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Art. XV.—The Rivers of the Vedas, and how the Aryans entered India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Edward Thomas
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Extract

For the origination of this line of investigation we are mainly indebted to M. Vivien de Saint-Martin, who, in his “ Étude sur la géographie et les populations primitives du Nord-Ouest de l'lnde, d'après les Hymnes Védiques,” correctly defined one of the leading peculiarities of those chants, “ c'est que les indications géographiques des hymnes du Véda se rapportent à peu près exclusivement à des rivières.”

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Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , October 1883 , pp. 357 - 386
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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1883

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References

page 357 note 1 “ Mémoire couronné, en 1855, par l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.” Paris, Imp. Impériale, 1860Google Scholar.

page 357 note 2 Wilson, H. H.. Translation of the Rig-Veda Sanhitá. London, Allen and Co., vols. i., ii., iii., 1850–54–57Google Scholar; vol. iv. Triibner, 1866, edited by Professor E. B. Cowell. Professor Cowell in bis preface conscientiously examines the relative value attaching to Prof. Wilson's translation, which he remarks “ occupies a peculiar place. No doubt, as Vaidik studies progress, and more texts are published and studied, fresh light will be thrown on these records of the ancient world; and we may gradually obtain a deeper insight into their meaning than the mediæval Hindús could possess, just as a modern scholar may understand Homer more thoroughly than the Byzantine scholiasts. But the present translation will always retain an historical value, because it is based on the native commentary, and thus represents all that the Hindús have preserved of the long line of Vaidik tradition. Sáyana stands to the Veda as Eustathius to the Homeric poems; and Prof. Wilson's work enables the English reader to know what the Hindús themselves suppose the Rig Veda to mean. It is easy to depreciate native commentators, but it is not so easy to supersede them; and while I would by no means uphold Sáyana as infallible, I confess that, in the present early stage of Vaidik studies in Europe, it seems to me to be the safer course to follow native tradition rather than to accept too readily the arbitrary conjectures which continental scholars so often hazard,” p. vi.

page 358 note 1 It must not be supposed that this is my first recognition of the value M.de St.-M.'s admirable study. So long ago as 1864, I find that I noticed it with all due appreciation, in the (London) “Numismatic Chronicle” vol. iv. n.s p. 41), in an introductory Essay of mine on “Ancient Indian Weights”—an article which was republished in extenso in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in their vol. xxxiii. (1864) p. 251. Subsequently, in editing the new International “ Numismata Orientalia ”—“Ancient Indian Weights ” (Trübner, London, 1874), I had an opportunity of again examining M. de St.-M.'s general conclusions, and adding some confirmatory evidence as to the ethnic obliteration of the Vedic Aryans on the banks of the Saraswatí.

page 358 note 2 Wilson, , Rig-Veda, vol. i. p. viGoogle Scholar ; Muir's, “ Original Sanskrit Texts,” London, Trübner, vol. ii. p. 346Google Scholar;Weber, , Hist. of Indian Literature, London, 1878, p. 43Google Scholar;Lassen, , Indian Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 643–4Google Scholar.

page 360 note 1 Muir's, Sanskrit Texts, vol. v. p. 344:—Google Scholar

I annex M. Langlois' original French translation for purposes of comparison.

“ 1. Les sept torrents coulent chacun dans trois mondes différents. De ces rivièr;es, le Sindhou est la première par sa force.

“ 2. Ô Sindhou! Varouna ouvre lui-même ta route… Tu descends des hauteurs de la terre, et tu règnes sur ces mondes.

“ 4. Ô Sindhou! [les autres rivières] viennent à toi et [t'apporteront leur tribut], comme les vaches apportent leur lait à leur nourrisson. Quand tu marches à la téte de ces ondes impétueuses, tu ressembles à un roi belliqueux qui étend ses deux ailes de bataille.

“ 5. Ô Gangâ, Yamounâ, Sarasvatî, Coutoudri, avec la Parouehní, écoutez mon hymne. Ô Maroudvridhâ, avec l' Asiknî et la Vitasthâ; Ô Ardjîkîyâ, avec la Souchomâ, entendez-nous!

“ 6. Ô Sindhou! tu mêles d'abord tes eaux rapides à celles de la Trichtâmâ, de la Rasâ, de la Çvetî, de la Koubhâ; tu entraînes sur le même char que toi la Gomâtî et la Kroumou.

