Chapter II: Articles of Commerce Mentioned in the Periplus (4)

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.

We come next to +Naoura+ in Dimurikê. This is now +Honâvar+, written otherwise Onore, situated on the estuary of a broad river, the +Śarâvatî+, on which are the falls of Gêrsappa, one of the most magnificent and stupendous cataracts in the world. If the +Nitra+ of Ptolemy (VII. i. 7) and the +Nitria+ of Pliny be the same as +Naoura+, then these authors extend the pirate coast a little further south than the _Periplûs_ does. But if they do not, and therefore agree in their views as to where Dimurikê begins, the +Nitra+ may be placed, Müller thinks, at Mirjan or Komta, which is not far north from Honâvar. [Yule places it at Mangalur.] Müller regards the first supposition however as the more probable, and quotes at length a passage from Pliny (VI. xxvi. 104) referring thereto, which must have been excerpted from some _Periplûs_ like our author’s, but not from it as some have thought. “To those bound for India it is most convenient to depart from Okêlis. They sail thence with the wind Hipalus in 40 days to the first emporium of India, Muziris, which is not a desirable place to arrive at on account of pirates infesting the neighbourhood, who hold a place called +Nitrias+, while it is not well supplied with merchandize. Besides, the station for ships is at a great distance from the shore, and cargoes have both to be landed and to be shipped by means of little boats. There reigned there when I wrote this +Caelobothras+. Another port belonging to the nation is more convenient, +Neacyndon+, which is called +Becare+ (_sic. codd._, Barace, Harduin and Sillig). There reigned Pandiôn in an inland town far distant from the emporium called +Modura+. The region, however, from which they convey pepper to Becare in boats formed from single logs is +Cottonara+.”

54. To the kingdom under the sway of +Kêprobotres[22] Tundis+ is subject, a village of great note situate near the sea. +Mouziris+, which pertains to the same realm, is a city at the height of prosperity, frequented as it is by ships from +Ariakê+ and Greek ships _from Egypt_. It lies near a river at a distance from Tundis of 500 stadia, whether this is measured from river to river or by the length of the sea voyage, and it is 20 stadia distant from the mouth of its own river. The distance of +Nelkunda+ from +Mouziris+ also nearly 500 stadia, whether measured from river to river or by the sea voyage, but it belongs to a different kingdom, that of +Pandiôn+. It likewise is situate near a river and at about a distance from the sea of 120 stadia.

(54) With regard to the names in this extract which occur also in the _Periplûs_ the following passages quoted from Dr. Caldwell’s _Dravidian Grammar_ will throw much light. He says (Introd. p. 97):—“+Muziris+ appears to be the +Muyiri+ of Muyiri-kotta. Tyndis is +Tuṇḍi+, and the Kynda, of Nelkynda, or as Ptolemy has it, Melkynda, _i. e._ probably Western kingdom, seems to be +Kannettri+, the southern boundary of Kêrala proper. One MS. of Pliny writes the second part of this word not _Cyndon_ but _Canidon_. The first of these places was identified by Dr. Gundert, for the remaining two we are indebted to Dr. Burnell.

“Cottonara, Pliny; Kottonarike, _Periplûs_, the district where the best pepper was produced. It is singular that this district was not mentioned by Ptolemy. +Cottonara+ was evidently the name of the district. κοττοναρικον the name of the pepper for which the district was famous. Dr. Buchanan identifies Cottonara with +Kaḍatta-naḍu+, the name of a district in the Calicut country celebrated for its pepper. Dr. Burnell identifies it with +Koļatta-nâḍu+, the district about Tellicherry which he says is the pepper district. _Kadatta_ in Malayâlam means ‘transport, conveyance,’ +Nâdû+, Tam.—Mal., means a district.”

