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NAGARA

NAGARA (Νάγαρα), a city in the NW. part of India intra Gangem, distinguished in Ptolemy by the title καὶ Διονυσόπολις (7.1.43). It is no doubt the present Nagar, between the Kábul river and the Indus. From the second name which Ptolemy has preserved, we are led to believe that this is the same place as Nysa or Nyssa, which was spared from plunder and destruction by Alexander because the inhabitants asserted that it had been founded by Bacchus or Dionysus, when he conquered the Indians. (Arrian, Arr. Anab. 5.1; Curt. 8.10.7.) A mountain called Moron was said to overhang the city, which was also connected with the legend of Bacchus having been reared in the thigh of Zeus.

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