Volume 1
Indian antiquities: or, dissertations relative to the antient geographical divisions, the pure system of primeval theology, the grand code of civil laws, the original form of government, the widely-extended commerce, and the various profound literature of Hindostan: compared, throughout, with the religion, laws, government, and literature, of Persia, Egypt, and Greece. The whole intended as introductory to the history of Hindostan. Upon a comprehensive scale / [Thomas Maurice].
- Thomas Maurice
- Date:
- 1800-12 [vol. I, 1806]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Indian antiquities: or, dissertations relative to the antient geographical divisions, the pure system of primeval theology, the grand code of civil laws, the original form of government, the widely-extended commerce, and the various profound literature of Hindostan: compared, throughout, with the religion, laws, government, and literature, of Persia, Egypt, and Greece. The whole intended as introductory to the history of Hindostan. Upon a comprehensive scale / [Thomas Maurice]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[ ] Its source ? for that book observes, that, ac- cording to some, it rises between Cashmere and Cashgur, while others place its source in Khatai, or Tartary. Major Rennel has found no opportunity to decide the question; but tlilnks it may possibly spring from tlie west side of that ridge of Imaus, which, in the opinion of the antients, separated the two Scythias, in about the 38th degree of north latitude. The first part of its course seems to lie through that region of- Cashgur* which is known to be a desert of deep and black sand, particle? of which being washed away by the rapidity of the stream, and mingling with its waters, give them a black, or rather a blue, colour; whence, probably, in its early course, it is called Nilab, or the BLUE river. Sir W. Jones, speaking of the probable connection that antlently existed between India and Egypt, seems inclined to de- rive even the name of the river Nile from the Sanscreet root Nila, blue, and is confirmed s in that idea by the great geographer Dionysius expressly calling the waters of that river an azure streamf. * Spc the account of Cashgur, in Abulgazi Khan’s History o£ the Tartars, vol. ii. p. 476. f Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 27 1. Entering](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28778388_0001_0295.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)


