Ancient History of the Deccan c5.s4.17

c5.s4.17

We see that, in the II century, Ptolemy has said that the ships that wanted to go to the country of gold (Khrysê) i. e. the Indo-Chinese peninsula (Burma, Malacca, Cambodia, Annam) started from a fixed point (locus unde solvunt in Chrysen navigantes). Till now there was complete uncertainty in regard to the geographical position of this port. There was no doubt at all that ''Khabéris-emporium'' designated the town of Kâv'ripatnam; in fact, Ptolemy has mentioned above the ''mouth of the river Khabéros'' which is undoubtedly the Kâvêri. But between this town and the Ganges not a single place mentioned by Ptolemy could be identified with some amount of certainty. Many authors have put forth hypotheses but without any great success. Colonel Yule thought that the river Maisôlus was no other than the Krishnâ, because not far from its mouth there is the modern town of Masulipatam; but this reason was not very convincing. In the theory of Colonel Yule the town that Ptolemy calls Koddura was identified with Gûdûru, near Masulipatam. This identification was regarded with the greatest scepticism, for they replied to Colonel Yule that :