed the more correct account of Megasthenēs, and is otherwise notable as the first to make use of astronomy for the determination of the geographical position of places.

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Strabo (c. 63 B.C.-23 A.D.) drew his knowledge of India, like his predecessors, chiefly from Megasthenēs and from Alexander's followers, but adds (XV. i. 72) on the authority of Nikolaos of Damascus (tutor to the children of Antony and Cleopatra, and envoy of Herod) an account of three Indian envoys from a certain king Pōros to Augustus (ob. A.D. 14),

Strabo

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who brought presents consisting of an armless man, snakes, a huge turtle and a large partridge, with a letter in Greek written on parchment offering free passage and traffic through his dominions to the emperor's subjects. With these envoys came a certain Zarmanokhēgas (Sramanācārya, Lassen) from Bargosē (Broach, the earliest mention of the name) who afterwards burnt himself at Athens, "according to the ancestral custom of the Indians." The fact that the embassy came from Broach and passed through Antioch shows that they took the route by the Persian Gulf, which long remained one of the chief lines of trade (Per. chap. 36). If the embassy was not a purely commercial speculation on the part of merchants of Broach, it is hard to see how king Poros, who had 600 under-kings, can be other than the Indo-Scythian Kozolakadaphes, who held Poros' old kingdom as well as much other territory in North-West India. This if correct would show that as early as the beginning of our era the Indo-Scythian power reached as far south as Broach. The fact that the embassy took the Persian Gulf route and that their object was to open commercial relations with the Roman empire seems to show that at this period there was no direct trade between Broach and the Egyptian ports of the Red Sea. Strabo however mentions that in his time Arabian and Indian wares were carried on camels from Myos Hormos (near Rās Abu Somer) on the Red Sea to Koptos on the Nile (XVII. i. 45 and XVI. iv. 24) and dilates upon the increase of the Indian trade since the days of the Ptolemies when not so many as twenty ships dared pass through the Red Sea "to peer out of the Straits," whereas, in his time whole fleets of as many as 120 vessels voyaged to India and the headlands of Ethiopia from Myos Hormos (II. v. 12 and XV. i. 13). It would seem that we have here to do with Pliny's second period of Indian trade, when Sigeras (probably Janjira) was the goal of the Egyptian shipmasters (see below). Strabo learnt these particulars during his stay in Egypt with Aelius Gallus, but they were unknown to his contemporary Diodoros who drew his account of India entirely from Megasthenes (Diod. II. 31-42) and had no knowledge of the East beyond the stories told by Jamboulos a person of uncertain date of an island in the Indian Archipelago (Bali, according to Lassen) (Diod. II. 57-60). Pomponius Mela (A.D. 43) also had no recent information as regards India.

Pliny

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Pliny (A.D. 23-79) who published his Natural History in A.D. 77 gives a fairly full account of India, chiefly drawn from Megasthenes (see above). He also gives two valuable pieces of contemporary information:

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(i) An account of Ceylon (Taprobane) to which a freedman of Annius Plocamus, farmer of the Red Sea tribute, was carried by stress of weather in the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41-54). On his return the king sent to the emperor four envoys, headed by one Rachias (VI. 23).

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(ii) An account of the voyage from Alexandria to India by a course which had only lately been made known (VI. 23). Pliny divides the history of navigation from the time of Nearchus to his own age into three periods:

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(a) the period of sailing from Syagrus (Rās Fartak) in Arabia to Patalē (Indus delta) by the south-west wind called Hippalus, 1332 miles;

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(b) the period of sailing from Syagrus (Rās Fartak) to Sigerus (Ptol. Milizēgyris, Peripl. Melizeigara, probably Janjira, and perhaps the same as Strabo's Sigertis);

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(c) the modern period, when traffic went on from Alexandria to Koptos up the Nile, and thence by camels across the desert to Berenice (in Foul Bay), 257 miles. Thence the merchants start in the middle of summer before the rising of the dogstar and in thirty days reach Okelis (Ghalla) or Cane (Hisn Ghorab), the former port being most frequented by the Indian trade. From Okelis it is a forty days' voyage to Muziris (Muyyiri, Kranganur) which is dangerous on account of the neighbouring pirates of Nitrias (Mangalore) and inconvenient by reason of the distance of the roads from the shore. Another better port is Becare (Kallada, Yule) belonging to the tribe Neacyndon (*Ptol.* Melkynda, *Peripl.* Nelkynda) of the kingdom of Pandion (Pandya) whose capital is Modura (Madura). Here pepper is brought in canoes from Cotto-nara (Kadattanada). The ships return to the Red Sea in December or January.

