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Two Notes on Ptolemy's Geography of India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

E. H. Johnston
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Extract

The Periplus Marts Erythræ describes the seaports below Barygaza in the following way according to Schoff's translation: “The market-towns of this region are, in order, after Barygaza: Suppara, and the city of Calliena, which in the time of the elder Saraganus became a lawful market-town; but since it came into the possession of Sandares [an unjustified conjecture for the text's Sandanes] the port is much obstructed, and Greek ships landing there may chance to be taken to Barygaza under guard. Beyond Calliena there are other market-towns of this region; Semylla.…” Suppara is now Sopara on the coast above Bassein, Semylla is Cemūla of two inscriptions, now Chaul, and Calliena is Kalyāṇa. This last, situated at the foot of the two regular ascents of the Western Ghats leading towards Nasik and Poona respectively and with good access to the sea, was the natural outlet for the commerce of the Andhra dominions on the west coast, and the notice, just quoted, shows how its trade was stifled, as the Kṣaharātas extended their rule southwards from Broach. It is unnecessary here to consider who are the kings alluded to in this passage or in the earlier one mentioning Nambanus (a conjecture for the text's Mambarus), but clearly we are dealing with the rivalry of the Western Satraps and the Andhra kings. That the former were successful in their policy towards Kalyāṇa is shown by Ptolemy's omission of the town. The order he gives (taking Renou's text) is Souppara mouth of the River Goaris, Dounga, mouth of the River Bêndas, Semyla.

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Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 73 , Issue 3 , July 1941 , pp. 208 - 222
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1941

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References

page 208 note 1 For this name see Bloch, J. in Mélanges Sylvain Lévi, 6–7Google Scholar, though I confess to finding his solution more difficult than that of Boyer which he rejects.

page 209 note 1 La formation de la langue marathe, 127.

page 210 note 1 For the inscriptions see Lüders' list, and Ep. Ind., xviii, 325 ff., and xxiv, 282.

page 210 note 2 Cf.Marshall, J. in CHI., i, 636–7Google Scholar.

page 210 note 3 Cf. for instance, Warmington, , Commerce between the Roman Empire and India (1928), 260Google Scholar.

page 211 note 1 e.g. in Tirhut according to Grierson, Bihar Peasant Life, § 1114.

page 212 note 1 See Schoff's introduction to his translation, and for the literature of the two later stages, Warmington, op. cit., 343, n. 51, and Tarn, Greeks in Bactria and India, 148, n. 4.

page 214 note 1 See for this Belvalkar, S. K. in A Volume of Eastern and Indian Studies (F. W. Thomas Volume), 19 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 214 note 2 Bhāratavarṣa, Heft vi, Beiträge zur indischen Sprachwissenschaft u. Religionsgeschichte, Stuttgart, 1931.

page 216 note 1 Ep. Ind., viii, 60. Senart reads Pāricāta, which appears to be the reading intended by the inscriber, but it is fairly certain that Pārivāla should have been written.

page 217 note 1 Warmington, op. cit., 240.

page 217 note 2 McCrindle, , Ancient India (1901), 130Google Scholar.

page 218 note 1 Ancient India by Ptolemy, 78.

page 218 note 2 For the local information, which make the first two of these identifications certain, see Kanakasabhai, , The Tamils eighteen hundred years ago, 19Google Scholar.

page 218 note 3 Kirfel, op. cit., 27, n. 28. An alternative name is Ketumālā, ibid., 24, Zusatz 1, verse 2.

page 219 note 1 JRAS., 1939, 232 ff.

page 220 note 1 For an instance, his handling of Marinus, see the latest discussion in Herrmann, A., Das Land der Seide u. Tibet, Leipzig, 1939Google Scholar.

page 222 note 1 See my translation of the Buddhacarita (Panjab Univ. Or. Publications, 32), pp. xc–xci.