CONCERNING ANCIENT INDIA. 71

M. D’Anville, with his usual industry and discern-ment* has considered the principal stations as theyare fixed by him, and finds that they correspondto Kilkare , Negapatam , the mouth of the riverCauveri, Masulipatam, Point Gordeware, &c. Itis foreign to the object of this Disquisition, toenter into such a minute detail; but in severalinstances we may observe, that not only the con-formity of position, but the similarity of ancientand modern names, is very striking. The greatriver Cauveri is by Ptolemy named Chaberis;Arcot, in the interior country, is Arcati Regia;and probably the whole coast has received its pre-sent name of Coromandel from Sor Mandulam, orthe kingdom of Soræ, which is situated upon it 5S .

In the course of one hundred and thirty - sixyears, which elapsed from the death of Strabo tothat of Ptolemy, the commercial intercourse withIndia was greatly extended; the latter geographerhad acquired such an accession of new informationconcerning the Ganges , that he mentions thenames of six different mouths of’that river, anddescribes their positions. His delineation, however,of that part of India which lies beyond the Ganges,is not less erroneous in its general form, than thatwhich he gave of the peninsula , and bears aslittle resemblance to the actual position of thosecountries. He ventures, nevertheless, upon a sur-vey of them, similar to that which he had made

” Ptolem. Geogr. lib. vii. c. 1. D’Anville, Antiq. del’lnde, 127, &c.

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