or frontier of India. That part of the interior of Ariakê which
bordered on Skythia was called +Aberia+ or Abiria (in the MS.
erroneously Ibêria). The corresponding Indian word is +Abhira+,
which designated the district near the mouths of the river. Having
been even in very early times a great seat of commerce, some (as
Lassen) have been led to think from a certain similarity of the
names that this was the +Ophir+ of scripture, a view opposed
by Ritter. Abiria is mentioned by Ptolemy, who took it to be not a
part of India but of Indoskythia. The sea-board of Ariakê was called
+Surastrênê+, and is mentioned by Ptolemy, who says (VII. i.
55) it was the region about the mouths of the Indus and the Gulf of
Kanthi. It answers to the Sanskrit +Surâshṭra+. Its capital was
Minnagar,—a city which, as its name shows, had once belonged to the
Min or Skythians. It was different of course from the Minnagar already
mentioned as the capital of Indo-Skythia. It was situated to the south
of +Ozênê+ (Ujjayinî, or Ujjain), and on the road which led from
that city to the River Narmadâ, probably near where Indôr now stands.
It must have been the capital only for a short time, as Ptolemy
informs us (II. i. 63) that +Ozênê+ was in his time the capital
of +Tiashanes+ [probably the Chashṭana of Coins and the Cave
Temple inscriptions]. From both places a great variety of merchandise
was sent down the Narmadâ to Barugaza.
The next place our author mentions is a promontory called
+Papikê+ projecting into the Gulf of Khambât from that part of
the peninsula of Gujarât which lies opposite to the Barugaza coast.
Its distance from Barbarikon on the middle mouth of the Indus is
correctly given at 3,000 stadia. This promontory is said to be near
+Astakapra+, a place which is mentioned also by Ptolemy, and
which (_Ind. Ant._ vol. V. p. 314) has been identified by Colonel Yule
with +Hastakavapra+ (now +Hâthab+ near Bhaunagar), a name
which occurs in a copper-plate grant of Dhruvasena I of Valabhi. With
regard to the Greek form of this name Dr. Bühler thinks it is not
derived immediately from the Sanskrit, but from an intermediate old
Prakrit word Hastakampra, which had been formed by the contraction of
the syllables _ava_ to _â_, and the insertion of a nasal, according
to the habits of the Gujarâtîs. The loss of the initial, he adds, may
be explained by the difficulty which Gujarâtîs have now and probably
had 1,600 years ago in pronouncing the spirans in its proper place.
The modern name Hâthab or Hâthap may be a corruption of the shorter
Sanskrit form Hastavapra.
42. After Papikê there is another gulf, exposed to the violence of the
waves and running up to the north. Near its mouth is an island called
+Baiônês+, and at its very head it receives a vast river called
the +Mais+. Those bound for +Barugaza+ sail up this gulf
(which has a breadth of about 300 stadia), leaving the island on the
left till it is scarcely visible in the horizon, when they shape their
course east for the mouth of the river that leads to Barugaza. This is
called the +Namnadios+.
(42) Beyond +Papikê+, we are next informed, there is another
gulf running northward into the interior of the country. This is not
really another Gulf but only the northern portion of the Gulf of
Khambât, which the _Periplûs_ calls the Gulf of Barugaza. It receives
a great river, the +Mais+, which is easily identified with the
+Mahi+, and contains an island called +Baiônês+ [the modern
Peram], which you leave on the left hand as you cross over from
Astakapra to Barugaza.
We are now conducted to +Barugaza+, the greatest seat of commerce
in Western India, situated on a river called in the MS. of the
_Periplûs_ the +Lamnaios+, which is no doubt an erroneous reading
for +Namados+, or Namnados or Namnadios. This river is the
+Narmadâ+. It is called by Ptolemy the Namades.