“The prince called Kêrobothros by Ptolemy (VII. i. 86) is called Kêprobotros by the author of the _Periplûs_. The insertion of π is clearly an error, but more likely to be the error of a copyist than that of the author, who himself had visited the territories of the prince in question. He is called Caelobothras in Pliny’s text, but one of the MSS. gives it more correctly as Celobotras. The name in Sanskrit, and in full is ‘Keralaputra,’ but both _kêra_ and _kêla_ are Dravidian abbreviations of _kêralâ_. They are Malayâļam however, not Tamil abbreviations, and the district over which Keralaputra ruled is that in which the Malayâļam language is now spoken” (p. 95). From Ptolemy we learn that the capital of this prince was +Karoura+, which has been “identified with +Karûr+, an important town in the Koimbatur district originally included in the Chêra kingdom. Karûr means the black town.... Ptolemy’s word +Karoura+ represents the Tami[l:] name of the place with perfect accuracy.” Nelkunda, our author informs us, was not subject to this prince but to another called +Pandiôn+. This name, says Dr. Caldwell, “is of Sanskrit origin, and +Pandæ+, the form which Pliny, after Megasthenês, gives in his list of the Indian nations, comes very near the Sanskrit. The more recent local information of Pliny himself, as well as the notices of Ptolemy and the _Periplûs_, supply us with the Dravidian form of the word. The Tami[l:] sign of the masc. sing. is _an_, and Tami[l:] inserts _i_ euphonically after _ṇḍ_, consequently Pandiôn, and still better the plural form of the word +Pandiones+, faithfully represents the Tami[l:] masc. sing. +Pâṇḍiyan+.” In another passage the same scholar says: “The Sanskrit Pâṇḍya is written in Tamil Pâṇḍiya, but the more completely tamilized form +Pâṇḍi+ is still more commonly used all over southern India. I derive Pâṇḍi, as native scholars always derive the word, from the Sanskrit Pâṇḍu, the name of the father of the Pâṇḍava brothers.” The capital of this prince, as Pliny has stated, was +Modura+, which is the Sanskrit Maṭhurâ pronounced in the Tami[l:] manner. The corresponding city in Northern India, Maṭhurâ, is written by the Greeks +Methora+.

+Nelkunda+ is mentioned by various authors under varying forms of the name. As has been already stated, it is Melkunda in Ptolemy, who places it in the country of the Aii. In the _Peutingerian Table_ it is Nincylda, and in the Geographer of Ravenna, Nilcinna. At the mouth of the river on which it stands was its shipping port +Bakare+ or Becare, according to Müller now represented by +Markari+ (lat. 12° N.) Yule conjectures that it must have been between Kanetti and Kolum in Travancore. Regarding the trade of this place we may quote a remark from Vincent. “We find,” he says, “that throughout the whole which the _Periplûs_ mentions of India we have a catalogue of the exports and imports only at the two ports of Barugaza and Nelcynda, and there seems to be a distinction fixed between the articles appropriate to each. Fine muslins and ordinary cottons are the principal commodities of the first; tortoise shell, precious stones, silk, and above all pepper, seem to have been procurable only at the latter. This pepper is said to be brought to this port from Cottonara, famous to this hour for producing the best pepper in the world except that of Sumatra. The pre-eminence of these two ports will account for the little that is said of the others by the author, and why he has left us so few characters by which we may distinguish one from another.”

Our author on concluding his account of Nelkunda interrupts his narrative to relate the incidents of the important discovery of the monsoon made by that Columbus of antiquity Hippalus. This account, Vincent remarks, naturally excites a curiosity in the mind to enquire how it should happen that the monsoon should have been noticed by Nearkhos, and that from the time of his voyage for 300 years no one should have attempted a direct course till Hippalus ventured to commit himself to the ocean. He is of opinion that there was a direct passage by the monsoons both in going to and coming from India in use among the Arabians before the Greeks adopted it, and that Hippalus frequenting these seas as a pilot or merchant, had met with Indian or Arabian traders who made their voyages in a more compendious manner than the Greeks, and that he collected information from them which he had both the prudence and courage to adopt, just as Columbus, while owing much to his own nautical experience and fortitude was still under obligations to the Portuguese, who had been resolving the great problems in the art of navigation for almost a century previous to his expedition.

