chapter 40

) gives an accurate account of the Ran (Eirinon) which in those days was probably below sea level (Haig, page 22, Burnes' Travels into Bokhara, III. 309ff), and was already divided into the Great and the Little. Both were marshy shallows even out of sight of land and therefore dangerous to navigators. The Ran was then as now bounded to south and west by seven islands, and the headland Barakê (Dvârakâ) a place of special danger of whose neighbourhood ships were warned by meeting with great black water-snakes.

The next chapter (41) describes the gulf of Barygaza (gulf of Cambay) and the adjoining land, but the passage has been much mangled by the copyist of our only MS. and more still by the guesses of editors. According to the simplest correction (hêrostês' Ariakêschôra) our author says that next after Barakê (Dvârakâ) follows the gulf of Barygaza and the country towards Ariakê, being the beginning of the kingdom of Mambaros and of all India. Mambaros may possibly be a corruption of Makhatrapos or some similar Greek form of Mahâkshatrapa, the title of the so-called "Sâh Kings" who ruled here at this period (A.D. 250). According to the reading of the MS. the author goes on to say that "the inland part of this country bordering on the Ibêria (read Sabiria = Sauvîra) district of Skythia is called ... (the name, perhaps Maru, has dropped out of the text), and the sea-coast Syrastrênê (Surâshtra)." The country abounded then as now in cattle, corn, rice, cotton and coarse cotton cloth, and the people were tall and dark. The capital of the country was Minnagara whence much cotton was brought down to Barygaza. This Minnagara is perhaps the city of that name placed by Ptolemy near Mânpur in the Vindhyas, but it has with more probability been identified with Junâgad (Bhagvânlâl) which was once called Manipura (Kath. Gaz. 487). Our author states that in this part of the country were to be found old temples, ruined camps and large wells, relics (he says) of Alexander's march, but more probably the work of Menandros and Apollodotos. This statement certainly points to Kâthiâvâda rather than to Mânpur. The voyage along this coast from Barbarikon to the headland of Pâpikê (Gopnâth) near Astakapra (Hâthab) and opposite to Barygaza (Broach) was one of 3000 stadia = 300 miles, which is roughly correct. The next chapter (42) describes the northern part of the gulf of Cambay as 300 stadia wide and running northward to the river Maïs (Mahî). Ships bound for Barygaza steer first northward past the island Baiônes (Peram) and then eastward towards the mouth of the Namnadios (Narmadâ) the river of Broach. The navigation (