Σάπφειρος—Sapphires.
Σηρικὰ δέρματα—Furs from China.
Ὀθόνιον—Cottons.
Νῆμα Σηρικὸν—Silk thread.
Ἰνδικὸν μέλαν—Indigo.
Ships destined for this port put out to sea when the Indian monsoon prevails—that is, about the month of July or Epiphi. The voyage at this season is attended with danger, but being shorter is more expeditious.
(39) Ships did not go up to it but remained at Barbarikon, their cargoes being conveyed up the river in small boats. In Ptolemy (VII. i. 61) the form of the name is Binagara, which is less correct since the word is composed of Min, the Indian name for the Skythians, and nagar, a city. Ritter considers that Ṭhaṭha is its modern representative, since it is called Saminagar by the Jâḍejâ Rajputs who, though settled in Kachh, derive their origin from that city. To this view it is objected that Ṭhaṭha is not near the position which Ptolemy assigns to his Binagara. Mannert places it at Bakkar, D’Anville at Mansura, and Vincent at Menhabery mentioned by Edrisi (I. p. 164) as distant two stations or 60 miles from Dabil, which again was three stations or 90 miles from the mouth of the Indus, that is it lay at the head of the Delta. Our author informs us that in his time Minagar was ruled by Parthian princes. The Parthians (the Parada of Sanskrit writers) must therefore have subverted a Skythian dynasty which must have been that which (as Benfey has shown) was founded by Yeukaotschin between the years 30 and 20 B.C., or about 30 years only after the famous Indian Æra called Śâkâbda (the year of the Śâka) being that in which Vikramâditya expelled the Skythians from Indian soil. The statement of the Periplûs that Parthian rulers succeeded the Skythian is confirmed by Parthian coins found everywhere in this part of the country. These sovereigns must have been of consequence, or the trade of their country very lucrative to the merchant as appears by the presents necessary to ensure his protection—plate, musical instruments, handsome girls for the Harem, the best wine, plain cloth of high price, and the finest perfumes. The profits of the trade must therefore have been great, but if Pliny’s account be true, that every pound laid out in India produced a hundred at Rome, greater exactions than these might easily have been supported.
40. After the river Sinthos is passed we reach another gulf, which cannot be easily seen. It has two divisions,—the Great and the Little by name,—both shoal with violent and continuous eddies extending far out from the shore, so that before ever land is in sight ships are often grounded on the shoals, or being caught within the eddies are lost. Over this gulf hangs a promontory which, curving from Eirinon first to the east, then to the south, and finally to the west, encompasses the gulf called Barakê, in the bosom of which lie seven islands. Should a vessel approach the entrance of this gulf, the only chance of escape for those on board is at once to alter their course and stand out to sea, for it is all over with them if they are once fairly within the womb of Barakê, which surges with vast and mighty billows, and where the sea, tossing in violent commotion, forms eddies and impetuous whirlpools in every direction. The bottom varies, presenting in places sudden shoals, in others being scabrous with jagged rocks, so that when an anchor grounds its cable is either at once cut through, or soon broken by friction at the bottom. The sign by which voyagers know they are approaching this bay is their seeing serpents floating about on the water, of extraordinary size and of a black colour, for those met with lower down and in the neighbourhood of Barugaza are of less size, and in colour green and golden.
(40) The first place mentioned after the Indus is the Gulf of Eirinon, a name of which traces remain in the modern appellation the Raṇ of Kachh. This is no longer covered with water except during the monsoon, when it is flooded by sea water or by rains and inundated rivers. At other seasons it is not even a marsh, for its bed is hard, dry and sandy; a mere saline waste almost entirely devoid of herbage, and frequented but by one quadruped—the wild ass. Burnes conjectured that its desiccation resulted from an upheaval of the earth caused by one of those earthquakes which are so common in that part of India. The Raṇ is connected with the Gulf of Kachh, which our author calls the Gulf of Barakê. His account of it is far from clear. Perhaps, as Müller suggests, he comprehended under Eirinon the interior portion of the Gulf of Kachh, limiting the Gulf of Barakê to the exterior portion or entrance to it. This gulf is called that of Kanthi by Ptolemy, who mentions Barakê only as an island, [and the south coast of Kachh is still known by the name of Kantha]. The islands of the Periplûs extend westward from the neighbourhood of Navanagar to the very entrance of the Gulf.
41. To the gulf of Barakê succeeds that of Barugaza and the mainland of Ariakê, a district which forms the frontier of the kingdom of Mombaros and of all India. The interior part of it which borders on Skythia is called Aberia, and its sea-board Surastrênê. It is a region which produces abundantly corn and rice and the oil of sesamum, butter, muslins and the coarser fabrics which are manufactured from Indian cotton. It has also numerous herds of cattle. The natives are men of large stature and coloured black. The metropolis of the district is Minnagar, from which cotton cloth is exported in great quantity to Barugaza. In this part of the country there are preserved even to this very day memorials of the expedition of Alexander, old temples, foundations of camps, and large wells. The extent of this coast, reckoned from Barbarikon to the promontory called Papikê, near Astakapra, which is opposite Barugaza, is 3,000 stadia.