43. The passage into the gulf of +Barugaza+ is narrow and difficult
of access to those approaching it from the sea, for they are carried
either to the right or to the left, the left being the better passage
of the two. On the right, at the very entrance of the gulf, lies a
narrow stripe of shoal, rough and beset with rocks. It is called
+Herônê+, and lies opposite the village of +Kammôni+. On the
left side right against this is the promontory of +Papikê+, which
lies in front of +Astakapra+, where it is difficult to anchor,
from the strength of the current and because the cables are cut through
by the sharp rocks at the bottom. But even if the passage into the gulf
is secured the mouth of the Barugaza river is not easy to hit, since
the coast is low and there are no certain marks to be seen until you
are close upon them. Neither, if it is discovered, is it easy to enter,
from the presence of shoals at the mouth of the river.
(43) +Barugaza+ (Bharoch) which was 30 miles distant from its
mouth, was both difficult and dangerous of access; for the entrance
to the Gulf itself was, on the right, beset with a perilous stripe
(_tainia_) of rocky shoal called +Herônê+, and on the left,
(which was the safer course,) the violent currents which swept round
the promontory of Papikê rendered it unsafe to approach the shore or
to cast anchor. The shoal of Herônê was opposite a village on the
mainland called +Kammôni+, the Kamanê of Ptolemy (VII. i.), who
however places it to the north of the river’s mouth. Again, it was not
only difficult to hit the mouth of the river, but its navigation was
endangered by sandbanks and the violence of the tides, especially the
high tide called the ‘Bore,’ of which our author gives a description
so particular and so vivid as suffices to show that he was describing
what he had seen with his own eyes, and seen moreover for the first
time. With regard to the name +Barugaza+ the following passage,
which I quote from Dr. Wilson’s _Indian Castes_ (vol. II. p. 113)
will elucidate its etymology:—“The +Bhârgavas+ derive their
designation from +Bhargava+, the adjective form of +Bhṛigu+,
the name of one of the ancient Ṛishis. Their chief habitat is the
district of Bharoch, which must have got its name from a colony of
the school of Bhṛigu having been early established in this Kshêtra,
probably granted to them by some conqueror of the district. In
the name +Barugaza+ given to it by Ptolemy, we have a Greek
corruption of Bhṛigukshêtra (the territory of Bhṛigu) or Bhṛigukachha
(the tongueland of Bhṛigu).” Speaking of the Bhârgavas Dr. Drummond,
in his _Grammatical Illustrations_, says:—“These Brâhmans are indeed
poor and ignorant. Many of them, and other illiterate Gujarâtîs,
would, in attempting to articulate Bhṛigushêtra, lose the half in
coalesence, and call it Bargacha, whence the Greeks, having no _Ch_,
wrote it Barugaza.”
44. For this reason native fishermen appointed by Government are
stationed with well-manned long boats called _trappaga_ and
_kotumba_ at the entrance of the river, whence they go out as far as
+Surastrênê+ to meet ships, and pilot them up to Barugaza. At the
head of the gulf the pilot, immediately on taking charge of a ship,
with the help of his own boat’s crew, shifts her head to keep her
clear of the shoals, and tows her from one fixed station to another,
moving with the beginning of the tide, and dropping anchor at certain
roadsteads and basins when it ebbs. These basins occur at points where
the river is deeper than usual, all the way up to +Barugaza+,
which is 300 stadia distant from the mouth of the river if you sail up
the stream to reach it.
45. India has everywhere a great abundance of rivers, and her seas ebb
and flow with tides of extraordinary strength, which increase with
the moon, both when new and when full, and for three days after each,
but fall off in the intermediate space. About +Barugaza+ they are
more violent than elsewhere; so that all of a sudden you see the depths
laid bare, and portions of the land turned into sea, and the sea, where
ships were sailing but just before, turned without warning into dry
land. The rivers, again, on the access of flood tide rushing into their
channels with the whole body of the sea, are driven upwards against
their natural course for a great number of miles with a force that is
irresistible.
