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MAY, 1879.]
PERIPLUS OF THE ERYTHREAN SEA.
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.
42. After Papike there is another gulf, exposed to the violence of the waves and running up to the north. Near its mouth is an island called Baiônês, and at its very head it receives a vast river called the Mais. Those bound for Baruga za sail up this gulf (which has a breadth of about 300 stadia), leaving the island on the left till it is scarcely visible in the horizon, when they shape their course east for the mouth of the river that leads to Barugaza. This is called the Namna dios.
43. The passage into the gulf of Barugaza is narrow and difficult of access to those approaching it from the sea, for they are carried either to the right or to the left, the left being the better passage of the two. On the right, at the very entrance of the gulf, lies a narrow stripe of shoal, rough and beset with rocks. It
of Khambât from that part of the peninsula of Gujarat which lies opposite to the Barugaza coast. Its distance from Barbarikon on the middle mouth of the Indus is correctly given at 3,000 stadia. This promontory is said to be near Asta kapra, a place which is mentioned also by Ptolemy, and which (Ind. Ant. vol. V. p. 314) has been identified by Colonel Yule with Hastakavapra (now Hâthab near Bhaunagar), a name which occurs in a copper-plate grant of Dhruvasena I of Valabhi. With regard to the Greek form of this name Dr. Bühler thinks it is not derived immediately from the Sanskrit, but from an intermediate old Prakrit word Hastakampra, which had been formed by the contraction of the syllables ava to 4, and the insertion of a nasal, according to the habits of the Gujaratis. The loss of the initial, he adds, may be explained by the difficulty which Gujaratis have now and probably had 1600 years ago in pronouncing the spirans in its proper place. The modern name Hâthab or Hathap may be a corruption of the shorter Sanskrit form Hastavapra.
(42) Beyond Papikê, we are next informed, there is another gulf running northward into the interior of the country. This is not really another Gulf but only the northern portion of the Gulf
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is called Hêrôn ê, and lies opposite the village of Kammôni. On the left side right against this is the promontory of Papikê, which lies in front of A s ta ka pra, where it is difficult to anchor, from the strength of the current and because the cables are cut through by the sharp rocks at the bottom. But even if the passage into the gulf is secured the mouth of the Barugaza river is not easy to hit, since the coast is low and there are no certain marks to be seen until you are close upon them. Neither, if it is discovered, is it easy to enter, from the presence of shoals at the mouth of the river.
44. For this reason native fishermen appointed by Government are stationed with wellmanned long boats called trappaga and kotumba at the entrance of the river, whence they go out as far as Suras trênê to meet ships, and pilot them up to Barugaza. At the head of the gulf the pilot, immediately on taking charge of a ship, with the help of his own boat's crew, shifts her head to keep her clear of the shoals, and tows her from one fixed station to another, moving with the beginning of the tide, and dropping anchor at certain roadsteads and basins when it ebbs. These basins occur at points where the
of Khambat, which the Periplús calls the Gulf of Barugaza. It receives a great river, the Mais, which is easily identified with the Mahi, and contains an island called Baiônês [the modern Peram], which you leave on the left hand as you cross over from Astakapra to Barugaza.
We are now conducted to Barugaza, the greatest seat of commerce in Western India, situated on a river called in the MS. of the Periplús the Lamnaios, which is no doubt an erroneous reading for Na mados, or Namnados or Namnadios. This river is the Narmád &. It is called by Ptolemy the Namadês.
(43) Barugaza (Bharoch) which was 30 miles distant from its mouth, was both difficult and dangerous of access; for the entrance to the Gulf itself was, on the right, beset with a perilous stripe (tainia) of rocky shoal called Herônê, and on the left, (which was the safer course,) the violent currents which swept round the promontory of Papikê rendered it unsafe to approach the shore or to cast anchor. The shoal of Herônê was opposite a village on the mainland called Kam môni, the Kamanê of Ptolemy (VII. i.), who however places it to the north of the river's mouth. Again, it was not only difficult to hit the mouth of the river, but its navigation was endangered by
