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The river Prinas[1] and the Cainas (which flows into the Ganges) are both navigable.[2] The tribes called Calingæ are nearest the sea, and higher up are the Mandei, and the Malli in whose
- ↑ v. l. Pumas. The Prinas is probably the Támasâ or Tonsa, which in the Purâṇas is called the Parṇâśâ. The Cainas, notwithstanding the objections of Schwanbeck, must be identified with the Cane, which is a tributary of the Jamnâ.
- ↑ For the identification of these and other affluents of the Ganges see Notes on Arrian, c. iv., Ind. Ant. vol. V. p. 331.
the 8th century of oar era, also names the Meda, as a low tribe of this region (As. Res. vol. I. p. 126, Calcutta, 1788), and, what is remarkable, their name is found joined to that of the Andhra (Andbaraka), precisely as in the text of Manu. Pliny assigns for their habitation a large island of the Ganges; and the word Galinga (for Kalinga), to which their name is attached, necessarily places this island towards the sea-board—perhaps in the Delta."
The Grangaridæ or Gangarides occupied the region corresponding roughly with that now called Lower Bengal, and consisted of various indigenous tribes, which in the course of time became more or less Âryanized. As no word is found in Sanskrit to which their name corresponds, it has been supposed of Greek invention (Lassen, Ind. Alt. vol. II. p. 201), but erroneously, for it must have been current at the period of the Makedonian invasion: since Alexander, in reply to inquiries regarding the south country, was informed that the region of the Ganges was inhabited by two principal nations, the Prasii and the Gangarîdæ. M. de St.-Martin thinks that their name has been preserved almost identically in that of the Gonghrîs of South Bahâr, whose traditions refer their origin to Tirhût; and he would identify their royal city Parthalis (or Portalis) with Varddhana (contraction of Varddhamâna), now Bardwân. Others, however, place it, as has been elsewhere stated, on the Mahânadî. In Ptolemy their capital is Gangê, which must have been situated near where Calcutta now stands. The Gangarides are mentioned by Virgil, Georg. III. 27:—In foribus pugnam ex auro solidoque elephanto
Gangaridum faciam, victorisque arma Quirini.
"High o'er the gate in elephant and gold
The crowd shall Cæsar's Indian war behold."
(Dryden's translation.)
