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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
402 MARCO POLO BOOK III.
4824-4831.
NOTE I.—Though M. Pauthier has imagined objections there is no room for doubt that Kesmacorau is the province of DIEKRAN, known habitually all over the
East as KIJ-MAKRAN, from the combination with the name of the country of that of
its chief town, just as we lately met with a converse combination in Konkan-tana. This was pointed out to Marsden by his illustrious friend Major Rennell. We find
the term Kij Makrázz used by Ibn Batuta (III. 47) ; by the Turkish Admiral Sidi 'Ali (J. As., sér. I. torn. ix. 72 ; and J. A. S. B. V. 463) ; by Sharifuddin (P. de la Croix, I. 379, II. 417-418) ; in the famous Sindian Romeo-and-Juliet tale of Sassi and Panníul (Elliot, I. 333) ; by Pietro della Valle (I. 724, II. 358) ; by Sir F. Goldsmid (j. R. A. S., N. s., I. 38) ; and see for other examples, J. A. S. B. VII. 298, 305,
308 ; VIII. 764 ; XIV. 158 ; XVII. pt. ii. 559 : XX. 262, 263.
The argument that Mekrán was not a province of India only amounts to saying
that Polo has made a mistake. But the fact is that it often was reckoned to belong to India, from ancient down to comparatively modern times. Pliny says : " Many indeed do not reckon the Indus to be the western boundary of India, but include in that term also four satrapies on this side the river, the Gedrosi, the Arachoti, the Arii, and the Parapomisadae (i.e. Mekrán, Kandahar, Herat, and Kabul) . . . . whilst others class all these together under the name of Ariana" (VI. 23). Arachosia, according to Isidore of Charax, was termed by the Parthians " White India." Aelian calls Gedrosia a part of India. (first. Animal. XVII. 6.) In the 6th century the Nestorian Patriarch Jesujabus, as we have seen (supra, eh. xxii. note I), considered all to be India from the coast of Persia, i.e. of Fars, beginning from near the Gulf.
According to Ibn Khordâdbeh, the boundary between Persia and India was seven days' sail from Hormuz and eight from Daibul, or less than half-way from the mouth
of the Gulf to the Indus. (J. As. sér. VI. tom. v. 283.) Beladhori speaks of the Arabs in early expeditions as invading Indian territory about the Lake of Sijistan ;
and Istakhri represents this latter country as bounded on the north and partly on the
west by portions of India. Kabul was still reckoned in India. Chach, the last
Hindu king of Sind but one, is related to have marched through Mekrán to a river
which formed the limit between Mekrán and Kermán. On its banks he planted date-trees, and set up a monument which bore : " This was the bozrzzd.zzy of HIND in the
time of Chach, the son of Síláij, the son of Basábas." In the Geography of Bakui
we find it stated that " Hind is a great country which begins at the province of Mekrán." (A7 and E. II. 54.) In the map of Marino Sanuto India begins from
Hormuz ; and it is plain from what Polo says in quitting that city that he considered the next step from it south-eastward would have taken him to India (supra, I. p.
E" The name Mekrán has been commonly, but erroneously, derived from Mahi Khoran, i.e. the fish-eaters, or ieiztizyopkv;i, which was the title given to the in-
habitants of the Beluchi coast-fringe by Arrian. But the word is a Dravidian name, and' appears as Makara in the Brizat Sanhita of Varaha Mihira in a list of the tribes contiguous to India on the west. It is also the Mahaprivn of Stephen of Byzantium,
and the Makuran of Tabari, and Moses of Chorene. Even were it not a Dravidian name, in no old Aryan dialect could it signify fish-eaters." (Curzon, Persia, II.
p. 261, note.)
" It is to be noted that Kesniacoran is a combination of Kech or Kej and Makrán, and the term is even to-day occasionally used." (Major P. M. Sykes, Persia, p. 102. ) —HI. C.]
We may add a Romance definition of India from King Alisaunder:-
" Lordynges, also I fynde,
At Mede so bi;yzzneth Ynde .
Forsothe ich woot, it stretcheth ferest
Of alle the Londes in the Est, And oth the South half sikerlyk, To the cee taketh of Affryk ; And the north half to a Mountayne,
That is yclepéd Caucasayne. "—L
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