Sūrat and Soraṭh

Extract

From the beginning of Indian studies in Europe Sūrat and Soraṭhh have been constantly confused. Denison Ross continues this confusion (Arabic History of Gujarat, vol. i, p. x): Surat is spelt indifferently and although the two places are distinguished in the index and in chapter 13, CHI, vol. iii. Elliott and Dowson (History of India told by its own historians, v, 350, n. 4) distinguish the places, but derive both names from the Sanskrit Saurāsṭra, which is absurd. More recently the authors of the Advanced History of India, R. C. Majumdar, H. C. Raychaudhuri, and K. Datta, uniformly spell the first name as Surāt; and Jules Bloch, Les Inscriptions d'Asoka, 103, n. 9, equates with Saurāṣṭra with Surate.