41

Immediately after the gulf of Barakê is the gulf of Barygaza and the coast of the region of Ariakê, the beginning both of Manbanos’s realm and of all of India. The part inland, which borders on Skythia, is called Abêria, the part along the coast Syrastrênê. The region, very fertile, produces grain, rice, sesame oil, ghee, cotton, and the Indian cloths made from it, those of ordinary quality. There are a great many herds of cattle, and the men are of very great size and dark skin color. The metropolis of the region is Minnagara, from which great quantities of cloth are brought to Barygaza. In the area are still preserved to this very day signs of Alexander’s expedition, ancient shrines and the foundations of encampments and huge wells. The voyage along the coast of this region, from Barbarikon to the promontory near Astakapra across from Barygaza called Papikê, is 3000 stades.

42

Beyond it is another gulf, on the inside of the waves, that forms an inlet directly to the north. Near the mouth is an island called Baiônês, and, at the very head, a mighty river called the Mais. Vessels whose destination is Barygaza cross the gulf, which is about 300 stades wide, leaving the island, whose highest point is visible, to the left and heading due east toward the mouth of Barygaza’s river. This river is called Lamnaios.

43

This gulf which leads to Barygaza, since it is narrow, is hard for vessels coming from seaward to manage. For they arrive at either its right-hand side or its left-hand, and attempting it by the left-hand side is better than the other. For, on the right-hand side, at the very mouth of the gulf, there extends a rough and rock-strewn reef called Hêrônê, near the village of Kammôni. Opposite it, on the left-hand side, is the promontory in front of Astakapra called Papikê; mooring here is difficult because of the current around it and because the bottom, being rough and rocky, cuts the anchor cables. And, even if you manage the gulf itself, the very mouth of the river on which Barygaza stands is hard to find because the land is low and nothing is clearly visible even from nearby. And, even if you find the mouth, it is hard to negotiate because of the shoals in the river around it.

44

For this reason local fishermen in the king’s service come out with crews [sc. of rowers] and long ships, the kind called trappaga and kotymba, to the entrance as far as Syrastrênê to meet vessels and guide them up to Barygaza. Through the crew’s efforts, they maneuver them right from the mouth of the gulf through the shoals and tow them to predetermined stopping places; they get them under way when the tide come in and, when it goes out, bring them to anchor in certain harbors and basins. The basins are rather deep spots along the river up to Barygaza. For this lies on the river about 300 stades upstream from the mouth.

45

All over India there are large numbers of rivers with extreme ebb-and-flood tides that at the time of the new moon and the full moon last for up to three days, diminishing during the intervals. They are much more extreme in the sea around Barygaza than elsewhere. Here suddenly the sea floor becomes visible, and certain parts along the coast, which a short while ago had ships sailing over them, at times become dry land, and the rivers, because of the inrush at flood tide of a whole concentrated mass of seawater, are driven headlong upstream against the natural direction of their flow for a good many stades.

46

Thus the navigating of ships in and out is dangerous for those who are inexperienced and are entering this port of trade for the first time. For once the thrust of the flood tide is under way, restraining anchors do not stay in place. Consequently, the ships, carried along by its force and driven sideways by the swiftness of the current, run aground on the shoals and break up, while smaller craft even capsize. Even in the channels some craft, if not propped up, will tilt over on their sides during the ebb and, when the flood suddenly returns, get swamped by the first wave of the flow. So much power is generated at the inrush of the sea even during the dark of the moon, particularly if the flood arrives at night, that when the tide is just beginning to come in and the sea is still at rest, there is carried from it to people at the mouth something like the rumble of an army heard from afar, and after a short while the sea itself races over the shoals with a hiss.

47

Inland behind Barygaza there are numerous peoples: the Aratrioi, Arachusioi, Gandaraioi, and the peoples of Proklais, in whose area Bukephalos Alexandreia is located. And beyond these is a very warlike people, the Bactrians, under a king . . . . Alexander, setting out from these parts, penetrated as far as the Ganges but did not get to Limyrikê and the south of India. Because of this, there are to be found on the market in Barygaza even today old drachmas engraved with inscriptions, in Greek letters, of Apollodotus and Menander, rulers who came after Alexander.

48

There is in this region [sc. of Barygaza] towards the east a city called Ozênê, the former seat of the royal court, from which everything that contributes to the region’s prosperity, including what contributes to trade with us, is brought down to Barygaza: onyx; agate (?); Indian garments of cotton; garments of molochinon; and a considerable amount of cloth of ordinary quality. Through this region there is also brought down from the upper areas the nard that comes by way of Proklais (the Kattyburinê, Patropapigê, and Kabalitê), the nard that comes through the adjacent part of Skythia, and costus and bdellium.

49

In this port of trade there is a market for: wine, principally Italian but also Laodicean and Arabian; copper, tin, and lead; coral and peridot (?); all kinds of clothing with no ornament or of printed fabric; multicolored girdles, eighteen inches wide; storax; yellow sweet clover (?); raw glass; realgar; sulphide of antimony; Roman money, gold and silver, which commands an exchange at some profit against the local currency; unguent, inexpensive and in limited quantity. For the king there was imported in those times precious silverware, slave musicians, beautiful girls for concubinage, fine wine, expensive clothing with no adornment, and choice unguent. This area exports: nard; costus; bdellium; ivory; onyx; agate (?); lykion; cotton cloth of all kinds; Chinese [sc. silk] cloth; molochinon cloth; [sc. silk] yarn; long pepper; and items brought here from the [sc. nearby] ports of trade. For those sailing to this port from Egypt, the right time to set out is around the month of July, that is Epeiph.