55. At the very mouth of this river lies another village, +Bakare+, to which the ships despatched from Nelkunda come down _empty_ and ride at anchor off shore while taking in cargo: for the river, it may be noted, has sunken reefs and shallows which make its navigation difficult. The sign by which those who come hither by sea know they are nearing land is their meeting with snakes, which are here of a black colour, not so long as those already mentioned, like serpents about the head, and with eyes the colour of blood.

(55) +Nelkunda+ appears to have been the limit of our author’s voyage along the coast of India, for in the sequel of his narrative he defines but vaguely the situation of the places which he notices, while his details are scanty, and sometimes grossly inaccurate. Thus he makes the Malabar Coast extend southwards beyond Cape Comorin as far at least as Kolkhoi (near Tutikorin) on the Coromandel coast, and like many ancient writers, represents Ceylon as stretching westward almost as far as Africa.

56. The ships which frequent these ports are of a large size, on account of the great amount and bulkiness of the pepper and betel of which their lading consists. The imports here are principally—

Χρήματα πλεῖ στα—Great quantities of specie.

Χρυσόλιθα—(Topaz?) Gold-stone, Chrysolite.

Ἰματισμὸς ἁπλοὸς οὐ πολὺς—A small assortment of plain cloth.

Πολύμιτα—Flowered robes.

Στίμμι, κοράλλιον—Stibium, a pigment for the eyes, coral.

ὕαλος ἀργὴ χαλκὸς—White glass, copper or brass.

Κασσίτερος, μόλυβδος—Tin, lead.

Οἵνος οὐ πολύς, ὡσεὶ δὲ τοσοῦτον ὅσον ἐν Βαρυγάζοις—Wine but not much, but about as much as at Barugaza.

Σανδαράκη—Sandarach (_Sindûrâ_).

Ἀρσενικὸν—Arsenic (Orpiment), yellow sulphuret of arsenic.

Σῖτος ὅσος ἀρκέ σει τοῖς περὶ το ναυκλήριον, διὰ τὸ μὴ τοὺς ἐμπόρους αὐτῷ χρῆσθαι—Corn, only for the use of the ship’s company, as the merchants do not sell it.

The following commodities are brought to it for export:—

Πέπερι μονογενῶς ἐν ἐνὶ τόπω τούτων τῶν ἐμπορίων γεννώμενον πολύ τῇ λεγομενῇ Κοττοναρικη—Pepper in great quantity, produced in only one of these marts, and called the pepper of Kottonara.

Μαργαρίτης ίκανὸς καὶ διάφορος—Pearls in great quantity and of superior quality.

Ἐλέφας—Ivory.

Ὀθόνια Σηρικὰ—Fine silks.

Νάρδος ἡ Γαγγητικὴ—Spikenard from the Ganges.

Μαλάβαθρον—Betel—all brought from countries further east.

Λιθία διαφανὴς παντοία—Transparent or precious stones of all sorts.

Αδάμας—Diamonds.

Ὑάκινθος—Jacinths.

Χελώνη ἥτε Χρυσονησιωτικὴ καὶ ἡ περὶ τὰς νήσους θηρευομένη τὰς προκειμένας αὐτῆς τῆς Λιμυρικῆς—Tortoise-shell from the Golden Island, and another sort which is taken in the islands which lie off the coast of Limurikê.

The proper season to set sail from Egypt for this part of India is about the month of July—that is, Epiphi.

57. The whole round of the voyage from +Kanê+ and +Eudaimôn Arabia+, which we have just described, used to be performed in small vessels which kept close to shore and followed its windings, but +Hippalos+ was the pilot who first, by observing the bearings of the ports and the configuration of the sea, discovered the direct course across the ocean; whence as, at the season when our own Etesians are blowing, a periodical wind from the ocean likewise blows in the Indian Sea, this wind, which is the south-west, is, it seems, called in these seas Hippalos [after the name of the pilot who first discovered the _passage by means of it_]. From the time of this discovery to the present day, merchants who sail for India either from +Kanê+, or, as others do, from +Arômata+, if Limurikê be their destination, must often change their tack, but if they are bound for +Barugaza+ and +Skythia+, they are not retarded for more than three days, after which, committing themselves to the monsoon which blows right in the direction of their course, they stand far out to sea, leaving all the gulfs we have mentioned in the distance.

