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
(47) The account of the ‘bore’ is followed by an enumeration of the
countries around and beyond Barugaza with which it had commercial
relations. Inland are the +Aratrioi+, +Arakhosioi+,
+Gandarioi+ and the people of +Proklaïs+, a province wherein
is Boukephalos Alexandreia, beyond which is the Baktrian nation. It
has been thought by some that by the +Aratrioi+ are meant the
Arii, by others that they were the +Arâstrâs+ of Sanskrit called
Aratti in the Prakrit, so that the +Aratrioi+ of the _Periplûs_
hold an intermediate place between the Sanskrit and Prakrit form
of the name. Müller however says “if you want a people known to
the Greeks and Romans as familiarly as the well-known names of the
Arakhosii, Gandarii, Peukelitae, you may conjecture that the proper
reading is ΔΡΑΝΓΩΝ instead of ΑΡΑΤΡΙΩΝ.” It is an error of course on
the part of our author when he places +Boukephalos+ (a city built
by Alexander on the banks of the Hydaspês, where he defeated Pôros),
in the neighbourhood of Proklaïs, that is Pekhely in the neighbourhood
of Peshawar. He makes a still more surprising error when he states
that Alexander penetrated to the Ganges.
48. In the same region eastward is a city called +Ozênê+, formerly
the capital wherein the king resided. From it there is brought down
to Barugaza every commodity for the supply of the country and for
export to our own markets—onyx-stones, porcelain, fine muslins,
mallow-coloured muslins, and no small quantity of ordinary cottons. At
the same time there is brought down to it from the upper country by
way of +Proklaïs+, for transmission to the coast, Kattybourine,
Patropapigic, and Kabalitic spikenard, and another kind which reaches
it by way of the adjacent province of Skythia; also kostus and bdellium.
(48) The next place mentioned in the enumeration is +Ozênê+
(Ujjain), which, receiving nard through Proklaïs from the distant
regions where it was produced, passed it on to the coast for export
to the Western World. This aromatic was a product of three districts,
whence its varieties were called respectively the _Kattybourine_, the
_Patropapigic_ and the _Kabolitic_. What places were indicated by the
first two names cannot be ascertained, but the last points undoubtedly
to the region round Kâbul, since its inhabitants are called by Ptolemy
+Kabolitai+, and Edrisi uses the term _Myrobalanos Kabolinos_
for the ‘myrobolans of Kâbul.’ Nard, as Edrisi also observes, has its
proper soil in Thibet.
49. The imports of +Barugaza+ are—
Οἶνος προηγουμένος Ἰταλικὸς—Wine, principally Italian.
Καὶ Λαοδικηνὸς καὶ Ἀραβικὸς—Laodikean wine and Arabian.
Χαλκος καὶ κασσίτερος καὶ μόλυβδος—Brass or Copper and Tin and Lead.
Κοράλλιον καὶ χρυσόλιθον—Coral and Gold-stone or Yellow-stone.
Ἱματισμὸς ἁπλοῦς καὶ νόθος πανταῖος—Cloth, plain and mixed, of all
sorts.
Πολύμιται ζῶναι πηχυαῖαι—Variegated sashes half a yard wide.
Στύραξ—Storax.
Μελίλωτον—Sweet clover, melilot.
Ὕαλος ἀργὴ—White glass.
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