1837.] of Coins deciphered. 387 



which M. Lassen translates : 



Prasthali, Madri, Gandhari, Aratti profecto latrones ; 



Necnon Basates et Sauviri Sindhuid^e : ita ia universum vituperantur. 



And in a note he alludes to a variation in the manuscript whence Dr. 

 Wilson thus translated the same passage : ' The Prasthalas (perhaps 

 borderers) Madras, Gandharas, Arattas, Khosas, Basas, Atisindhus (or 

 those beyond the Sindhus), Sauviras, are all equally infamous.' — 

 " Legit igitur •TTfl; cp.^sTCU ; Sed prsestantiorem prsebet lectionem Codex 

 Parisiens ; et Chasi hue non pertinent ; a Pentapotamia enim sunt alieni. 

 Basorum et Atisindhuidarum nomina ignota mihi sunt et in errorera 

 h. I. induci sese passus est doctissimus Anglus. Compositum non ex 

 tribus, sed ex duobus tantum nominibus constat, Basati et Sindhu- 

 sauvira. Posteriores laudantur Ram. I, XII, 25. ed. Schl. et alio 

 nomine appellati sunt Cumulaca (Hem. ch. IV. 26.) Prius nomen 

 saepius in Bharatea reperi, ex. c. in hoc versu, ex libro sexto descripto : 



Gandhari, Saddhales, orientales, montium incolae atque Basates." 

 The Professor's reading so entirely accords with the conditions of 

 our Sdh or Sau fraternity that no doubt can be entertained of its being 

 correct ; and we gain a very important step by learning the Sanskrit 

 mode of spelling the term ^jr, since we may thence hazard a new 

 interpretation of the word Saurashtra, as Sau-rashtra ' the country of 

 the Sau tribe,' a more close and plausible one than that hitherto 

 accepted of Saurya-rashtra the country of the sun-worshippers. 



The 72nd couplet confirms such an interpretation by ascribing 

 precisely the same iniquities (theft, or perhaps commercial usury) to the 

 Saurashtrians , the vowel being only shortened for the sake of the verse. 



ST^T ^T^T rreT ^fw^T?3T:^TiTT ^r^^TT^W-WgT: 

 Orientales servi sunt, meridionales turpes, Bahici latrones, Surashtri prsedatores. 



Commentators have uniformly supposed Surashtra to denote the 

 modern Surat, but this is an error : the name applies only to the 

 Surastrine of Ptolemy, and Surat, as I am assured by Mr. Borrodaile 

 of the Bombay Civil Service, is comparatively a modern town ; 

 and its name, now persianized into cy ..,*». Surat, was originally 

 Suryapur, the town of the Sun. 



I waive all discussion here on the important bearing the above theo- 

 ry has on the age of the Mahabharat and of the Ramayana ; either the 



