Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/153

 134 The river P r i n a s J and the C a i n a s (which flows into the Ganges) are both navigable. § The tribes called C a 1 i n g 86 are nearest the sea, and higher up are the M a n d e i, and the M a 1 1 i in whose the 8th century of oar era, also names the Med/x, as a low tribe of this region {As. Res. vol. I. p. 126, Calcutta, 1788), and, what is remarkable, their name is found joined to that of the Andhra (Andbaraka), precisely as in the text of Ma- nu. Pliny assigns for their habitation a large island of the Granges ; and the word Galinga (for Kalinga), to which their name is attached, necessarily places this island to- wards the sea-board — ^perhaps in the Delta." The GrangaridfiB or Gangarides occupied the region cor- responding roughly with that now called Lower Bengal, and consisted of various indigenous tribes, which in the course of time became more or less Aryanized. As no word is found in Sanskrit to which their name corresponds, it has been supposed of Greek invention (Lassen, Ind. Alt. vol. II. p. 201), but erroneously, for it must have been current at the period of the Makedonian invasion : since Alexander, in reply to inquiries regarding the south country, was informed that the region of the Ganges was inhabited by two principal nations, the Prasii and the Gangartdsd. M. de ^.-Martin thinks that their name has been preserved almost identically in that of the Gonghrls of South Bah&r, whose traditions refer their origin to TirhAt ; and he would identify their royal city ParthaUs (or Portalis) with Vard- dhana (contraction of Varddham&na), now Bardwfin. Others, however, place it, as has been elsewhere stated, on the Mah&nadt. In Ptolemy their capital is Gangd, which must have been situated near where Calcutta now stands. The Gangarides are mentioned by Virgil, Qeorg. III. 27 : — In f oribus pugnam ex auro solidoque elephanto Gaugaridum faciam, victorisque arma Quirini. " High o'er the gate in elephant and gold The crowd shall Csesar's Indian war behold." (Dryden*s translation.) X V- 1- Pumas. The Prinas is probably the T&mas& or Tons a, which in the Purdnas is called the Parnftsfi. The Cainas, notwithstanding the objections of Schwanbeck, must be identified with the Cane, which is a tributary of tbe JamnA. § For the identification of these and other afiHuents of the Granges see Notes on An'ian, c. iv., Ind. Ant. vol. V. p. 331.