# Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian/Cap. II.

​II. Now the countries which lie to the east of the Indus I take to be India Proper, and the people who inhabit them to be Indians. The northern boundaries of India so defined are formed by Mount Tauros, though the range does not retain that name in these parts. Tauros begins from the sea which washes the coasts of Pamphylia, Lykia, and Kilikia, and stretches away towards the Eastern Sea, intersecting the whole continent of Asia. The range bears different names in the different countries which it traverses. In one place it is called Parapamisos, in another Emodos, and in a ​third Imaos, and it has perhaps other names besides. The Makedonians, again, who served with Alexander called it Kaukasos,—this being another Kaukasos and distinct from the Skythian, so that the story went that Alexander penetrated to the regions beyond Kaukasos.
​On the west the boundaries of India are marked by the river Indus all the way to the great ocean into which it pours its waters, which it does by two mouths. These mouths are not close to each other, like the five mouths of the Ister (Danube), but diverge like those of the Nile, by which the Egyptian delta is formed. The Indus in like manner makes an Indian delta, which is not inferior in area to the Egyptian, and is called in the Indian tongue Pattala.
On the south-west, again, and on the south, India is bounded by the great ocean just mentioned, which also forms its boundary on the east. The parts toward the south about Pattala and the river Indus were seen by Alexander and many of the Greeks, but in an eastern direction Alex​ander did not penetrate beyond the river Hyphasis, though a few authors have described the country as far as the river Ganges and the parts near its mouths and the city of Palimbothra, which is the greatest in India, and situated near the Ganges.
* ↑ In limiting India to the eastern side of the Indus, Arrian expresses the view generally held in antiquity, which would appear to be also that of the Hindus themselves, since they are forbidden by one of their old traditions to cross that river. Much, however, may be said for the theory which would extend India to the foot of the great mountain ranges of Hindu Kush and Parapamisos. There is, for instance, the fact that in the region lying between these mountains and the Indus many places either now bear, or have formerly borne, names which can with certainty be traced to Sanskrit sources. The subject is discussed at some length in Elphinstone's History of India, pp. 331-6, also by de St.-Martin.—E'tude, pp. 9-14.
* ↑ Parapamisos (other forms—Paropamisos, Paropamissos, Paropanisos). This denotes the great mountain range now called Hindû Kush, supposed to be a corrupted form of “Indicus Caucasus,” the name given to the range by the Makedonians, either to flatter Alexander, or because they regarded it as a continuation of Kaukasos. Arrian, however, and others held it to be a continuation of Tauros. The mountains belonging to the range which lie to the north of the Kâbul river are called Nishadha, (see Lassen, Ind. Alt. I. p. 22, note), a Sanskṛit word which appears perhaps in the form Paropanisos, which is that given by Ptolemy. According to Pliny, the Skythians called Mount Caucasus Graucasis, a word which represents the Indian name of Paropamisos, Gravakshas, which Ritter translates “splendentes rupium montes.” According to General Cunningham, the Mount Paresh or Aparasin of the Zendavesta corresponds with the Paropamisos of the Greeks. Paro, the first part of the word, St.-Martin says, represents undoubtedly the Paru or Paruta of the local dialects (in Zend, Purouta meaning mountain). He acknowledges, however, that he cannot assign any reason why the syllable pa has been intercalated between the vocables paru and nishada to form the Paropanisadæ of the Greek. The first Greek writer who mentions the range is Aristotle, who calls it Parnassos: see his Meteorol. I. 18. Hindû Kush generally designates now the eastern part of the range, and Paropamisos the western. According to Sir Alexander Burnes, the name Hindû Kush is unknown to the Afghans, but there is a particular peak and also a pass bearing that name between Afghânistân and Turkestân.—Emodos (other forms—Emoda, Emodon, Hemodes). The name generally designated that part of the Himâlayan range which extended along Nepâl and Bhûtan and onward towards the ocean. Lassen derives the word from the Sanskṛit haimavata, in Prâkṛit haimota, ‘snowy.’ If this be so, ‘Hemodos’ is the more correct form. Another derivation refers the word to “hêmâdri’ (hema, gold, and adri, mountain), ‘the golden mountains,’—so called either because they were thought to contain gold mines, or because of the aspect they presented when their snowy peaks reflected the golden effulgence of sunset.
* ↑ Pattala.—The name of the Delta was properly Pâṭalene, and Pâṭala was its capital. This was situated at the head of the Delta, where the western stream of the Indus bifurcated. Ṭhaṭha has generally been regarded as its modern representative, but General Cunningham would "almost certainly" identify it with Nirankol or Haidarâbâd, of which Pâṭalpur and Pâṭaśila ('flat rock') were old appellations. With regard to the name Pâṭala he suggests that "it may have been derived from Pâṭala, the trumpet flower" (Bignonia suaveolens), "in allusion to the trumpet shape of the province included between the eastern and western branches of the mouth of the Indus, as the two branches as they approach the sea curve outward like the mouth of a trumpet." Ritter, however, says:—"Pâṭâla is the designation bestowed by the Brâhmaṇs on all the provinces in the west towards sunset, in antithesis to Prasiaka (the eastern realm) in Ganges-land: for Pâṭâla is the mythological name in Sanskrit of the under-world, and consequently of the land of the west." Arrian's estimate of the magnitude of the Delta is somewhat excessive. The length of its base, from the Pitti to the Kori mouth, was less than 1000 stadia, while that of the Egyptian Delta was 1300.