438 . ON THE ANCIENT 
had of the geography .of so remote a country, which he fashioned into a 
map. according: to some pre-conceived opinions, and an erroneous system of 
hisown. ‘The mouth of the Brahmd-putra, for instance, does not appear 
on the sea shore, even in our most modern maps, and the Paurdiics, in 
their geographical diagrams, make the Hrédiné or Brahma-putra, with 
the Pavani or Avd river to flow toward the 8. EK. The source of the 
eastern branch of the Doanas, or Brahkmd-putra, is really at the Brahma- 
cwida, and thus far Pronemy was right. To the upper part of this river 
through Tibet, he properly gives the name of Bautes or Bautisus. . Bhoti- 
su, in the language of Twbet, signifies the water or river of Bhota, the 
Sanscrit name of that country. He did. not know however, what became 
of it beyond Thogara or Tonker. ‘The next river is the Meghandd or 
Megha-vahana, in the spoken dialects Meghwan, and Meghna... It is a well 
known, river, and the general drain of the waters of Silhet, and adjacent 
countries. It begins I believe, to be so called near Azmarigunge, below the 
junction of two considerable rivers, the great Bacra, and the Baleswaré 
from Silhet, and commonly called Bowlee. The original stream is the great 
Bacré, which according to the Cshétra-samasa, comes from the country of 
_Hedamba, now Cachar or Cuspoor, to the eastward of Silhet. It is re- 
markable, that the Brahmd-puira, on being joimed by this inferior river, 
and of obscure origin, being from Megha or the clouds, loses its name at 
once. The Megnd, now an immense river goes into the, ocean, but, pror 
perly speaking, without joming the Ganges; though they approach very 
near to each other.. But the mouths of the Ganges and of the Brahmd- 
putra, are so masked by large, and numerous islands of various sizes, that 
they are by no means obvious from the sea, like that of the western branch ~ 
