GANGARI´DAE
GANGARI´DAE (
Γαγγαρῖδαι,
Ptol. 7.1.81,
2.14), a people who lived along the coast of the bay of Bengal, at the mouths of the Ganges, from which they probably derived their name.
According to Ptolemy their capital was named Gange (7.1.81); in another place, however, he omits the name of the chief town, but adds that there are six towns, whose names he gives, in the country.
It would appear from Pliny that a portion at least of these people extended considerably to the south. in the country now occupied by the Circars of the
Coromandel coast,--as he speaks of “gente Gangaridum Calingarum” (6.18. s. 22). The Calingae were probably near
Calinapatnam, between the
Godavery and
Mahanuddy. Virgil (
Georg. 3.27) and Valerius Flaccus (
Argon. 6.66) mention the name of the Gangaridae. Curtius places them beyond the Ganges to the eastward, along with the Prasii (9.7). Their name seems to have been sometimes confused with that of the Gandaridae. Thus, when Dionysius Periegetes writes Gargaridae (5.1144), he probably means Gandaridae and not, as some commentators have supposed, this people.
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