"The Godavery river, or Gonga Godowry, commonly called Ganga in European maps, and sometimes Gang in Indian histories, has generally been represented as the same river with that of Cattack.
"As we have no authority that I can find for supposing it, the opinion must have been taken up, on a supposition that there was no opening between the mouths of the Kistna and Mahanadee (or Cattack river) of magnitude sufficient for such a river as the Ganga" (pp. 74-75) [also ibid. 2nd ed. 244]. As to this error see also a quotation from D'Anville under [KEDGEREE]. It is probable that what that geographer says in his Éclaircissemens, p. 135, that he had no real idea of the Godavery. That name occurs in his book only as "la pointe de Gaudewari." This point, he says, is about E.N.E. of the "river of Narsapur," at a distance of about 12 leagues; "it is a low land, intersected by several river-arms, forming the mouths of that which the maps, esteemed to be most correct, call Wenseron; and the river of Narsapur is itself one of those arms, according to a MS. map in my possession." Narsaparam is the name of a taluk on the westernmost delta branch, or Vasishta Godāvarī [see Morris, Man. of Godavery Dist., 193]. Wenseron appears on a map in Baldaeus (1672), as the name of one of the two mouths of the Eastern or Gautamī Godāvarī, entering the sea near Coringa. It is perhaps the same name as Injaram on that branch, where there was an English Factory for many years.
In the neat map of "Regionum Choromandel, Golconda, et Orixa," which is in Baldaeus (1672), there is no indication of it whatever except as a short inlet from the sea called Gondewary.
1538.—"The noblest rivers of this province (Daquem or Deccan) are six in number, to wit: Crusna (Krishna), in many places known as Hinapor, because it passes by a city of this name (Hindapūr?); Bivra (read Bima?); these two rivers join on the borders of the Deccan and the land of [Canara] (q.v.), and after traversing great distances enter the sea in the Oria territory; Malaprare (Malprabha?); Guodavam (read Guodavari) otherwise called Gangua; Purnadi; Tapi. Of these the Malaprare enters the sea in the Oria territory, and so does the Guodavam; but Purnadi and Tapi enter the Gulf of Cambay at different points."—João de Castro, Primeiro Roteiro da Costa da India, pp. 6, 7.
c. 1590.—"Here (in Berar) are rivers in abundance; especially the Ganga of Gotam, which they also call Godovārī. The Ganga of Hindustan they dedicate to Mahadeo, but this Ganga to Gotam. And they tell wonderful legends of it, and pay it great adoration. It has its springs in the Sahyā Hills near Trimbak, and passing through the Wilāyat of Ahmadnagar, enters Berār and thence flows on to Tilingāna."—Āīn-i-Akbari (orig.) i. 476; [ed. Jarrett, ii. 228.] We may observe that the most easterly of the Delta branches of the Godavery is still called Gautami.
GODDESS, s. An absurd corruption which used to be applied by our countrymen in the old settlements in the Malay countries to the young women of the land. It is Malay gādīs, 'a virgin.'
c. 1772.—
"And then how strange, at night opprest
By toils, with songs you're lulled to rest;
Of rural goddesses the guest,