1840.] from Bactrian and Indo-Scythian coins. 477 



been ascertained as a town of the Scythians in the country of 

 the lower part of the Cabul river, gives evidence., that the 

 Gandarians had at that period no longer the dominion in their 

 native country, and it offers itself the conjecture, that an in- 

 dependent power of the Gandarians maintained itself only 

 round Peukela. Of the towns which Ptolemy still mentions as 

 lying in these Indian confines, Na-ya^a r} /cat AiovuowoXic 

 is especially notable, N agar a, a genuine Indian word, is the name 

 of the town, it therefore probably had with the Indians the 

 meaning of the principal town of this district. The term (i town 

 of Dionysos," cannot be attributed but to the Greeks, who 

 full of the expedition of Bacchus to India, thought, that they 

 recognised even in this town the vestiges of his energies. If 

 Ptolemy has correctly fixed its situation, it would lie opposite to 

 the mouth of the Kameh. As, however, the whole country is 

 assigned another position in geography, this only is certain in the 

 statement of Ptolemy, that Nagara was situated on the southern 

 bank of the Cabul river, not far from Jelalabad. Below Nagara 

 there follow four more towns, assigned to Indo-Scythia, Nagara 

 itself is not numbered among them. 



When we now turn to Ptolemy's description of western Cabulis- 

 tan, this is, in his opinion, the country of the Paropamisades.* 

 The eastern boundaries toward outer India are already defined ; 

 Jelalabad and Lamghan belong to India. Bactria borders it in 

 the north, the natural confines there being the Hindookush ; 

 in the south is Arachosia, from which the Paropamisades are 

 separated by mountains under the name Ylapir}Tai. Mr. Ritter 

 asserts, probably corrector, that they begin at Sefidkoh, and 

 extend to the table land of Ghuzneef. It is indeed a very 

 general term, parvata, mountain, and the name recurs for the 

 northern tribe of the Arachosians, viz. Uapyvwai ; as it is the 

 same name, so it is undoubtedly the same nation, the moun- 

 taineers on the right bank of the Ghuznee river. Ptolemy sup- 

 posed these mountains to extend from east to west, while they 

 run south-west. He fancies, as does Strabo on the authority of 



* * J VI. 18. 

 t See the map to the essay above mentioned. 



