1856.—
"... the true blood-royal of his race,
The silver Arab with his purple veins
Translucent, and his nostrils caverned wide,
And flaming eye...."
The Banyan Tree.
ARAKAN, ARRACAN, n.p. This is an European form, perhaps through Malay [which Mr Skeat has failed to trace], of Rakhaing, the name which the natives give themselves. This is believed by Sir Arthur Phayre [see Journ. As. Soc. Ben. xii. 24 seqq.] to be a corruption of the Skt. rākshasa, Pali rakkhaso, i.e. 'ogre' or the like, a word applied by the early Buddhists to unconverted tribes with whom they came in contact. It is not impossible that the Ἀργυρῆ of Ptolemy, which unquestionably represents Arakan, may disguise the name by which the country is still known to foreigners; at least no trace of the name as 'Silver-land' in old Indian Geography has yet been found. We may notice, without laying any stress upon it, that in Mr. Beal's account of early Chinese pilgrims to India, there twice occurs mention of an Indo-Chinese kingdom called O-li-ki-lo, which transliterates fairly into some name like Argyrē, and not into any other yet recognisable (see J.R.A.S. (N.S.) xiii. 560, 562).
c. 1420-30.—"Mari deinceps cum mense integro ad ostium Rachani fluvii pervenisset."—N. Conti, in Poggius, De Varietate Fortunae.
1516.—"Dentro fra terra del detto regno di Verma, verso tramontana vi è vn altro regno di Gentili molto grande ... confina similmente col regno di Bẽgala e col regno di Aua, e chiamasi Aracan."—Barbosa, in Ramusio, i. 316.
[c. 1535.—"Arquam": See [CAPELAN].]