Appendix VI.
Early Greeks and Romans.
Klaudios Ptolemaios. He enumerates seven mouths of the Indus, but the river is so constantly changing its course that it is hopeless to expect to identify all the names given by him (Sagapa, Sinthôn, Khariphron, Sapara, Sabalaessa, and Lônibare) with the existing channels. Only it may be noted that Sinthôn preserves the Indian name of the river (Sindhu) and that the easternmost mouth (Lônibare) probably represents both the present Korî or Launî and the Lûnî river of Mârwâr, a fact which goes some way to explain why Ptolemy had no idea of the existence of Kachh, though he knows the Ran as the gulf of Kanthi. Hence he misplaces Surastrênê (Surâshṭra or Kâthiâvâḍa) in the Indus delta instead of south of the Ran. Ptolemy enumerates a group of five towns in the north-western part of Indo-Skythia (Kohat, Bannu, and Dera Ismail Khân) of which Cunningham (Anc. Geog. pages 84ff) has identified Banagara with Bannu, and Andrapana with Daraban, while the sites of Artoarta, Sabana, and Kodrana are unknown. Ptolemy next gives a list of twelve towns along the western bank of the Indus to the sea. Of these Embolima has been identified by Cunningham (Anc. Geog. page 52) with Amb sixty miles above Attok, and Pasipêda is identified by St. Martin with the Besmaid of the Arab geographers and placed near Mithankot at the junction of the Chenab with the Indus. Sousikana, which comes next in the list to Pasipêḍa, is generally thought to be a corruption of Mousikanos, and is placed by the latest authority (General Haig, The Indus Delta Country, page 130) in Bahâwalpur, though Cunningham (Anc. Geog. page 257) puts it at Alor, which is somewhat more in accordance with Ptolemy’s distances. Kôlaka the most southerly town of the list, cannot well be the Krôkala of Arrian (Karâchi) as McCrindle supposes, for Ptolemy puts it nearly a degree north of the western mouth of the Indus.
The two great towns of the delta which Ptolemy next mentions, are placed by General Haig, Patala at a point thirty-five miles south-east of Haidarâbâd (op. cit. page 19) and Barbarei near Shâh Bandar (op. cit. page 31). Barbarei is mentioned again in the Periplus (chapter 38) under the name of Barbarikon. Ptolemy gives the names of nine towns on the left bank of the Indus from the confluence to the sea, but very few of them can be satisfactorily identified. Panasa can only be Osanpur (St. Martin) on Fluellen’s principles. Boudaia must represent the Budhîya of the Arabs, though it is on the wrong side of the river (see Haig, op. cit. page 57ff). Naagramma may with Yule be placed at Naushahro. Kamigara cannot be Aror (McCrindle), if that place represents Sousikana. Binagara is commonly thought to be a corrupt reading of Minnagara (compare Periplus chapter 38). Haig (op. cit. page 32 note 47) refers to the Tuhfatu’l Kirâm as mentioning a Minnagar in pargana Shâhdâdpur (north-east of Haidarâbâd). Parabali, Sydros, and Epitausa have not been identified, but must be looked for either in Haidarâbâd or in Thar and Pârkar. Xoana may with Yule be identified with Siwana in the bend of the Lûnî and gives another indication that Ptolemy confounded the Lûnî with the eastern mouth of the Indus.
On the coast of Surastrênê (Kâthiâvâḍa) Ptolemy mentions, first, the island of Barakê (Dvârakâ Bêt): then the city Bardaxêma which must be Porbandar (Yule), in front of the Barada hills: then the village of Surastra, which perhaps represents Verâval, though it is placed too far north. Surastra cannot well be Junâgad (Lassen) which is not on the coast and in Ptolemy’s time was not a village, but a city, though it is certainly strange that Ptolemy does not anywhere mention it. Further south Ptolemy places the mart of Monoglôsson (Mangrol). The eastern
Appendix VI.
Early Greeks and Romans.
Klaudios Ptolemaios. boundary of the coast of Indo-Skythia seems to have been the mouth of the Môphis (Mahî). Ptolemy’s account of Indo-Skythia may be completed by mentioning the list of places, which he puts to the east of the Indus (i. e. the Lûnî) and at some distance from it.
These are: Xodrakê, which has not been identified, but which must be placed somewhere in Mewâr, perhaps at the old city of Pûr, seventy-two miles north-east of Udaipur, or possibly at the old city of Ahar, two miles from Udaipur itself (Tod’s Râjasthân, I. 677–78).
Sarbana, which is marked in Ptolemy’s map at the head-waters of the Mahî in the Apokopa mountains (Aravallis), must be identified with Sarwan about ten miles north-west of Ratlâm. There is also a place called Sarwanio close to Nimach, which Ptolemy may have confused with Sarwan.
