375:18 So the Váyu, &c.; and a similar p. 376 statement is given in Manu, X. 44, where to the Śakas, Yavanas, Kámbojas, Páradas, and Pahnavas, are added the Pańd́aras (people of western Bengal), Od́ras (those of Orissa), Dráviras (of the Coromandel coast), Chinas (Chinese), Kirátas (mountaineers), and Daradas (Durds of the Hindu Koh). From this passage, and a similar one in the Rámáyańa, in which the Chinas are mentioned, the late Mr. Klaproth inferred those works to be not older than the third century B. C., when the reigning dynasty of Thsin first gave that name to China (see also p. 194. n. 145.) It was probable, he supposed, that the Hindus became acquainted with the Chinese only about 200 B. C., when their arms extended to the Oxus; but it is difficult to reconcile this date with the difference of style between the Rámáyańa particularly and the works of the era of Vikramáditya. It would seem more likely that the later appellations were interpolated. It must have been a period of some antiquity, when all the nations from Bengal to the Coromandel coast were considered as Mlechchhas and outcasts.

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