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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.614#0020
XX INTRODUCTION.
signation Kasi1 or Kasi.2 Whence it arose history has
Something of the same sort is to be seen, in the fifth chapter of
the K&si-Mianda.
Father Vivien de Saint-Martin—the genesis of whose fictitious
river I trace in note 2 to p. xxviii.,—began with being disposed to
make the Asi an affluent to the Var&na, with a Varanasi below their
confluence, and the city Varanasi therefrom denominated. Memoires
sur leg Contrees Oeeidentahs, Vol. II., p. 361. Here " il serait tres-
possible que l'un de ces ruisseaux se fut nomme Asl, et qu'apres sa
reunion a la Varana, la petite riviere eut pris le nom compose de
Varanasi qu'elle aurait communique' a la ville." This, as specu-
lation, will pass; but, to this writer, with his bias in favour of the
theological or mythopeic method of geographizing, what are, at
first, only suggestions, very soon ripen into indubitable certainties :
"Oette riviere [the 'Epewecris], la derniere de la liste d'Arrien, se
reconnait sans difficult! dans la Varanasi, petite riviere qui se jette
dans la gauche du Gange a, Benares, qui en a pris son nom (en Sanscrit
Varanasi)." Etude sur la Griographie Grecque etLatine de I'Inde, p. 286.
This author more than inclines to see Varanasi in the words
Erarasa (or Cragausa) metropolis, foisted into the Latin translation
of Ptolemy. Ibid., pp. 227, 351. Here, very much as just above,
having to do with a Latin interpolation, he sets out with describ-
ing it as such, and as offering " un reste de ressemblance qu'on
entrevoit encore a travers la corruption du mot;" and, a little
while afterwards, as if process of time necessarily stood for an acces-
sion of facts and reasons, persuades himself that he may speak of
" une ville que Ptolemee enumere sous le nom altere d' Erarasa,"
and that he finds, therein, " la traee bien reconnaissable de Varanasi,
forme sanscrite de notre Benares."
I have everywhere scrupulously reproduced the varieties of spell-
ing indulged in by the writer just cited.
The final d and the initial a of two words coalescing into a com-
pound might, possibly, yield a; and Varan&and Asi would, therefore,
combine into Varanasi. But this form seems to be the peculiar
property of a single recent and very indifferent lexicographer; and,
moreover, the name of the second stream is, correctly, Asi, not Asi.
In the Kdsi-Tchanda, XXX., 18, it is the subject of a pun, in connexion
with asi, "a sword."
1 This is the oldest form, and that recognized in the Haima-kosa
and by Ujjwaladatta's commentary on the Uhnddi-s&tra.
2 Kasi is not so markedly feminine as the more usual Kasi, its
derivative. Most Indian cities have feminine appellations.
signation Kasi1 or Kasi.2 Whence it arose history has
Something of the same sort is to be seen, in the fifth chapter of
the K&si-Mianda.
Father Vivien de Saint-Martin—the genesis of whose fictitious
river I trace in note 2 to p. xxviii.,—began with being disposed to
make the Asi an affluent to the Var&na, with a Varanasi below their
confluence, and the city Varanasi therefrom denominated. Memoires
sur leg Contrees Oeeidentahs, Vol. II., p. 361. Here " il serait tres-
possible que l'un de ces ruisseaux se fut nomme Asl, et qu'apres sa
reunion a la Varana, la petite riviere eut pris le nom compose de
Varanasi qu'elle aurait communique' a la ville." This, as specu-
lation, will pass; but, to this writer, with his bias in favour of the
theological or mythopeic method of geographizing, what are, at
first, only suggestions, very soon ripen into indubitable certainties :
"Oette riviere [the 'Epewecris], la derniere de la liste d'Arrien, se
reconnait sans difficult! dans la Varanasi, petite riviere qui se jette
dans la gauche du Gange a, Benares, qui en a pris son nom (en Sanscrit
Varanasi)." Etude sur la Griographie Grecque etLatine de I'Inde, p. 286.
This author more than inclines to see Varanasi in the words
Erarasa (or Cragausa) metropolis, foisted into the Latin translation
of Ptolemy. Ibid., pp. 227, 351. Here, very much as just above,
having to do with a Latin interpolation, he sets out with describ-
ing it as such, and as offering " un reste de ressemblance qu'on
entrevoit encore a travers la corruption du mot;" and, a little
while afterwards, as if process of time necessarily stood for an acces-
sion of facts and reasons, persuades himself that he may speak of
" une ville que Ptolemee enumere sous le nom altere d' Erarasa,"
and that he finds, therein, " la traee bien reconnaissable de Varanasi,
forme sanscrite de notre Benares."
I have everywhere scrupulously reproduced the varieties of spell-
ing indulged in by the writer just cited.
The final d and the initial a of two words coalescing into a com-
pound might, possibly, yield a; and Varan&and Asi would, therefore,
combine into Varanasi. But this form seems to be the peculiar
property of a single recent and very indifferent lexicographer; and,
moreover, the name of the second stream is, correctly, Asi, not Asi.
In the Kdsi-Tchanda, XXX., 18, it is the subject of a pun, in connexion
with asi, "a sword."
1 This is the oldest form, and that recognized in the Haima-kosa
and by Ujjwaladatta's commentary on the Uhnddi-s&tra.
2 Kasi is not so markedly feminine as the more usual Kasi, its
derivative. Most Indian cities have feminine appellations.