Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/165

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146 fantry.^ Next again arc the Varetatee,* subject to a king, who keep no elephants, but trust entirely to their horse and foot. Then the Odo mboerse; theSalabastr8e;tthe Horat 8b, J who have a fine city, defended by marshes which serve as a ditch, wherein crocodiles are kept, which, having a great avidity for human flesh, prevent all access to the city except by a bridge. And another city if y. 1. Oratffi. The Oraturse find their representatives in thd BAthors, who played a great part in the history of India before the Musulm&n conquest, and who, though settled in the Gangetio proTinces, regard Ajmir, at the eastern point of the Arfivali, as their ancestral seat.

  • V. 1. Suarataratsd. The YaretatsB cannot with certainty

be identified. t The OdomboerfiB, with hardljr a change in the form of their name, are mentioned in Sanskrit literature, for P&nini (IV. 1, 173, quoted by Lassen, Ind. Alt. 1st ed. I. p. 614) speaks of the territory of Udumbari as that which was occupied by a tribe famous in the old legend, the Salva, who perhaps correspond to the SalabastrsB of Pliny, the addition which he has made to their name being explained by the Sanskrit word vasty a, which means an abode or habitation. The word udunibara means the glomerous fig-tree. The district so named lay in Kachh. [The ' Salabastrsa are located by Lassen between the mouth of the Sarasvatt and Jodhpur, and the Horatse at the head of the gulf of Khambh&t; Automela he places at KhambhAt. See Ind. Alterth. 2nd ed. I. 760. Yule has the Sandrabatis about Chandrfivati, in northern Gtnarlit, but these are placed by Lassen on the Bands about Tonk. — Ed. Ind. Ant.T X Horatm is an incorrect transcription of Sorath, the vulgar form of the Sanskrit SaurSishtra. The HoraW were therefore the inhabitants of the region called in the PertpMs, and in Ptolemy, Suraatr^ne — that is, Gxgar&t. Orrhoth (^Oppoda) is used by Kosmas as the name of a city in the west of India, which has been conjectured to be Surat, but Yule thinks it rather some place on the Pur- bandar coast. The capital, Automela, cannot be identified, but de St.-Martin conjectures it may have been the once famous Yalabh!, which was situated m the peninsular part of Ginarfit at about 24 miles' distance from the GoH of Khamoay. Digitized by Google