The Ancient Geography of India. I. The Buddhist Period, including the Campaigns of Alexander, and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang c8.s3.4

c8.s3.4

The *Andhras* are mentioned by Pliny* under the name of *Andaræ*, as a powerful nation, who possessed thirty fortified cities, and a large army of one hundred thousand infantry, two thousand cavalry, and one thousand elephants. They are also noted in the Pentingerian Tables as *Andræ-Indi*. Wilson quotes these Tables as placing the Andhras “on the banks of the Ganges,”* but the extremely elongated form of the Pentingerian Map has squeezed many of the peoples and nations far out of their true places. A much safer conclusion may be inferred from a comparison of the neighbouring names. Thus the *Andræ-Indi* are placed near *Damirice*, which I would identify with Ptolemy’s *Limyrike* by simply changing the initial *Δ* to *Λ*, as the original authorities used for the construction of the Tables must have been Greek. But the people of Limyrike occupied the south-west coast of the peninsula, consequently their neighbours the Andræ-Indi must be the well-known Andhras of Telingana, and not the mythical Andhras of the Ganges, who are mentioned only in the *Puránas*. Pliny’s knowledge of the Andaræ must have been derived either from the Alexandrian merchants of his own times, or from the writings of Megasthenes and Dionysius, the ambassadors of Seleukus Nikator and Ptolemy Philadelphus to the court of Palibothra. But whether the Andaræ were contemporary with Pliny or not, it is certain that they did not rule over Magadha at the period to which he alludes, as immediately afterwards he mentions the Prasii of Palibothra as the most powerful nation in India, who possessed 600,000 infantry, 30,000 horse, and 9000 elephants, or more than six times the strength of the Andræ-Indi.