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It is clear that the modern improvement in navigation on which Pliny lays so much stress consisted, not in making use of the monsoon wind, but in striking straight across the Indian ocean to the Malabar coast. The fact that the ships which took this course carried a guard of archers in Pliny's time, but not in that of the Periplus, is another indication that the direct route to Malabar was new and unfamiliar in the first century A.D. The name Hippalus given to the monsoon wind will be discussed below in dealing with the Periplus.

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Dionysios Periege'te's who has lately been proved to have written under Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) (Christ's Griech. Litteratur Gesch. page 507) gives a very superficial description of India but has a valuable notice of the Southern Scythians who live along the river Indus to the east of the Gedrosoi (i. 1087-88).

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Klaudios Ptolemaios of Alexandria lived according to Suidas under Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (A.D. 161-180). He compiled his account of India as part of a geographical description of the then known world, and drew much of his materials from Marinos of Tyre, whose work is lost, but who must have written about A.D. 130. Ptolemy (or Marinos before him) had a very wide knowledge of India, drawn partly from the relations of shipmasters and traders and partly from Indian lists similar to those of the Puranas but drawn up in Prakrit. He seems to have made little if any use of Megasthenes and the companions of Alexander. But his map of India is distorted by the erroneous idea, which he took from Eratosthenes, that the width of India from west to east greatly exceeded its length from north to south. Ptolemy begins his description of India with the first chapter of his seventh book, which deals with India within the Ganges. He gives first the names of rivers, countries, towns, and capes along the whole coast of India from the westernmost mouth of the Indus to the easternmost mouth of the Ganges. He next mentions in detail the mountains and the rivers with their tributaries, and then proceeds to enumerate the various nations of India, and the cities belonging to each, beginning with the north-west and working southwards: and he finally gives a list of the islands lying off the coast. In dealing with his account of western India it will be convenient to notice together the cities of each nation which he mentions separately under the heads of coast and inland towns.

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He gives the name of Indo-Scythia to the whole country on both sides of the lower course of the Indus from its junction with the Koa (Kabul river), and gives its three divisions as Patalene (lower Sindh) Abiria (read Sabiria, that is Sauvira or upper Sindh and Multan) and Surastrene (Surashtra or Kathiawada). We have seen that Dionysios knew the southern Scythians of the Indus, and we shall meet with them again in the Periplus (chapter 38ff).

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He enumerates seven mouths of the Indus, but the river is so constantly changing its course that it is hopeless to expect to identify all the names given by him (Sagapa, Sinthôn, Khariphron, Sapara, Sabalaessa, and Lonibare) with the existing channels. Only it may be noted that Sinthôn preserves the Indian name of the river (Sindhu) and that the easternmost mouth (Lonibare) probably represents both the present Kori or Lauri and the Luni river of Marwar, a fact which goes some way to explain why Ptolemy had no idea of the existence of Kachh, though he knows the Ran as the gulf of Kanthi. Heacas he misplaces Surastrene (Surashtra or Kathiawada) in the Indus delta instead of south of the Ran. Ptolemy enumerates a group of five towns in the north-western part of Indo-Scythia (Kohat, Bannu, and Dera Ismail Khan) of which Cunningham (Anc. Geog. page 84ff) has identified Banagara with Bannu, and Andrapana with Daraban, while the sites of Artaeta, Sabana, and Kodraun are unknown. Ptolemy next gives a list of twelve towns along the western bank of the Indus to the sea. Of these Embolima has been identified by Cunningham (Anc. Geog. page 82) with Amb sixty miles above Attok, and Pasipeda is identified by St. Martin with the Besmaid of the Arab geographers and placed near Mithankot at the junction of the Chenab with the Indus. Sousikana, which comes next in the list to Peripeda, is generally thought to be a corruption of Mousikanos, and is placed by the latest authority (General Haig, The Indus Delta Country, page 180) in Bahawalpur, though Cunningham (Anc. Geog. page 257) puts it at Alor, which is somewhat more in accordance with Ptolemy's distances. Kolaka the most southerly town of the list, cannot well be the Krokala of Arrian (Karachi) as McCrindle supposes, for Ptolemy puts it nearly a degree north of the western mouth of the Indus.