46. This is the reason why ships frequenting this emporium are exposed,
both in coming and going, to great risk, if handled by those who are
unacquainted with the navigation of the gulf or visit it for the
first time, since the impetuosity of the tide when it becomes full,
having nothing to stem or slacken it, is such that anchors cannot
hold against it. Large vessels, moreover, if caught in it are driven
athwart from their course by the rapidity of the current till they are
stranded on shoals and wrecked, while the smaller craft are capsized,
and many that have taken refuge in the side channels, being left dry
by the receding tide, turn over on one side, and, if not set erect
on props, are filled upon the return of the tide with the very first
head of the flood, and sunk. But at new moons, especially when they
occur in conjunction with a night tide, the flood sets in with such
extraordinary violence that on its beginning to advance, even though
the sea be calm, its roar is heard by those living near the river’s
mouth, sounding like the tumult of battle heard far off, and soon after
the sea with its hissing waves bursts over the bare shoals.
47. Inland from +Barugaza+ the country is inhabited by numerous
races—the +Aratrioi+, and the +Arakhosioi+, and the
+Gandaraioi+, and the people of +Proklaïs+, in which is
+Boukephalos Alexandreia+. Beyond these are the +Baktrianoi+,
a most warlike race, governed by their own independent sovereign.
It was from these parts Alexander issued to invade India when he
marched as far as the Ganges, without, however, attacking Limurikê and
the southern parts of the country. Hence up to the present day old
_drachmai_ bearing the Greek inscriptions of +Apollodotos+ and
+Menander+ are current in Barugaza.
(47) The account of the ‘bore’ is followed by an enumeration of the
countries around and beyond Barugaza with which it had commercial
relations. Inland are the +Aratrioi+, +Arakhosioi+,
+Gandarioi+ and the people of +Proklaïs+, a province wherein
is Boukephalos Alexandreia, beyond which is the Baktrian nation. It
has been thought by some that by the +Aratrioi+ are meant the
Arii, by others that they were the +Arâstrâs+ of Sanskrit called
Aratti in the Prakrit, so that the +Aratrioi+ of the _Periplûs_
hold an intermediate place between the Sanskrit and Prakrit form
of the name. Müller however says “if you want a people known to
the Greeks and Romans as familiarly as the well-known names of the
Arakhosii, Gandarii, Peukelitae, you may conjecture that the proper
reading is ΔΡΑΝΓΩΝ instead of ΑΡΑΤΡΙΩΝ.” It is an error of course on
the part of our author when he places +Boukephalos+ (a city built
by Alexander on the banks of the Hydaspês, where he defeated Pôros),
in the neighbourhood of Proklaïs, that is Pekhely in the neighbourhood
of Peshawar. He makes a still more surprising error when he states
that Alexander penetrated to the Ganges.
48. In the same region eastward is a city called +Ozênê+, formerly
the capital wherein the king resided. From it there is brought down
to Barugaza every commodity for the supply of the country and for
export to our own markets—onyx-stones, porcelain, fine muslins,
mallow-coloured muslins, and no small quantity of ordinary cottons. At
the same time there is brought down to it from the upper country by
way of +Proklaïs+, for transmission to the coast, Kattybourine,
Patropapigic, and Kabalitic spikenard, and another kind which reaches
it by way of the adjacent province of Skythia; also kostus and bdellium.
(48) The next place mentioned in the enumeration is +Ozênê+
(Ujjain), which, receiving nard through Proklaïs from the distant
regions where it was produced, passed it on to the coast for export
to the Western World. This aromatic was a product of three districts,
whence its varieties were called respectively the _Kattybourine_, the
_Patropapigic_ and the _Kabolitic_. What places were indicated by the
first two names cannot be ascertained, but the last points undoubtedly
to the region round Kâbul, since its inhabitants are called by Ptolemy
+Kabolitai+, and Edrisi uses the term _Myrobalanos Kabolinos_
for the ‘myrobolans of Kâbul.’ Nard, as Edrisi also observes, has its
proper soil in Thibet.
