His India Minor appears to embrace Sind (possibly Mekran), and
the western coast exclusive of Malabar. India Major extends from Malabar
indefinitely eastward. His India Tertia is Zanjibar. The Three Indies
appear in a map contained in a MS. by Guido Pisanus, written in 1118.
Conti divides India into three: (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.