“ 7. Brillant, impétueux, invisible, le Sindhou développe ses ondes avec majesté.”— Rig-Véda, traduit par M. Langlois (1848–51), vol. iv. p. 305.

page 362 note 1 These references are taken from Mr. Muir's Sanskrit Texts, so industriously collected by him in his vol. ii.

page 362 note 2 Professor Lassen affirmed that these three (9, 10, 11) were not rivers at all. —Muir, vol. i. p. 348. He admits, however, that tŗishţa means “ harshly sounding,” an epithet peculiarly applicable to No. 11, which is described as running deep and red, and full of quicksands.—Cunningham, J.A.S.B. 1841, p. 112.

page 362 note 1 Anitabhá for Anityabha “un courant d'eau temporaire.”—Lassen. Prof. M. Williams makes the word Anita-bhá, “not endowed with splendour.” The St. Petersburg Dictionary merely gives “eines flusses.” R.V. v. 53,9.

page 362 note 2 “ (The Asura), knowing the wealth of others, carries it off of himself; present in the water, he carries off, of himself, the foam; the two wives of Kuyava bathe with the water: may they be drowned in the depths of the Siphá river.

“ The abiding place of the vagrant (Kuyava) was concealed (in the midst) of the water: the hero increases with the waters formerly (carried off), and is renowned (throughout the world): the Anjasí, Kulisí and Vira-patní rivers, pleasing him with their substance, sustain him with their waters.”

Wilford notices “The Siprâ, Siprá, Cshprá, also called the Avantí river,” which falls into the Chambal (As. Ees. xiv. 408), and the Vishņu-Purána refers to the same river and to the Avantí, near Oojein (Hall's Edit. ii. 131 and 155). But the Vedic Aryans can hardly have got so far south at the period the passage seems to belong to.

page 363 note 1 Muir, S.Texts, vol. i. p. 345Google Scholar , “Shine, O Agra, brilliantly on the (banks of the) Drishadvatí, on (a site) auspicious for men, on (the banks of) the Apayá, and of the Sarasvatí; ” Wilson, , vol. iii. p. 25Google Scholar.

page 363 note 2 The Ápayá was approximately placed by M. de St.-Martin in 1860 (p. 59). I obtain the identification of the Ansumatí from General Cunningham's later researches on the spot, embódied in his Archæological Report for 1878–79. He does not seem to have been cognisant of or to have noticed the passages from the Vedas in the above enumeration bearing upon the localities around Kurukshetra. His observations are to the following effect: “ The region of Kurukshetra is said to have been watered either by 7 or by 9 rivers. The names of the nine are—1. Saraswati; 2. Vaitaríni; 3. Apagá, or Aughvati; 4. Mandákini Ganga; 5. Madhusrava; 6. Ansumati; 7. Kausiki; 8. Drishtavatí; and 9. Hiranyavati or Drishtavati… The Apagá or Augvati is, a branch of the Chitang which separates from the main stream a few miles to the west of Ládwa, and flows past Pulwal to Pabnáwa, where it is lost in the sands. Its whole length is about 25 miles. The Kausiki is a branch of the Rákshi. The others I have not been able to identify. But there are several important streams at the present day, such as the Márkanda, the Nakti, and Chitang or Chatang, of which the ancient names are quite unknown. The Sarsuti and its branches have also been so interlaced and inosculated with one another by Feroz Shah to fill his canals, that the people have completely confused their names, so that there are now no less than three different Sarsutis. There is, I believe, some mistake about the number of 9 rivers, as the Hindus invariably assign 7 branches to all their rivers. Such are the Sapta Sindhu, the Sapta Gandaki, and the Sapta Kausiki, etc.—and there is a place of pilgrimage in Kurukshetra still called Sapta Saraswati. I suspect also that No. 4 is a mistake, as it is the name of one of the holiest pools in the bed of the Saraswati at Prithudaka.—The Vaitarani may (also) only be another term for Drishadwati or Rakshi.”Vol. xiv. p. 88.