58. After +Bakare+ occurs the mountain called Pyrrhos (or the Red) towards the south, near another district of the country called +Paralia+ (where the pearl-fisheries are which belong to king Pandiôn), and a city of the name of +Kolkhoi+. In this tract the first place met with is called +Balita+, which has a good harbour and a village on its shore. Next to this is another place called +Komar+, where is the cape of the same name and a haven. Those who wish to consecrate the closing part of their lives to religion come hither and bathe and engage themselves to celibacy. This is also done by women; since it is related that the goddess (_Kumârî_) once on a time resided at the place and bathed. From +Komarei+ (towards the south) the country extends as far as +Kolkhoi+, where the fishing for pearls is carried on. Condemned criminals are employed in this service. King Pandiôn is the owner of the fishery. To +Kolkhoi+ succeeds another coast lying along a gulf having a district in the interior bearing the name of +Argalou+. In this single place are obtained the pearls collected near the island of +Epiodôros+. From it are exported the muslins called _ebargareitides_.

(58) The first place mentioned after +Bakare+ is +Pyrrhos+, or the Red Mountain, which extends along a district called +Paralia+. “There are,” says Dr. Caldwell (Introd. p. 99), “three Paralias mentioned by the Greeks, two by Ptolemy ... one by the author of the _Periplûs_. The Paralia mentioned by the latter corresponded to Ptolemy’s country of the Ἄïοι, and that of the Καρεοι, that is, to South Travancore and South Tinnevelly. It commenced at the Red Cliffs south of Quilon, and included not only Cape Comorin but also Κόλχοι, where the pearl fishing was carried on, which belonged to King Pandiôn. Dr. Burnell identifies Paralia with Parali, which he states is an old name for Travancore, but I am not quite able to adopt this view.” “Paralia,” he adds afterwards, “may possibly have corresponded in meaning, if not in sound, to some native word meaning coast,—viz., Karei.” On this coast is a place called +Balita+, which is perhaps the +Bammala+ of Ptolemy (VII. i. 9), which Mannert identifies with Manpalli, a little north of Anjenga.

[Transcriber’s Note: There is no Paragraph 59]

60. Among the marts and anchorages along this shore to which merchants from Limurikê and the north resort, the most conspicuous are +Kamara+ and +Podoukê+ and +Sôpatma+, which occur in the order in which we have named them. In these marts are found those native vessels for coasting voyages which trade as far as Limurikê, and another kind called _sangara_, mode by fastening together large vessels formed each of a single timber, and also others called _kolandiophônta_, which are of great bulk and employed for voyages to +Khrusê+ and the +Ganges+. These marts import all the commodities which reach Limurikê for commercial purposes, absorbing likewise nearly every species of goods brought from Egypt, and most descriptions of all the goods exported from Limurikê and disposed of on this coast _of India_.