Auxoamis, which St. Martin identifies with Sûmî, and Yule with Ajmir, but neither place suits the distance and direction from Sarwan. If Ptolemy, as above suggested, confused Sarwan and Sarwanio, Auxoamis may be Ahar near Udaipur, Pûr being then Xodrakê: otherwise Auxoamis may be Ídar. The question can only be settled by more exact knowledge of the age of Ahar and of Ídar. Orbadarou may provisionally with Yule be placed at Âbu.
Asinda must be looked for near Sidhpur, though it cannot with St. Martin be identified with that place. Perhaps Vadnagar (formerly Ânandapura and a very old town) may be its modern representative.
Theophila may be Devaliya (Yule) or Thân (Burgess) in north-east Kâthiâvâḍa.
Astakapra is admitted to be Hastakavapra or Hâthab near Bhâvnagar (Bühler).
Larikê is described by Ptolemy next after Indo-Skythia on his way down the West Coast. The northern limit of its coast was the mouth of the river Môphis (Mahî). Its name is the Lâṭa of purâṇas and inscriptions. Ptolemy mentions as on its coast the village of Pakidarê, which may be a misreading for Kâpidarê and represent Kâvî (Kâpikâ of inscriptions) a holy place just south of the Mahî. Next comes Cape Maleô, which Ptolemy both in his text and in his map includes in Larikê, though there is no prominent headland in a suitable position on the east side of the Gulf of Cambay. As he puts it 2¼ degrees west of Broach, it may probably be identified with Gopnâth Point in Kâthiâvâḍa on the other side of the gulf (the Pâpikê of the Periplus), his name for it surviving in the neighbouring shoals known as the Malai banks. It is in agreement with this that Ptolemy puts the mouth of the river Namados (Narmadâ) to the north of Cape Maleô. South of the river is Kamanê which may be identified with the Kamanijja or Karmaṇêya of inscriptions, that is with Kamlej on the Taptî above Surat. It has been supposed to be the Kammôni of the Periplus (chapter 43), which was the village opposite to the reef called Hêrônê on the right (east) of the gulf of Barygaza: but it is perhaps best to separate the two and to identify Kammôni with Kim, north of Olpâd. The next town mentioned is Nousaripa, which should probably be read Nousarika, being the Navasârikâ of inscriptions and the modern Nausârî. The most southerly town of Larikê is Poulipoula, which has been identified with Phulpâdâ or old Surat, but is too far south. Bilimora is perhaps the most likely position for it, though the names do not correspond (unless Pouli is the Dravidian Puli or poli = a tiger, afterwards replaced by Bili = a cat). Ptolemy begins his list of the inland cities of Larikê with Agrinagara, which may with Yule be identified with
Appendix VI.
Early Greeks and Romans.
Klaudios Ptolemaios. Âgar, thirty-five miles north-east of Ujjain, and the Âkara of inscriptions. The next town is Siripalla, which has not been identified, but should be looked for about thirty miles to the south-east of Agar, not far from Shâhjahânpur. The modern name would probably be Shirol. Bammogoura must be identified, not with Pawangad (Yule), but with Hiuen Tsiang’s “city of the Brâhmans” (Beal, Si-yu-ki, II. 262), 200 li (about 33 miles) to the north-west of the capital of Mâlava in his time. The distance and direction bring us nearly to Jaora. Sazantion and Zerogerei have not been satisfactorily identified but may provisionally be placed at Ratlâm and Badnawar respectively, or Zêrogerei may be Dhâr as Yule suggested. Ozênê the capital of Tiastanês is Ujjain the capital of the Kshatrapa Cashṭana who reigned c. 130 a.d. His kingdom included Western Mâlwâ, West Khándesh, and the whole of Gujarát south of the Mahî. His grandson Rudradâman (a.d. 150) tells us in his Girnâr inscription (I. A. VII. 259) that his own kingdom included also Mârwâr Sindh and the lower Panjâb. Next to Ujjain Ptolemy mentions Minnagara, which must have been somewhere near Mânpur. Then we come to Tiatoura or Chândor (Yule) on the ridge which separates Khándesh from the valley of the Godâvari, and finally on that river itself Nasika the modern Nâsik. It is very doubtful whether Nâsik at any time formed part of the dominions of Cashṭana, since we know from the inscriptions in the Nâsik caves that the Kshatrapas were driven out of that part of the country by Gautamîputra Śâtakarṇi, the father of Ptolemy’s contemporary Pulumâyi. Ptolemy probably found Nâsik mentioned in one of his lists as on a road leading from Ujjain southwards and he concluded that they belonged to the same kingdom.