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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 772 of 1350
Words from 207658 to 207919
of 370046
