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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1994.
that Chryse is the last continental region grains in the Shuaygheen (Shwêgyin) gravels, towards the East.' North of it indeed, and farther I should infer the occurrence of the metal in situ off, is Thina, i. e., China.
in some of the rocks towards the sources of the "Chryse then, in the vague apprehension of the streams falling into the Sittang (Sittaung), espeancients, - the only appropriate apprehension, cially the Matuma (Muttama)...... From the where knowledge was so indefinite-was the marked scarcity of quartz pebbles at the gold region coasted between India and China. It is washings, I am inclined to believe that quartz is most correctly rendered by Indo-China.'” not the matrix, or not the sole matrix, certainly of (g)
the Shuaygheen gold."'1 The above extracts shew that the precise iden- Gold-washing in the Sittang valley was a tification of the country known as Suvanna- remunerative industry in ancient times; but as, bhami to the ancients is one of the vexed ques- in course of time, gold could not be worked in tions of the early geography of the Far East. paying quantities, the energies of the people were All Burmese and Talaing writers, however,
directed to other channels, and evidently to comagree in applying the designation to Thaton, merce. Still the glamour of the name remained, which was formerly a sea-port town, and they
and its currency was maintained by the fact of assert that the raison d'etre of the name is that
the Sittang valley containing seaport towns, auriferous ore was found in the tract of the
namely, Göļamattikä or Takkala, and subseqnently country in which Thatón is situated.
Thatôn itself, which were great emporia of trade Like the term Ramañíadesa, the appellation
between India and the Far East till the Middle Suvannabhumi appears to have been originally
Ages. applied to the basin of the Sittang and the Sal- In the Kalyani Inscriptions, Suvannabhumi ween rivers, which are noted for gold washings is identified with Bemannadésa. This idention their upper reaches. "Gold is certainly found fication appears to rest on plausible grounds, as in most of the affluents of the Shwógyin (Gold- gold-washing is still carried on in most of the Washing) river, and has been more than once districts comprising the ancient Talaing kingdom worked, but the quantity obtained is so small as
of Ramaññadêsa. Gold is still worked at Dêsàmnot to repay the labour. This river and the på in the Pegu district, on the banks of most of mountains at its source have been examined by the streams in the Shwêgyin district, at Mawaing
Ir. Theobald of the Geological Survey and by a in the Bilin township, and at the head-waters of practical miner, and the reports of both point the Tenasserim river. At Thatôn, auriferous generally to the same conclusions. Mr. Theobald sands occur in the Shwêgyaung San close to the stated that the section of the auriferous beds site of the Palace of Manuba, the Talaing king, corresponds very closely with that given by Sir R. who was conqnered and led away captive to Pagàn Murchison, in his Siluria, of the Russian gold by Anòratâzd in the 19th century. deposits . . . . . From the occurrence of coarse
TAW SEIN-KO. NOTES AND QUERIES. SRAHI.
No. III. 1. 1: ... vijayarajyê samasta 4 Ante, Vol. XXII. p. 222, Dr. Fleet has given anka frdhi Dhanu amavai Saurivare; another instance of the use of the word grahe, No. IV.1.1:... vijêråije samasta 41 érdhi which he had previously found in some dates of
Dhanu sukala saptami Ravivåre; Old-Kanarese inscriptions. I may perhaps draw
No. V.1.1: ... vijêrå jyê samasta 35 erdhi attention to the fact that apparently the same
Mêsa kļi 4 Vudhavårê; word, only spelt srahi, is regularly employed in
No. VI. 1. 2: ... maharajankara samasta the dates of the Orissa inscriptions, edited by Baba Man Mohan Chakravarti in the Jour. Beng.
4 anka srdhi Kakadá su 10 Vudhavåre. As. Soc. Vol. LXII. Part i. pp. 90ff. Thus we The editor of these inscriptions considers erdhi read in Mr. Chakravarti's inscriptions :
to be a technical word, which has no particular No. I. l. 2: ... vijêrájyê samasta 3 anka meaning in the context. I myself am unable to
sráht Magusira kşi trayodasi Bhůmiväre; offer any explanation of it. No. II. 1. 1: ... Purushottamadêva mahi
F. KIELHORN. råjånka samasta 2 érdhi Mêsa su 12 Gșivåre; Göttingen. 1 British Burma Gasettser, Vol. II. page 649.
the usual local name for the country now known as [Ono plausible derivation for Argentea Regio is that Arakan. Argentea Regio was Arakan apparently it is merely a translation of Apyvpn = & Greek ren- beyond all doubt.-ED.] dering of Arkang, the Indian pronunciation of Rak'aing,