page 364 note 1 The Gaggar, Saraswatí, and their tributaries contain but little water except in the rainy season. Their sources being in the outer and lower Himálayan range, they are fed by rain only, and not by the melting snows also, as are all the large rivers of Northern India. The collecting ground of these streams, moreover, is, and always must have been, very limited, as it lies between the Satlej and Jamna valleys. There is nothing in history to show that these rivers ever contained much more water than they do now. Some diminution in their volume may have taken place during the lapse of ages, from changes in the lower Himálayan range, as well as from the destruction of forests and increase of irrigation. There is no doubt also a tendency to the obliteration of the lower portion of their course; partly by the drift of sand and dust from the desert, and partly by the deposit of silt brought down by the streams themselves, owing to the absence of the great river by which it would have been carried off to the sea. All these influences, however, have, as we find from history, produced but little effect during a very long period… The Gaggar must originally have been of much less importance than it is at present, for the Saraswatí, which now falls into it above Munak, formerly flowed much further south, and joined the old channel just mentioned below the famous fortress of Sarsuti (now called Sirsa), which was built on its banks in the sixth century… Calcutta Review, No. cxvii. vol. 59 (1871), p. 1, with a map, by Surgeon-Major Oldham.

page 364 note 2 Wilson, i. 10, 33, 216, 227.

page 364 note 3 Wilson, iv. 189.

page 365 note 1 1 Wilson, iii. 504. Professor Wilson, in his preface to vol. iii. p. xviii, dated 30th April, 1857, gives the following résumé of the contents of this volume in regard to the various notices of rivers:—“So far, therefore, the allusions to the social condition of the Hindús are in harmony with those that have been previously noticed; and the same may be said of the references made to the tracts occupied by them, which were in the north-west and west of India, from the Punjab to the mouths of the Indus, their outlet to the ocean: we have the Yamuná mentioned once, the Ganges once: the Saraswatí is often named in both her characters as a goddess and a river, and the Drishadvatí is in one place associated with her as in Manu, along with another river not met with elsewhere, the Apayá: the Vipása and Satudrí or Beyah and Satlaj, are interlocutors in a Súlkta with the Rishi Viswámitra, in which he entreats them to allow him to ford them with his attendants and waggons, being bound to the north-west, as he states, to collect the Soma plant. Other rivers are named, as the Rasá, Anitabhá, Kubhá, Purushhni, and the Hariyupíyá or Yavyavatí, the positions of which are no longer known, but which were probably in the west, and were feeders of the Indus. On the eastern bank of the Hariyupíyá dwelt a people called Vrichívats, or Várasikhas, who were subjugated with the aid of Indra, by the Rajas Abhyávarttin and Prastoka, and whom we may suppose, therefore, not to have been Hindús.”

page 365 note 2 General Cunningham, Arch. Eeport, vol. ii. pp. 214, 215, 1862–1865Google Scholar.

page 365 note 3 Ibid. See also Wheeler's Mahábhárata, p. 277.

page 365 note 4 The Institutes of Manu, London, 1825, by G. C. Haughton, chapter ii. § 17.

page 366 note 1 Arch. Report, vol. ii. p. 214; and Arch. Report, 1879, vol. xiv. p. 87.

page 366 note 2 Stanislas Julien, Paris, vol. ii. p. 212; “Tout autour de la capitale, il y a un espace de deux cent Ii que les habitants du pays ont appelé la terre du Bonheur.”

page 366 note 3 Wilson K. V., vol. i. pp. xli and lvii; also vol. iii. p. xi; Numismata Orientalia, “Ancient Indian weights,” p. 15.

page 366 note 4 General Cunningham describes the lake of Kurukshetra as an oblong sheet of water, 3,546 feet in length from east to west, and 1,900 feet in breadth. The chakra, or circle of Kurukshetra, also called Dharmakshetra, or “the holy land,” now ” comprises within its circuit of 160 miles, no less than 360 holy sites, most of which are connected with the names of the heroes of the Mahábhárata. Many of these are no doubt genuine ancient places, as attested by their high mounds and brick ruins. But the greater number appear to have been the inventions of modern days.”… The whole region is divided into seven bans or forests.” Gen. Cunningham then proceeds to give a full list of the tíraths or places of pilgrimage, etc., vol. xiv. Arch. Reports, 1878–79, p. 97, and vol. ii. pp. 213, el seq.

page 367 note 1 I may cite from the Vedas a typical instance of the arrogance of the Rishis in their early days on the Indus:

“ 1. I repeat with a (willing) mind the unreluctant praises of Bhávia, dwelling on the banks of the Sindhu: a prince of unequalled (might), desirous of renown, who has enabled me to celebrate a thousand sacrifices.