(60) We now reach the great promontory called in the _Periplûs_ +Komar+ and +Komarei+, Cape Kumârî. “It has derived its name,” says Caldwell, “from the Sans. _Kumârî_, a virgin, one of the names of the goddess Durgâ, the presiding divinity of the place, but the shape which this word has taken is, especially in _komar_, distinctively Tamilian.” In ordinary Tamil _Kumârî_ becomes _Kumări_; and in the vulgar dialect of the people residing in the neighbourhood of the Cape a virgin is neither Kumârî nor Kumări but Kŭmăr pronounced Kŏmar. It is remarkable that this vulgar corruption of the Sanskrit is identical with the name given to the place by the author of the _Periplûs_.... The monthly bathing in honor of the goddess Durgâ is still continued at Cape Comorin, but is not practised to the same extent as in ancient times.... Through the continued encroachments of the sea, the harbour the Greek mariners found at Cape Comorin and the fort (if φρουριον is the correct reading for βριάριον of the MS.) have completely disappeared; but a fresh water well remains in the centre of a rock, a little way out at sea. Regarding +Kolkhoi+, the next place mentioned after Komari, the same authority as we have seen places it (_Ind. Ant._ vol. VI. p. 80) near Tuticorin. It is mentioned by Ptolemy and in the _Peutinger Tables_, where it is called ‘Colcis Indorum’. The Gulf of Manaar was called by the Greeks the Colchic Gulf. The Tami[l:] name of the place Kolkei is almost identical with the Greek. “The place,” according to Caldwell, “is now about three miles inland, but there are abundant traces of its having once stood on the coast, and I have found the tradition that it was once the seat of the pearl fishery, still surviving amongst its inhabitants.” After the sea had retired from Κόλχοι ... a new emporium arose on the coast. This was +Kâyal+, the Cael of Marco Polo. Kâyal in turn became in time too far from the sea ... and Tuticorin (+Tûttrukuḍi+) was raised instead by the Portuguese from the position of a fishing village to that of the most important port on the southern Coromandel coast. The identification of Kolkoi with Kolkei is one of much importance. Being perfectly certain it helps forward other identifications. _Kol._ in Tami[l:] means ‘to slay.’ _Kei_ is ‘hand.’ It was the first capital of Pandiôn.

The coast beyond +Kolkhoi+, which has an inland district belonging to it called +Argalou+, is indented by a gulf called by Ptolemy the Argarik—now Palk Bay. Ptolemy mentions also a promontory called +Kôru+ and beyond it a city called +Argeirou+ and an emporium called +Salour+. This Kôru of Ptolemy, Caldwell thinks, represents the +Kôlis+ of the geographers who preceded him, and the +Koṭi+ of Tami[l:], and identifies it with “the island promontory of +Râmeśvaram+, the point of land from which there was always the nearest access from Southern India to Ceylon.” An island occurs in these parts, called that of +Epiodôros+, noted for its pearl fishery, on which account Ritter would identify it with the island of Manaar, which Ptolemy, as Mannert thinks, speaks of as Νάνιγηρίς (VII. i. 95). Müller thinks, however, it may be compared with Ptolemy’s +Kôru+, and so be Râmeśvaram.

This coast has commercial intercourse not only with the Malabar ports, but also with the Ganges and the Golden Khersonese. For the trade with the former a species of canoes was used called _Sangara_. The Maļayâlam name of these, Caldwell says, is _Changâdam_, in Tuļa _Jangâla_, compare Sanskrit _Samghâdam_ a raft (_Ind. Ant._ vol. I. p. 309). The large vessels employed for the Eastern trade were called _Kolandiophonta_, a name which Caldwell confesses his inability to explain.

Three cities and ports are named in the order of their occurrence which were of great commercial importance, +Kamara+, +Podoukê+, and +Sôpatma+. +Kamara+ may perhaps be, as Müller thinks, the emporium which Ptolemy calls +Khabêris+, situated at the mouth of the River +Khabêros+ (now, the Kavery), perhaps, as Dr. Burnell suggests, the modern Kaveripattam. (_Ind. Ant._ vol. VII. p. 40). +Podoukê+ appears in Ptolemy as Podoukê. It is +Puduchchêri+, _i. e._ ‘new town,’ now well known as Pondicherry; so Bohlen, Ritter, and Benfey. [Yule and Lassen place it at Pulikât]. +Sôpatma+ is not mentioned in Ptolemy, nor can it now be traced. In Sanskrit it transliterates into _Su-patna_, _i. e._, fair town.

