CHAP. 21.—THE NATIONS OF INDIA.
But we come now to nations as to which there is a more general agreement among writers. Where the chain of Emodus[1]
rises, the nations of India begin, which borders not only on the
Eastern sea, but on the Southern as well, which we have already mentioned[2] as being called the Indian Ocean. That
part which faces the east runs in a straight line a distance of
eighteen hundred and seventy-five miles until it comes to a
bend, at which the Indian Ocean begins. Here it takes a turn
to the south, and continues to run in that direction a distance
of two thousand four hundred and seventy-five miles, according to Eratosthenes, as far as the river Indus, the boundary
of India on the west.[3] Many authors have represented the
entire length of the Indian coast as being forty days' and
nights' sail, and as being, from north to south, two thousand
eight hundred and fifty miles. Agrippa states its length to be
three thousand three hundred miles, and its breadth, two thousand three hundred. Posidonius has given its measurement as
lying from north-east to south-east, placing it opposite to Gaul,
of which country he has given the measurement as lying
from north-west to south-west; making the whole of India
to lie due west of Gaul. Hence, as he has shewn by undoubted proofs, India lying opposite to Gaul must be refreshed
by the blowing of that wind,[4] and derive its salubrity there-
from.
In this region, the appearance of the heavens is totally
changed, and quite different is the rising of the stars; there
are two summers in the year, and two harvests, while the winter
intervenes between them during the time that the Etesian[5]
winds are blowing: during our winter too, they enjoy light
breezes, and their seas are navigable. In this country there are
nations and cities which would be found to be quite innumerable,
if a person should attempt to enumerate them. For it has been
explored not only by the arms of Alexander the Great and of the
kings who succeeded him, by Seleucus and Antiochus, who
sailed round even to the Caspian and Hyrcanian Sea, and by
Patrocles,[6] the admiral of their fleet, but has been treated of by
several other Greek writers who resided at the courts of Indian
kings, such, for instance, as Megasthenes, and by Dionysius,
who was sent thither by Philadelphus, expressly for the purpose:
all of whom have enlarged upon the power and vast resources
of these nations. Still, however, there is no possibility of
being rigorously exact, so different are the accounts given, and
often of a nature so incredible. The followers of Alexander
the Great have stated in their writings, that there were no less
than five thousand cities in that portion of India which they
vanquished by force of arms, not one of which was smaller than
that of Cos;[7] that its nations were eight in number, that India
forms one-third of the whole earth, and that its populations
are innumerable—a thing which is certainly far from improbable, seeing that the Indians are nearly the only race of people
who have never migrated from their own territories. From
the time of Father Liber[8] to that of Alexander the Great, one
hundred and fifty-three kings of India are reckoned, extending
over a period of six thousand four hundred and fifty-one years
and three months. The vast extent of their rivers is quite
marvellous; it is stated that on no one day did Alexander the
Great sail less than six hundred stadia[9] on the Indus, and still
was unable to reach its mouth in less than five months and
some few days: and yet it is a well-known fact that this
river is not so large as the Ganges.[10] Seneca, one of our fellow-countrymen, who has written a treatise[11] upon the subject of
India, has given its rivers as sixty-five in number, and its
nations as one hundred and eighteen. The difficulty too would
be quite as great, if we were to attempt to enumerate its mountains. The chains of Emaüs, of Emodus, of Paropanisus,
and of Caucasus, are all connected, the one with the other;
and from their foot, the country of India runs down in the
form of a vast plain, bearing a very considerable resemblance to
that of Egypt.
However, that we may come to a better understanding relative to the description of these regions, we will follow in
the track of Alexander the Great. Diognetus and Bæton, whose
duty it was to ascertain the distances and length of his
expeditions, have written that from the Caspian Gates to
Hecatompylon, the city of the Parthians, the distance is the
number of miles which we have already[12] stated; and that from
thence to Alexandria,[13] of the Arii, which city was founded by the
same king, the distance is five hundred and seventy-five miles;
from thence to Prophthasia,[14] the city of the Drangæ, one
hundred and ninety-nine; from thence to the city of the
Arachosii,[15] five hundred and sixty-five; from thence to
Ortospanum,[16] one hundred and seventy-five; and from
thence to the city built by Alexander,[17] fifty, miles. In some
copies, however, the numbers are found differently stated;
and we find this last city even placed at the very foot of
Mount Caucasus! From this place to the river Cophes[18] and
Peucolaitis, a city of India, is two hundred and thirty-seven
miles; from thence to the river Indus and the city of Taxilla[19] sixty; from thence to the famous river Hydaspes[20] one
hundred and twenty; and from thence to the Hypasis,[21] a
river no less famous, two hundred and ninety miles, and three
hundred and ninety paces. This last was the extreme limit
of the expedition of Alexander, though he crossed the river
and dedicated certain altars[22] on the opposite side. The dispatches written by order of that king fully agree with the
distances above stated.
The remaining distances beyond the above point were ascertained on the expedition of Seleucus Nicator. They are,
to the river Sydrus,[23] one hundred and sixty-eight miles; to
the river Jomanes, the same; some copies, however, add
to this last distance five miles; thence to the Ganges, one
hundred and twelve miles; to Rhodapha, five hundred and
sixty-nine—though, according to some writers, this last distance is only three hundred and twenty-five miles; to the town
of Calinipaxa,[24] one hundred and sixty-seven, according to
some, two hundred and sixty-five; thence to the confluence
of the river Jomanes[25] and Ganges, six hundred and twenty-five; most writers, however, add thirteen miles to this last
distance; thence to the city of Palibothra,[26] four hundred and
twenty-five—and thence to the mouth of the Ganges, six hundred and thirty-seven miles and a half.
