Page:Ancient India as described by Ptolemy - John Watson McCrindle.djvu/88

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Mouth of the M a n a d a : — Ptolemy enumerates four rivers which enter the Gulf between Kanna- gara and the western mouth of the Ganges, the Manada, the Tyndis, the Dosaron and the Adamas. These would seem to be identical respectively with the four great rivers belonging to this part of the coast which succeed each other in the following order: — The MahS^nadi, the Brahmani, the Vaitarani and the Suvarnarekha, and this is the mode of identification which Lassen has adopted. With regard to the Manada there can be no doubt that it is the Mahdnadi, the great river of Orissa at the bifurcation of which Katak the capital is situated. The name is a Sanskrit compound, meaning * great river.' Yule differs from Lassen with regard to the other identifications, making the Tyndis one of the branches of the Mahdnadi, the Dosaron, — the Brahmani, the Adamas, — the Vaitarani, and the Kambyson (which is Ptolemy's western mouth of the Ganges) — the Suvarnarekha.

The Dosaron is the river of the region in- habited by the Dasamas, a people mentioned in the Vishnu Purdna as belonging to the south-east of Madhya-desa in juxta-position to the Sabaras, or Suars. The word is supposed to be from damn * ten,' and fina * a fort,' and so to mean 'the tenforts.'

Adamas is a Greek word meaning diamond. The true Adamas, Yule observes, was in all probability the Sank branch of the Brahmani, from which diamonds were got in the days of Mogul splendour.

Sip para: — The name is taken by Yule as