10 
ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF KAS'MIR. [Extra No. 2, 
It would be useless to attempt to seek now for an explanation of tlie 
erroneous location. The researches of the most competent scholars 
liave amply proved how little reliance can be placed on the apparent 
exactness of Ptolemy’s latitudes and longitudes in the Asiatic portion 
of his work. 1 None of the other city names in the same list can be con¬ 
nected with Kasmir. Nor is the identification of any one of them certain, 
expect that of MoSovpa rj w ©€a>v, the sacred Mathura. This alone 
suffices to show how far away from Kasmir we are liable to be taken. 
The value of Ptolemy’s notice of Kaspeiria lies mainly in the fact 
that it presents us with an accurate enough transcription of that form 
of the country’s name which on independent phonetic evidence we must 
assume as an intermediate stage between the Sanskrit Kasmlra and the 
modern Kasmiri form Kasir. The explanations given below (§ 36) will 
show that a well-established phonetic law presupposes a form *Kasvira for 
the earlier Prakrit stage of Kasmiri. Of this form we have in Kaspeira 
(pronounced Kaspira) as close a rendering as Greek waiting permitted. 2 
The Sanskrit form of the name, Kasmlra , has, as far as we can go 
back, been always the one in official use. By it the country lias been, 
and is still to this day, generally known abroad (Hindi Kasmir, Persian 
Kashmir.) The preservation of the popular Prakrit *Kasvira by 
Ptolemy deserves hence attention with regard to the original source 
from which this particular item of information was obtained. 
6. It is very probable that we have also to connect with Kasmir 
a curious notice which Stephen of Byzance has 
Kaspeiroi of Diony preserved from the Bassarika. a lost poem 
sros and Nonnos. r . r 
ot Dionysios ot Samos. The passage, first 
apparently noticed by D’Anville, mentions the Kaspeiroi as a tribe 
famous among all Indians for their fast feet. 3 We do not know the 
is really meant) is not greater than that which can plainly be proved in the case 
of his entry for Barbarei , the port at the mouth of the Indus. 
1 I cannot refrain from quoting here in full the very just remarks of 
Sir Henry Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither , p. cli, which ought ever to be 
remembered by those who have to deal with Ptolemy on Indian soil. “ We see 
here how Ptolemy’s Asiatic Geography was compiled. It is evident that he first 
drew his maps embodying all information that he had procured, however vague 
and rough it might be. From these maps he then educed his tables of latitudes 
and longitudes and his systematic topography. The result is that everything 
assumes an appearance of exact definition; and indications on the map which 
meant no more than (somewhere hereabouts is said to be such a country), became 
translated into a precision fit for an Act of Parliament.” 
2 Tims the tribal name Aspasioi of Arrian (iv. 23) reproduces the Sanskrit 
AsvaTca ; comp. McCrindle, Invasion of India, p. 333. 
3 The text of the passage is reproduced by Trover, ii. p. 307. Another short 
quotation from the same text mentions the Arienoi along with the Kaaneipoi. 