49. The imports of +Barugaza+ are—
Οἶνος προηγουμένος Ἰταλικὸς—Wine, principally Italian.
Καὶ Λαοδικηνὸς καὶ Ἀραβικὸς—Laodikean wine and Arabian.
Χαλκος καὶ κασσίτερος καὶ μόλυβδος—Brass or Copper and Tin and Lead.
Κοράλλιον καὶ χρυσόλιθον—Coral and Gold-stone or Yellow-stone.
Ἱματισμὸς ἁπλοῦς καὶ νόθος πανταῖος—Cloth, plain and mixed, of all
sorts.
Πολύμιται ζῶναι πηχυαῖαι—Variegated sashes half a yard wide.
Στύραξ—Storax.
Μελίλωτον—Sweet clover, melilot.
Ὕαλος ἀργὴ—White glass.
Σανδαράκη—Gum Sandarach.
Στίμμι—(Stibium) Tincture for the eyes,—_Sûrmâ_.
Δηνάριον χρυσοῦ καὶ ἀργυροῦν—Gold and Silver specie, yielding a profit
when exchanged for native money.
Μύρον οὐ βαρύτιμον ὀυδὲ πολὺ—Perfumes or unguents, neither costly nor
in great quantity.
In those times, moreover, there were imported, _as presents_ to the
king, costly silver vases, instruments of music, handsome young women
for concubinage, superior wine, apparel, plain but costly, and the
choicest unguents. The exports from this part of the country are—
Νὺρδος, κόστος, βδέλλα, ἐλέφας—Spikenard, costus, bdellium, ivory.
Ὀνυχίνη λιθία καὶ μουρρίνη—Onyx-stones and porcelain.
Λύκιον—_Ruzot_, Box-thorn.
Ὀθόνιον παντοῖον—Cottons of all sorts.
Σηρικὸν—Silk.
Μολόχινον—Mallow-coloured cottons.
Νῆμα—_Silk_ thread.
Πέτερι μακρὸν—Long pepper and other articles supplied from the
neighbouring ports.
The proper season to set sail for Barugaza from Egypt is the month of
July, or Epiphi.
50. From +Barugaza+ the coast immediately adjoining stretches from
the north directly to the south, and the country is therefore called
+Dakhinabadês+, because Dakhan in the language of the natives
signifies _south_. Of this country that part which lies inland towards
the east comprises a great space of desert country, and large mountains
abounding with all kinds of wild animals, leopards, tigers, elephants,
huge snakes, hyenas, and baboons of many different sorts, and is
inhabited right across to the Ganges by many and extremely populous
nations.
(50) +Barugaza+ had at the same time commercial
relations with the Dekhan also. This part of India our
author calls +Dakhinabadês+, transliterating the word
+Dakshinâpatha+—(the Dakshinâ, or the South Country). “Here,”
says Vincent, “the author of the _Periplûs_ gives the true direction
of this western coast of the Peninsula, and states in direct terms its
tendency to the South, while Ptolemy stretches out the whole angle
to a straight line, and places the Gulf of Cambay almost in the same
latitude as Cape Comorin.”
51. Among the marts in this South Country there are two of more
particular importance—+Paithana+, which lies south from
Barugaza, a distance of twenty days, and +Tagara+, ten days east
of Paithana, the greatest city in the country. Their commodities
are carried down on wagons to Barugaza along roads of extreme
difficulty,—that is, from +Paithana+ a great quantity of
onyx-stone, and from +Tagara+ ordinary cottons in abundance, many
sorts of muslins, mallow-coloured cottons, and other articles of local
production brought into it from the parts along the coast. The length
of the entire voyage as far as +Limurikê+ is 700 stadia, and to
reach +Aigialos+ you must sail very many stadia further.
(51) In the interior of the Dekhan, the _Periplûs_ places two great
seats of commerce, +Paithana+, 20 days’ journey to the south of
Barugaza, and +Tagara+, 10 days’ journey eastward from Paithana.
