Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/165

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fantry.^[1] Next again are the Varetatæ,^[2] subject to a king, who keep no elephants, but trust entirely to their horse and foot. Then the Odombœræ; the Salabastræ;^[3] the Horatæ,^[4] who have a fine city, defended by marshes which serve as a ditch, wherein crocodiles are kept, which, having a great avidity for human flesh, prevent all access to the city except by a bridge. And another city

↑ v. 1. Oratæ. The Oraturæ find their representatives in the Râṭhors, who played a great part in the history of India before the Musulmân conquest, and who, though settled in the Gangetio provinces, regard Ajmir, at the eastern point of the Arâvalî, as their ancestral seat.
↑ v. 1. Suarataratæ. The Varetatæ cannot with certainty be identified.
↑ The Odombœræ, with hardly a change in the form of their name, are mentioned in Sanskrit literature, for Pânini (IV. 1, 173, quoted by Lassen, Ind. Alt. 1st ed. I. p. 614) speaks of the territory of Udumbari as that which was occupied by a tribe famous in the old legend, the Salva, who perhaps correspond to the Salabastræ of Pliny, the addition which he has made to their name being explained by the Sanskrit word vastya, which means an abode or habitation. The word udumbara means the glomerous fig-tree. The district so named lay in Kachh. [The Salabastræ are located by Lassen between the mouth of the Sarasvatî and Jodhpur, and the Horatæ at the head of the gulf of Khambhât; Automela he places at Khambhât. See Ind. Alterth. 2nd ed. I. 760. Yule has the Sandrabatis about Chandrâvati, in northern Gujarât, but these are placed by Lassen on the Banâs about Tonk.—Ed. Ind. Ant.]
↑ Horatæ is an incorrect transcription of Soraṭh, the vulgar form of the Sanskṛit Saurâshṭra. The Horatæ were therefore the inhabitants of the region called in the Periplûs, and in Ptolemy, Surastrênê—that is, Gujarât. Orrhoth (Ὁῤῥοθα) is used by Kosmas as the name of a city in the west of India, which has been conjectured to be Surat, but Yule thinks it rather some place on the Purbandar coast. The capital, Automela, cannot be identified, but de St.-Martin conjectures it may have been the once famous Yalabhî, which was situated m the peninsular part of Gujarât at about 24 miles' distance from the Gulf of Khambay.

[1] v. 1. Oratæ. The Oraturæ find their representatives in the Râṭhors, who played a great part in the history of India before the Musulmân conquest, and who, though settled in the Gangetio provinces, regard Ajmir, at the eastern point of the Arâvalî, as their ancestral seat.

[2] v. 1. Suarataratæ. The Varetatæ cannot with certainty be identified.

[3] The Odombœræ, with hardly a change in the form of their name, are mentioned in Sanskrit literature, for Pânini (IV. 1, 173, quoted by Lassen, Ind. Alt. 1st ed. I. p. 614) speaks of the territory of Udumbari as that which was occupied by a tribe famous in the old legend, the Salva, who perhaps correspond to the Salabastræ of Pliny, the addition which he has made to their name being explained by the Sanskrit word vastya, which means an abode or habitation. The word udumbara means the glomerous fig-tree. The district so named lay in Kachh. [The Salabastræ are located by Lassen between the mouth of the Sarasvatî and Jodhpur, and the Horatæ at the head of the gulf of Khambhât; Automela he places at Khambhât. See Ind. Alterth. 2nd ed. I. 760. Yule has the Sandrabatis about Chandrâvati, in northern Gujarât, but these are placed by Lassen on the Banâs about Tonk.—Ed. Ind. Ant.]

[4] Horatæ is an incorrect transcription of Soraṭh, the vulgar form of the Sanskṛit Saurâshṭra. The Horatæ were therefore the inhabitants of the region called in the Periplûs, and in Ptolemy, Surastrênê—that is, Gujarât. Orrhoth (Ὁῤῥοθα) is used by Kosmas as the name of a city in the west of India, which has been conjectured to be Surat, but Yule thinks it rather some place on the Purbandar coast. The capital, Automela, cannot be identified, but de St.-Martin conjectures it may have been the once famous Yalabhî, which was situated m the peninsular part of Gujarât at about 24 miles' distance from the Gulf of Khambay.

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