According to the above proportion, these ten days (or rather fomewhat lefs *) are equal to about 100 British miles; and confequently Tagara, by its bearing and distance from Pultanah, falls at Deoghir, a place of great antiquity, and famous through all India, on account of the Pagodas of Eloura. It is now called Doulet-abad, and about four cofs NW. of Aurungabad..

Ptolemy agrees very well with Arrian, with refpect to diftances and bearings, if we admit that he has mistaken Baithana, or Paithana, for Plithana; and this, I am pretty fure, is really the cafe, and may be eafily accounted for, as there is very little difference between Пaimana and ПAIOANA in the Greek character.

Paithana, now Pattant or Puttan, is about half way between Tagara and Plithana.

According to Ptolemy, Tagara and Pattan were fituated to the northward of the Baund-Ganga, (Binda or Bynda river,) commonly called Godávery; and here Ptolemy is very right.

In M. Bussy's marches, Pattan is placed to the fouthward of the Godávery; but it is a mistake.

It appears from Arrian's Periplus, that, on the arrival of the Greeks into the Deccan, above 2000 years ago, Tagara was the metropolis of a large diftrict called Ariaca, which comprehended the greatest part of Subah Aurungabad, and the fouthern part of Concan; for the northern part of that diftrict, including Damaun Callian, the Ifland of Salset, Bombay, &c. belonged to the Rajah

Ως ἡμερῶν δέκα quafi dies decem.

+ Patina Tab. Peutinger. Patinna Anonym. Ravenn.

of

of Larikeh, or Lar, according to Arrian and Ebn Saïd al Magrebi.

It is neceffary to obferve here, that, though the author of the Periplus is supposed to have lived about the year 160 of the present era, yet the materials he made ufe of in compiling his directory are far more ancient; for, in fpeaking of Tagara, he fays that the Greeks were prohibited from landing at Callian, and other harbours on that coaft. Now it is well known that, after the conqueft of Egypt, the Romans had monopolised the whole trade to India, and would allow no foreigner to enter the Red Sea; and confequently this paffage has reference to an earlier period, previous to the conqueft of Egypt by the Romans.

About the middle of the first century, Tagara was no longer the capital of Ariaca, Rajah Salbahan having removed the seat of the empire to Pattan.

Ptolemy informs us, that Paithana, or Pattan, had been the refidence of a prince of that country, whose name the Greeks have ftrangely disfigured: we find it variously spelt, in different MSS. of Ptolemy, Siripolemæus, Siropolemæus, Siroptolemæus, &c.

Yet, when we confider that, whenever Pattan is mentioned by the Hindoos, they generally add, it was the refidence of Rajah Salbahan*, who, in the dialect of the Deccan, is called Salivanam, or Salibanam, I cannot help thinking that the Greeks have disfigured this laft word Salibanam into Saripalam, from which they have made Siripolemæus, Siropolemæus, &c.

Bickermajit ruled for fome time over the northern parts of the Deccan; but the Rajahs, headed by Salbahan,

* Making use of the very words of Ptolemy.

having

having revolted, they gave him battle, and he was flain. Tagara became again the metropolis of Ariaca; at least it was fo towards the latter end of the eleventh century, as appears from a grant of fome lands in Concan, made by a Rajah of Tagara: this grant ftill exifts, and was communicated to the Asiatick Society by General Car

nac.

When the Mussulmans carried their arms into the Deccan about the year 1293, Tagara, or Deoghir, was ftill the refidence of a powerful Rajah, and remained fo till the time of Shah-Jehan, when the diftri&t belonging to it became a Subah of the Mogul Empire. Then Tagara was deferted; and Kerkhi, four cofs to the fouth-east of it, became the capital. This place is now called Aurungabad.

Thus was deftroyed the ancient kingdom or Rajaship of Tagara, after it had exifted with little interruption above 2000 years; that is to fay, as far as we can trace back its antiquity.

It may appear aftonishing, that though the Rajah of Tagara was poffeffed of a large tract on the fea coaft, yet all the trade was carried on by land.

Formerly it was not fo. On the arrival of the Greeks into the Deccan, goods were brought to Callian, near Bombay, and then fhipped off. However, a Rajah of Larikeh, or Lar, called Sandanes, according to Arrian, would no longer allow the Greeks to trade either at Callian, or at the harbours belonging to him on that coaft, except Baroach; and whenever any of them were found at Callian, or in the neighbourhood, they were confined, and fent to Baroach under a ftrong guard. Arrian, being a Greek himself, has not thought proper to inform us what could induce the Rajah to behave in this manner to the Greeks; but his filence is a convinc

ing proof that they had behaved amifs; and it is likely enough, that they had attempted to make a fettlement in the Island of Salset, in order to make themselves independent, and facilitate their conquefts into the Deccan.

The fears of the Rajah were not groundless; for the Greek kings of Bactriana were poffeffed of the Punjah, Cabul, &c. in the North of India.

There were other harbours, to the fouth of Callian, belonging to the Rajah of Tagara, but they were not frequented on account of pirates, who, according to Pliny, Arrian, and Ptolemy, infefted these countries in the very fame manner they do now.

ON

XX.

ON THE PANGOLIN or BAHAR.

THE

BY

MATTHEW LESLIE, Esq.

HE fingular animal which M. Buffon defcribes by the name of Pangolin, is well known in Europe fince the publication of his Natural History, and Goldsmith's elegant Abridgment of it; but, if the figure exhibited by Buffon was accurately delineated from the three animals, the fpoils of which he had examined, we must confider that which has been lately brought from Caracdiah to Chitra, and fent thence to the Prefidency, as a remarkable variety, if not a different fpecies, of the pangolin. Ours has hardly any neck; and, though fome filaments are difcernible between the fcales, they can scarce be called bristles. But the principal difference is in the tail; that of Buffon's animal being long, and tapering almost to a point; while that of ours is much fhorter, ends obtufely, and refembles in form and flexibility the tail of a lobster. In other refpects, as far as we can judge from the dead fubject, it has all the characters of Buffon's Pangolin; a name derived from that by which the animal is diftinguifhed in Java, and confequently preferable to Manis or Pholidotus, or any other appellation deduced from an European language. As to the scaly lizard, the scaled armadillo, and the five-nailed ant-eater, they are manifeftly improper defignations of this animal; which is neither a lizard, nor an armadillo, in the common acceptation; and, though it be an ant-eater, yet it effentially differs from the hairy quadruped ufually known by that general defcription. We are told that the Malabar name of this animal is Alungu. The natives of Bahar call it Bajar-cit, or, as they explain the word, stone

2

vermine;