(41) To Barakê succeeds the Gulf of Barugaza (Gulf of Khambhât) and the sea-board of the region called Ariakê. The reading of the MS. here ἡ πρἡὸς Ἀραβικῆς χώρας is considered corrupt. Müller substitutes ἡ ἤπειρος τῆς Ἀριακῆς χώρας, though Mannert and others prefer Λαρικῆς χώρας, relying on Ptolemy, who places Ariakê to the south of Larikê, and says that Larikê comprehends the peninsula (of Gujarât) Barugaza and the parts adjacent. As Ariakê was however previously mentioned in the Periplûs (sec. 14) in connexion with Barugaza, and is afterwards mentioned (sec. 54) as trading with Muziris, it must no doubt have been mentioned by the author in its proper place, which is here. [Bhagvanlâl Indraji Pandit has shewn reasons however for correcting the readings into Αβαρατικη, the Prakrit form of Aparântikâ, an old name of the western sea board of India.—Ind. Ant. vol. VII., pp. 259, 263.] Regarding the name Larikê, Yule has the following note (Travels of M. Polo vol. II., p. 353):—“Lâr-Deśa, the country of Lar,” properly Lât-deśa, was an early name for the territory of Gujrat and the northern Konkan, embracing Saimur (the modern Chaul as I believe) Thaṇa, and Bharoch. It appears in Ptolemy in the form Larikê. The sea to the west of that coast was in the early Muhammadan times called the sea of Lâr, and the language spoken on its shores is called by Mas’udi, Lâri. Abulfeda’s authority, Ibn Said, speaks of Lâr and Gujarât as identical.
Ariakê (Aparântikâ), our author informs us, was the beginning or frontier of India. That part of the interior of Ariakê which bordered on Skythia was called Aberia or Abiria (in the MS. erroneously Ibêria). The corresponding Indian word is Abhira, which designated the district near the mouths of the river. Having been even in very early times a great seat of commerce, some (as Lassen) have been led to think from a certain similarity of the names that this was the Ophir of scripture, a view opposed by Ritter. Abiria is mentioned by Ptolemy, who took it to be not a part of India but of Indoskythia. The sea-board of Ariakê was called Surastrênê, and is mentioned by Ptolemy, who says (VII. i. 55) it was the region about the mouths of the Indus and the Gulf of Kanthi. It answers to the Sanskrit Surâshṭra. Its capital was Minnagar,—a city which, as its name shows, had once belonged to the Min or Skythians. It was different of course from the Minnagar already mentioned as the capital of Indo-Skythia. It was situated to the south of Ozênê (Ujjayinî, or Ujjain), and on the road which led from that city to the River Narmadâ, probably near where Indôr now stands. It must have been the capital only for a short time, as Ptolemy informs us (II. i. 63) that Ozênê was in his time the capital of Tiashanes [probably the Chashṭana of Coins and the Cave Temple inscriptions]. From both places a great variety of merchandise was sent down the Narmadâ to Barugaza.
The next place our author mentions is a promontory called Papikê projecting into the Gulf of Khambât from that part of the peninsula of Gujarât which lies opposite to the Barugaza coast. Its distance from Barbarikon on the middle mouth of the Indus is correctly given at 3,000 stadia. This promontory is said to be near Astakapra, a place which is mentioned also by Ptolemy, and which (Ind. Ant. vol. V. p. 314) has been identified by Colonel Yule with Hastakavapra (now Hâthab near Bhaunagar), a name which occurs in a copper-plate grant of Dhruvasena I of Valabhi. With regard to the Greek form of this name Dr. Bühler thinks it is not derived immediately from the Sanskrit, but from an intermediate old Prakrit word Hastakampra, which had been formed by the contraction of the syllables ava to â, and the insertion of a nasal, according to the habits of the Gujarâtîs. The loss of the initial, he adds, may be explained by the difficulty which Gujarâtîs have now and probably had 1,600 years ago in pronouncing the spirans in its proper place. The modern name Hâthab or Hâthap may be a corruption of the shorter Sanskrit form Hastavapra.
42. After Papikê there is another gulf, exposed to the violence of the waves and running up to the north. Near its mouth is an island called Baiônês, and at its very head it receives a vast river called the Mais. Those bound for Barugaza sail up this gulf (which has a breadth of about 300 stadia), leaving the island on the left till it is scarcely visible in the horizon, when they shape their course east for the mouth of the river that leads to Barugaza. This is called the Namnadios.
(42) Beyond Papikê, we are next informed, there is another gulf running northward into the interior of the country. This is not really another Gulf but only the northern portion of the Gulf of Khambât, which the Periplûs calls the Gulf of Barugaza. It receives a great river, the Mais, which is easily identified with the Mahi, and contains an island called Baiônês [the modern Peram], which you leave on the left hand as you cross over from Astakapra to Barugaza.
We are now conducted to Barugaza, the greatest seat of commerce in Western India, situated on a river called in the MS. of the Periplûs the Lamnaios, which is no doubt an erroneous reading for Namados, or Namnados or Namnadios. This river is the Narmadâ. It is called by Ptolemy the Namades.
