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[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Alexander | Graeco-Bactria | Graeco-Bactria | Hellenistic states | India, trade with | Mauryas (τὰ Πάταλα; tà Pátala). City and military base of Alexander [4] the Great at the mouth of the Indus, probably Pātāla in Old Indian (Arr. Anab. 5,4,1; Arr. Ind. 2,6; Str. 15,1,33 among others). The name was also used for the entire region and later also for the island of Patalene (Ptol. 7,1,55), but the city is never mentioned again. In P.'s place, Barabara became the …

[German version] (Ὀξυδράκαι; Oxydrákai). Indian ethnic group in the Punjab, organized as an 'aristocratic republic'; together with the Malli, subjugated by Alexander [4] the Great in ferocious battles. The name has not been passed down to us in a uniform manner: aside from Oxydrákai in Arr. Anab. 5,22; 6,11 und from time to time, they are called Sydrákai in Str. 15,1,8, Diod. Sic. 17,98 and Arr. Ind. 4, Sudracae in Curt. 9,4,15, Sydraci in Plin. HN 6,25,92, Sugambri in Justin. 12,9,3, and Oxidragae in the Epitome Mettensis 78. In ancient Indian lists of Punjab peoples, those …

[German version] Indian dynasty in Magadha (approx. modern Bihār) on the Ganges, toppled by Chandragupta Maurya (Mauryas) late in the 4th cent. BC. In the Alexander histories, Indian allies told of the great military power of the Nandas who may thus have contributed to the mutiny on the Hyphasis. A legendary tale of the end of the Nandas is found in Indian sources and in Justin (15,4,16 according to Pomp. Trog.; [1]). Though different in many details, all sources agree on the low origins and unpopularity of the Nandas (including Curt. 9,2,6f.). India Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliograph…

[German version] (Arr. Anab. 5,6,2: Σανδράκοττος/ Sandrákottos, Str. 15,1,36: Σανδρόκοττος/ Sandrókottos, Plut. Alexander 62: Ἀνδράκοττος/ Andrákottos, Just. Epit. 15,4: Sandracottus, Old Indo-Iranian Tschandragupta). Indian king ( c. 320-298 BC) of the Mauryan Dynasty, king of the Prasii and founder of the Mauryan Empire (Mauryas with map). In Indian sources, his life is connected with legends, and parts of a S. legend are also found in Justin (15,4). He concluded a peace with Seleucus following a conflict of which no d…

[German version] Indian king of the Kṣatrapa dynasty, who ruled in and around Gujarāt in the 1st or 2nd cent. AD and was then deposed by the Sātavāhana king Gautamīputra Sātakarṇi. He has often been identified with the king Manbanes(-nus?) of Barygaza in Peripl. m.r. 41 (most recently in [1], but the question remains uncertain, latest critique in [2]). Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography 1 J. Cribb, Numismatic Evidence for the Date of the Periplus, in: D.W. McDowall (ed.), Indian Numismatics, History, Art and Culture, 1992, 131-145 2 G. Fussman, Le Périple et l'histoire poli…

[German version] Region of India to the south of  Barygaza, with the cities of Paithana and Tagara. Mentioned only in Peripl. m.r. 50f., where δάχανος has also been correctly explained as the Indian word for south, Old Indian dakṣiṇa. Probably following Middle Indian Dakkhiṇābadha (Old Indian dakṣiṇāpatha) as a term for the Indian peninsula. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki)

[German version] Greek name of the Himalaya, old Indian Himavān,  Emodus. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki)

[German version] (Πράσιοι/ Prásioi; Lat. Prasii). People in eastern India on the lower reaches of the Ganges in modern Bihār, Old Indian p rāchya, 'the Easterners' (e.g. in the Mahābhārata). Situated in their territory wasPalimbothra, the capital of the kingdom of Maurya (Mauryas). The first information about the P. comes from the Alexander historians (Diod. Sic. 17,93, Curt. 9,2,3); from the time of Megasthenes (in Str. 15,1,36), they were considered to be the most powerful people in India. Their territory was known as Πρασιακή/ Prasiakḗ (Ael. NA 17,39, Ptol. 7,1,53). Many pas…

[German version] Indian region in Gujarāt, bordering on Indo-Scythia in the west, with the capital Ozene (Ptol. 7,1,62f., see also Peripl. m.r. 41 (Ariake) and Ptol. 7,1,4f.). The name is obviously related to Old Indian Lāṭa, South Gujarāt. In this country the famous harbour town of Barygaza was situated. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography O. Wecker, s.v. L., RE 12, 837f.

[German version] (called Díkaios, Middle Indian Heliyakriya). Greek king of Bactria in the 2nd cent. BC, attested only by his coins. According to Tarn [1] son of Eucratides I and the last Greek king of Bactria, overthrown by nomads in 141/128. Narain [2] and Bopearachchi [3] differentiate between two H.s on numismatic grounds. The second was supposedly a son of the first and ruled in the south of the Hindu Kush. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography 1 W. W. Tarn, The Greeks in Bactria and India, 21951 2 A. K. Narain, The Indo-Greeks, 1958 3 Bopearachchi, 74-76, 222-225 (H. I.), 9…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Alexander | Graeco-Bactria (Σάγγαλα/ Sángala). Capital and fortress of the Indian Cathaei in the Punjab, to the east of Hydraotes (modern Irāvatī). The city was conquered and destroyed in 326 by Alexander [II 4] the Great after a fierce battle (Arr. Anab. 5,22-24; Polyaenus, Strat. 4,3,30). Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography A. Herrmann, s. v. Σάγγαλα, RE 1 A, 1740.

