NOTE 1. - Though M. Pauthier has imagined objections there is no room for
doubt that Kesmacoran is the province of Mekran, known habitually all
over the East as Kij-Makran, from the combination with the name of the
country of that of its chief town, just as we lately met with a converse
combination in Konkan-tana. This was pointed out to Marsden by his
illustrious friend Major Rennell. We find the term Kij Makran used by
Ibn Batuta (III. 47); by the Turkish Admiral Sidi 'Ali (J. As., ser. I.
tom. ix. 72; and J.A.S.B. V. 463); by Sharifuddin (P. de la Croix,
I. 379, II. 417-418); in the famous Sindian Romeo-and-Juliet tale of Sassi
and Pannun (Elliot, I. 333); by Pietro della Valle (I. 724, II. 358); by
Sir F. Goldsmid (J.R.A.S., N.S., I. 38); and see for other examples,
J.A.S.B. VII. 298, 305, 308; VIII. 764; XIV. 158; XVII. pt. ii. 559:
XX. 262, 263.
The argument that Mekran was not a province of India only amounts to
saying that Polo has made a mistake. But the fact is that it often was
reckoned to belong to India, from ancient down to comparatively modern
times. Pliny says: "Many indeed do not reckon the Indus to be the western
boundary of India, but include in that term also four satrapies on this
side the river, the Gedrosi, the Arachoti, the Arii, and the Parapomisadae
(i.e. Mekran, Kandahar, Herat, and Kabul) .... whilst others class all
these together under the name of Ariana" (VI. 23). Arachosia, according to
Isidore of Charax, was termed by the Parthians "White India." Aelian calls
Gedrosia a part of India. (Hist. Animal. XVII. 6.) In the 6th century
the Nestorian Patriarch Jesujabus, as we have seen (supra, ch. xxii.
note 1), considered all to be India from the coast of Persia, i.e. of
Fars, beginning from near the Gulf. According to Ibn Khordadbeh, the
boundary between Persia and India was seven days' sail from Hormuz and
eight from Daibul, or less than half-way from the mouth of the Gulf to the
Indus. (J. As. ser. VI. tom. v. 283.) Beladhori speaks of the Arabs in
early expeditions as invading Indian territory about the Lake of Sijistan;
and Istakhri represents this latter country as bounded on the north and
partly on the west by portions of India. Kabul was still reckoned in
India. Chach, the last Hindu king of Sind but one, is related to have
marched through Mekran to a river which formed the limit between Mekran
and Kerman. On its banks he planted date-trees, and set up a monument
which bore: "This was the boundary of Hind in the time of Chach, the son
of Sflaij, the son of Basabas." In the Geography of Bakui we find it
stated that "Hind is a great country which begins at the province of
Mekran." (N. and E. II. 54.) In the map of Marino Sanuto India begins
from Hormuz; and it is plain from what Polo says in quitting that city
that he considered the next step from it south-eastward would have taken
him to India (supra, I. p. 110).
["The name Mekran has been commonly, but erroneously, derived from Mahi
Khoran, i.e. the fish-eaters, or ichthyophagi, which was the title
given to the inhabitants of the Beluchi coast-fringe by Arrian. But the
word is a Dravidian name, and appears as Makara in the Brhat Sanhita of
Varaha Mihira in a list of the tribes contiguous to India on the west. It
is also the [Greek: Makaraenae] of Stephen of Byzantium, and the Makuran
of Tabari, and Moses of Chorene. Even were it not a Dravidian name, in no
old Aryan dialect could it signify fish-eaters." (Curzon, Persia, II. p.
261, note.)
"It is to be noted that Kesmacoran is a combination of Kech or Kej and
Makran, and the term is even to-day occasionally used." (Major P.M.
Sykes, Persia, p. 102.) - H.C.]
We may add a Romance definition of India from King Alisaunder: -
"Lordynges, also I fynde,
At Mede so bigynneth Ynde:
Forsothe ich woot, it stretcheth ferest
Of alle the Londes in the Est,
And oth the South half sikerlyk,
To the cee taketh of Affryk;
And the north half to a Mountayne,
That is ycleped Caucasayne." - L 4824-4831.
It is probable that Polo merely coasted Mekran; he seems to know nothing
of the Indus, and what he says of Mekran is vague.
NOTE 2. - As Marco now winds up his detail of the Indian coast, it is
proper to try to throw some light on his partial derangement of its
geography. In the following columns the first shows the real
geographical order from east to west of the Indian provinces as named by
Polo, and the second shows the order as he puts them. The Italic names
are brief and general identifications.
Real order. Polo's order.
1. Mutfili (Telingana) 1. Mutfili
MAABAR, / 2. St. Thomas's (Madras). 2. St. Thomas's
including | 3. Maabar Proper, Kingdom of (Lar, west of do.).
| Sonder Bandi (Tanjore) 3. Maabar proper, or Soli.
\ 4. Cail (Tinnevelly). 4. Cail.
5. Comari (C. Comorin). 5. Coilum.
MELIBAR, / 6. Coilum (Travancore). 6. Comari.
including \ 7. Eli (Cananore). 7. Eli.
GUZERAT, / 8. Tana (Bombay). 8. (MELIBAR).
or LAR, | 9. Canbaet (Cambay). 9. (GOZURAT).
including | 10. Semenat (Somnath). 10. Tana.
\ 11. Kesmacoran (Mekran). 11. Canbaet.
12. Semenat.
13. Kesmacoran.
It is difficult to suppose that the fleet carrying the bride of Arghun
went out of its way to Maabar, St. Thomas's, and Telingana. And on the
other hand, what is said in chapter xxiii. on Comari, about the North Star
not having been visible since they approached the Lesser Java, would have
been grossly inaccurate if in the interval the travellers had been north
as far as Madras and Motupalle.