“ 2. From which generous prince, soliciting (my acceptance), I, Kakshívat, unhesitatingly accepted 100 nishkas [coin or weight of 660 grains Troy], 100 vigorous steeds, and 100 bulls…

“ 3. Ten chariots drawn by bay steeds, and carrying my wives, stood near me, given me by Swanaya; and 1060 cows followed…

“ 4. Forty bay horses, (harnessed) to the chariots, led the procession in front of 1000 (followers). The Pajras, the kinsmen of Kakshívat, rub down the highspirited steeds, decorated with golden trappings…

“ 5. I have accepted a prior grant, (kinsmen), for you: 3 and 8 harnessed chariots and cattle of incalculable value: may the kindred Pajras,” etc.— Wilson, E.V. ii. 17.

page 367 note 2 Westminster Review, 1864, p. 154, Article “ The Inspired Writings of Hinduism,” reprinted in his Literary Remains, vol. ii. p. 50. His words are, “The Hindu priesthood, however, has managed to demonstrate that 1028 hymns mean in reality a very ponderous mass of divinely revealed works.”

page 368 note 1 Müller, Max, Ancient Sanskrit Literature, 1859, p. 479Google Scholar; Colebrooke's Essays (Cowell's Edit.), vol. i. pp. 9, 20; Asiatic Researches, (1805) vol. viii. p. 369Google Scholar;Goldstücker's, Literary Remains, vol. i. p. 115Google Scholar;Wilson, , “The Religion of the Hindus” (London Edit., 1862), vol. ii. p. 47Google Scholar;Vishnu Purána (Hall's, Edit.), vol. iii. p. 33Google Scholar.“Muni Krishna Dwaipáyana” is here spoken of as “the 28th Vyása,” the first of the list being Swayambhú (Brahma) himself. See also Wilson's Preface, pp. xvii, xxxiii; Wheeler, , Maha Bharata (London, 1867), p. 59Google Scholar.

page 368 note 2 ProfWilson, in his preface to vol. i. Rig-Veda, p. xxGoogle Scholar, observes in regard to this arranger: “At last, however, there arrived a period when the antiquity of the hymns, the obscurity of their style, the peculiarities of the language, and the number to which they had multiplied, with the corresponding difficulties of recollecting and teaching them, and possibly also the perception that some venerable authority, on which their growing claims to superior sanctity was wanting, suggested to the progressive advancement of the literature of the Brahmans, the expediency of rescuing the dispersed and obsolete Súktas from the risk of oblivion, and moulding them into some consistent and permanent shape. The accomplishment of this object is traditionally ascribed to the son of Parásara Rishi, Krishna Dwaipáyana, thence surnamed Vyása, the arranger, a person of rather questionable chronology and existence, who is supposed to have flourished at the time of the great war between the rival families of Kuru and Pándu, to the latter of which he was attached. The account that is really given of his proceedings shows that his special province was that of superintendence, possibly under the patronage of Raja Yudhishthira, after his triumph over the Kurus, and that various other learned persons, already familiar with the hymns of the respective Vedas, were employed to prepare each several Sanhitáor collection.”

page 369 note 1 Memoirs of Hugh Falconer, collected by DrMurchison, Charles, London, 1868, p. 6, vol. i. plate iiGoogle Scholar. See also Elliot's, Historians, vol. i. p. 45, note 3; and J.A.S.B. vol. clxxxviii. p. 140Google Scholar.

page 370 note 1 Strabo xv. i. 19 (Falconer, iii. 84).

page 370 note 2 “Amidst these ruins of the Johyas, the name of Sekandar Roomi (Alexander the Great) has fixed itself, and the desert retains the tradition that the ruin called Rung-mahl, ‘the painted palace,’ near Dandoosir (25 miles west of Bhutnair), was the capital of a prince of this region punished by a visitation of the Macedonian conqueror. History affords no evidence of Alexander's passage of the Garah, though the scene of his severest conflict was in that nook of the Punjáb not remote from the lands of the Johyas … The same traditions assert that these regions were not always either arid or desolate, and the living chronicle alluded to in the note (by an old inhabitant of Dandoosir) repeated the stanza elsewhere given, which dated its deterioration from the drying-up of the Hakra (Sankra) river, which came from the Punjáb, and flowing through the heart of this country, emptied itself into the Indus between Kory Bekher and Ootch.”—Col. Tod's, Rajasthán, vol. ii. p. 187Google Scholar.