[German version] (Old Indian; Early Middle Indian yona, yonaka; later also joṉa). The Indian name for the Greeks (most likely from Old Persian yauna) originally described the Iones. The earliest records are from about the 4th and 3rd centuries BC (in the grammarian Pāṉini and king Aśoka), hence in the Mahābhārata it may have been a term for the Indo-Greeks. Later the name receives a more general significance as a term for more distant neighbours, and from about the 7th cent. AD it was used as a name for Arabs and Moslems. In the Tamil literature of southern India, Yavanar is found as a term f…

The Old Indian name M. designates two towns. [German version] [1] Indian locality at the confluence of the Yamuna and the Ganges This item can be found on the following maps: Graeco-Bactria | Graeco-Bactria | Mauryas The northern M. (also Méthōra/Μέθωρα in Megasthenes fr. 13a apud Arr. Ind. 8,5) in the land of Śūrasena, at the confluence of the Yamuna and the Ganges. It was an old and important centre of the cult of Kṛsṇa, but also of that of the Indian Heracles; the latter may not, however, be simply identified with Kṛsṇa. Ptol. 7,1,…

[German version] Prehistoric high culture in the 3rd millennium in northwestern South Asia, from Punjab to Baluchistan and Gujarat, with Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro as the most likely important centres. There was lively overseas trade (a harbour was excavated at Lothal in Gujarat) with Makan (modern Oman),  Dilmun (modern Bahrain), the island of Failaka (now part of Kuwait) and Mesopotamia [1. 107ff.]. The famous Indus script is only attested in the form of very short seal legends; the language on wh…

[German version] Region (Σουαστηνή/ Souastēnḗ at Ptol. 7,1,42) around the homonymous tributary of the River Kabul (Greek Σό(υ)αστος/ Só(u)astos, Sanskrit Suvāstu) in modern northwestern Pakistan. After fierce fighting, the area was conquered by Alexander [4] the Great. Later it became part of the Indo-Greek kingdom and a centre of Buddhism. The exact location of the ancient capital Massaga is unknown, but excavations in Birkot Ghwandai (probably Bazira at Arr.  Anab. 4,27,5 ff.) have revealed remains of Hellenistic…

[German version] (μέγας κόλπος/ mégas kólpos, Ptol. 7,2,1; 7,3,1). A large ocean gulf in India extra Gangem, adjoining the Sinae, i.e. south-east Asia, with three rivers: Daonas, Dorias and Seros (Ptol. 7,2,7). Although the geography of south-east Asia seems hopelessly distorted in Ptolemy, and all interpretations of place names in that region must remain highly hypothetical, nonetheless the Magnus Sinus can be identified with the waters lying between the Malacca Peninsula and southern China. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography H. Treidler, s.v. Μέγας κόλπος, RE Suppl…

[German version] (Ὑδάσπης; Hydáspēs; Βιδάσπης; Bidáspēs in Ptol.), probably from Old Indian, Old Indo-Aryan Vitastā (apparently through Iranian mediation); one of the main rivers of the Punjab, modern Jhelum in Pakistan - it rises in the western Himalayas and flows into the  Acesines [2]. At a place on its left shore that can no longer be identified, Alexander fought against  Porus after having traversed the river during a heavy monsoon rain. After the battle, the twin cities of  Nicaea and  Bucephala were fo…

[German version] ( Barbara, also Barbare). Port city at the mouth of the Indus (Ptol. 7,1,59), Ἐμπόριον Βαρβαρικόν or Βαρβαρική ( Empórion Barbarikón, Barbarikḗ), Peripl. M. Rubr. 38f., old Indian Varvara. B. appears to have been the main port of the Indus region, but has disappeared without a trace within the delta area. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki)

[German version] ( P. Díkaios kaì Sōtḗr/'the righteous one and deliverer'; Middle Indian Peukalaüsa). Indo-Greek King of Gandhāra (Gandaritis), beginning of 1st cent. BC, known only from coins. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography Bopearachchi, 106, 309.

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Graeco-Bactria | Graeco-Bactria | India, trade with | Mauryas (Βαρύγαζα ἐμπόριον; Barýgaza empórion, Ptol. 7,1,62 and Steph. Byz.), harbour town at the Gulf of Cambay in Gujarat, Old and Middle Indian: Bharukaccha, modern Broach. Peripl. m. rubr. 43-49 provides an extensive report on route and commerce; a coin find confirms his statements on the validity of Indo-Greek coins [1]. B. was the port of Ozene, and its trade links extended to Gandhāra and  Bactria. Probably identical with Βαργόση ( Bargόsē) in Str. 15,1,73. Karttun…