Indian Antiquary Vol 08

SR No.: 032500
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 404
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
APRIL, 1879.
and navigators, but that the author had himself Periplis was written a little after the death of visited some of the seats of trade which he do- Pliny, between the years A.D. 80-89. scribes, is in itself probable, and is indicated in 8 20, Opinions on this point, however, have varied where, contrary to the custom of the ancient considerably. Salmasius thought that Pliny and writers, he speaks in his own person :-" In sailing our author wrote at the same time, though their acBouth, therefore, we stand off from the shore and counts of the same things are often contradictory. keep our course down the middle of the gulf." In support of this view he adduces the statement Compare with this what is said in g 48: à pos of the Periplús (854), "Muziris, a place in India, την εμπορίαν την ημετέραν.
is in the kingdom of Keprobotres;" when comAs regards the age to which the writer belong. pared with the statement of Pliny (VI. xxvi. 104), ed: it is first of all evident that he wrote after the "Colobothras was reigning there when I times of Augustus, since in § 23 mention is made committed this to writing;" and argues that since of the Roman Emperors. That he was older, Kép robotras and Celobothras are bat however, than Ptolemy the Geographer, is different forms of the same name, the two authors proved by his geography, which knows nothing of must have been contemporary. The inference is, Iudia beyond the Ganges except the traditional however, unwarrantable, since the name in ques. account current from the days of Eratosthenes to tion, like that of Pandiôn, was a common appellathose of Pliny, while it is evident that Ptolemy tion of the kings who ruled over that part of India. possessed much more accurate information re- Dodwell, again, was of opinion that the Periplas garding these parts. It confirms this view that was written after the year A. 1. 161. when Marens while our author calls the island of Ceylon Palai- Aurelius and Luciu's Verus were joint emperors. simoundou, Ptolemy calls it by the name He bases, in the first place, his defence of this view subsequently given to it-Salikê. Again, from on the statement in § 26: "Not long before our $ 19, it is evident that he wrote before the own times the Emperor (Kaitap) destroyed the kingdom of the Nabathæans was abolished by place," viz. Eudaim ô n-Arabia, now Aden. the Romans. Moreover Pliny (VI. xxvi. 104), in This emperor he supposes must have been Trajan, proceeding to describe the navigation to the who, according to Eutropius (VIII. 3), reduced marts of India by the direct route across the Arabia to the form of a province. Eutropius, howocean with the wind called Hippalos, writes to ever, meant by Arabia only that small part of it this effect :-"And for a long time this was the which adjoins Syria. This Dodwell not only denies, mode of navigation, until a merchant discovered but also asserts that the conquest of Trajan ema compendious route whereby India was brought braced the whole of the Peninsula-a sweeping 80 near that to trade thither became very lucra- inference, which he bases on a single passage tive. For, every year & fleet is despatched, car- in the Periplás (816) where the south part rying on board companies of archers, since the of Arabia is called η πρώτη Αραβία, «the First Indian seas are much infested by pirates. Nor Arabia." From this expression he gathers that will a description of the whole voyage from Egypt Trajan, after his conquest of the country, had tire the reader, since now for the first time correct divided it into several provinces, designated acinformation regarding it has been made public." cording to the order in which they were consti. Compare with this the statement of the Periplás tuted. The language of the Periplús, however, in $ 57, and it will be apparent that while this forbids us to suppose that there is here any referroute to India had only just come into use in the ence to a Roman province. What the passage time of Pliny, it had been for some time in use in states is that Azania (in Africa) was by the days of our author. Now, as Pliny died in ancient right subject to the kingdom, this morns 79 A.D., and had completed his work two years yuropawns (Neyouévs according to Dodwell) 'ApaSias, previously, it may be inferred that he had written and was ruled by the despot of Mapharitis. the 6th book of his Natural History before our Dodwell next defends the date he has fixed on author wrote his work. A still more definite in by the passage in 23, where it is said that Khadication of his date is furnished in § 5, where ribaël gought by frequent gifts and embassies Zoskalês is mentioned as reigning in his to gain the friendship of the emperors (TÔ times over the Auxumita. Now in a list of the aúrokparópuv). He thinks that the time is here early kings of Abyssinia the name of Za- indicated when M. Aurelius and L. Verus were Hakalo occurs, who must have reigned from reigning conjointly, A.D. 161-181. There is no 77 to 89 A.D. This Z a-Hakale is doubtless need, however, to put this construction on the the Zoskalês of the Periplús, and was the words, which may without any impropriety be contemporary of the emperors Vespasian, Titus, taken to mean the emperors for the time being,' and Domitian. We conclude, therefore, that the viz. Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian.