Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/81

 62 Fragm. XVIII. Pliny, Hist Nat VI. 24. 1. Of Taprohane,* Megasthenes says that Taprobane is separated from the mairdcmd by a river ; that the inhabitants are called Palaiogonoi,t and that their country is more productive of gold and large pearls than India. Solin. 53. 3. Taprobane is separated from India by a 1. Lank a. — ^The only name it goes by in Sanskyit, and quite unknown to the Greeks and Romans. 2. Simundu or Palesimundu. — Probably a Greek form of the Sanakyit PdU-Simanta. This name had gone out of use before the time of Ptolemy the Geographer. .3. Taprobane. — SupiKJsed to represent the Sanskrit TAmraparni (* red-leaved' or 'copper-coloured sand'), a slightly altered form of the P&U Tambapan9l, which is found in the inscription of Asoka on the Gim&r rock. Vide (mte, vol. V. p. 272. 4. Salice (perhaps properly Saline), Serendivus, Sirlediba, Serendib, Zeilan, Ceylon. These are all considered to be derivatives from S i n a 1 a, the P&li form of Sinhala, *the abode of Hons.* The affix dih represents the Sanskpt cMpa, * an island.' t Lassen has tried to accoitnt for the name P&laiogonoi thus {Dissert, de insula Taproh. p. 9) :— " We must suppose that Megasthenes was acquainted with the Indian myth that the first iuhabitants of the island were said to have been B/Akshasas or giants, the sons of the progenitors of the world, whom he might not inaptly call Palaiogonoi." Against this it may be remarked that, by this unusual term and so uncommon, Megasthenes meant to name the nation, not describe it ; and next that Megasthenes is not in the habit of translating names, but of rendering them accord- ing to sound with some degree of paronomasia ; lastly, that, shortly after, we find the name of Taprobane and of its capital Ilaai(nfJLOvvboSy quite like to IlaXaioyovot, Accordingly as Lassen explains HaXaifrifiovpdoSj the name of the capital, by the Sanskrit PAU-sim&fita (* head of the sacred doctrine'), I would also prefer to explain the name of the Palaiogonoi from the Sanskrit PdU-jands {i.e. ' men of the sacred doc- trine').— Schwanbeck, p. 38, n. 35. Digitized by Google
 * This island has been known by many names : —