The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s1.t14.6

c6.s1.t14.6

On leaving Krokola, Nearchus had Mount Eiros (Manora) on his right-hand, and a low flat island on his left, which is a very accurate description of the entrance to Karâchi harbour, and after stopping at several small places, reached Morontobara, which was called the “Women’s Haven” by the people of the country.* From this place he made two courses of 70 stadia and 120 stadia, or altogether not more than 22 miles, to the mouth of the river Arabius, which was the boundary between the country of the Arabii and the Oritæ. The name of Morontobara I would identify with Müâri, which is now applied to the headland of Rás Muári, or Cape Monz, the last point of the Pabb range of mountains. Bára, or bári, means a roadstead or haven, and moronta is evidently connected with the Persian mard, a man, of which the feminine is still preserved in Kashmiri, as mahrin, a woman. The haven itself may be looked for between Cape Monz and Sonmiâni, but its exact position cannot be determined. From the distances given by Arrian in his account of the voyage of Nearchus, I am inclined to fix it at the mouth of the Bahar rivulet, a small stream which falls into the sea about midway between Cape Monz and Sonmiâni. If I am right in considering Müâri as an abbreviation of Morontobâra, the cape must have received its name from the neighbouring haven. At the mouth of the Arabius Nearchus found a large and safe harbour, corresponding with the present Bay of Sonmiâni, at the mouth of the Purâli, which is described by Pottinger† as “a very noble sheet of water, capable of affording anchorage to the largest fleet.”