FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   474   475   476   477   478   479   480   481   482   483   484   485   486   487   488   489   490   491   492   493   494   495   496   497   498  
499   500   501   502   503   504   505   506   507   508   509   510   511   512   513   514   515   516   517   518   519   520   521   522   523   >>   >|  
are upon the seaboard; but of those that lie in the interior I have said nothing, because that would make too long a story.[NOTE 2] And so now let us proceed, and I will tell you of some of the Indian Islands. And I will begin by two Islands which are called Male and Female. NOTE 1.--Though M. Pauthier has imagined objections there is no room for doubt that _Kesmacoran_ is the province of Mekran, known habitually all over the East as Kij-Makran, from the combination with the name of the country of that of its chief town, just as we lately met with a converse combination in _Konkan-tana_. This was pointed out to Marsden by his illustrious friend Major Rennell. We find the term _Kij Makran_ used by Ibn Batuta (III. 47); by the Turkish Admiral Sidi 'Ali (_J. As._, ser. I. tom. ix. 72; and _J.A.S.B._ V. 463); by Sharifuddin (_P. de la Croix_, I. 379, II. 417-418); in the famous Sindian Romeo-and-Juliet tale of Sassi and Pannun (_Elliot_, I. 333); by Pietro della Valle (I. 724, II. 358); by Sir F. Goldsmid (_J.R.A.S._, N.S., I. 38); and see for other examples, _J.A.S.B._ VII. 298, 305, 308; VIII. 764; XIV. 158; XVII. pt. ii. 559: XX. 262, 263. The argument that Mekran was not a province of India only amounts to saying that Polo has made a mistake. But the fact is that it often _was_ reckoned to belong to India, from ancient down to comparatively modern times. Pliny says: "Many indeed do not reckon the Indus to be the western boundary of India, but include in that term also four satrapies on this side the river, the Gedrosi, the Arachoti, the Arii, and the Parapomisadae (i.e. Mekran, Kandahar, Herat, and Kabul) .... whilst others class all these together under the name of Ariana" (VI. 23). Arachosia, according to Isidore of Charax, was termed by the Parthians "White India." Aelian calls Gedrosia a part of India. (_Hist. Animal._ XVII. 6.) In the 6th century the Nestorian Patriarch Jesujabus, as we have seen (supra, ch. xxii. note 1), considered all to be India from the coast of Persia, i.e. of Fars, beginning from near the Gulf. According to Ibn Khordadbeh, the boundary between Persia and India was seven days' sail from Hormuz and eight from Daibul, or less than half-way from the mouth of the Gulf to the Indus. (_J. As._ ser. VI. tom. v. 283.) Beladhori speaks of the Arabs in early expeditions as invading Indian territory about the Lake of Sijistan; and Istakhri represents this latter country as bounded on the north and
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   474   475   476   477   478   479   480   481   482   483   484   485   486   487   488   489   490   491   492   493   494   495   496   497   498  
499   500   501   502   503   504   505   506   507   508   509   510   511   512   513   514   515   516   517   518   519   520   521   522   523   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Mekran

 

province

 

Persia

 
boundary
 

country

 

Makran

 
combination
 

Islands

 

Indian

 
mistake

whilst

 

Kandahar

 

Ariana

 

amounts

 

reckoned

 

satrapies

 

western

 

include

 

reckon

 

ancient


belong

 

comparatively

 

Gedrosi

 

Arachoti

 

modern

 

Parapomisadae

 

Daibul

 

Hormuz

 
Beladhori
 

Istakhri


Sijistan
 
represents
 
bounded
 

speaks

 

expeditions

 

territory

 

invading

 

Khordadbeh

 

According

 

Gedrosia


Animal

 

Aelian

 

Arachosia

 

Isidore

 

Charax

 

Parthians

 

termed

 

argument

 

considered

 
beginning