Ariakê of the Sadinoi included the coast of the Konkan as far south as Baltipatna (near Mahâd) and the Deccan between the Godâvari and the Kṛishṇa. The name occurs in Varâha Mihira’s Bṛihat Saṁhitâ XIV. in the form Âryaka. The tribal name Sadinoi is less easy to explain. The suggested connection with the word Sâdhana as meaning an agent (Lassen) and its application to the Kshatrapas of Gujarát, are not tenable. The only authority for this meaning of Sâdhana is Wilson’s Sanskrit Dictionary, and at this time it is certain that Ariakê belonged, not to the Kshatrapas of Gujarát, but to the Śâtakarṇis of Paithan on the Godâvari. Bhândârkar’s identification of the Sadinoi with Varâha Mihira’s Śântikas seems also somewhat unsatisfactory. Ptolemy’s name may possibly be a corruption of Śâtakarṇi or Śâtavâhana. The coast towns of this region were Soupara (Supârâ near Bassein), south of which Ptolemy places the river Goaris (Vaitaraṇî), Dounga (perhaps Dugáḍ ten miles north of Bhiwndi) south of which is the Bênda river (Bhiwndî Creek), Simylla, a mart and a cape, the Automula and Perimula of Pliny and the modern Cheul (Chemula); Milizêgyris an island, the same as the Melizêigara of the Periplus and (probably) as the Sigerus of Pliny and the modern Janjîra; Hippokoura, either Ghodegâon or Kuḍâ (Yule) in Kolâbâ district; Baltipatna, probably the Palaipatmai of the Periplus and the same as Pâl near Mahâd.
The inland dominions of the Sadinoi were much more extensive than their coast line. Ptolemy gives two lists of cities, one of those lying to the west (i. e. north) of the Bênda, whose course in the Deccan represents the Bhîmâ river, and the other of those between the Bênda and the Pseudostomos (here the Mâlprabhâ and Kṛishṇa or possibly the Tungabhadra with its tributaries). The most easterly towns in the first list, Malippala and Sarisabis, are not satisfactorily identified, but must be looked for in the Nizâm’s country to the south-east of Haidarâbâd. Next comes Tagara mentioned in the Periplus (chapter 51) as ten days east from Paithan, and
Appendix VI.
Early Greeks and Romans.
Klaudios Ptolemaios. therefore about the latitude of Kulbarga, with which it is identified by Yule. The distance and direction make its identification with Deogir (Wilford and others), Junnar (Bhagwanlâl), or Kolhâpur (Fleet) impossible. The best suggestion hitherto made is that it is Dârur or Dhârur (Bhândârkar), but Dârur in the Bhîr district is too far north, so Dhârur fifty miles west of Haidarâbâd must be taken as the most likely site. Next to Tagara Ptolemy mentions Baithana, which is the Paithana of the Periplus and the modern Paithan on the Godâvari. It is called by our author the capital of Siroptolemaios, who is the Śrî-Pulumâyi of the Nâsik cave inscriptions. Next to Baithana comes Deopali, which may safely be identified with the modern Deoli in the suburbs of Ahmadnagar. Gamaliba, the next stage, must be placed somewhere on the line between Ahmednagar and Junnar, which latter ancient town is to be identified with Ptolemy’s Omênogara, although this name is not easy to explain.
The second list of towns in Ariakê begins with Nagarouris (Nagarapurî) which probably represents Poona which even then must have been a place of importance, being at the head of the great road down the Bhorghat. Tabasô (compare Varâha Mihira’s Tâpasâśrâmâḥ and Ptolemy’s own Tabasoi) may be the holy city of Pandharpur. Indê has retained its ancient name (Indî in the north of the Bîjâpur district). Next follows Tiripangalida (Tîkota in the Kurundwâd State ?) and then Hippokoura, the capital of Baleokuros. Dr. Bhândârkar has identified this king with the Vilivâyakûra of coins found in the Kolhápur state. His capital may possibly be Hippargi in the Sindgi taluka of the Bîjâpur district. Soubouttou, the next town on Ptolemy’s list, is not identifiable, but the name which follows, Sirimalaga, must be Sirnâl in the Bîjâpur taluka of the same district.
Kalligeris may be identified not with Kaṇhagiri (McCrindle) but with Galgali at the crossing of the Kṛishṇa, and Modogoulla is not Mûdgal (McCrindle) but Mudhol on the Ghâtprabhâ. Petirgala should probably read Penengala, and would then represent the old town of Panangala or Hongal in the Dhârvâḍ district. The last name on the list is Banaouasei, which is Vanavâsî, about ten miles from Sirsi in Kanara, a very old town where a separate branch of the Śâtakarṇis once ruled.
The Pirate Coast is the next division of Western India described by Ptolemy, who mentions five sea-ports but only two inland cities. It is clear that the pirates were hemmed in on the land side by the dominions of the Śâtakarṇis, and that they held but little territory above the ghâts, though their capital Mousopallê was in that region. The places on the coast from north to south were Mandagara, the Mandagara of the Periplus (chapter 53) which has been satisfactorily identified with Mandangaḍ to the south of the Bânkot creek.
Byzantion, which, as Dr. Bhândârkar first pointed out, is the Vaijayantî of inscriptions may be placed either at Chiplun or at Dábhol at the mouth of the Vâsishṭhî river. Chiplun is the only town of great antiquity in this part of the Koṅkaṇ, and if it is not Vaijayantî Ptolemy has passed over it altogether. The similarity of the names has suggested the identification of Byzantion with Jaygaḍ (Bhândârkar) or Vijayadrug (Vincent), but both these places are comparatively modern. There are indeed no very ancient towns in the Koṅkaṇ between Saṅgamêshvar and the Sâvantvâḍi border.
Khersonêsos is generally admitted to be the peninsula of Goa.
Appendix VI.
Early Greeks and Romans.
Klaudios Ptolemaios. Armagara is placed a little to the north of the river Nanagouna and may be represented by Cape Ramas in Portuguese territory.
The river Nanagouna here is generally supposed to be the Kâlînadî, though in its upper course it seems to represent the Taptî, and a confusion with the Nânâ pass led Ptolemy to bring it into connection with the rivers Goaris and Bênda (Campbell).
Nitra, the southernmost mart on the pirate coast, is the Nitrias of Pliny, and has been satisfactorily identified by Yule with Mangalor on the Nêtravatî.