(1) From Persia To The Indus (I.E.
Mekran And Sind); (2) From The Indus To The Ganges; (3) All That Is Beyond
Ganges (Indo-China And China).
In a map of Andrea Bianco at Venice (No.
12) the divisions are - (1) India
Minor, extending westward to the Persian Gulf; (2) India Media,
"containing 14 regions and 12 nations;" and (3) India Superior, containing
8 regions and 24 nations.
Marino Sanuto places immediately east of the Persian Gulf "India Minor
quae et Ethiopia."
John Marignolli again has three Indias: (1) Manzi or India Maxima (S.
China); (2) Mynibar (Malabar); (3) Maabar. The last two with Guzerat are
Abulfeda's divisions, exclusive of Sind.
We see that there was a traditional tendency to make out Three Indies,
but little concord as to their identity. With regard to the expressions
Greater and Lesser India, I would recall attention to what has been
said about Greater and Lesser Java (supra, chap. ix. note 1). Greater
India was originally intended, I imagine, for the real India, what our
maps call Hindustan. And the threefold division, with its inclination to
place one of the Indies in Africa, I think may have originated with the
Arab Hind, Sind, and Zinj. I may add that our vernacular expression
"the Indies" is itself a vestige of the twofold or threefold division of
which we have been speaking.
The partition of the Indies made by King Sebastian of Portugal in 1571,
when he constituted his eastern possessions into three governments,
recalled the old division into Three Indias. The first, INDIA, extending
from Cape Gardafui to Ceylon, stood in a general way for Polo's India
Major; the second MONOMOTAPA, from Gardafui to Cape Corrientes (India
Tertia of Jordanus); the third MALACCA, from Pegu to China (India Minor).
(Faria y Souza, II. 319.)
Polo's knowledge of India, as a whole, is so little exact that it is too
indefinite a problem to consider which are the three kingdoms that he has
not described. The ten which he has described appear to be - (1) Maabar,
(2) Coilum, (3) Comari, (4) Eli, (5) Malabar, (6) Guzerat, (7) Tana, (8)
Canbaet, (9) Semenat, (10) Kesmacoran. On the one hand, this distribution
in itself contains serious misapprehensions, as we have seen, and on the
other there must have been many dozens of kingdoms in India Major instead
of 13, if such states as Comari, Hili, and Somnath were to be separately
counted. Probably it was a common saying that there were 12 kings in
India, and the fact of his having himself described so many, which he knew
did not nearly embrace the whole, may have made Polo convert this into 13.
Jordanus says: "In this Greater India are 12 idolatrous kings and more;"
but his Greater India is much more extensive than Polo's. Those which he
names are Molebar (probably the kingdom of the Zamorin of Calicut),
Singuyli (Cranganor), Columbum (Quilon), Molephatan (on the east
coast, uncertain, see above pp. 333, 391), and Sylen (Ceylon), Java,
three or four kings, Telenc (Polo's Mutfili), Maratha (Deogir),
Batigala (in Canara), and in Champa (apparently put for all
Indo-China) many kings. According to Firishta there were about a dozen
important principalities in India at the time of the Mahomedan conquest
of which he mentions eleven, viz.: (1) Kanauj, (2) Mirat (or Delhi),
(3) Mahavan (Mathra), (4) Lahore, (5) Malwa, (6) Guzerat, (7)
Ajmir, (8) Gwalior, (9) Kalinjar, (10) Multan, (11) Ujjain.
(Ritter, V. 535.) This omits Bengal, Orissa, and all the Deccan. Twelve
is a round number which constantly occurs in such statements. Ibn Batuta
tells us there were 12 princes in Malabar alone. Chinghiz, in
Sanang-Setzen, speaks of his vow to subdue the twelve kings of the human
race (91). Certain figures in a temple at Anhilwara in Guzerat are said by
local tradition to be the effigies of the twelve great kings of Europe.
(Todd's Travels, p. 107.) The King of Arakan used to take the title of
"Lord of the 12 provinces of Bengal" (Reinaud, Inde, p. 139.)
The Masalak-al-Absar of Shihabuddin Dimishki, written some forty years
after Polo's book, gives a list of the provinces (twice twelve in number)
into which India was then considered to be divided. It runs - (1) Delhi,
(2) Deogir, (3) Multan, (4) Kehran (Kohram, in Sirhind Division of
Province of Delhi?), (5) Saman (Samana, N.W. of Delhi?), (6) Siwastan
(Sehwan), (7) Ujah (Uchh), (8) Hasi (Hansi), (9) Sarsati (Sirsa),
(10) Ma'bar, (11) Tiling, (12) Gujerat, (13) Badaun, (14) Audh,
(15) Kanauj, (16) Laknaoti (Upper Bengal), (17) Bahar, (18) Karrah
(in the Doab), (19) Malawa, (Malwa), (20) Lahaur, (21) Kalanur (in
the Bari Doab, above Lahore), (22) Jajnagar (according to Elphinstone,
Tipura in Bengal), (23) Tilinj (a repetition or error), (24) Dursamand
(Dwara Samudra, the kingdom of the Bellals in Mysore). Neither Malabar nor
Orissa is accounted for. (See Not. et Ext. XIII. 170). Another list,
given by the historian Zia-uddin Barni some years later, embraces again
only twelve provinces. These are (1) Delhi, (2) Gujerat, (3) Malwah, (4)
Deogir, (5) Tiling, (6) Kampilah (in the Doab, between Koil and
Farakhabad), (7) Dur Samandar, (8) Ma'bar, (9) Tirhut, (10) Lakhnaoti,
(11) Satganw, (12) Sunarganw (these two last forming the Western and
Eastern portions of Lower Bengal).[1]
[1] E. Thomas, Chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi, p. 203.
CHAPTER XXXV.
TREATING OF THE GREAT PROVINCE OF ABASH WHICH IS MIDDLE INDIA, AND IS ON
THE MAINLAND.
Abash is a very great Province, and you must know that it constitutes the
MIDDLE INDIA; and it is on the mainland. There are in it six great Kings
with six great Kingdoms; and of these six Kings there are three that are
Christians and three that are Saracens; but the greatest of all the six is
a Christian, and all the others are subject to him.[NOTE 1]
The Christians in this country bear three marks on the face;[NOTE 2] one
from the forehead to the middle of the nose, and one on either cheek.
These marks are made with a hot iron, and form part of their baptism; for
after that they have been baptised with water, these three marks are made,
partly as a token of gentility, and partly as the completion of their
baptism.
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