“ According to tradition, this stream took a westerly direction, by Phoolra, where it is yet to be traced, and fell into the Indus below Ootch. The couplet recording its absorption by the sands of Nair has already been given.”—ibid. p. 214.

page 371 note 1 Calcutta Review, 1857, vol. lx. p. 323Google Scholar.

page 371 note 2 The following is the suhstance of the Persian text:—

“ In the same way as at this place (the head of the delta of the Indus—the Sind Ságar) they call the collected rivers Panj-nad, ‘five rivers’, so the rivers flowing from the northern side of these same mountains, when they unite near Turmuz and form the river of Balkh are called ‘the seven rivers,’ and the fireworshippers (majús) of Soghd make no distinction, but call them all the ‘seven rivers.’

“The river Sarsut (Sarsuti) falls into the sea to the east of Somnát… There is a river which lies between the Sarsut and the Ganges. It comes from the city of Turmuz [Thaneswar?] and the eastern hills; it has a south-westerly course, till it falls into the sea near Bahrúch, about sixty yojanas to the east of Somnát.”—The Jám'i-ut-Tawarikh of Eashid-ud-dín, epitomizing Albirúní? The date of the latter is about A.D. 1020, that of the former 1310 A.D. Elliot's, Historians, vol. i. p. 49Google Scholar.

page 372 note 1 Albirúní wrote in Arabic, though his copyist Eashid-ud-dín wrote in Persian. Elliot's Historians, vol. i.

page 372 note 2 England and Eussia in the East, by SirEawlinson, H. C., Murray, 1875Google Scholar.

page 372 note 3 Wilson R.V. vol. i. p. 88, and note c, and vol. ii. p. 320, “The seven great rivers,” etc. In vol. iii. p. 506, Saraswatí is spoken of as “having seven sisters,” and in vol. iv. p 100, she is addressed as the 7th (stream) Sarasvati.”

page 372 note 4 Wilson, R. V. vol. i. p. 10. In vol. iv. p. 191, “ to her who is the most mighty of rivers, who is both in heaven and earth,”… the note adds, “as a goddess or as a river.”

page 373 note 1 Burnes, , Trade of the Deraját, p. 98Google Scholar. These and other details on the subject have been carefully collected and summarized in the too little-known “Gazetteer of the Countries Adjacent to India,” compiled under the direction of the late Edward Thornton, of the India Office, Allen & Co. (1844).

page 373 note 2 Memoirs of Bábar, , Erskine, London, Longmans, 1826, p. 162Google Scholar.

page 373 note 3 Journal of a Route from Dera Ghází Khán, through the Veziri country to Kábul, Journ, As. Soc. Bengal, 1834, vol. iii. p. 175Google Scholar, with a Map, Plate xiv.

page 374 note 1 Elliot's, Historians, vol. ii. p. 434Google Scholar.

page 374 note 2 Briggs's Ferishta.

page 374 note 3 Pathán Kings of Delhi, London, 1871, pp. 26, note 1, 36, etc.; Elliot's, Historians, vol. ii. p. 221Google Scholar. Lumsden'sMap places the Fort of Kurrum in 70° 10'- 33° 49'.

page 374 note 4 Ibid. p. 33; Tabakát-i-Násiri, , in Elliot, vol. ii. p. 301Google Scholar.

page 374 note 5 Babar's, Memoirs, p. 161Google Scholar: “ On the next morning we marched forward, and halted at no great distance, among the villages of the Desht (Damán). Our next march was to the banks of the river Gomal. From Desht there are two roads that lead to the West. One of them is the road of Sang-surákh, which reaches Fermul by way of Búrek. The other is along the banks of the Gomal, which conducts also to Fermul, but without passing Búrek. The road along the Gomal is generally preferred.”

