76 ORIGIN AND DECLINE OF THE 



bad in great measure relapsed into the errors of their 

 ancestors, and of their contemporaries. 



From the situation, assigned to the country of Zrte, 

 by M. Polo, these good people, with the most au- 

 stere manners, called ^Aryyas, seem to be the same 

 with the holy and rigid penitents, and anchorets 

 mentioned in the third century by Ptolemy in the 

 country ofAriaca, a derivative form from A?yya, un- 

 der the name of Tabassi Magi, from the Sansant Ta- 

 pasun, pronounced Tabasa in the Tamuli Dialect ; and 

 which signifies contemplators, and by implication 

 men performing austere penances, like the anchorets 

 in the wilds of Thebes, and Tabenna in Egypt ; which 

 denominations are probably derived from Tapa, aus- 

 terities, and Tapo-van, the wilderness of austerities. 

 The Aryyas are mentioned in the Brahman da-pur a- 

 wa* as a powerful tribe of foreigners (MlecKha) liv- 

 ing among the mountains of the Dekhin. 



Ptolemy says, that Ariaca belonged to the Sa- 

 dinoi, a strange name certainly for a tribe. I suspect 

 however, that it is derived from the Sanscrit Sad'- 

 ham, and that the 'Aiyyas were thus denominated by 

 the native Hindus, in the same manner, that the Por- 

 tugueze were styled is Bengal, Thachurs, rulers or 

 lords, and the English all over India are called Sdheb- 

 Ibcas, or Saheb-logues, and the most apposite Sanscrit 

 expression for the above epithets is Sddhana: the En- 

 glish are often styled by learned Pandits, Sadhana- 

 Engriz: and the famous Bhoja is often called Sdd- 

 hana Bhoja. M. Polo mentions also Abraians on the 



* Section of Ibe Earth. 



