Calingae
The Calingae or Calingi, according to ancient accounts, were a race of extremely short-lived people in India. According to Pliny the Elder they had a lifespan of only eight years. This has been viewed as exaggeration, akin to Pliny's report that the Mandi people of India bear children at age seven.[1]
The Calingae were widely diffused over a large area according to Pliny,[b][3][4] and consisted of the Calingae proper, the Gangarides-Calingae and the Macco-Calingae. This may have been a reference to the Tri-kalinga ("Three Kalingas") that appeared in the Puranas[c][5] The area of diffusion is thought to roughly coincide with the Northern Circars (now spanning the states of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa).[4] Their chief cities were Dandagula (Dandaguda) and Parthalis (Protalis).[6][4]
Explanatory notes
- ^ Text does not explicitly refer to them as the Calingae, but identified as "Calinge" by mandragore, manuscript image database of Bibliothèque nationale de France.
- ^ Pliny borrowed (or quoted) his account of India in Book VI.21–23 from Megasthenes.[2]
- ^ Alexander Cunningham had made this observation.
References
- Citations
- ^ Pliny, Hist. Nat. VI, 2 (Pliny, Bostock & Riley (tr.) 1855, p. 134 and note 98)
- ^ McCrindle (1901), pp. 112–113.
- ^ Pliny, Bostock & Riley (tr.) (1855), p. 44 note 50.
- ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
DGRGwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Caldwell, Robert (1913), A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Or South-Indian Family of Languages, Asian Educational Services, p. 29
- ^ Pliny, Hist. Nat. VI, 21–22 (Pliny, Bostock & Riley (tr.) 1855, pp. 42–43 and note 43, 44 and note 50)
<references> tag (see the help page).- Bibliography
- McCrindle, John Watson (1901), Ancient India as Described in Classical Literature, Archibald Constable, pp. 112–114
- John, Bostock; H. T., Riley, eds. (1855), The Natural History of Pliny, H. G. Bohn, p. 44
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