page 375 note 1 Wilson, , Rig-Veda, vol. iii. p. 50Google Scholar, verse 1, “Bushing from the flanks of the mountains, eager (to reach the sea) like two mares with loosened reins contending (with each other in speed), like two fair mother cows (hastening) to caress (their calves), the Vipás and Sutudrí flow rapidly with (united) waters,” and note 2, p. 51, verse 5, “Rivers charged with water, rest a moment from your course at my request, who go to gather the Soma (plant): I, the son of Kusika, desirous of protection, address with earnest prayer especially the river before me.” Verse 11, “ Since rivers (you have allowed me to cross), so may the Bharatas (that war-loving tribe) pass over.” Note 2, “The Bharatas are said to be of the same race as Viswamitra.“ Muir, vol. i. p. 340, Viswamitra says, “ When the Bharatas, that war-loving tribe… have crossed thee.” Note 131, “The men of the family of Bharata, my people.”—Sáyana.

page 375 note 2 Müller, Max, Ancient Sanskrit Literature, 1859, p. 485Google Scholar, clearly defined the profession and status of the Vedic Purohita or prases, in special reference to this King Sudás, and he adds, incidentally, p. 81, “But while Viswámitra contented himself with maintaining the rights of his tribe or family, and became reconciled as soon as he was allowed to share in the profits of the priestly power,” etc.

page 376 note 1 Mr. Muir has collected, in his Sanskrit Texts, every possible reference to this great schism. Although I quote in full his summary of the later reconstructions of the old story, I prefer, like him (i. 318), to take as authentic only that version which has been accepted in the texts of the Vedas. “The fourth chapter contains a series of legendary illustrations derived from the Rámáyana, the Mahábhárata, and the Puránas, of the struggle which appears to have occurred in the early ages of Indian history between the Bráhmans and the Kshattriyas, after the former had begun to constitute an exclusive sacerdotal class, but before their rights had become accurately defined by long prescription, and when the members of the ruling caste were still indisposed to admit their pretensions. I need not here state in detail the contents of the first five sections, which record various legends descriptive of the ruin which is said to have overtaken different princes by whom the Bráhmans were slighted and their claims resisted. The sixth and following sections contain, first such references to the two renowned rivals, Vasishtha and Viswamitra, as are found in the hymns of the Rig-Veda, and which represent them both as Vedic rishis; secondly, such notices of them as occur in the Bráhmanas, and show that Viswámitra, as well as Vasishtha, bad officiated as a priest; and, thirdly, a series of legends from the Rámayana and Mahábhárata which describe the repeated struggles for superiority in which they were engaged, and attempt, by a variety of fictions, involving miraculous elements, to explain the manner in which Viswámitra became a Bráhman, and to account for the fact which was so distinctly certified by tradition, but which appeared so unaccountable in later ages, that that famous personage, although notoriously a Kshattriya by birth, had nevertheless exercised sacerdotal functions.” —Muir's, Sanskrit Texts, vol. i. p. xiGoogle Scholar.

page 377 note 1 Wilson's, Essays, vol. i. p. 319; quoted in J.R.A.S. Vol. IX. p. 157Google Scholar.

page 377 note 2 J.R.A.S. Vol. IX. N.S. p. 157, note 1, and p. 178. There is a valuable note by Mr. Muir, in Vol. II. N.S. p. 260, on the derivation of the term brahman.

page 377 note 3 There are no less than four metres in one hymn. See Wilson's, Súkta xv. (liii.), vol. iii. p. 83Google Scholar.

page 377 note 4 Rig-Veda iii. xxi. “ It is very remarkable that the forces summoned to take the part of the Brahman are all foreigners, Sakas, Yavanas, Pahnavas, and Mlechchhas, or unconverted tribes, as Dráviras, Paundras, Kiralas.”—Mahábhárata, Ádi Parva.

page 377 note 5 Goldstücker, , Remains, vol. i. p. 258Google Scholar.

page 374 note 6 R.V. vii, 33. “ 1) The white-robed (priests), with hair-knots on the right, stimulating to devotion, have filled me with delight. Rising from the sacrificial grass, I call to the men, ‘Let not the Vasishthas (stand too) far off’… 5) Indra heard Vasishtha when he uttered praise, and opened up a wide space for the Tritsus. 6) Like staves for driving cattle, the contemptible Bharatas were lopped all round.”

