PEUCELAO´TIS
PEUCELAO´TIS (
Πευκελαῶτις, Arrian,
Anab. 4.22,
Indic. 4;
Πευκολα̈ῖτις,
Strab. xv. p.698;
Plin. Nat. 6.17. s. 21: Eth.
Peucolaitae, Plin.;
Πευκαλεῖς, Dionys. Per. 1142), a district of India on the NW. frontier, along the Cophen or
Cábul river, in the direction of the
Panjáb. The actual name of the town, which was probably Pencela, is nowhere found, but the form of the word leaves no doubt that it is, like the majority of the names which have been preserved by Arrian, of genuine Sanscrit or Indian origin. Strabo and Pliny both call the city itself Peucolaitis. Arrian in one place gives the name to a district (4.22), without mentioning that of the capital or chief town ; in another he calls the capital Peucelaotis, or, according to the Florentine MS., Peucela. (
Indic. 100.1.)
There can be little doubt that this is the same place or district mentioned in Ptolemy under the form of Proclais (7.1.44), and in the
Periplus Mar. Erythr. (100.47). Both are connected with the Gandarae,--the Sanscrit
Gandáras,--and both are alike placed in NW. India. Prof. Wilson has shown that the Greek name is derived from the Sanscrit
Pushkara or
Pushkala, the
Pushkalavati of the Hindus, which was placed by them in the country of the
Gandháras, the Gandaritis of Strabo, and which is still represented by the modern
Pekhely or
Pakholi, in the neighbourhood of
Pesháwur. (Wilson,
Ariana, pp. 183, 184.)
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