Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s4.t2.86

v2.c27.s4.t2.86

¹ Vulg. Sharifa. ² Rama subjected her to the fiery ordeal, to discover whether her virtue had suffered while thus forcibly separated. ³ Vulg. Nariyal. ⁴ Palmyra is Sanskrit corrupted, and affords the etymology of Solomon’s city of the desert, Tadmor. The ت p, by the retrenchment of a single diacritical point, becomes ت t; and the ل (l) and د (d) being permutable, Pal becomes Tad, or Tal—the Palmyra, which is the Mor, or chief of trees ; hence Tadmor, from its date-trees [?]. ⁵ The Jayaphala, ‘the fruit of victory,’ is the nutmeg ; or, as a native of Java, Javuphala, ‘fruit of Java,’ is most probably derived from Jayadiva, ‘the victorious isle.’ [The nutmeg is Jātiphala : Java is yavadwīpa, ‘island of barley.’] ⁶ The Kamari of the Saura tribes, or sun-worshippers of Saurashtra, claims descent from the bird-god of Vishnu (who aided Rama * to the discovery of Sita), and the Makara † or crocodile, and date the monstrous conception from that event, and their original abode from Sankodra Bet, or island of Sankodra. Whether to the Dioscorides at the entrance of the Arabian Gulf this name was given, evidently corrupted from Sankhadwara to Socotra, we shall not stop to inquire. Like the isle in the entrance of the Gulf of Cutch, it is the dwara or portal to the Sinus Arabicus, and the pearl-shell (sankha) there abounds. This tribe deduce their origin from Rama’s expedition, and allege that their Icthyiopic mother landed them where they still reside. Wild as is this fable, it adds support to this hypothesis. [The Sanskrit name of Bet Island (“ Bate ” in the text) is Sankhudhāra, from the conch fishery. Socotra is Dwīpa Sukhadāra, ‘island of pleasure’ (not Sakhādāra, as in EB, xxv. 355) (Yule, Marco Polo, 1st ed. ii. 342).]