61. Near the region which succeeds, where the course of the voyage now bends to the east, there lies out in the open sea stretching towards the west the island now called +Palaisimoundou+, but by the ancients +Taprobanê+. To cross over to the northern side of it takes a day. In the south part it gradually stretches towards the west till it nearly reaches the opposite coast of +Azania+. It produces pearl, precious (_transparent_) stones, muslins, and tortoise-shell.

(61) The next place noticed is the Island of Ceylon, which is designated +Palaisimoundou+, with the remark that its former name was +Taprobanê+. This is the Greek transliteration of Tâmraparnî, the name given by a band of colonists from Magadha to the place where they first landed in Ceylon, and which was afterwards extended to the whole island. It is singular, Dr. Caldwell remarks, that this is also the name of the principal river in Tinnevelly on the opposite coast of India, and he infers that the colony referred to might previously have formed a settlement in Tinnevelly at the mouth of the Tâmraparṇi river—perhaps at Kolkei, the earliest residence of the Pâṇḍya kings. The passage in the _Periplûs_ which refers to the island is very corrupt.

62.(_Returning to the coast_,) not far from the three marts we have mentioned lies +Masalia+, the seaboard of a country extending far inland. Here immense quantities of fine muslins are manufactured. From +Masalia+ the course of the voyage lies eastward across a neighbouring bay to +Dêsarênê+, which has the breed of elephants called Bôsarê. Leaving +Dêsarênê+ the course is northerly, passing a variety of barbarous tribes, among which are the +Kirrhadai+, savages whose noses are flattened to the face, and another tribe, that of the +Bargusoi+, as well as the +Hîppioprosôpoi+ _or_ +Makroprosôpoi+ (the horse faced or long faced men), who are reported to be cannibals.

(62) Recurring to the mainland, the narrative notices a district called +Masalia+, where great quantities of cotton were manufactured. This is the +Maïsôlia+ of Ptolemy, the region in which he places the mouths of a river the +Maisôlos+, which Benfey identifies with the Godâvarî, in opposition to others who would make it the Krishnâ, which is perhaps Ptolemy’s +Tuna+. The name Maisôlia is taken from the Sanskrit Mausala, preserved in Machhlipatana, now Masulipatam. Beyond this, after an intervening gulf running eastward is crossed, another district occurs, +Desarênê+, noted for its elephants. This is not mentioned by Ptolemy, but a river with a similar name, the +Dôsarôn+, is found in his enumeration of the rivers which occur between the Maisôlos and the Ganges. As it is the last in the list it may probably be, as Lassen supposes, the Brâhmini. Our author however places Desarênê at a much greater distance from the Ganges, for he peoples the intermediate space with a variety of tribes which Ptolemy relegates to the East of the river. The first of these tribes is that of the +Kirrâdai+ (Sanskrit, Kirâtas), whose features are of the Mongolian type. Next are the +Bargusoi+, not mentioned by Ptolemy, but perhaps to be identified with the cannibal race he speaks of, the +Barousai+ thought by Yule to be possibly the inhabitants of the Nikobar islands, and lastly the tribe of the long or horse-faced men who were also cannibals.

63. After passing these the course turns again to the east, and if you sail with the ocean to your right and the coast far to your left, you reach the Ganges and the extremity of the continent towards the east _called_ +Khrusê+ (the Golden Khersonese). The river of this region called the +Ganges+ is the largest in India; it has an _annual_ increase and decrease like the Nile, and there is on it a mart called after it, Gangê, through which passes _a considerable traffic_ consisting of betel, the Gangetic spikenard, pearl, and the finest of all muslins—those called the Gangetic. In this locality also there is said to be a gold mine and a gold coin called _Kaltis_. Near this river there is an island of the ocean called +Khrusê+ (or the Golden), which lies directly under the rising sun and at the extremity of the world towards the east. It produces the finest tortoise-shell that is found throughout the whole of the Erythræan Sea.

