[18] As an example of the readiness with which an inland race of northerners conquer seamanship compare the Franks of the Pontus who about a.d. 279 passed in a few years from the Pontus to the Mediterranean ports and leaving behind them Malta the limit of Greek voyages sailed through Gibraltar to the Baltic. Gibbon, I. 404–405. [↑]
[19] Reinaud’s Mémoire Sur L’Inde, 200. The traders of Chorwár, that is of the old Chaura or Chápa country near Virával and Mangrul, are now known in Bombay as Chápadias. The received explanation of Chápadia is the roofed men it is said in derisive allusion to their large and heavy headdress. But as the Porbandar headdress is neither specially large nor ungraceful the common explanation can be hardly more than a pun. This suggests that the name Chápadia is a trace of the early Chápa tribe of Gurjjaras who also gave their name to Chápanir. Tod’s (Western India, 250, 256) description of the Chauras race with traditions of having come from the Red Sea and as a nautical Arabia is the result of taking for Sokotra Sankodwára that is Bet to the north of Dwárka. [↑]
[20] According to Abulfeda a.d. 1334 (Reinaud’s Abulfeda, cccxlix.) some of the besieged fled to Ceylon. Farishtah (Briggs’ Muhammadan Powers, I. 75) records that after the fall of Somnáth Máhmud intended to fit out a fleet to conquer Ceylon and Pegu. According to Bird (Mirát-i-Ahmedi, 146) Ceylon or Sirandip remained a dependency of Somnáth till a.d. 1290 when the king Vijayabáhu became independent. [↑]
[21] The common element in the two languages may have been the result of Gujarát settlements in Madagascar as well as in Java and Cambodia. This is however doubtful as the common element may be either Arabic or Polynesian. [↑]
[22] When in a.d. 1535 he secured Bahádur’s splendid jewelled belt Humáyún said These are the trappings of the lord of the sea. Bayley’s Gujarát, 386. [↑]
[23] Compare in Bombay Public Diary 10, pages 197–207 of 1736–37, the revenue headings Surat and Cambay with entries of two per cent on all goods imported and exported from either of these places by traders under the Honourable Company’s protection. [↑]
[24] These Badhels seem to be Hamilton’s (a.d. 1720) Warels of Chance (New Account, I. 141). This Chance is Chách near Diu apparently the place from which the Bhátiás get their Bombay name of Cháchiás. Towards the close of the eighteenth century Bhátiás from Chách seem to have formed a pirate settlement near Dáhánu on the Thána coast. Major Price (Memoirs of a Field Officer, 322) notes (a.d. 1792 June) the cautionary speed with which in travelling from Surat to Bombay by land they passed Dáhánu through the Chánsiáh jungle the district of a piratical community of that name. [↑]
[25] According to Sir. A. Burnes (Jl. Bombay Geog. Soc. VI. (1835) 27, 28) the special skill of the people of Kachh in navigation and ship-building was due to a young Rájput of Kachh. Rámsingh Málani, who about a century earlier had gone to Holland and learned those arts. See Bombay Gazetteer, V. 116 note 2. [↑]
[26] Crawford (a.d. 1820) held that all Hindu influence in Java came from Kalinga or north-east Madras. Fergusson (Ind. Arch. 103, Ed. 1876) says: The splendid remains at Amrávati show that from the mouths of the Kṛishṇa and Godávari the Buddhist of north and north-west India colonised Pegu, Cambodia, and eventually the Island of Java. Compare Tavernier (a.d. 1666: Ball’s Translation, I. 174.) Masulipatam is the only place in the Bay of Bengal from which vessels sail eastwards for Bengal, Arrakan, Pegu, Siam, Sumatra, Cochin China, and the Manillas and west to Hormuz, Makha, and Madagascar. Inscriptions (Indian Antiquary, V. 314; VI. 356) bear out the correctness of the connection between the Kalinga coast and Java which Java legends have preserved. As explained in Dr. Bhandarkar’s interesting article on the eastern passage of the Śakas (Jour. B. B. R. A. S. XVII.) certain inscriptions also show a Magadhi element which may have reached Java from Sumatra and Sumatra from the coast either of Bengal or of Orissa. Later information tends to increase the east and south Indian share. Compare Notices et Extraits des Manuscripts de la Bibliotheque Nationale Vol. XXVII. (Partie II) 2 Fasicule page 350. [↑]
[27] Compare Hiuen Tsiang in Beal’s Buddhist Records, II. 222 note 102. Táhia may be Tochara that is Baktria, but the Panjáb seems more likely. Compare Beal’s Life of Hiuen Tsiang, 136 note 2. [↑]