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The two great towns of the delta which Ptolemy next mentions, are placed by General Haig, Patala at a point thirty-five miles south-east of Haidarabad (op. cit. page 19) and Barbarei near Shah Bandar (op. cit. page 31). Barbarei is mentioned again in the Periplus (chapter 38) under the name of Barbarikon. Ptolemy gives the names of nine towns on the left bank of the Indus from the confluence to the sea, but very few of them can be satisfactorily identified. Panasa can only be Oanpan (St. Martin) on Fluellen's principles. Boudhis must represent the Budhiya of the Arabs, though it is on the wrong side of the river (see Haig, op. cit. page 57ff). Nasgramma may with Yule be placed at Nanshahro. Kamigara cannot be Aron (McCrindle), if that place represents Sousikana. Binagara is commonly thought to be a corrupt reading of Minnagara (compare Periplus chapter 38). Haig (op. cit. page 32 note 47) refers to the Tahfata'i Kiram as mentioning a Minnagara in pargana Shahdadpur (north-east of Haidarabad). Parabali, Sydros and Epitana have not been identified, but must be looked for either in Haidarabad or in Thar and Parkar. Xoana may with Yule be identified with Siwana in the bend of the Luni and gives another indication that Ptolemy confounded the Luni with the western mouth of the Indus.

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On the coast of Surastrene (Kathiawada) Ptolemy mentions, first, the island of Barake (Dvaraka Bet); then the city Bardaxema which must be Porbandar (Yule), in front of the Barada hills; then the village of Surastra, which perhaps represents Veraval, though it is placed too far north. Surastra cannot well be Junagad (Lassen) which is not on the coast and in Ptolemy's time was not a village, but a city, though it is certainly strange that Ptolemy does not anywhere mention it. Further south Ptolemy places the mart of Monoglosson (Mangrol). The eastern boundary of the coast of Indo-Skythia seems to have been the mouth of the Mophis (Mahi). Ptolemy's account of Indo-Skythia may be completed by mentioning the list of places which he puts to the east of the Indus (i. e. the Luni) and at some distance from it.

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These are: Xodrake, which has not been identified, but which must be placed somewhere in Mewar, perhaps at the old city of Pur, seventy-two miles north-east of Udaipur, or possibly at the old city of Ahar, two miles from Udaipur itself (Tod's Rajasthan, I. 677-78).

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Sarbanu, which is marked in Ptolemy's map at the head-waters of the Mahi in the Apokopa mountains (Aravallis), must be identified with Sarwan about ten miles north-west of Ratlam. There is also a place called Sarwanio close to Nimach, which Ptolemy may have confused with Sarwan.

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Auxoamis, which St. Martin identifies with Sami and Yule with Ajmir, but neither place suits the distance and direction from Sarwan. If Ptolemy, as above suggested, confused Sarwan and Sarwanio, Auxoamis may be Ahar near Udaipur, Pur being then Xodrake; otherwise Auxoamis may be Idar. The question can only be settled by more exact knowledge of the age of Ahar and of Idar. Orbedarou may provisionally with Yule be placed at Abu.

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Asinda must be looked for near Sidhpur, though it cannot with St. Martin be identified with that place. Parhara Vadnagar (formerly Anandapura and a very old town) may be its modern representative.

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Theophila may be Devaliya (Yule) or Than (Burgess) in north-east Kathiawada.

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Astakajas is admitted to be Hastakavapra or Hathab near Bhavnagar (Buhler).

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Larike is described by Ptolemy next after Indo-Skythia on his way down the West Coast. The northern limit of its coast was the mouth of the river Mophis (Mahi). Its name is the Lata of puranas and inscriptions. Ptolemy mentions as on its coast the village of Pakidare, which may be a misreading for Kapidare and represent Kari (Kapika of inscriptions) a holy place just south of the Mahi. Next comes Cape Maleo, which Ptolemy both in his text and in his map includes in Larike, though there is no prominent headland in a suitable position on the east side of the Gulf of Cambay. As he puts it 2 1/2 degrees west of Broach, it may probably be identified with Gopnath Point in Kathiawada on the other side of the gulf (the Papike of the Periplus), his name for it surviving in the neighbouring shoals known as the Malai banks. It is in agreement with this that Ptolemy puts the mouth of the river Namados (Narmada) to the north of Cape Maleo. South of the river is Kamane which may be identified with Kamaijja or Karman of inscriptions, that is with Kamlej on the Tapti above Surat. It has been supposed to be the Kammoni of the Periplus (chapter 43), which was the village opposite to the reef called Herone on the right (east) of the gulf of Barygaza; but it is perhaps best to separate the two and to identify Kammoni with Kim, north of Olpad. The next town mentioned is Nousaripa, which should probably be read Nousarika, being the Navasarika of inscriptions and the modern Nausari. The most southerly town of Larike is Poulipoula, which has been identified with Phulpada or old Surat, but is too far south. Bilimora is perhaps the most likely position for it, though the names do not correspond (unless Pouli is the Dravidian Puli or poli=a tiger, afterwards replaced by Bili=a cat). Ptolemy begins his list of the inland cities of Larike with Agrinagara, which may with Yule be identified with

