Indian Antiquary Vol 03

SR No.: 032495
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 420
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 233

AUGUST, 1874.]
GEOGRAPHY OF IBN BATUTA'S INDIAN TRAVELS.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF IBN BATUTA'S INDIAN TRAVELS. BY COL. H. YULE, C.B., PALERMO. II.-Continued from p. 117.
WE left the traveller at an island shown to
have been ANJEDIVA. Thence the party went on to Hinawar (Honore of our maps), the inhabitants of which were Musalmâns, brave, pious, and famous for their naval wars with the infidels, i.e. we may conclude they were great pirates. The women were beautiful and virtuous, and all knew the Koran by heart. There were in the city 13 schools for girls, and 23 for boys; the traveller had seen the like nowhere else. The Sultan of Hinâwar, Jamaluddin, received black mail from Malabar, but himself acknowledged the supremacy of a pagan prince called Haryâb.
Having passed three days with the hospitable pirate, they went on to Mulaibar (Malabar) the Pepper-country, which was considered to extend from Sindâ bûr to Kaulam, a distance of two months' march. Hence at Hinawar they were already within its limits, properly speaking.
Rashiduddin gives the limits of Malabar as from the boundary of Karoha (probably Gheriah) to Kaulam, but says the first city on the coast met with was Sindâ bûr: hence the practical agreement is exact.
The first town in Malabar touched at was Abu-Sarûr, a small place upon a great gulf or basin (khor, which seems to be applied by the traveller to the backwaters of Malabar); two days later they reach Fâ kanûr, another piratical port, but under a Hindu prince. Three days later they arrived at Manjarar, the great resort of the merchants of Fârs and Yemen, under a pagan prince called Râ madao (Râm Deo). Here, as at Fâkanûr, they would not land till the king had sent his own son on board as a hostage.*
Abu Sarar appears in Abulfeda as Ba. sarur, in the Portuguese Summary of Eastern Kingdoms, in Ramusio, as Bacelor, and was
known to our old traders as BARCELORE. There are the ruins of an ancient city at Sarur, about 7 miles S.E. of Batkal; these are marked in the Indian Atlas; and in the Admiralty
The custom of obtaining hostages before landing we find also in force when Da Gama landed at Calicut. Probably the former, as Barcelore and Baccanor are
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chart a high summit in the Ghâts above is called Barsilûr Peak. Fâkanûr is the BACCANORE of our old traders; it appears as Faknûr in Rashiduddin, Jai-Faknûr in Firishtah, Maganûr (perhaps) in Abdurrazzâk, and Pacamuria (for Pacanuria) in Nicolo Conti; it is also probably the Bangore of Rowlandson's Tohfut-ul-Mujahideen (p. 54). I find no means of determining whether Bakanûr was Kundapûr or Barkar, but it must, I think, have been one or other.† Manjarûr is of course Mangalur, and, being probably the Mangaruth of Cosmas, it has kept its name, and some trade, longer than any other port of Malabar.
The next place visited was Hili, on a great backwater which large ships could enter; this was one of the ports frequented by Chinese junks, a fact confirmed by Marco Polo. From this they proceeded three farsakhs to J urfattan, which belonged to a prince called Koil, to whom the two following places also were subject: viz. (1) Dehfattan, a great town on a basin, where there was a magnificent tank five hundred paces long and three hundred broad, all revetted with red stone, and having on its banks twenty stone cupolas, with a great threestoried pavilion in the middle of the water; (2) Bodfattan, a place with one of the best of harbours. From this they went to Fandaraina, another great port where the Chinese junks used to pass the winter; then to K âlikuth.
Hili exists no longer, but its name survives in Mount Dely, i.e. Monte D'ILI. The city probably stood at the head of the bay on the east side of the mountain. It was often coupled (Hili-Maravi) with another town called Maravi or Madavi, which exists as Mâdâ i.
Jorfattan, 12 miles from Hili, must have been either Baliapatan or Kananur. It appears as Zaraftun and Juraftun in Rowlandson's book, perhaps as Jarabattan in Edrisi. I have suggested formerly that Zor fattan may have been a kind of translation of Balia pattan. The Koil prince must be the
always coupled, as if very near. Yet De Barros says "the St. Mary's Isles lay between Bacanor and Baticala;" and those islands are south even of Barkår.