The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c5.s4.13

c5.s4.13

The earliest Muhammadan author who mentions *Táki* is the merchant Sulimân, who visited the east before A.D. 851, when his account was written. He describes *Táfak*, طافك, as not of very great extent, and its king as weak, and subject to the neighbouring princes; but he adds that he possessed “the finest white women in all the Indies.”‡ As *Táfak* and *Tákin* are almost the same in unpointed Persian characters, I have no hesitation in identifying *Táfak* with the Panjâb, where the women, and especially those of the lower hills, are the "fairest," as well as the "finest," in India.