220 ESSAY ON 



on their being mentioned with that tribe. They 

 were foreigners, and according to Ptolemy, in the 

 beginning of the third century, they were in pos- 

 session of the countries, lying between the Ganges 

 and the river Cosa, or Coosy, including North-Behar 

 and the province of Ow^c. it seems, that their pos- 

 sessions extended even to the south of the Ganges : 

 for Oppian saySj that this river flowed through the 

 country of the Maraunthes *. The country which 

 they possessed constituted afterwards what was called 

 the country of Canoge, denominated also the king- 

 dom of Bouroii, by the earlier Musulman writers : 

 and this appellation is perhaps only a corruption from 

 Burunda. The Burimdas were probably thus called, 

 because they were originally from the country, called 

 Porout by Deguignes, and which seems to have 

 been the ancient name of Tibot, or Tibet, called also 

 Barantal, in a derivative form, as Bengal from Beng,. 

 Its metropolis is called Lassa, Bai^antala and Putala. 

 Putalttj Boot an and Tibot seem to be derived from 

 Buddha, called, in that country, BuT) Put, Bot 

 and Pot. The natives of that country understand, 

 by Bootan the kingdom of Lassa, and by Tibot the 

 regions to the westward, toward the source of the 

 Ganges; and this was, it seems, the country of 

 Porout ; and the idea seems to be confirmed by De- 

 guignes f. The kingdom of Tibot, according to 

 Chinese writers, extended as far as the country of 

 the BrahmenSj in the year 589 J; and in the year 

 649, the king of Tibot invaded the inland parts of 

 India, that is to say, Benares, according to De- 

 guignes. This account of these western dynasties, 

 which ruled over the countries bordering upon the 

 Indus, I shall resume, in an essay, both geographi- 

 cal and historical, on such parts of India as were 



• Oppiani Cynegetica, lib. 40, v. l64. 

 + Hist, des Huns, vol. 1, p. 59, J Ditto, p. 1^4. 



