The Greeks in Bactria and India c10.s4.168

c10.s4.168

The town however which comes next to Salagissa in Ptolemy’s list, Astrassos, raises a difficulty, for while no Astrassos seems known in Asia Minor, Ptolemy has some -ss- forms in India which cannot well be Anatolian, like Panassa in Orissa, Sabalassa a mouth of the Indus, and Eragassa Metropolis (? Eran) in Rajputana. Such search as was possible to me among undoubtedly Indian place-names has produced one -ss- form, a village Samkassa;¹ add, for what it may be worth, the name given in Greek as Agelasseis.² Any particular -ss- form might therefore, I suppose, be Indian; but it is to be wished that some philologist acquainted with the Indian languages would examine the -ss- forms in Ptolemy’s account of India and say how the matter stands.