1845.] the River Soane and Site of Palibothra. 149 



from the Soane to beyond Moorshedabad as far as Rungamutty." It 

 seems evident, therefore, either that the Greeks confounded the name 

 of the City with that of the Dynasty, or that the discrepancy in the name 

 may be ascribed to the error of copyists of the Greek MSS. at a time 

 when printing was unknown. Indeed the discrepancies in the spelling 

 of Oriental names at the present day are quite as great, without the 

 excuse afforded to the Greeks by successive copies of MSS. Moongeer 

 is invariably spelt in our maps and in public correspondence, Mon- 

 ghyr; Khanpooror Khanpur, is spelt Cawn poor ; Chandanugur, Chan- 

 dernagore; Singhalpetta, Chingleput ;and Mundirraj, Madras; Dihlee 

 is variously spelt Dilli, Dehly. The right pronunciation of Patna 

 itself is P'ut'na; of Bankipore, Bakipoor ; and of Dinapoor, Danapoor. 

 The instances of such corruptions are innumerable, and will readily 

 occur to all residents in India. 



In the above quotation from Arrian, Palibothra is said to have been 

 situated near the confluence of the Erranoboas and the Ganges. Sir 

 W. Jones, in his Tenth Discourse, has shown that Hirunyabahoo, or 

 Erranoboas, was a synonyme* of the Soane. Thus the argument for 

 the identity of the cities of Patalipootra and Palibothra is materially 

 strengthened. 



The chief objection which has been urged by Wilford, Colonel Frank- 

 lin,and others against the argument is, I believet, founded on the state- 

 ment of Pliny, that Palibothra was situated 425 Roman miles below the 

 confluence of the Jumna and Ganges, which taking the Roman mile 



* N. B. All the principal rivers of India have a number of synonymes. The 

 Ganges has, I am told, 100, which are chanted in Sunscrit verse. 



A Pundit has just informed me, in reply to a question whether the Soane had any 

 other name in Sunscrit, that it was called Hirunyabahoo in the " Amur-kosh." I 

 do not know whether this is the work alluded to by Sir W. Jones as being 2000 

 years old. The names of the Jumna, the Pundit told me, were Kalindi, Soorujtunia, 

 Jumna, and Sumunasoosa. 



+ Since writing the above 1 have met with Colonel Franklin's work. His argument 

 is founded upon some coincidences in names which appear to be more plausible 

 than conclusive. 



1st. He quotes an extract from the Ootur Poorana, to show that the original name 

 of a small river, now called Chundun, which unites with the Ganges west of Bhau- 

 gulpoor, was " Errun Bhowuh," or Forest -barn. He considers this to be the 

 Errunoboas of the Greeks. This petty stream has scarcely a drop of water in it for 

 six months in the year, and in Arrowsmith's Map, on a scale of 30 miles to an inch, 

 it is hardly distinguishable. To reconcile this fact with the description of JMaga- 

 thenes that "the Errunoboas was the third of Indian rivers," Colonel Franklin 

 has construed the text to mean " a river of the third magnitude." Then putting 



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