Paithana, which appears in Ptolemy as Baithana, may be identified
with +Paithana+. +Tagara+ is more puzzling. Wilford,
Vincent, Mannert, Ritter and others identify it with +Dêvagiri+
or Deogarh, near Elurâ, about 8 miles from Aurangâbâd. The name of a
place called Tagarapura occurs in a copper grant of land which was
found in the island of Salsette. There is however nothing to show
that this was a name of Dêvagiri. Besides, if Paithana be correctly
identified, Tagara cannot be Dêvagiri unless the distances and
directions are very erroneously given in the _Periplûs_. This is
not improbable, and Tagara may therefore be +Junnar+ (_i.e._
Jûna-nagar = _the old city_), which from its position must always have
been an emporium, and its Buddha caves belong to about B.C.
100 to A.D. 150 (see _Archæolog. Surv. of West. India_, vol.
III., and Elphinstone’s _History of India_, p. 223).
Our author introduces us next to another division of India, that
called +Limurikê+, which begins, as he informs us, at a distance
of 7,000 stadia (or nearly 900 miles) beyond Barugaza. This estimate
is wide of the mark, being in fact about the distance between
Barugaza and the southern or remote extremity of Limurikê. In the
Indian segment of the Roman maps called from their discoverer, the
_Peutinger Tables_, the portion of India to which this name is applied
is called +Damirike+. We can scarcely err, says Dr. Caldwell
(_Dravid. Gram._ Intr. page 14), in identifying this name with the
Tami[l:] country. If so, the earliest appearance of the name Tami[l:]
in any foreign documents will be found also to be most perfectly
in accordance with the native Tami[l:] mode of spelling the name.
+Damirike+ evidently means _Damirike_.... In another place in the
same map a district is called +Scytia Dymirice+; and it appears
to have been this word which by a mistake of Δ for Λ Ptolemy
wrote Λυμιρικὴ. The D retains its place however in the Cosmography
of the anonymous geographer of Ravenna, who repeatedly mentions
+Dimirica+ as one of the three divisions of India and the one
furthest to the East. He shows also that the Tami[l:] country must
have been meant by the name by mentioning +Modura+ as one of the
cities it contained.
52. The local marts which occur in order _along the coast_ after
+Barugaza+ are +Akabarou+, +Souppara+, +Kalliena+,
a city which was raised to the rank of a regular mart in the times
of the elder +Saraganes+, but after +Sandanes+ became its
master its trade was put under the severest restrictions; for if Greek
vessels, even by accident, enter its ports, a guard is put on board and
they are taken to Barugaza.
(52) Reverting to +Barugaza+ our author next enumerates the
less important emporia having merely a local trade which intervenes
between it and +Dimurikê+. Those are first +Akabarou+,
+Souppara+, and +Kalliena+—followed by +Semulla+,
+Mandagora+, +Palaipatmai+, +Meligeizara+,
+Buzantion+, +Toperon+, and +Turanosboas+,—beyond which
occurs a succession of islands, some of which give shelter to pirates,
and of which the last is called +Leukê+ or White Island. The
actual distance from Barugaza to Naoura, the first port of Dimurikê,
is 4,500 stadia.
To take these emporia in detail. +Akabarou+ cannot be identified.
The reading is probably corrupt. Between the mouths of the Namados
and those of the Goaris, Ptolemy interposes Nousaripa, Poulipoula,
Ariakê Sadinôn, and Soupara. +Nausaripa+ is +Nausari+, about
18 miles to the south of Surat, and +Soupara+ is +Sûpârâ+
near Vasâï. Benfey, who takes it to be the name of a region and not
of a city, regards it as the +Ophir+ of the Bible—called in the
Septuagint Σωφηρά. +Sôphir+, it may be added, is the Coptic name
for India. +Kalliena+ is now +Kalyâna+ near Bombay [which
must have been an important place at an early date. It is named in
the Kaṇhêri Bauddha Cave Inscriptions]. It is mentioned by Kosmas (p.