R.V. vii. 83. “ The ten kings, who were no sacrificers, united, did not vanquish Sudás, O Indra and Varuna. The praises of the men who officiated at the sacrifice were effectual; the gods were present at their invocations… The white-robed Tritsus, with hair-knots, reverentially praying adored you with a hymn.”—Muir, vol i. p. 324.

page 377 note 7 Wilson's R.V. iii. 82.

page 378 note 1 The did not so much imply Roman straightness, or geographical directness, as the absence of obstacles.

page 380 note 1 Muir, vol. ii. p. 342; Wilson R.V. ii. 19, “I am covered with down like a ewe of the Gandhárins.” Prof. Wilson observed that the metre of this verse did not accord with that of the rest of the hymn.

page 380 note 2 J.R.A.S. Vol. X. o.s. (1847), p. 235.

page 380 note 3 J.R.A.S. Vol. XV. o.s. (1850), p. 142.

page 380 note 4 Sir H. Rawlinson's version has Gadytia; Mr. Norris's Gandytia.

page 380 note 5 Journal Asiatique (1851), vol. xviii. pp. 72, 74, etcGoogle Scholar.

page 381 note 1 Anqúetil, , Zend Avesta, i. (2) p. 268Google Scholar.

page 381 note 2 Haug, , “Sacred Language of the Parsees,” Bombay, 1862, p. 201Google Scholar.

page 381 note 3 Ouseley, , Oriental Geography, London, 1800, p. 206Google Scholar. Ouseley's translation we now know was based upon the Persian version of the Arabic text of Iştakhri, circâ A.D. 900. The passage reads, “ Its waters are sweet and wholesome, and afford abundance of fish. All about this lake are situated villages and small towns, excepting on that side next the desert, where there are not any habitations or buildings.”

page 383 note 1 “Harauvatis ('Aραχωlα) est le Sanscrit ‘riche en lacs’; en

Zend, la contrée s'appelle Haraqaitis. Le Pehlevi , arámand donne

le même radical, settlement on a échangé le suffixe vat contre son équivalent mat.”—Darius, Inscription Persane de Bisoutoun (de l'an 510 B.C.), par Jules Oppert, Tablet i. sec. 6, Journal Asiatique, 1851, p. 283.

page 383 note 2 Ptolemy vi. c. 20; Amm. Marcell. xxiii. c. 6.

page 384 note 1 Prof. E. Curtius, and Prof. P. Gardner in Boy. Soo. Lit.; B. Brisson, Tacitus, etc., p. 214.

page 384 note 2 Haug, pp. 178, 233.

page 384 note 3 Zend Avesta, by Darmesteter, J. (1882), vol. ii. 52, 8, 16, 181Google Scholar. Here, in the Farvardin Yast, the prayer runs, “ I maintain Ardvi Súira Anáhita, the wide-expanding, and health-giving, who hates the Daevas, the large river… that runs powerfully from the height Hukairya down to the sea Vouru-kasha.”

page 384 note 4 Vol. ii. p. 1.

page 385 note 1 Quarterly Review, October, 1866. Republished in his “Central Asia,” Murray, 1875, p. 246, quoted in my paper on Recent Pehlvi Decipherments in the J.R.A.S. Vol. V. N.S. (1871), p. 425.

page 385 note 2 “ And when we come to add that the Jyotisha has no definable place in the Sanskrit literature, or relation to the Vedic ceremonial, that we can only pronounce it later than the BrShmanas and older than the Siddhantas, we shall see that this famous datum, which has seemed to promise so much, has caused so much labour and discussion, and is even yet clung to by some scholars as the sheet-anchor of ancient Hindu chronology, is nothing but a delusive phantom.”— ProfWhitney, W. D., On the Lunar Zodiac, Cambridge, U.S., 1874, p. 384Google Scholar . ProfWhitney, refers also to his previous article in this Journal (1865), Vol. I. N.S. p. 316Google Scholar, and to his Note in Colebrooke's Essays, vol. i. p. 216.

page 385 note 3 Published by Messrs, . Allen for the Oriental Translation Fund, 1879, p. 40Google Scholar.

page 386 note 1 This reference to the Tubba's is curious in reference to the later tradition of the Himyaritic inscription on the gate of Samarkand, to the effect, “ San'á is distant from Samarkand 1000 farsangs.”—Ouseley's Oriental Geography, pp. 254, 293.