IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Southern Tibet : vol.7 |
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Citation Information
ANTONIO DE MONSERRATE.
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24
even the regions of the Boths or Bothants to the north, reaches the plains in several bends and windings, flowing from east to west, — and finally he describes how it flows out into the sea. He also tells us that by the ignorant people of this region, the Indus is usually called Nilab, which in Persian means blue water, for the river has a blue colour on account of its depth in its course from the narrow passages to the Paropanisadae. I I do not know how far back the name Nilab may have been in use, nor whether it existed at all in old Persian. 2 But if it did, Arrian's words of Alexander, when standing on the bank of the Indus: »Nili se caput reperisse arbitrabatur», have an additional signification. 3
Kashmir is familiar to Monserrate. He even explains the etymology of its name. Still more surprising and interesting is his paragraph (F. 76. b. 4. and
F. 77. a. 1. et seq.) about the countries to the west of the Indus. He even mentions the Xacattaei or Mongoli, the Jagatai.
His orography of Afghanistan may well be said to be some 200 years before his time. He has just spoken of Kabul, which is famous on account of two
circumstances:
[As being the metropolis of a kingdom, and] — alterum, negotiatorum celebritas: qui ex India, Persia, et Tartaria, in earn conueniunt. Est enim, in ipsis illorum montium, ueluti uisceribus, aut corde posita qui ueluti , brachijs quibusdam , in uicinas regiones, iniectis, Indiam, Sogdianam, Bactrianam, et Tartariam, attingunt.4
Hi sunt Caucasius Imaus, qui etiam Caspus. Paharopanisus , et Paharuëtus, quorum medius, Caucasius est. In eius fronte Chabulum, quod olim (ut remur) Carûra dicebatur situm est. Paharuëtus, in quo sunt portae, quas supra demonstrauimus, ab austro, Caucasio obijcitur, Caucasij tergum. Paharopanisus tuetur, ab Aquilone. Dextrum, latus, ab ortu, Imaus tegit , a sinistro , Paharuëti quaedam flexio , quae deinde, aequali fere ductu, cum Paharopaniso , interiectis magnis conuallibus , in Aquilonem protenditur. Nostra aetate, montana haec omnia, a Chabulo, in eo tractu nomen habent; ac Chabuli iuga dicuntur quae a ueteribus, promiscue, Paharopanisus dicebantur .... Ac ne montium nominibus, quispiam hallucinetur, duo ut sibi persuadeat, necesse est. Alterum , eadem continuatione, uarios flexus montes habere; et pro eorum uarietate uaria nomina sortiri. Nam (liceat enim exemplis, rem illustrare) a Geographis Imaus, cum jam Caspius est : et Caucasius, cum jam Paharopanisus est, et uice uersa nominantur. Alterum, nostro saeculo, longe alijs nominibus loca haec appellari quam ueterum memoria verum adhibita, non mediocri, diligentia, uera loca, uel saltem quae ueris proxime accedunt, nos deprehendisse : vel eo, coeteris certiores,
quod ea oculis conspeximus.
Thus he knows that merchants from India, Persia and Tartary arrive in Kabul, which, with a very good comparison, is said to be situated, as it were, in the very
I Vocitatur uero Indus, ab ignara plebe, ut plurimum, in ea regione, Nilabhus, quod caeruleam aquam, Persicè sonat . ... etc. F. 69 a. 3.
2 Professor K. V. ZETTERSTÉEN of Uppsala tells me that in Sanskrit nila is the ordinary adjective
for blue or dark blue, and suggests that the Persian nil, blue colour, and di-1i, are simply adopted from India.
3 Vide Vol. I, p. 30.
4 Op. cit., F. 85 b. i et seq.
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