(63) When this coast of savages and monsters is left behind, the course lies eastward, and leads to the Ganges, which is the greatest river of India, and adjoins the extremity of the Eastern continent called +Khrusê+, or the Golden. Near the river, or, according to Ptolemy, on the third of its mouths stands a great emporium of trade called +Gangê+, exporting _Malabathrum_ and cottons and other commodities. Its exact position there are not sufficient data to determine. Khrusê is not only the name of the last part of the continent, but also of an island lying out in the ocean to eastward, not far from the Ganges. It is the last part of the world which is said to be inhabited. The situation of Khrusê is differently defined by different ancient authors. It was not known to the Alexandrine geographers. Pliny seems to have preserved the most ancient report circulated regarding it. He says (VI. xxiii. 80): “Beyond the mouth of the Indus are +Chryse+ and +Argyre+ abounding in metals as I believe, for I can hardly credit what some have related that the soil consists of gold and silver.” Mela (III. 7) assigns to it a very different position, asserting it to be near +Tabis+, the last spur of the range of Taurus. He therefore places it where Eratosthenês places +Thînai+, to the north of the Ganges on the confines of the Indian and Skythian oceans. Ptolemy, in whose time the Transgangetic world was better known, refers it to the peninsula of Malacca, the Golden Khersonese.

64. Beyond this region, immediately under the north, where the sea terminates outwards, there lies somewhere in +Thîna+ a very great city,—not on the coast, but in the interior of the country, called +Thîna+,—from which silk, whether in the raw state or spun into thread

and woven into cloth, is brought by land to Barugaza through Baktria, or by the Ganges to Limurikê. To penetrate into +Thîna+ is not an easy undertaking, and but few _merchants_ come from it, and that rarely. Its situation is under the Lesser Bear, and it is said to be conterminous with the remotest end of Pontos, and that part of the Kaspian Sea which adjoins the Maiôtic Lake, along with which it issues by _one and_ the same mouth into the ocean.

(64) The last place which the _Periplûs_ mentions is Thînai, an inland city of the +Thînai+ or +Sinai+, having a large commerce in silk and woollen stuffs. The ancient writers are not at all agreed as to its position. Colonel Yule thinks it was probably the city described by Marco Polo under the name of +Kenjan-fu+ (that is Singan-fu or Chauggan,) the most celebrated city in Chinese history, and the capital of several of the most potent dynasties. It was the metropolis of Shi Hwengti of the T’Sin dynasty, properly the first emperor, and whose conquests almost intersected those of his contemporary Ptolemy Euergetês—(vide Yule’s _Travels of Marco Polo_, vol. II. p. 21).

65. On the confines, however, of +Thînai+ an annual fair is held, attended by a race of men of squat figure, with their face very broad, but mild in disposition, called the +Sesatai+, who in appearance resemble wild animals. They come with their wives and children to this fair, bringing heavy loads of goods wrapped up in mats resembling in outward appearance the early leaves of the vine. Their place of assembly is where their own territory borders with that of Thînai; and here, squatted on the mats on which they exhibit their wares, they feast for several days, after which they return to their homes in the interior. On observing their retreat the people of Thînai, repairing to the spot, collect the mats on which they had been sitting, and taking out the fibres, which are called _petroi_, from the reeds, they put the leaves two and two together, and roll them up into slender balls, through which they pass the fibres extracted from the reeds. Three kinds of Malabathrum are thus made—that of the large ball, that of the middle, and that of the small, according to the size of the leaf of which the balls are formed. Hence there are three kinds of Malabathrum, which after being made up are forwarded to India by the manufacturers.

66. All the regions beyond this are unexplored, being difficult of access by reason of the extreme rigour of the climate and the severe frosts, or perhaps because such is the will of the divine power.

THE

VOYAGE OF NEARKHOS,

FROM THE INDUS TO THE HEAD OF THE
PERSIAN GULF,

AS DESCRIBED IN THE SECOND PART OF
THE INDIKA OF ARRIAN,

(FROM CHAPTER XVIII. TO THE END.)

TRANSLATED FROM MÜLLER’S EDITION
(As given in the _Geographi Græci Minores_: Paris, 1855).

WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES.

THE VOYAGE OF NEARKHOS.