The nations whom it may be not altogether inopportune to
mention, after passing the Emodian Mountains, a cross range of
which is called "Imaus," a word which, in the language of the
natives, signifies "snowy,"[27] are the Isari, the Cosyri, the Izi,
and, upon the chain of mountains, the Chisiotosagi, with numerous peoples, which have the surname of Brachmanæ,[28]
among whom are the Maccocalingæ. There are also the
rivers Prinas and Cainas,[29] which last flows into the Ganges,
both of them navigable streams. The nation of the Calingæ[30]
comes nearest to the sea, and above them are the Mandei and
the Malli.[31] In the territory of the last-named people is a
mountain called Mallus: the boundary of this region is the
river Ganges.
1. The Emodi Montes (so called probably from the Indian hemâdri, or
the "golden") are supposed to have formed that portion of the great
lateral branch of the Indian Caucasus, the range of the Himalaya, which
extends along Nepaul, and probably as far as Bhotan.
2. In c. 14 of the present Book.
3. The whole of this passage seems very intricate, and it is difficult to
make sense of it. His meaning, however, is probably this: that the
coast of India, running from extreme north-east to south-east, relatively to
Greece, the country of Eratosthenes, is exactly opposite to the coast of
Gaul, running from extreme north-west to south-west—India thus lying
due west of Gaul, without any intervening land. This, it will be remembered, was the notion of Columbus, when contemplating the possibility of
a western passage to India.
4. This appears also to be somewhat obscure. It is clear that if India
lies to the west of Gaul, it cannot be Pliny's meaning that it is refreshed
by the west wind blowing to it from Gaul. He may possibly mean that
the west wind, which is so refreshing to the west of Europe, and Gaul in
particular, first sweeps over India, and thus becomes productive of that
salubrity which Posidonius seems to have discovered in India, but for
which we look in vain at the present day. Amid, however, such multiplied
chances of a corrupt text, it is impossible to assume any very definite position as to his probable meaning. The French translators offer no assistance in solving the difficulty, and Holland renders it, "This west wind
which from behind Gaul bloweth upon India, is very healthsome," &c.
5. As to the Etesian winds, see 1. ii. c. 48.
6. In the geographical work which Patrocles seems to have published,
he is supposed to have given some account of the countries bordering on the
Caspian Sea, and there is little doubt that, like other writers of that period,
he regarded that sea as a gulf or inlet of the Septentrional Ocean, and probably maintained the possibility of sailing thither by sea from the Indian
Ocean. This statement, however, seems to have been strangely misinterpreted by Pliny in his present assertion, that Patrocles had himself accomplished this circumnavigation.
7. See B. v. c. 36.
8. Or Bacchus.
9. Or seventy-five miles.
10. This is the statement of Arrian.
11. Among the lost works of that philosopher.
12. In c. 17 of the present Book.
13. See c. 25 of the present Book.
14. See c. 25 of the present Book.
15. See c. 25 of the present Book.
16. A town placed by Strabo on the confines of Bactriana, and by Ptolemy
in the county of the Paropanisidæ.
17. See c. 25 of the present Book.
18. See c. 24 of the present Book.
19. The present Attok, according to D'Anville.
20. One of the principal rivers of that part of India known as the Punjaub. It rises in the north-western Himalayah mountains in Kashmere, and
after flowing nearly south, falls into the Acesines or Chenab. Its present
most usual name is the Jhelum.
21. The most eastern, and most important of the five rivers which water
the country of the Punjaub. Rising in the western Himalaya, it flows in
two principal branches, in a course nearly south-west (under the names respectively of Vipasa and Satadru), which it retains till it falls into the
Indus at Mittimkote. It is best known, however, by its modern name of
Sutlej, probably a corrupt form of the Sanscrit Satadru.
22. See c. 18 of the present Book. The altars there spoken of, as consecrated by Alexander the Great, appear to have been erected in Sogdiana,
whereas those here mentioned were dedicated in the Indian territory.
23. It does not appear that this river has been identified. In most of
the editions it is called Hesidrus; but, as Sillig observes, there was a town
of India, near the Indus, called Sydros, which probably received its name
from this river.
24. It has been suggested that this place is the modern Kanouge, on the
Ganges.
25. The modern Jumna. It must be borne in mind by the reader, that
the numbers given in this Chapter vary considerably in the different MSS.
26. See the next Chapter.
27. The Sanscrit for "snowy" is "himrarat." The name of Emodus,
combined with Imaiis, seems here to be a description of the knot of
mountains formed by the intersections of the Himalaya, the Hindoo Koosh,
and the Bolor range; the latter having been for many ages the boundary
between the empires of China and Turkistan. It is pretty clear, that,
like Ptolemy, Pliny imagined that the Imaiis ran from south to north; but
it seems hardly necessary, in this instance at least, to give to the word
"promontorium" the meaning attached to our word "promontory," and
to suppose that he implies that the range of the Imaüs runs down to the
verge of the eastern ocean.
28. A name evidently given to numerous tribes of India, from the circumstance that Alexander and his followers found it borne by the Brahmins
or priestly caste of the Hindoos.
29. Still called the Cane, a navigable river of India within the Ganges,
falling into the Ganges, according to Arrian as well as Pliny, though in
reality it falls into the Jumna.
30. The Calingæ, who are further mentioned in the next Chapter, probably
dwelt in the vicinity of the promontory of Calingon, upon which was the
town of Dandaguda, mentioned in c. 23 of the present Book. This promontory and city are usually identified with those of Calinapatnam, about half-way between the rivers Mahanuddy and Godavery; and the territory
of the Calingæ seems to correspond pretty nearly to the district of Circars,
lying along the coast of Orissa.
31. By the Malli, Parisot is of opinion that the people of Moultan are
meant.