nication with India appears to have been maintained by the Persians and Assyrians, by way of Bactria and the Caspian provinces; and this was probably the most ancient of all. Of the existence of an early intercourse between Persia and India, there are abundant traces in the language, legends, and religion of the respective nations. The Zend, the sacred language of ancient Persia, is only a dialect of the Sanscrit; and between the Kourdish and Loorish dialects and the Hindostanee, there is a considerable affinity. The Sabian idolatry appears to have been common to the two countries; and what is still more remarkable, a famous resort of Hindoo fire-worshippers is found on the western shores of the Caspian.* Balkh, the mother of cities, the Mecca of the Magians, the capital of Persia in the ages of fable, and, in later times, of a Greek kingdom, could not have owed to any other cause than its advantageous position for commerce, its consequence and wealth. Every thing points to Bactra as to the very centre of early civilization," the key of central Asia, and the link between the east and the west." It was, in fact, the grand rendezvous on the high road from the Caspian gates, not only to the country of the Indi, but to Sogdiana and Serica; and by this route, a commercial intercourse was maintained between China and ancient Europe. The produce of India was, in like manner, transported on the backs of camels from the banks of the Indus to those of the Oxus; down which river they were conveyed to the Caspian Sea, and distributed, partly by land-carriage and partly by navigable rivers, through the different countries lying between the Caspian and the Euxine. The magnitude and value of this commerce may be

According to Texeira, the province of Ghilan bore the appellation of Hindu-al-asfur, Yellow India.-As. Res., vol. iii. p. 78. PART II.

K

inferred from the circumstance mentioned by Pliny, that Seleucus Nicator, at the time of his assassination, entertained thoughts of forming a junction between the two seas by means of a canal.* A branch of this commerce was carried on overland by way of the Caspian gates and the great caravan routes to Mesopotamia and Syria. It appears to have been exclusively from the Persians, that Herodotus derived the slender information which he possessed concerning India and its inhabitants; and the importance of the Indian trade carried on through the Persian dominions, affords the only adequate explanation of the fact which he mentions, that, under Darius Hystaspes, the Indian satrapy furnished a tribute of gold equal to 4680 Eubean talents of silver, being nearly a third of the whole annual revenue drawn from the twenty satrapies into which the kingdom was divided.

Major Rennell remarks, that "the communication by land between the Syrian empire and India, was dropped very early; for Bactria soon became independent, and by that means the link of the chain, that connected India with Syria, was broken." But although the political dependence of India on Persia was dissolved, and the further exploration of Asia by conquest was precluded by the rise of the Parthian monarchy, the stream of commerce continued, with occasional interruptions, to flow in its accustomed channel. "It appears certain," remarks Dr. Murray, "that, about the beginning of the Christian era, two great lines of commercial intercourse had been fully established; one by sea to India, the other by land across Asia to the borders of China." The outline of this great inland route is thus traced on the autho

Plin. Nat. Hist., lib. vi, c. 11, cited by Robertson.

rity of Ptolemy. "In setting out from Byzantium, the caravan proceeded first nearly due E., through Asia Minor, to the passage of the Euphrates at Hierapolis, about twenty miles S. of Beer.* Proceeding still E., and crossing the Tigris, they came to Ecbatana (Hamadan.) Thence, in the same direction, they passed through the Caspian gates, and came to Hecatompylos, the capital of Parthia, supposed to be the modern Damghaun. It was now necessary to turn northward into Hyrcania (Astrabad), and to pass through the capital (Gourgaun). The course next took a bend to the south, in order to reach Aria (Herat), which has always been a great centre of Asiatic commerce. A long route, almost due N., was now to be made, in order to reach Antioch, the capital of Margiana, a city founded by Alexander, and called at present Meru Shah Jehan. The line again became nearly E., till their arrival at Bactria. Soon after, they took a N.E. direction, probably up the course of the Oxus; and they had then to ascend the mountains of Beloor to the elevated plain of Pameer, which carried them S.E. into Little Thibet. They then proceeded northward, apparently tracing upwards the course of the river of Ladauk. They came next to a remarkable place called the Stone Tower, of which, however, no description is given. At some distance beyond was a

• Palmyra owed to its happy position in this route, its commercial wealth and political importance. Under the Seleucidæ, it attained its highest degree of splendour; and when Syria became a Roman province, this little republic maintained its independence for upwards of two centuries, its friendship being courted alike by the Romans and the Parthians, while it traded with both.-See MOD. TRAV. Syria, vol. ii. pp. 20-22.

