1851.] Essay on the Ancient Geography of India. 263 



by Haji-Califah, and it is the Beherje of Ebn Haucal, who places it 

 on the western side of the Mihrdn, equally with other towns, between 

 Baibul on the sea coast, and Mansurd. The word Beherje is written 

 by him, in another place, Mehreje, which is the true reading.* It 

 appears to me, that this town is the ancient Pathale, now Nagar- 

 Tatha, or Shdh-bandar, whose king is called Mceris by the historians of 

 Alexander. When we read in the Ayin-Acberi, that, in former times' 

 there was a king of Tathd, called Sehris, I believe, we should read 

 Mehris : for in another place, he seems to call Tatha, Serree or Serris, 

 which is inadmissible ; but one of its names was Mehrd, Mehri y or 

 Mehrej.f Abulfazil says, that Shah-beg Arghon invaded Tatah twice ; 

 but on the first invasion Tatah is called Seeree. 



Mehrej was the name of the town, and of its king, as usual in India ; 

 though they had a proper name of their own. The inhabitants, con- 

 sidered as a tribe, or nation are mentioned by Stephanus of Byzan- 

 tium, under the name of Mdrieis. They lived, says he, in houses of 

 wood. This is peculiar to the inhabitants of the low grounds, near 

 the Indus, on account of thej inundations. 



Oriental writers have in this country the sea of Oman, or of Persia, 

 and the sea of Herkhand ; though according to El Edrissi, both seas 

 were called in the language of India Harkhand. This sea is called by 

 the Parsis, according to Anquetil Duperron, Fer-Khend, from the 

 adjacent country. Gedrosia is called by eastern writers, Cdndn, some- 

 times shortened into Cdian, and it is divided into three parts, Kij* 

 Cdndn, Pher, or Phor-Cdndn, and Hour -Cdndn. Pher-cdnim, or in 

 Hindi Pher-c'han'da is I suppose, the true name of that sea ; and from 

 Pher-cdndn comes Ptolemy's Paragonos, or Paragonon Sinus, gulf, or 

 sea ; though certainly somewhat misplaced by him. The gulf of 

 Terabdon at the mouth of the Hdb, mentioned by the author of the 

 Periplus, is perhaps a corruption from Pher-dbdhi, the sea of Pher, 

 or Phor in Sanskrit. The sea, about the mouths of the Indus, is 

 called the sea of Sinda, by Stephanus of Byzantium ; from an inland 

 town of that name. P'her or P'hor formerly Pura, is now more gener- 

 ally called Kij-Mecran : though Kij, and Macran be two distinct towns ; 



* Ebn Haucal, pp. 139 and 145. 



f Ayin Acberi, Vol. 2d, pp. 146 and 149. 



t Ditto ditto, p. 137. 



