Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/65

 INDIA. that ho crossed the Indus, and obtained by marriage Araehosia, Gedrosia, and tlie Paropamisadae, from Scleucus. (Strab. sv. p. 724 ; Appian, Syr. 55.) It was to his court that Jlepastlienes (as we have before stated) was sent. Sandrocottus was succeeded by Amitrocliates (Jiansc. Ajnitraghdtas), which is almost ctTtainly the true form of the name, though Strabo calls him Allitrochades. He was the contemporary of Antiochus Soter. (Athen. xiv. G7.) It is clear, from Athenaeus (/. c), that the same friendship was maintained between the two descendants as between the two fathers. Daimachus was sent as ambass.idor to Palibothra. (Strab. ii. p. 70.) Then came the wars between the Parthians and Bactrians, and the more complete establishment of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom, under Menander, Apollndotus, Eucratides, and their successors, to wliiih we cannot here do more tlian allude. The etlect, however, of these wars was to interrupt communication between the East and the West; hence the meagre nature of the historical re- cords of the i)criod. The expedition of Antiochus the Great to India brought to light the name of another kiuL', Sophacra.scnus (Polyb. xi. 32), who was, in all pribabiiity, king of the Prasii. Tlie Scythians iinally put an end to the Buctrian empire about B.C. 136. (De Guignes, il/e'm. de VAcad. d. Inscr. xxv. p. 17.) This event is noticed in the Periplus (p. 22), where, however, Parthi mu.st be taken to mean Scythi. (See also Periplus, p. 24 ; Dionys. Perieg. vv. 1087 — 1088.) Eustathius adds, in his commentaiy on Dionysius : — Ot /col 'IvSocrKvOat avvdirais iyofj.f- voi. Minnagara was their chief town, a name, as appears from Isid. Char. ( p 9), which was ])artly Scythian and partly Sanscrit. (Cf. also De Guignes, I.e.) The Scythians were in their turn driven out of India by Vicrdmadiiya, about B. c. 56 (Colebrooke, Ltd. Ahjebra, Lond. 1817, p. 43), wdio established his seat of empire at Oitjein (^Ujjayini). At the time wjien the Periplus was compiled, the capital had been again changed, as we there read, 'O^Vji't;, tV p Kal ra BaaiKiia Trpdrtpoy ^v. It is remarkable that no allusion has been found in any of the early literature of the Hindus to Alex- ander the Great : but the effect of the later expeditions of the Bactrian kings is apparently indicated under the name of the Yavana. In the astronomical works, the Yavana are barbarianswho understood astronomy, whence it has been conjectured by Colebrooke that the Alexandrians are referred to. (^Ind. Algebra, p. 80.) Generally, there can be no doubt that the Yarana mean nations to the W. of India. Tlius, in the Mahabharata, they make war on the Indians, in conjunction with the Paradi (i. e. Parthi), and the Sacae or Scythians. (Lassen,PeHta/». p. 60.) In the Drama of the Mudra-Raxasa, which refers to the war between Chandragupta and another Indian King, it is stated that Cusumapura (i. e. Palibothra) was surrounded by the Cirratae, Yavani,Cambogi, Persae, Bactrians, and the other forces of Chandragupta, and the king of the Mountain Regions. Lassen thinks, with much reason, that this refers to Seleucus, who, in his war with Chandragupta, reached, as we know, Palibothra. (Plin. 'i. 17.) With regard to the commerce of ancient India, which we have every reason to suppose was veiy extensive, it is impo.«sible in this place to do more than to indicate a few of the principal facts. Indeed, the commerce of India, including the northern and the southern di.Ntricts, may be considered as an epitome of the commerce of the world, there being few pro- VOL TI. INDIA. 49' ductions of any other country which rnay not be found somewhere within its vast area. The principal directions in which the commerce of ancient India flowed were, between Western India and Africa, between the interior of the Deccan and the outports of the southern and western coast of the Indian Ocean, between Ceylon and the ports of the Coromandel coast, between the Coromandel coast and the Aurea Chersonesus, and, in the N., along the Ganges and into Tdtary and the territory of the Sinae. Thei-e appears also to have been a remarkable trade with the opposite coast of Africa, along the district now called Zatiguebar, in sesamuni, rice, cotton goods, cane-honey (sugar), which was regularly sent from the interior of Ariaca (^Concan) to Barygaza (^Beroach), and thence westward. (Pe- ri])l. p. 8.) Arab sailors are mentioned who lived at JIuza (^Mocha), and who traded with Barygaza. (^Peripl. p. 12.) Banians of India had ct.tabli.'^Jied themselves on the N. side of Socotra, called the island of Dioscorides (^Peripl. p. 17) : while, even so early as Agatharchidcs, there was evidently an active com- merce between Western India and Yemen. (Aga- tharch. p. 66, ed. Hudson.) Again, the rapidity with which Alexander got his fleet together seems to show that there must have been a considerable com- merce by boats upon the Indus. At the time of the Periplus there was a chain of ports along the western coast, — Barygaza (^BeroacK), Sluziris in Limyrica (^Mangahre), Nelkynda (^N dicer am), Pattala (once supposed to be Tatta, but much more probably Jly- drabud), and CalUene, now Gallian {Peripl. p. 30): while there were three principal emporia for mer- chandise, — Ozene {Oujtin), the chief mart of foreign commerce, (vide an interesting account of its ruins, Asiat. Res. vol. vi. p. 36), and for the tr^insniLssion of the goods to Barygaza; Tagara, in the interior of the Deccan (almost certainly Deo- ghir or Devanagari near Ellora), whence the goods were conveyed over difficult roads to Baiyeaza and Pluthana or Plithana, a place the exact position of which cannot now be determined, but, from the cha- racter of the products of the place, must have been somewhere in the Ghats. Along the liegio Paralia to the S., and on the Coromandel coast, were several ports of consequence; and extensive pearl fisheries in the kingdom of king Pandion, near Colchi, and near the island of Epio- dorus, where the irivviKdv (a silky thread spun from the Pinna-fish) was procured. (^Peripl. p. 33). Further to the N. were, — Masalia {MasuUpatam), famous for its cotton goods (Peripl. p. 35"); and Gauge, a great mart for muslin, betel, pearls, &c., somewhere near the mouth of the Ganges, its exact locality, however, not being now determinable. (^Peripl. p. 36.) The commerce of Ceylon {Selondib, i. e. Sinhala-dwipa) was in pearls of the best class, and precious stones of all kinds, especially the ruby and the emerald. The notices in Ptolemy and Pliny shew that its shores were well furnished with com- mercial towns (Ptol. vii. 4. §§ 3, 4, 5), while we know from the narrative of Cosmas Indicopleustes (ff;j. Montfaucon, Coll. Nova Bihl. Pair. vol. ii.) that it was, in the sixth century A.D., the centre of Hindu commerce. Besides the.se places, we learn that there was an emporium upon the Co?-omaredeZ coast, whence the merchant ships crossed over to Chryse (in all probability Malacca), in the Aurea Chersonesus; the name of it, however, is not specified. It is probable, however, that the greatest line of commerce was from the N. and W. along the