1847. J Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, §-c. 21 



and Antomela by Pliny : he states that its Sanscrit name was Hasti- 

 malla, or Hathi-malla in the spoken dialects, and that both it and the 

 country about it were called Hastibandh, because the Rajah's elephants 

 were picketted there. (As. Res. vol. xiv 444.) Murray places the 

 Gangetic mart of the Periplus in the site of Chittagong.* Heeren 

 remarks in regard to it : " at the mouth of the Ganges merchandize was 

 conveyed to a town of the same name : situate probably in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Duliapur to the south-east of Calcutta and on the central 

 branch of the river." He quotes Mannertand adds in a note "its situa- 

 tion however cannot be defined with precision. It was not merely the 

 emporium for Chinese commerce, but also for the productions of Bengal 

 particularly fine muslins, "f The articles of Chinese commerce here 

 alluded were silk, iron, and skins from Serica, which appears to be 

 Assam ; the other exports (not the produce of Bengal) that are men- 

 tioned in the text, viz., malabathrum and spikenard— were procured, the 

 former from Sylhet and Assam — and the latter from Rangpore. It may, 

 therefore, be inferred from the great commercial intercourse that has 

 long been established between these places and Dacca, that the mart 

 through which these articles passed, was situated in the vicinity of the 

 latter — it being contrary to probability that they should have been sent 

 to a town on the western branch of the Ganges, while Vicramapura was 

 the capital of the ancient kingdom of Banga, and the site, according to 

 the traditions of the natives, of a rich mart. Was the Gangetic mart 

 of the Periplus identical with the Gange regia of Ptolemy? With 

 regard to the name of the latter, I may observe, that mention is made 

 by some of the older geographers of two cities called Gange. In enu- 

 merating the mouths of the Ganges, Cellarius remarks : " Inter ostia 

 fuit urbs Gange Ptolemcei diversa ab Artemiclori Gange, modo dicta ad 

 superiores partes hujus fluminis." The Gange Artemidori was situated 

 above, or to the north-west of Palibothra. This appears from the 

 account which Strabo, on the authority of Artemidorus, gives of the 

 course of the Ganges .£ Pie states that this river, on emerging from the 



kind, the people of Sonargong are said to excel. They are frequently ornamented 

 in the interior with painted reeds or bamboos and fine mats. 



* Murray's Encyclopaedia of Geography, Vol. I. 



f Heeren's Asiatic Nations, Vol. III. p. 183. 



X Strabo, Lib. XV. p. 719. 