43. The passage into the gulf of Barugaza is narrow and difficult of access to those approaching it from the sea, for they are carried either to the right or to the left, the left being the better passage of the two. On the right, at the very entrance of the gulf, lies a narrow stripe of shoal, rough and beset with rocks. It is called Herônê, and lies opposite the village of Kammôni. On the left side right against this is the promontory of Papikê, which lies in front of Astakapra, where it is difficult to anchor, from the strength of the current and because the cables are cut through by the sharp rocks at the bottom. But even if the passage into the gulf is secured the mouth of the Barugaza river is not easy to hit, since the coast is low and there are no certain marks to be seen until you are close upon them. Neither, if it is discovered, is it easy to enter, from the presence of shoals at the mouth of the river.
(43) Barugaza (Bharoch) which was 30 miles distant from its mouth, was both difficult and dangerous of access; for the entrance to the Gulf itself was, on the right, beset with a perilous stripe (tainia) of rocky shoal called Herônê, and on the left, (which was the safer course,) the violent currents which swept round the promontory of Papikê rendered it unsafe to approach the shore or to cast anchor. The shoal of Herônê was opposite a village on the mainland called Kammôni, the Kamanê of Ptolemy (VII. i.), who however places it to the north of the river’s mouth. Again, it was not only difficult to hit the mouth of the river, but its navigation was endangered by sandbanks and the violence of the tides, especially the high tide called the ‘Bore,’ of which our author gives a description so particular and so vivid as suffices to show that he was describing what he had seen with his own eyes, and seen moreover for the first time. With regard to the name Barugaza the following passage, which I quote from Dr. Wilson’s Indian Castes (vol. II. p. 113) will elucidate its etymology:—“The Bhârgavas derive their designation from Bhargava, the adjective form of Bhṛigu, the name of one of the ancient Ṛishis. Their chief habitat is the district of Bharoch, which must have got its name from a colony of the school of Bhṛigu having been early established in this Kshêtra, probably granted to them by some conqueror of the district. In the name Barugaza given to it by Ptolemy, we have a Greek corruption of Bhṛigukshêtra (the territory of Bhṛigu) or Bhṛigukachha (the tongueland of Bhṛigu).” Speaking of the Bhârgavas Dr. Drummond, in his Grammatical Illustrations, says:—“These Brâhmans are indeed poor and ignorant. Many of them, and other illiterate Gujarâtîs, would, in attempting to articulate Bhṛigushêtra, lose the half in coalesence, and call it Bargacha, whence the Greeks, having no Ch, wrote it Barugaza.”
44. For this reason native fishermen appointed by Government are stationed with well-manned long boats called trappaga and kotumba at the entrance of the river, whence they go out as far as Surastrênê to meet ships, and pilot them up to Barugaza. At the head of the gulf the pilot, immediately on taking charge of a ship, with the help of his own boat’s crew, shifts her head to keep her clear of the shoals, and tows her from one fixed station to another, moving with the beginning of the tide, and dropping anchor at certain roadsteads and basins when it ebbs. These basins occur at points where the river is deeper than usual, all the way up to Barugaza, which is 300 stadia distant from the mouth of the river if you sail up the stream to reach it.
45. India has everywhere a great abundance of rivers, and her seas ebb and flow with tides of extraordinary strength, which increase with the moon, both when new and when full, and for three days after each, but fall off in the intermediate space. About Barugaza they are more violent than elsewhere; so that all of a sudden you see the depths laid bare, and portions of the land turned into sea, and the sea, where ships were sailing but just before, turned without warning into dry land. The rivers, again, on the access of flood tide rushing into their channels with the whole body of the sea, are driven upwards against their natural course for a great number of miles with a force that is irresistible.
46. This is the reason why ships frequenting this emporium are exposed, both in coming and going, to great risk, if handled by those who are unacquainted with the navigation of the gulf or visit it for the first time, since the impetuosity of the tide when it becomes full, having nothing to stem or slacken it, is such that anchors cannot hold against it. Large vessels, moreover, if caught in it are driven athwart from their course by the rapidity of the current till they are stranded on shoals and wrecked, while the smaller craft are capsized, and many that have taken refuge in the side channels, being left dry by the receding tide, turn over on one side, and, if not set erect on props, are filled upon the return of the tide with the very first head of the flood, and sunk. But at new moons, especially when they occur in conjunction with a night tide, the flood sets in with such extraordinary violence that on its beginning to advance, even though the sea be calm, its roar is heard by those living near the river’s mouth, sounding like the tumult of battle heard far off, and soon after the sea with its hissing waves bursts over the bare shoals.
47. Inland from Barugaza the country is inhabited by numerous races—the Aratrioi, and the Arakhosioi, and the Gandaraioi, and the people of Proklaïs, in which is Boukephalos Alexandreia. Beyond these are the Baktrianoi, a most warlike race, governed by their own independent sovereign. It was from these parts Alexander issued to invade India when he marched as far as the Ganges, without, however, attacking Limurikê and the southern parts of the country. Hence up to the present day old drachmai bearing the Greek inscriptions of Apollodotos and Menander are current in Barugaza.