Indian Antiquary Vol 08

SR No.: 032500
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 404
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 171

MAY, 1879.]
PERIPLUS OF THE ERYTHRAAN SEA.
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others called kolandiophônta, which are of great bulk and employed for voyages to Khruse and the Ganges. These marts import all the commodities which reach Limuriko for commercial purposes, absorbing likewise nearly every species of goods brought from Egypt, and most descriptions of all the goods exported from Limurike and disposed of on this coast of India.
61. Near the region which succeeds, where the course of the voyage now bends to the east, there lies ont in the open sea stretching towards the west the island now called Palaisi- moundou, but by the ancients Tapro
banê. To cross over to the northern side of it takes a day. In the south part it gradually stretches towards the west till it nearly reaches the opposite coast of Azania. It produces pearl, precious (transparent) stones, muslins, and tortoise-shell.
62. (Returning to the coast,) not far from the three marts we have mentioned lies Masalia, the seaboard of a country extending far inland. Here immense quantities of fine maslins are manufactured. From Masalia the course of the voyage lies eastward across a neighbouring bay to Dês arên 8, which has the breed of elephants called Bösarê, Leaving Dês arên
of the pearl fishery, still surviving amongst its in- Eastern trade were called Kolandiophonta, a name habitants. After the sea had retired from Kolxou... which Caldwell confesses his inability to explain. a new emporium arore on the coast. This was | Three cities and ports are named in the order of KA yal, the Cael of Marco Polo. Kayal in turn their occurrence which were of great commercial became in time too far from the sea .. and Tuti- importance, Kamara, Podou ke, and Sopatcorin (Tattruk udi) was raised instead by the ma. Ka mara may perhaps be, as Müller thinks, Portuguese from the position of a fishing village the emporium which Ptolemy calls Kha beris, to that of the most important port on the southern situated at the mouth of the River Khaberos Coromandel coast. The identification of Kolkoi (now, the Kavery), perhaps, as Dr. Burnell sug. with Kolkei is one of much importance. Being gests, the modern Kaveripattam. (Ind. Ant. vol. perfectly certain it helps forward other identifica- VII. p. 40). Pôdou kê appears in Ptolemy as tions. Kol. in Tamil means 'to slay.' Kei is Podouke. It is Puduchcheri, i.e. new hand. It was the first capital of Pandion. town,' now well known as Pondicherry; so Bohlen.
The coast beyond Kolkboi, which has an in- Ritter, and Benfey. [Yule and Lassen place it at land district belonging to it called Argalou, is Pulikåt]. Sopatma is not mentioned in indented by a gulf called by Ptolemy the Argarik- Ptolemy, nor can it now be traced. In Sanskrit now Palk Bay. Ptolemy mentions also a promontory it transliterates into Su-patna., i. e., fair town. called Kôru and beyond it a city called Argeirou (61) The next place noticed is the Island of and an emporium called Salour. This Köru Ceylon, which is designated Palaisimoun. of Ptolemy, Caldwell thinks, represents the dou, with the remark that its former name was Kolis of the geographers who preceded him, Taprobanê. This is the Greek transliteration of and the Koţi of Tamil, and identifies it with Támraparni, the name given by a band of colonists "the island promontory of Rames varam, the from Magadha to the place where they first point of land from which there was always the Tanded in Ceylon, and which was afterwards exnearest access from Southern India to Ceylon." tended to the whole island. It is singular, Dr. An island occurs in these parte, called that of Caldwell remarks, that this is also the name of Epio dôros, noted for its pearl fishery, on the principal river in Tinnevelly on the opposito which account Ritter would identify it with coast of India, and he infers that the colony the island of Manaar, which Ptolemy, as Mannert referred to might previously have formed a settlethinks, speaks of as Návypís (VII. i. 95). Müller ment in Tinnevelly at the mouth of the Tamrathinks, however, it may be compared with Ptole- parni river-perhaps at Kolkei, the earliest resimy's Kôru, and so be Râmêsvaram
dence of the Påndya kings. The passage in the This coast has commercial intercourse not only Periplus which refers to the island is very corrupt. with the Malabar ports, but also with the Ganges (62) Recurring to the mainland. the narraand the Golden Khersonese. For the trade with tive notices a district called Masalia, where the former a species of canoes was used called great quantities of cotton were manufactured. Sangara. The MalayAlam name of these, Caldwell This is the Mais ôlia of Ptolemy, the region in says, is Changádam, in Tuļa Jangdia, compare which he places the mouths of a river the Mais Sanskrit Samghadam á raft (Ind. Ant. vol. I. 10s, which Benfey identifies with the Godávart, p. 309). The large vessels employed for the l in opposition to others who would make it the