337), who states that it produced copper and sesamum and other kinds
of logs, and cloth for wearing apparel. The name +Sandanes+,
that of the Prince who sent Greek ships which happened to put into
its port under guard to Barugaza, is thought by Benfey to be a
territorial title which indicated that he ruled over +Ariakê+
of the Sandineis. [But the older “Saraganes” probably indicates one
of the great Śâtakarṇi or Ândhrabhṛitya dynasty.] Ptolemy does not
mention Kalliena, though he supplies the name of a place omitted in
the _Periplûs_, namely +Dounga+ (VII. i. 6) near the mouth of the
river +Bênda+.
53. After +Kalliena+ other local marts occur—+Semulla+,
+Mandagora+, +Palaipatmai+, +Melizeigara+,
+Buzantion+, +Toparon+, and +Turannosboas+. You come
next to the islands called +Sêsekreienai+ and the island of the
+Aigidioi+ and that of the +Kaineitai+, near what is called
the +Khersonêsos+, places in which are pirates, and after this
the island +Leukê+ (or ‘the White’). Then follow +Naoura+
and +Tundis+, the first marts of +Limurikê+, and after these
+Mouziris+ and +Nelkunda+, the seats of Government.
(53) +Semulla+ (in Ptolemy +Timoula+ and +Simulla+)
is identified by Yule with +Chênval+ or Chaul, a seaport 23
miles south of Bombay; [but Bhagvanlâl Indraji suggests Chimûla
in Trombay island at the head of the Bombay harbour; and this is
curiously supported by one of the Kanhêri inscriptions in which
+Chemûla+ is mentioned, apparently as a large city, like
Supârâ and Kalyâna, in the neighbourhood]. After Simulla Ptolemy
mentions +Hippokoura+ [possibly, as suggested by the same, a
partial translation of +Ghoḍabandar+ on the Choḍa nadi in the
Ṭhaṅa strait] and +Baltipatna+ as places still in Ariakê, but
+Mandagara Buzanteion+, +Khersonêsos+, +Armagara+,
the mouths of the river +Nanagouna+, and an emporium called
+Nitra+, as belonging to the Pirate Coast which extended to
Dimurikê, of which +Tundis+, he says, is the first city. Ptolemy
therefore agrees with our author in assigning the Pirate Coast to the
tract of country between Bombay and Goa. This coast continued to be
infested with pirates till so late a period as the year 1765, when
they were finally exterminated by the British arms. +Mandagara+
and +Palaipatma+ may have corresponded pretty nearly in situation
with the towns of Rájapur and Bankut. Yule places them respectively
at Bankut and Debal. +Melizeigara+ (Milizêguris or Milizigêris
of Ptolemy, VII. i. 95), Vincent identifies with Jaygaḍh or Sidê
Jaygaḍh. The same place appears in Pliny as +Sigerus+ (VI. xxvi.
100). Buzantium may be referred to about Vijayadrug or Esvantgadh,
+Toparon+ may be a corrupt reading for +Togaron+, and may
perhaps therefore be Devagaḍh which lies a little beyond Vijayndrug.
+Turannosboas+ is not mentioned elsewhere, but it may have been,
us Yule suggests, the Bandâ or Tirakal river. Müller placed it at
Acharê. The first island on this part of the coast is Sindhudrug
near Mâlwan, to which succeeds a group called the Burnt Islands,
among which the Vingorla rocks are conspicuous. These are no doubt
the +Heptanêsia+ of Ptolemy (VII. i. 95), and probably the
+Sêsikrienai+ of the _Periplûs_. The island Aigidion called that
of the Aigidii may be placed at Goa, [but Yule suggests Angediva south
of Sadaśivagaḍh, in lat. 14° 45´ N., which is better]. Kaineiton may
be the island of St. George.