Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 13
Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

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Page 368
________________ 322 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. stating ascertained facts, that Prasum is under the parallel of 16° 25' in South latitude, while the parallel through Cape Arôma ta is 4° 15' in North latitude, making the distance between the two capes 20° 40', we might with good reason make the distance from the Golden Khersonese to Zaba and thence to Kattigara just about the same. § 6. It is not necessary to curtail the distance from the Golden Khersonese to Zaba, since as the coast faces the south it must run parallel with the equator. We must reduce, however, the distance from Zaba to Kattigara, since the course of the navigation is towards the south and the east, in order that we may find the position parallel to the equator. § 7. If again, in our uncertainty as to the real excess of the distances, we allot say one-half of the degrees to each of these distances, and from the 13° 20' between Zaba and Kattigara we deduct a third on account of the divergence, we shall have the distance from the Golden Khersonese to Kattigara along a line parallel to the equator of about 17° 10. § 8. But it has been shown that the distance from Cape Kôry to the Golden Khersonese is 31° 48', and so the entire distance from Kôry to Kattigara will be about 52°. § 9. But again, the meridian which passes through the source of the River Indus is a little further west than the Northern Promontory of Taprobanê, which according to Marinos is opposite to Kôry, from which the meridian which passes through the mouths of the River Bætis is a distance of 8 hours or 120°. Now as this meridian is 5° from that of the Islands of the Blest, the meridian of Cape Kôry is more than 125° from the meridian of the Islands of the Blest. But the meridian through Kattigara is distant from that through the Islands of the Blest a little more than 177° in the latitude of Kôry, each of which contains about the same number of stadia as a degree reckoned along the parallel of Rhodes. § 10. The entire length then of the world to the Metropolis of the Sinai may be taken at 180 degrees or an interval of 12 hours, since it is agreed on all hands that this Metropolis lies further east than Kattigara, so that the length along the parallel of Rhodes will be 72,000 stadia. CAP. 17, (part). § 3. For all who have crossed the seas to those places agree in assuring me that the district of Sakhalités in Arabia, and the Gulf of the same [OCTOBER, 1884. name, lie to the east of Syagros and not to the west of it as stated by Marinos, who also makes Simylla, the emporium in India, to be further west not only than Cape Komari, but also than the Indus. § 4. But according to the unanimous testimony both of those who have sailed from us to those places and have for a long time frequented them, and also of those who have come from thence to us, Simylla, which by the people of the country is called Timoula, lies only to the south of the mouths of the river, and not also to west of them. § 5. From the same informants we have also learned other particulars regarding India and its different provinces, and its remote parts as far as the Golden Khersonese and onward thence to Kattigara. In sailing thither, the voyage, they said, was towards the east, and in returning towards the west, but at the same time they acknowledged that the period which was occupied in making the voyages was neither fixed nor regular. The country of the Sêres and their Metropolis was situated to the north of the Sinai, but the regions to the eastward of both those people were unknown, abounding it would appear, in swamps, wherein grew reeds that were of a large size and so close together that the inhabitants by means of them could go right across from one end of a swamp to the other. In travelling from these parts there was not only the road that led to Baktrianê by way of the Stone Tower, but also a road that led into India through Palimbothra. The road again that led from the Metropolis of the Sinai to the Haven at Kattigara runs in a south-west direction, and hence this road does not coincide with the meridian which passes through Sêra and Kattigara, but, from what Marinos tell us, with some one or other of those meridians that are further east. I may conclude this prefatory matter by quoting from Mr. Bunbury his general estimate of the value of Ptolemy's Indian Geography as set forth in his criticism of Ptolemy's Map of India. His strictures, though well grounded, may perhaps be considered to incline to the side of severity. He says (vol. II, pp. 642-3), "Some excellent remarks on the portion of Ptolemy's work devoted to India, the nature of the different materials of which he made use, and the manner in which he employed them, will be found in Colonel Yule's introduction to his Map of India, in Dr. Smith's Atlas of Ancient Geography (pp. 22-24). These

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