Klaudios Ptolemaios

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Agar, thirty-five miles north-east of Ujjain, and the Akara of inscriptions. The next town is Siripalla, which has not been identified, but should be looked for about thirty miles to the south-east of Agar, not far from Shāhjahānpur. The modern name would probably be Shirol. Bammogoura must be identified, not with Pawangad (Yule), but with Hiuen Tsiang's "city of the Brāhmans" (Beal, Si-yu-ki, II. 262), 200 li (about 33 miles) to the north-west of the capital of Mālava in his time. The distance and direction bring us nearly to Jaora. Sazantion and Zerogerei have not been satisfactorily identified but may provisionally be placed at Ratlām and Badnawar respectively, or Zerogerei may be Dhār as Yule suggested. Ozēnē the capital of Tiastanēs is Ujjain the capital of the Kshatrapa Cashtana who reigned c. 130 A.D. His kingdom included Western Mālwā, West Khāndesh, and the whole of Gujarāt south of the Mahi. His grandson Rudradāman (A.D. 150) tells us in his Girnār inscription (I. A. VII. 259) that his own kingdom included Mārwār Sindh and the lower Panjāb. Next to Ujjain Ptolemy mentions Minnagara, which must have been somewhere near Mānpur. Then we come to Tintoura or Chāndor (Yule) on the ridge which separates Khāndesh from the valley of the Godāvari, and finally on that river itself Nasika the modern Nāsik. It is very doubtful whether Nāsik at any time formed part of the dominions of Cashtana since we know from the inscriptions in the Nāsik caves that the Kshatrapas were driven out of that part of the country by, Gautamiputra Sātakarni, the father of Ptolemy's contemporary Pulumāyi. Ptolemy probably found Nāsik mentioned in one of his lists as on a road leading from Ujjain southwards and he concluded that they belonged to the same kingdom.

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Ariakē of the Sadinoi included the coast of the Konkan as far south as Baltipatna (near Mahād) and the Deccan between the Godāvari and the Krishna. The name occurs in Varāha Mihira's Brihat Samhitā XIV. in the form Āryaka. The tribal name Sadinoi is less easy to explain. The suggested connection with the word Sādhana as meaning an agent (Lassen) and its application to the Kshatrapas of Gujarāt, are not tenable. The only authority for this meaning of Sādhana is Wilson's Sanskrit Dictionary, and at this time it is certain that Ariakē belonged, not to the Kshatrapas of Gujarāt, but to the Sātakarnis of Paithan on the Godāvari. Bhāndārkar's identification of the Sadinoi with Varāha Mihira's Sātakas seems also somewhat unsatisfactory. Ptolemy's name may possibly be a corruption of Sātakarni or Sātavāhana. The coast towns of this region were Sopara (Supārā near Bassein), south of which Ptolemy places the river Goaris (Vaitaranī), Dounga (perhaps Dugaḍ ten miles north of Bhiwndi) south of which is the Bōnda river (Bhiwndi Creek), Simylla, a mart and a cape, the Automula and Perimula of Pliny and the modern Chaul (Chemulā); Milizēgyris an island, the same as the Melizēigara of the Periplus and (probably) as the Sigerus of Pliny and the modern Janjira; Hippokoura, either Ghodegaon or Kudā (Yule) in Kolābā district; Baltipatna, probably the Palaiipatmai of the Periplus and the same as Pat near Mahād.

