The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythræan Sea: Being a Translation of the Periplus Maris Erythræi, by an Anonymous Writer, and of Arrian's Account of the Voyage of Nearkhos, from the Mouth of the Indus to the Head of the Persian Gulf
History
The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythræan Sea: Being a Translation of the Periplus Maris Erythræi, by an Anonymous Writer, and of Arrian's Account of the Voyage of Nearkhos, from the Mouth of the Indus to the Head of the Persian Gulf
Classical geography; Geography, Ancient; India -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; Indian Ocean Region -- Commerce -- History
41. To the gulf of +Barakê+ succeeds that of +Barugaza+ and
the mainland of +Ariakê+, a district which forms the frontier of
the kingdom of +Mombaros+ and of all India. The interior part of
it which borders on +Skythia+ is called +Aberia+, and its
sea-board +Surastrênê+. It is a region which produces abundantly
corn and rice and the oil of sesamum, butter, muslins and the coarser
fabrics which are manufactured from Indian cotton. It has also numerous
herds of cattle. The natives are men of large stature and coloured
black. The metropolis of the district is +Minnagar+, from which
cotton cloth is exported in great quantity to +Barugaza+. In this
part of the country there are preserved even to this very day memorials
of the expedition of Alexander, old temples, foundations of camps, and
large wells. The extent of this coast, reckoned from +Barbarikon+
to the promontory called +Papikê+, near +Astakapra+, which is
opposite +Barugaza+, is 3,000 stadia.
(41) To +Barakê+ succeeds the Gulf of +Barugaza+ (Gulf of
+Khambhât+) and the sea-board of the region called +Ariakê+.
The reading of the MS. here ἡ πρἡὸς Ἀραβικῆς χώρας is considered
corrupt. Müller substitutes ἡ ἤπειρος τῆς Ἀριακῆς χώρας, though
Mannert and others prefer Λαρικῆς χώρας, relying on Ptolemy, who
places +Ariakê+ to the south of +Larikê+, and says that
+Larikê+ comprehends the peninsula (of Gujarât) Barugaza and the
parts adjacent. As +Ariakê+ was however previously mentioned in
the _Periplûs_ (sec. 14) in connexion with Barugaza, and is afterwards
mentioned (sec. 54) as trading with Muziris, it must no doubt have
been mentioned by the author in its proper place, which is here.
[Bhagvanlâl Indraji Pandit has shewn reasons however for correcting
the readings into Αβαρατικη, the Prakrit form of +Aparântikâ+, an
old name of the western sea board of India.—_Ind. Ant._ vol. VII., pp.
259, 263.] Regarding the name +Larikê+, Yule has the following
note (_Travels of M. Polo_ vol. II., p. 353):—“+Lâr-Deśa+,
the country of Lar,” properly Lât-deśa, was an early name for the
territory of Gujrat and the northern Konkan, embracing Saimur (the
modern Chaul as I believe) Thaṇa, and Bharoch. It appears in Ptolemy
in the form +Larikê+. The sea to the west of that coast was in
the early Muhammadan times called the sea of Lâr, and the language
spoken on its shores is called by +Mas’udi+, +Lâri+.
Abulfeda’s authority, Ibn Said, speaks of Lâr and Gujarât as identical.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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