348 A Grammar of the Sindhi language. [May, 



Baha'wal Khan, the Derdjdt, and Miilt&n ; it prevails westward in 

 Cutch-Gcndava, Shdl, Mastdng and Pishin ; eastward in Cutch it is 

 spoken with some slight variations in formation and accent." 



May we not venture to extend these boundaries, if not of the precise 

 idiom, at least of the connected dialects of the Sindhi language ? — 

 Have not the words Sindhi and Hindi a common origin, the permuta- 

 tion of the h and s being nothing more in fact than the same difference 

 of dialect which is preserved to this in the twin names of the river, 

 Sinde and Indus ? This at least is one of the most plausible theories 

 of the origin of the name of India, and it is supported by innumerable 

 examples of Zend and Persian words, in which the aspirate has taken 

 the place of the Sanscrit sibilant. 



The commercial celebrity of the Hindus in all ages attaches with 

 undiminished force to the Sindh and Mdrwdr merchant of the present 

 day. They have their branch kothis not only throughout Upper India, 

 but in Calcutta, Bombay, and wherever commerce is active. Theirs 

 may be said to be the very language and archetype of hoondee circu- 

 lation — the monopoly of banking business throughout the country. 

 " The adventurous nations of Shikdrpur and Mdltdn are spread in 

 colonies throughout the whole of the extensive provinces of Central 

 Asia, and form the chief medium for commercial transactions in those 

 countries. They are to be found in Russia, at Astrakhan, through 

 Baluchistan and Seistdn, as well as at Hirdt, and Bokhara : they pos- 

 sess political influence occasionally with the chiefs of those countries, 

 from their command of capital, and their frequently taking farms of 

 the revenues. Travellers starting from Shikdrpur or Miiltdn (add 

 Bombay, Calcutta, or Benares) might from them obtain bills of exchange 

 on Russia, Persia, Khordsdn, and Central Asia." 



The neighbouring province of Gujerat is equally celebrated for its 

 early commercial enterprize. We learn from Hamilton, that the 

 numerous tribes of banyas, named banyans by the English, are indi- 

 genous to this part of India, whence they have travelled to all parts 

 of the continent, and formed settlements, "where their descendants 

 continue to speak and write the Gujerdti tongue, which may be pro- 

 nounced the grand mercantile language of Indian marts*." 



For the foreign commerce of India the mouths of the Indus pro- 

 bably held long precedence to Gujerat, Cambay, and Baroach, the 

 Barugaza of Arrian, which, more distant from Arabia and the Persian 

 Gulph, would require a more advanced knowledge and boldness of 

 navigation. Indeed it is a curious fact, that Pdtala, the seaport on 

 * Hamilton's Hindostan, I. 612. 