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The inland dominions of the Sadinoi were much more extensive than their coast line. Ptolemy gives two lists of cities, one of those lying to the west (i. e. north), of the Bōnda, whose course in the Deccan represents the Bhīmā river, and the other of those between the Bōnda and the Pseudostomos (here the Malprabhā and Krishna or possibly the Tungabhadrā with its tributaries). The most easterly towns in the first list, Malippain and Sarisabis, are not satisfactorily identified, but must be looked for in the Nizām's country to the south-east of Haidārābād. Next comes Tagara mentioned in the Periplus (chapter 51) as ten days east from Paithan, and therefore about the latitude of Kulbarga, with which it is identified by Yule. The distance and direction make its identification with Deogir (Wilford and others), Junnar (Bhagwanlâl), or Kolhâpur (Fleet) impossible. The best suggestion hitherto made is that it is Dârar or Dhârar (Bhândârkar), but Dârar in the Bhir district is too far north, so Dhârar fifty miles west of Haidarâbâd must be taken as the most likely site. Next to Tagara Ptolemy mentions Baithana, which is the Paithana of the Periplus and the modern Paithan on the Godâvari. It is called by our author the capital of Siroptolemaios, who is the Sri-Pulamâyi of the Nâsik cave inscriptions. Next to Baithana comes Deopali, which may safely be identified with the modern Deoli in the suburbs of Ahmadnagar. Gamaliba, the next stage, must be placed somewhere on the line between Ahmadnagar and Junnar, which latter ancient town is to be identified with Ptolemy's Omenogara, although this name is not easy to explain.

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The second list of towns in Ariakê begins with Nagarauris (Nagara-puri) which probably represents Poona which even then must have been a place of importance, being at the head of the great road down the Bhor-ghat. Tabasô (compare Varâha Mihira's Tâpasâsramah and Ptolemy's own Tabasô) may be the holy city of Pandharpur. Indê has retained its ancient name (Indi in the north of the Bijapur district). Next follows Tiripangalida (Tikota in the Karundwâd State?) and then Hippokoura, the capital of Baleokuros. Dr. Bhândârkar has identified this king with the Vilivâyakura of coins found in the Kolhâpur state. His capital may possibly be Hippargi in the Sindgi taluka of the Bijapur district. Soubouttou, the next town on Ptolemy's list, is not identifiable; but the name which follows, Sirimalaga, must be Siraul in the Bijapur taluka of the same district.

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Kalligeris may be identified not with Hanhagiri (McCrindle) but with Galgali at the crossing of the Krishna, and Modogoulla is not Mudgal (McCrindle) but Mudhol on the Ghatprabhâ. Petirgala should probably read Penegala, and would then represent the old town of Panangala or Hongal in the Dhârwâd district. The last name on the list is Banaouasi, which is Vanavâsi, about ten miles from Sirsi in Kanara, a very old town where a separate branch of the Sâtakarnis once ruled.

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The Pirate Coast is the next division of Western India described by Ptolemy, who mentions five sea-ports but only two inland cities. It is clear that the pirates were hemmed in on the land side by the dominions of the Sâtakarnis, and that they held but little territory above the ghâts, though their capital Mousopallê was in that region. The places on the coast from north to south were Mandagora, the Mandagara of the Periplus (chapter 53) which has been satisfactorily identified with Mandangad to the south of the Bânkot creek.

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Byzantion, which, as Dr. Bhândârkar first pointed out, is the Vaijayanti of inscriptions may be placed either at Chiplun or at Dabhol at the mouth of the Vâsisthâ river. Chiplun is the only town of great antiquity in this part of the Konkan, and if it is not Vaijayanti Ptolemy has passed over it altogether. The similarity of the names has suggested the identification of Byzantion with Jaygad (Bhândârkar) or Vijayadrug (Vincent), but both these places are comparatively modern. There are indeed no very ancient towns in the Konkan between Sangameshvar and the Sâvantvâdi border.

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Khersonêsos is generally admitted to be the peninsula of Goa.

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Armagara is placed a little to the north of the river Nanagouna and may be represented by Cape Ramas in Portuguese territory.

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The river Nanagouna here is generally supposed to be the Kalinadi, though in its upper course it seems to represent the Tapti and a confusion with the Nana pass led Ptolemy to bring it into connection with the rivers Goaris and Benda (Campbell).

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Nitra, the southernmost mart on the pirate coast, is the Nitrias of Pliny, and has been satisfactorily identified by Yule with Mangalor on the Netravati.

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The inland cities of the Pirates are Olokhoira and Mousopallé the capital, both of which must be sought for in the rugged country about the sources of the Krishna and may provisionally be identified with the ancient towns of Karad and Karvir (Kolhapur) respectively. To complete Ptolemy's account of this coast it is only necessary to mention the islands of Heptanesia (Burnt Islands ?) Trikadiba and Peperiné. We are not here concerned with his account of the rest of India.

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Bardesanes met at Babylon certain envoys sent from India to the emperor Antoninus Pius (A.D. 154-181) and received from Dandamis and Sandanes, who were of their number, accounts of the customs of the Brahmans and of a rock temple containing a statue of Siva in the Ardhanari form. Lassen (III. 62 and 348) connects Sandanes with the Sadingi and places the temple in Western India, but neither of these conclusions is necessary. The object of the embassy is unknown.