+ Still the great thoroughfare from the north to Bagdad.-See MOD. TRAV. Persia, vol. ii. p. 259.

See the route from Tehraun to Mushed.-MOD. Trav. Persia, vol. ii, pp. 245-9.

grand rendezvous of the merchants, who assembled there for the purpose of surmounting, by their united efforts, a formidable barrier which there presented itself. This was the great range of Imaus, which is described by Ptolemy as first passing eastward along the frontier of India, then turning N., and stretching far into Scythia; which vast region it divided into two portions, Scythia within and Scythia without Imaus. This Scythian Imaus is probably the range called the Mooz Taugh, which the Indians consider as a mere branch of the Himalaya. From the abovementioned rendezvous of the caravans, no further details are given; and it is only mentioned, that the journey thence to the capital of Serica occupied seven months.*

That there was a constant commercial intercourse between China and India, and even Ceylon, about the beginning of the Christian era, is attested by Pliny, in a passage cited by Major Wilford; which at the same time establishes the fact, that a regular communication was carried on with the Chinese by the Roman merchants.+ According to Ptolemy, there were two roads from China to India; one leading through Bactra to Barygaza, and the other to Palibothra. With regard to the former, the Author of the Periplus states, that caravans from Thina (supposed to be Tsinan in Shangtong) came regularly by the way of Bactria to Barygaza; a land communication which still exists. And the importance of this line of route may be inferred from the fact, that the Greek monarchs of Bactria found it necessary to extend their conquests in this direction, and to possess

Murray's Hist. of Discoveries in Asia, vol. i. pp. 33, 47—9. +As. Res. vol. ix. p. 40. See Mod. Trav. Persia, &c., vol. ii, Murray, vol. i. p. 477.

p. 273.

themselves of the districts of Tatta and Moultan, adjacent to the mouth of the Indus. Barygaza (supposed to be the modern Broach or Barigosha in Gujerat) seems to have been, at one time, in relation to ancient commerce, what Cambay and Surat have since been.* Besides this route to the coast, another practicable road leads from Balkh over the Hindoo Koosh, into Caubnl, whence there is an easy access to the Punjaub, crossing the Indus at Attok; † while another route leads off from Herat, through Candahar, to Moultan, Hissar, and Delhi, avoiding almost the whole of the mountainous country.

From the Indus to Palibothra, what was called the Royal or Nyssæan Road, was traced out with particular care; and at the end of every coss (10 stadia or 1.23 mile British) a small column was erected to mark the distances. Major Wilford gives the following account of this route, as the result of a careful collation of Pliny, the Peutingerian Tables, and the anonymous geographer of Ravenna :-From the ferry of Tor Beilam on the Indus, to Taxila, now Rubbaut; thence to Rotas (Ruytas or Rhodoes), where it is joined by the road from Attok ;—to the ferry over the

* The Gulf of Cambay was called Sinus Barygazenus.-D'ANVILLE, vol. ii. p. 114.

† “The high lands that surround this confined country (Caubul), and in which the several branches of the Sinde take their rise, are, in truth, the key to Hindostan. The emperor Akbar was so convinced of the importance of this elevated region, that he caused a strong fortress to be built at Attok, near the confluence of the river of that name with the Indus; satisfied that by this route, across the Punjaub by Lahore, there was nothing to impede a large army in its advance upon Delhi and Agra. It was, in fact, by this route that Timour invaded India; that Baber made five different incursions into Hindostan; and that Nadir Shah, in later times, made himself master of that country."-QUART. REV. No. lxxi, p. 133,