The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s1.t15.4

c6.s1.t15.4

From these details I would identify the Oritæ, or Horitæ, or Neoteritæ, as they are called by Diodorus, with the people on the Aghor river, whom the Greeks would have named Agoritæ, or Aoritæ, by the suppression of the guttural, of which a trace still remains in the initial aspirate of Horitæ. In the bed of this river there are several jets of liquid mud, which, from time immemorial, have been known as *Râm-Chandar-ki-kúp*, or “Râm Chandar’s wells.” There are also two natural caves, one dedicated to *Kâli*, and the other to *Hinguláj*, or *Hingulá Devi*, that is, the “Red Goddess,” who is only another form of *Kâli*. But the principal objects of pilgrimage in the Aghor valley are connected with the history of Râma. The pilgrims assemble at the *Rámbágh*, because Râma and Sita are said to have started from this point, and proceed to the Gorakh Tank, where Râma halted; and thence to *Tonga-bhera*, and on to the point where Râma was obliged to turn back in his attempt to reach Hingulâj with an army. *Rámbágh* I would identify with the *Rambakia* of Arrian, and *Tonga-bhera* with the river *Tonberos* of Pliny, and the *Tomerus* of Arrian. At Rambakia, therefore, we must look for the site of the city founded by Alexander, which Leonatus was left behind to complete. It seems probable that this is the city which is described by Stephanus of Byzantium as the “sixteenth Alexandria, near the bay of *Melane*.”* Nearchus places the western boundary of the Oritæ at a place called *Malana*, which I take to be the bay of *Malan*, to the east of *Rás Málán*, or Cape *Málán* of the present day, about twenty miles to the west of the Aghor river. Both Curtius and Diodorus† mention the foundation of this city, but they do not give its name. Diodorus, however, adds that it was built on a very favourable site near the sea, but above the reach of the highest tides.