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Notes on Ptolemy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
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III. Apokopa or Poinai Them
The first and westernmost of the seven Indian “mountains” mentioned by Ptolemy (vii, 1, 19) bears the curious name τὰ ’άπίκιπα
καλεîται Ποιναὶ Θε
υ. Its extremities are stated to be situated at 116° E. 23° N. and 121° (v.l. 124°) E. 20° 30′ (v.l. 26°) N. In Ptolemy's idea it was therefore a mountain-range of considerable length running either in a south-easterly or north-easterly direction.
Lassen points out that according to Ptolemy the Apokopa was situated to the west and south of the Vindhya. This, he argues, is impossible as the latter extends almost as far west as the coast so as to leave no room for another mountain range. He then proceeds to correct Ptolemy's error with the aid of Megasthenes and the Māhābharata. In a fragment of the Greek ambassador's work on India, preserved by Pliny, mention is made of a high mountain named Capitalia. This name Lassen renders by ” Capital Punishment ” (“ Todes-strafe ”) and assumes it to be the equivalent of Ptolemy's Poinai Theon, i.e. ” Punishments of the gods ” (“ Strafen der Götter ”). He believes it to originate from a legend relating how the gods punished a crime committed on this spot and furthermore detects a reference to such a legend in the name Apokopa to which he assigns the meaning of ” hewing down, chopping off ” (“ das Abhauen ”). An allusion to the supposed legend Lassen discovers in the Māhābharata (Bombay ed., iii, 82,55–6). Here in the course of an enumeration of firthas a visit to the mountain Arbuda is recommended and it is briefly stated that here a cleft (chidra) of the earth is found and the hermitage of Vasistha celebrated in the three worlds.
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- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , February 1949 , pp. 146 - 153
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- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1949
References
page 146 note 1 Indische Altertumskunde, iii, pp. 121 f.
page 146 note 2 Ancient India as Described by Ptolemy (1885), p. 76.
page 146 note 3 Berthelot, André, L'Asie ancienne centrale et sud-orientale d'après Ptolémée (1930), p. 265.Google ScholarTarn, W. W., The Greeks in Bactria and India (1938), pp. 155, 253.Google Scholar
page 147 note 1 Le périple de la Mer Érythrée (ed. Hjalmar Frisk, 1927), p. 97. E. A. Sofokles, Greek Lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine Periods (1914), p. 221, has ἀπίκοπος (ἀποκ;οτω) abrupt, steep, craggy promontory.
page 147 note 2 The mountain Sardonyx (vii, 1, 20 and 65); the rivers Paeudostomos (vii, 1, 8, etc.), and Adamas (vii, 1, 17 and 41); the river-mouths Chrysoun (vii, 1, 2), Mega and Pseudostoinon (vii, 1, 18); the islands Heptanēsia, Trinēsia, Lenkē (vii, 1, 95), Agathou Daimonos (vii, 2, 27), Satyrōn (vii, 2, 30); the peninsula Chrysē (vii, 1, 15, and 2, 5, etc.); the countries Chalkitis (vii, 2, 20) and Argyria (vii, 2, 3 and 17); and the towns Monoglōsson (vii, 1, 3), Byzantion (vii, 1, 7), Dionysopolis (vii, 1, 43), Euthymēdia, Boukefala (vii, 1, 46), and Theofila (vii, 1, 60).
page 148 note 1 Sir Malcolm, John, Memoir of Central India, 1832, vol. i, p. 16Google Scholar; Imp. Oaz. of India, new ed., vol. xiv, p. 104, sub Jhabuā.
page 148 note 2 Journaal van J. J. Ketelaar's Hofreis naar den Oroot Mogol te Lahore, 1711–13 (Linschoten Vereeniging, vol. xli), The Hague, 1937, pp. 273–283.
page 149 note 1 Tūzuk-i-Jahāngīrī, transl. by Rogers and Beveridge, vol. i, pp. 401–423, and vol. ii, pp. 25–49. ” This parganah [scil. Dohad] is on the boundary between Malwa and Gujarat. Until I passed Badnor the whole country was a jungle, with an abundance of trees and stony land.”
page 149 note 2 Ind. Ant., x, p. 159.
page 149 note 3 JRAS., 1941, p. 216.
page 149 note 4 Op. oit., p. 337.
page 150 note 1 Quoted by McCrindle, op. cit., p. 80.
page 150 note 2 Op. cit., p. 362.
page 151 note 1 Op. cit., p. 220.
page 151 note 2 BSOAS., xii, p. 123. I take the opportunity to state that the identification of the Salakūnoi with the Sālankāyanas, as I suspected, had been previously made. Vide Ray Chaudhuri, Political Hist. of Ancient India, 3rd ed., p 341 n.; R, Gopalan, Hist, of the Pallavas of Kanchi (1928), p. 73. These references I owe to the courtesy of Mr. C. E. A. W. Oldham.
page 152 note 1 Ep. Ind., xviii, p. 1.
page 152 note 2 South Ind. Inscr., viii, nos. 724 and 725.
page 152 note 3 Quart. Journ. Mythic Soc., xxi (1930–31), pp. 130 f.