Discussion on the Origin of Varieties. 215 



The Pundits also say that the derivation of the 

 word is from nag-rang> the colour of sendiir, or red 

 lead. 



Sir Monier Williams states that naranga, an orange, 

 occurs in a Sanskrit work on medicine, called Susrata, 

 and that it may be a corruption of naga-ranga y 

 having the colour of naga, which certainly has a 

 meaning " lead." But he is inclined to think that 

 naranga is a foreign word, and comes from the 

 Persian naranj. 



Professor E. B. Cowell, of Cambridge, states that 

 the word nagaranga is found in the amarakosha, 

 the oldest Sanskrit dictionary, perhaps of the 8th or 

 9th century A.D.* The contracted form naranga 

 occurs in the commentary to the old " Unadi sutras," 

 which was written about 1300 A.D. 



We are here at once met by the difficulty of not 

 knowing to what type of orange these old works refer 

 whether to the Seville sour orange ; the Portugal 

 sweet orange ; or to the suntara sweet orange, or the 

 sour varieties of the latter type. 



Professor A. Vambery thinks that narang is decidedly 

 taken from the Persian narandj, which is composed 

 of nar, pomegranate, and randj (properly rang] colour. 



There appears to be no doubt that the Seville orange 

 was the first orange to get to Europe. This has some 

 significance that is, wherever it was taken from, 

 there could not have been at that time sweet kinds 

 of any sort commonly known ; otherwise they would 

 probably have been taken also to Europe, at the same 

 time. 



Moreover, in Baber's Memoirs, Humayoon writes 

 that in his time about 300 years ago the samterak 



* According to M. Reinaud it appears that the Amara-cocha was 

 written in the 5th century. 