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The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, formerly though wrongly attributed to Arrian (150 A.D.), is an account of the Egyptian trade with East Africa and India, written by a merchant of Alexandria for the use of his fellows. It is preserved in a single manuscript which in some places is very corrupt. The age of this work has been much disputed; the chief views as to this matter are,

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(i) that the Periplus was written before Pliny and made use of by him (Vincent, Schwanbeck, and Glaser). The arguments of Vincent and Schwanbeck are refuted by Müller (Geog. Gr. Min. I. xcviii). Glaser's case is (Ausland 1891, page 45) that the Malichas of the Periplus is Malichos III. of Nabathaea (A.D. 49-71), that the Periplus knows Meroë as capital of Ethiopia, while at the time of Nero's expedition to East Africa (A.D. 68), it had almost vanished, and lastly that the author of the Periplus is Basilis or Basiles, whom Pliny names as an authority for his Book VI. It may be replied that Malik has is the title Malik and may have been applied to any Arab Sheikh (Reinand); that the Periplus does not with certainty mention Meroë at all; and that Basilis whether or not a contemporary of Ptolemy Philadelphos was at any rate earlier than Agatharkhidēs (c. 200 B.C.), who quotes him (Geog. Gr. Min. I. 156);

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(ii) that the Periplus was written at the same time as Pliny's work, but neither used the other (Salmasius). This view is refuted by Müller (op. cit. page 155);

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(iii) that the Periplus was written after 161 A.D. (Dodwell); Müller has shown (ibid) that Dodwell's arguments are inconclusive;

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(iv) the received view that the Periplus was written between A.D. 80 and A.D. 89 (Müller);

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(v) that the Periplus was written about the middle of the third century (Reinand Mém. de l'Ac. des Inscr. XXIV. Pt. ii. translated in I. A. VIII. pages 330ff).

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The only choice lies between the view of Müller and that of Reinaud. Müller argues for a date between A.D. 80 and A.D. 89, because the Periplus knows no more than Pliny of India beyond the Ganges, whereas Ptolemy's knowledge is much greater; because the Periplus calls Ceylon Palaisimoundou, which is to Ptolemy (VII. iv. 1) an old name; because the Nabathæan kingdom, which was destroyed A.D. 105, was still in existence at the time of the Periplus; because the Periplus account of Hippalos shows it to be later than Pliny; and because the Periplus mentions king Zoskalés, who must be the Za Hakalé of the Abyssinian lists who reigned A.D. 77-89. It may be replied that the Periplus is not a geography of Eastern Asia, but a guide book for traders with certain ports only; that Ptolemy must have found in his lists three names for Ceylon, Taprobané, Palaisimoundou, and Saliké, and that he has wrongly separated Palai from Simoundou, taking it to mean "formerly" and therefore entered Simoundou as the old and Saliké as the modern name,* whereas all three names were in use together; that the Nabathæan king Malikhas was simply the Shaikh of the tribe (Reinaud), and points to no definite date; that the Periplus account of Hippalos is certainly later than Pliny; and that the Zoskalés of the Periplus is the Za Ségal or Za Asgal of the Abyssinian lists, who reigned A.D. 246-47 (Reinaud).

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It follows that Reinaud's date for the Periplus (A.D. 250) is the only one consistent with the facts and especially with the Indian facts. As will appear below, the growth of the Hippalos legend since Pliny's time, the rival Parthians in Sindh, the mention of Mambares and the supplanting of Ozené by Minnagara as his capital since Ptolemy's time, the independence of Baktria, and the notices of Saraganés and Sandanés, are all points strongly in favour of Reinaud's date.

