1851.] Essay on the Ancient Geography of India. 241 



Yella-mundij Yellogoody, Yale, Ydleswara, &c. Diodorus calls it 

 Ydld, and says, that it was situated in an island. Yet, I think, this 

 etymology inadmissible, as I do not think it idiomatical to say Div- 

 Ydld; it should be Ydla-diva, and I cannot find a single instance 

 in which Biv, or Dib is prefixed in composition. I suppose it derived 

 from Dev-Ydld, the divine Yala, or Halleh, and in this country, and in 

 Gurjerat they say De, or Di for Deva ; and thus Di-Yala, or Diul. 



In this manner the town Deva-Raufdld, or Rwpdld in the desert, to 

 the east of Bacar on the Indus, is generally called now Di-Rawel. 

 Our Yala is certainly a most sacred place, being dedicated to the 

 divine Pafhd, who is constantly attended by 900,000 Rishis, or holy 

 men. Pathdld is a regular derivative form, from Pafhd, as Bengala 

 from Banga: and from it our ancient travellers and writers made 

 Pdtdld, and even Pathalia. Hdlla-wdrd is another name for this 

 place, generally contracted into Alowr, or Alore, and mentioned by 

 Abul Fazil : but it is now unknown to the inhabitants of that country. 

 Yail-diva, or Yala-diva, in the Malabar dialect, signifies the seven 

 islands, but it would not be idiomatical to say with Capt. Hamilton 

 Div-yail, which he renders by the seven mouths. 



Our ancient navigators, and travellers, and even eastern writers, do 

 not agree about its situation ; some placing it at Laheri -bandar others at 

 Cranchi : and it appears to me, that at whatever emporium merchants 

 were allowed to land, and dispose of their goods, on this they indiffer- 

 ently bestowed the name of Debil. Merchants were not always 

 allowed to come up to the Metropolis, or go too far inland, for political 

 reasons. 



Mauluvi Saleh mentioned to me a similar instance, when he was at 

 Thattha. El Eldrissi says, that Dabil was three days from the sea, 

 and as many from Mansaurah (the lower) now Thattha, which was 

 three days from Firuza, or Nirun now Nehrun, or Hydrabad, on the 

 west bank of the Indus. It was also two days from Manhabere, 

 Manhawer, or Minnagara, on the side of which is a place of worship 

 called Pir-Pattha, and one day's march south of Tatthah ; it is called 

 Brahminabad by Abul Fazil ; and Shehr-Barahema by Persian writers,* 

 or the town of Brahmans : it is the Rahemi of Danville, and it is still 

 a purgunnah called Berhampur, for Brahmanpura, at least I so sup- 

 * See D'Herbelot, voc. Cambait. 



