Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/63

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

INDIA. on the E. roast of the Golden Chersonfisus (in the neighbourhood o{ Malacca); Tacolu (perhaps Tavai or Tavoij'); Trij^lyphon, in the district of the Cyrrha- diae, at the mouth of the Brahmaputra (now Tiperali or Tripura); and Catligara, the exact position of which lias been much disputed among geographers, hut whicii Lassen has placed conjecturally in Borneo. Northward of Triglyphon are a number of small dis- tricts, about which nothing certain is known, as Chalcitis, Basanarae. Cacobae, and Aminarhae, tiie Indrapratliae, and Iljoringac; and to the V., along the swamp-land at the foot of the Himdlatja chain, are the Tiladae, l'assaIae,Corancali,and the Tacaraei. All the above may be considered as belonging to India extra Gangem. Again, fi-om the line of coast from E. to W., the first jxiople along the western mouths of the Ganges are called the Gangaridae, with their chief town Gauge (in the neighbourhood of the modern Cal- cutta); the Calingae, with their chief towns Par- thalia and Dandagula (the latter probably CalinOr- pattana, about halfway between Mahdnadi and Goddrari) ; the JIaesoli and JIaesolia, occupying nearly the same range of coast as that now culled the Circars, with the capital Pitynda, and Conta- cossyla {Masulipallarui ?) and Alosygna on the se;i- coast; W. of the JIaesolus {Goddvari), the Arvarni, with the chief town Malanga (probably Manda- rd<ija, the present Madras). Then follow the So- ringi and Bati, till we come to the land of Pandion (Uau¥u)vos xtipa), which extends to the southern extremity of the peninsula of Jlimlustdn, and was a district of great wealth and importance at the time of the Periplus. {Feripl. pp. 31, 33.) There can bo no doubt that the land of Pandion is the same as the Indian Pdndja, and its capital Modura the present 3fathuru. Within the same district were Argara (whence the S. Argaricus derives its name), the Card, and the Colchi. At the SW. end of the pc!iinsula were Cottiara (^Cochin), and Comaria, whence the promontory Comorin derives its name. Following the western coast, we arrive at Liniyrica {Peripl. pp. 30, 36), undoubtedly in the neighbour- hood of Mangalore, with its chief towns Carura (most likely Coimhaloi'e, where a great quantity of IJoman coins have been dug up during the last fifteen years) and Tyndis (in the neighbourhood of Goa); and then Musopale, Nitrae, and Mandagara; all places on the sea-coast, or at no great distance from it. Somewhat further inland, within the district known generically at the time of tlie Periplus by the name of Dachiuabades (^Dakhinabkdda, or Deccan), was the district of Ariaca ('Apio/ca ^aSavcou, Ptol. vii. 1. §§ 6, 82; cf. Peripl. p. 30), with its chief town Hippocura(A'(7?i(/i>o ori/?/f/rn6ad,if not,asRitter has imagined, the sea-port J/fw^rafore); Baetana, Simylla (on the coast near Bassein), Omenagara (undoubtedly the celebrated fortress Akmed-nagar), and Tagara {Peripl. p. 19), the present Leoghir. Further N., the rich commercial state of Larice appears to have extended from the Namadus {Nurniadd or Ner- budda) to Barygaza {Beroach) and the Gulf of Cambay. Its chief town was, in Ptolemy's time, Ozene {Oujein or Ujjayini), a place well known to the antiquaries of India for the vast numbers of the earliest Indian coinage constantly found among its ruins; Minnagara, the position of which is doubtful, and Barygaza, the chief emporium of the commerce of Western India. North of Larice was Syrastrene {Saurasktran), to the west of the Gulf of Cumhaij ; and still further to the westward, at the moutlis of INDIA. 47 the Indus, Pattalene (Lower Scinde, and the neigh- bourhood of Kurdchi), with its capital Pattala {Potala.) It is much more difficult to determine the exact site of the various tribes and nations mentioned iu ancient authors as existing in the interior of tlie country, than it is to ascertain the corresponding modern localities of those which occupied the sea- coast. Some, however, of then) can be made out with sufficient certainty, by comparison of their classical names with the Sanscrit records, and ir. some instances with the modern native appellations. Following, then, the course of the Indus northwards, we Ijnd, at least in the times of Ptolemy and of the Periplus, a wide-spread race of Scythian origin, occu- pying botli banks of the river, in a district called, from them, Indo-Scythia. The exact limits of their countiy cannot now be traced; but it is pro- bable that they extended from Pattalene on the S. as far .as the lower ranges of the Hindu-Kusli, — in fact, that their empire swayed over the whole of modern Scinde and the Punjab ; a view which is borne out by the extensive remains of their Topes and coinage, which are found throughout these dis- tricts, and especially to the northward, near the head waters of the three western of the Five Rivers. A great change had no doubt taken place by the suc- cessful invasion of a great horde of Scythians to- wards the close of the second century b. c, as they arc known to have overthrown the Greek kingdom of Bactriana, at the same time etfacing many of the names of the tribes whom Alexander had met with two centuries before, such as the Asjasii, Assa- ceni, JIassiani, Hippasii; with the towns of Aca- dera, Daedala, JLissaga, and Embolima, which are preserved in Arrian, and others of Alexander's his- torians. Further N.. along the bases of the Paropamisus, Imaus, and Emodus, in the direction from W. to E., we find mention of the Sampatae, the district Suastene (now Sewad), and Goryaea, with the towns Gorya and Dionysopolis, or X.agara (now Nagar); and further E., between the Suastus and the Indus, the Gandarae (one, doubtless, of the ori- ginal seats of the Gandhdras). Following the mountain- range to the E., we come to Caspiria (now Cashmir, in earlier times known, as we have seen, to Herodotus, under the name of Caspatyrus). South- ward of Cashmir was the territory of Varsa, with its capital Taxila, a place of importance so early as the time of Alexander (Arrian, v. 8), and probably indi- cated now by the extensive remains of Manikydla (Burnes, Travels, vol. i. p. 65), if, indeed, these are not too much to the eastward. A little further S. was the land of Pandous (Jlav^uov X'^P^i doubtless the representative of one of the Pandava dynasties of early Hindu history), during the time of Alexander the territory of the king Porus. Further eastward were the state Cylindrine, with the sources of the Sutledge, .lumna, and Ganges ; and the Gangani, whose territory extended into the highest range of the ITimdlaya. Jlany small states and towns are mentioned in the historians of Alexander's campaigns along the upper Panjdb, which we cannot here do more than glance at, as feucehotis {Puskkaldvafi), Nicaea,Bucephala, the Glaucanitae, and the Sibae or Sibi. Following next the course of the Ganges, we meet with the Daetichae, the Nanichae, Prasiaca; and the Mandalae, with its cele- brated capital Pali bothra (beyond all doubt the present PdluUputra. or Patna), situated at the junction of