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In the time of the Periplus the ships carrying on the Indian trade started from Myos Hormos (near Ras Abu Somer) or Bereniké (in Foul Bay) and sailed down the Red Sea to Mouza (twenty-five miles north of Mokhâ), and thence to the watering place Okélis (Ghalla) at the Straits. They then followed the Arabian coast as far as Kanê (Hisn Ghurâb in Hadramaut) passing on the way Eudaimôn Arabia (Aden) once a great mart for Indian traders, but lately destroyed by king Elizar (Müller's conjecture for KAIZAP of the MS.) From Kanê the routes to India diverge, some ships sailing to the Indus and on to Barygâza, and others direct to the ports of Limyriké (Malabâr Coast). There was also another route to Limyriké, starting from Arômata (Cape Guardafui). In all three voyages the ships made use of the monsoon, starting from Egypt in July. The monsoon was called Hippalos, according to the Periplus (chapter 57), after the navigator who first discovered the direct course across the sea, and it has been inferred from Pliny's words (VI. 23) that this pilot lived in the middle of the first century A.D. But Pliny's own account shows that, as we should expect, the progress from coasting to a direct voyage was a gradual one, with several intermediate stages, in all of which the monsoon was more or less made use of. There was therefore no reason for naming the wind from the pilot who merely made the last step. Further though Pliny knows Hippalos as the local name of the monsoon wind in the eastern seas, he says nothing of its having been the name of the inventor of the direct course. The inference seems to be that Hippalos the pilot is the child of a seaman's yarn arising out of the local name of the monsoon wind, and that his presence in the Periplus and not in Pliny shows that the former writer is much later than the latter.

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∗ We learn from Pliny (VI. 22) that Palaisimoundou was the name of a town and a river in Ceylon, whence the name was extended to the whole island.

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The merchant bound for Skythia (Sindh) before he reaches land, which lies low to the northward, meets the white water from the river Sinthos (Indus) and water snakes (chapter 38). The river has seven mouths, small and marshy all but the middle one, on which is the port of Barbarikon (Shahbandar, Haig, page 31) whence the merchants' wares are carried up by river to the capital Minnagar (near Shahdadpur Haig, page 32), which is ruled by Parthians who constantly expel one another (chapter 39). These contending Parthians must have been the remnant of the Karen Pahlavs who joined with the Kushans to attack Ardeshir Papakan (Journ. As. [1866] VII. 134). The imports are clothing, flowered cottons, topazes, coral, storax, frankincense, glass vessels, silver plate, specie, and wine: and the exports costus (spice), bdellium (gum), yellow dye, spikenard, emeralds, sapphires, furs from Tibet, cottons, silk thread, and indigo. The list of imports shows that the people of Skythia were a civilised race and by no means wild nomads.

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The Periplus next (chapter 40) gives an accurate account of the Ran (Eirinon) which in those days was probably below sea level (Haig, page 22, Burnes' Travels into Bokhara, III. 309ff), and was already divided into the Great and the Little. Both were marshy shallows even out of sight of land and therefore dangerous to navigators. The Ran was then as now bounded to south and west by seven islands, and the headland Barake (Dvaraka) a place of special danger of whose neighbourhood ships were warned by meeting with great black water-snakes.

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The next chapter (41) describes the gulf of Barygaza (gulf of Cambay)* and the adjoining land, but the passage has been much mangled by the copyist of our only MS. and more still by the guesses of editors. According to the simplest correction (ἀποστῆς Ἀρατησχωρα) our author says that next after Barake (Dvaraka) follows the gulf of Barygaza and the country towards Ariake, being the beginning of the kingdom of Mambaros and of all India. Mambaros may possibly be a corruption of Makshatrapos or some similar Greek form of Mahakshatrapa, the title of the so-called "Sah Kings" who ruled here at this period (A.D. 250). According to the reading of the MS. the author goes on to say that "the inland part of this country bordering on the Iberin (read Subiria = Sauvira) district of Skythia is called . . . . (the name, perhaps Maru, has dropped out of the text), and the sea-coast Syrastrene (Surashtra)." The country abounded then as now in cattle, corn, rice, cotton and coarse cotton cloth, and the people were tall and dark. The capital of the country was Minnagara whence much cotton was brought down to Barygaza. This Minnagara is perhaps the city of that name, placed by Ptolemy near Manpur in the Vindhyas, but it has with more probability been identified with Junagad (Bhagvanlal) which was once called Manipura (Kath. Gaz. 487). Our author states that in this part of the country were to be found old temples, ruined camps and huge wells, relics (he says) of Alexander's march, but more probably the work of Menandros and Apollodotos. This statement certainly points to Kathiawada rather than to Manpur. The voyage along this coast from Barbarikon to the headland of Papike (Gopnath) near Astakspra (Hasthab) and opposite to Barygaza (Broach) was one of 3000 stadia = 300 miles, which is roughly correct. The next chapter (42) describes the northern part of the gulf of Cambay as 300 stadia wide and running northward to the river Mais (Mahi). Ships bound for Barygaza steer first northward past the island

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Baiones (Peram) and then eastward towards the mouth of the Namnadios (Narmadā) the river of Broach. The navigation (chapter 43) is difficult by reason of rocks and shoals such as Hērōnē (perhaps named from some wreck) opposite the village of Kammōni (Kim) on the eastern shore and by reason of the current on the western near Pāpikē (perhaps a sailor's name meaning Unlucky). Hence the government sends out fishermen in long boats called Trappaga or Kotumba (Kotia) to meet the ships (chapter 44) and pilot them into Barygaza, 300 stadia up the river, by towing and taking advantage of the tides. In this connection our author gives a graphic description of the Bore in the Narbadā (chapter 45) and of the dangers to which strange ships are exposed thereby (chapter 46).

