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
1
CHAPTER IV.
BENEDICT GOES.
It is surprising that such a critical man as ANTONIO DE MONSERRATE, who penetrated so many geographical questions in a quite modern style, and even was the first to catch the name of the Sacred Lake, did not use the native names for the Himalayan Mountains, but preferred to stick to the classical appellations which had been in use ever since the mountains north of India first became known to Europeans , or nearly two thousand years, and which had been crystallised by PTOLEMY. Thus the same names, Paropamisus, Caucasus and Imaus, which are to be found, for instance, on the World-map published at Venice in 1554, also appear on Monserrate's map. He seems not to have been willing to follow the example given by JACOPO GASTALDI in 1561, who on his famous map had entered the names Monte Dalangver , Monte Naugracot and Monte Vssonte. He knew at least the second of these three names, which he mentions at some places in his MS., e. g.: Duodeuiginti milliaribus , Nagarcottum a Calanuro distat, quod perinde est, quod Nagåris arx, vel castellum ....I He preferred to call the mountains above Nagarkot, Imaus, instead of giving them the appellation Mons Naugracot.2
It would be interesting to follow through 23 centuries, the history of the names of the Himalaya. This would be quite a big task, and as it does not fall within the boundaries of this work , I will only mention two or three stages of the nomenclature. We have already passed one of them, viz., Gastaldi, who abolished the classical names, and adopted native appellations.
An attempt to arrange in systematic order the names by different authors given to different parts of the great latitudinal mountain range or system which since times immemorial was supposed to cross the whole of the Asiatic Continent, was already made in 1596 by ABRAHAM ORTELIUS.3 In his Thesaurus one has to look up every special name. Under the name Paropamisus, for instance, he
I Op. supra cit. F. 6o b. 2.
2 Nagarkôt or Kangra in the lower Himalayan hills.
3 Abraham Ortelii Antwerpiani Thesavrvs geographicvs. Antverpiae MDXCVI.
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