The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c6.s1.t5.8

c6.s1.t5.8

The favourable position of Sehwân, on a lofty isolated rock, near a large lake, with food and water in abundance, would certainly have attracted the notice of the first inhabitants of Sindh. We find, accordingly, that its early occupation is admitted by all inquirers. Thus, M‘Murdo† says, "Sehwân is undoubtedly a place of vast antiquity; perhaps more so than either Alor or Bâhmana." The present name is said to be a contraction of *Sewistán*, which was so called after its inhabitants, the *Sewis*, or Sabis. But in all the early Arab geographers the name is somewhat differently written, as *Sadustán*, or *Sadusán*, or *Shárusan*, of which the first two syllables agree with the Greek *Sindomana*. I therefore reject the reading of *Sewistán* as a modern innovation of the Hindus, to connect the place with the name of their god *Siva*. The *Sindo* of the Greek, and the *Sadu* of the early Muhammadans, point to the Sanskrit name of the country, *Sindhu*, or to that of its inhabitants, *Saindhava*, or *Saindhu*, as it is usually pronounced. Their stronghold, or capital, would therefore have been called *Saindhava-sthána*, or *Saindhu-sthán*, which, by the elision of the nasal, becomes the *Sadustán* of the Arab geographers. In a similar manner Wilson derives the Greek *Sindomana* from "a very allowable Sanskrit compound, *Sindu-mân*," the "possessor of Sindh." I am inclined, however to refer the Greek name to *Saindhava-vanam*, or *Saindhuván*, as the "abode of the Saindhavas."