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Inland from Barygaza (that is, from the whole kingdom, which, as we have seen, bordered on Sauvīra or Multān) lay (chapter 47) the Aratrioi (Arattas of the Mahābhārata and Purāṇas, who lived in the Panjāb), the Arskhōsioi (people of eastern Afghanistan), Gandaraioi (Gandhāra of N.-W. Panjāb), Proklai’s (near Peshāwar), and beyond them the Baktrianoi (of Balkh) a most warlike race, governed by their own independent sovereigns. These last are probably the Kushāns who, when the Parthian empire fell to pieces in the second quarter of the third century, joined the Karēn Pahlavs in attacking Ardeshīr. It was from these parts, says our author, that Alexander marched into India as far as the Ganges—an interesting glimpse of the growth of the Alexander legend since the days of Arrian (A.D. 150). Our author found old drakhmai of Menandros and Apollodotos still current in Barygaza.

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Eastward in the same kingdom (chapter 48) is the city of Ozēnē, which was formerly the capital, whence onyxes, porcelain, muslins, and cottons are brought to Barygaza. From the country beyond Proklais came costus, bdellium, and spikenard of three kinds, the Kattybourine, the Patro-papigic, and the Kabalitic (this last from Kābul).

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We learn incidentally that besides the regular Egyptian trade Barygaza had commercial relations with Mouza in Arabia (chapter 21) with the East African coast (chapter 14) and with Apologos (Obollah) at the head of the Persian Gulf and with Omana on its eastern shore (chapter 36). The imports of Barygaza were wine, bronze, tin and lead, coral and gold stone (topaz?), cloth of all sorts, variegated sashes (like the horrible Berlin wool comforters of modern days), storax, sweet clover, white glass, gum sandarac, stibium for the eyes, and gold and silver coin, and unguents. Besides, there were imported for the king costly silver plate, musical instruments (musical boxes are still favoured by Indian royalty), handsome girls for the harem (these are the famous Yavanī handmaids of the Indian drama), high-class wine, apparel and choice unguents, a list which shows that these monarchs lived in considerable luxury. The exports of Barygaza were spikenard, costus, bdellium, ivory, onyxes, porcelain, box-thorn, cottons, silk, silk thread, long pepper (chillies), and other wares from the coast ports.

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From Barygaza our author rightly says (chapter 50) that the coast trends southward and the country is called Dakhinabadēs (Dakshināpatha): much of the inland country is waste and infested by wild beasts, while populous tribes inhabit other regions as far as the Ganges. The chief towns in Dakhinabadēs (chapter 51) are Paithana (Paithan) twenty days journey south of Barygaza and Tagara (Dhārur) a very large city ten days east of Paithana. From Paithana come onyxes, and from Tagara cottons muslins and other local wares from the (east) coast.

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The smaller ports south of Barygaza are Akalorou (perhaps the Khabirun of Mahomedan writers and the modern Kâvêri the river of Nânsâri) Souppara (Supârâ near Bassein) and Kalliena, which was made a mart by the elder Saraganês, but much injured when Sandanês became its master, for from his time Greek vessels visiting the port are sent under guard to Barygaza. This interesting statement is one of the clearest indications of the date of the Periplus. As Bhândârkar has shown, the elder Saraganês implies also a younger, who can be no other than Yajñaśri Sâtakarṇi (A.D. 110), and the Periplus must be later than his time. The Sandanês of the text must have been a ruler of Gujarât and may be identified with the Kshatrapa Sanghadâman (A.D. 224).

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Cites (7)

Bṛhatsaṃhitā — Varāhamihira, Sanskrit
Ἰνδική — Λούκιος Φλάουιος Ἀρριανός, Ancient Greek
Aṣṭādhyāyī — Pāṇini, Sanskrit
Ἀλεξάνδρου ἀνάβασις — Λούκιος Φλάουιος Ἀρριανός, Ancient Greek
Naturalis historia — C. Plinius Secundus, Latin
Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Purāṇa — Sanskrit