Indian Antiquary Vol 26

SR No.: 032518
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 360
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 118

114
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1897.
should admit of speculation is itself nothing short of a marvel - a standing monument of the historical ineptitude of the Indian races. Bat the era with which we have mostly to do here is the Kollam, and so I offer a few remarks on it before passing on to the inscriptions dated in that era.
The Kollam era. Though the Kollam era is in everyday nse, no one serms to know why it was started, or what kollam itself means. The word 'kollam' has a striking resemblance in sound to the name of several important towns. It is evidently derived from the same root as Korkai, the oldest known capital of the Pandgas. It was Dr. Caldwell who first suggested the obvious analysis of Korkai into kol + kui, as well as its identification with the "Kolkhoi” of the Greek writers of the first and the second Christian centuries. I feel unable, however, to accept Dr. Caldwell's interpretation of the root-meaning of Korkai. " Kol in Tamil," says he, "means 'to slay,' and kui,'hand or arm.' Kolkai, therefore, would seem to mean the hand or arm of slnaghter,' which is said to be an old poetical name for an army, a camp,' the first instrument of Government in a rude age. Kai is capable also of meaning place,' e. 9., Podigai, place of concealment,' the name of the mountain from which the river of Korkar takes its rise. Compare the naine Coleroon, properly Kollidam, the place of slaughter.'” I am sorry I cannot agree with Dr. Caldwell in any of the clerivations hore suggested. The word kol means many other things in Tamil besides to kill,' which last seems to me to be the last of its connotations to be thought of in this connection. In no age, however rude, could a nation have looked upon their capital as a place where people were killed and not protected. No doubt, the expression "koll kolaiyum" is often used, particularly in Malayalam, to signify political authority or rather criminal jurisdiction, but the very combination would seem to prove that kol is distinct from Kilai or slaughter.' The particle kui in Korkai is obviously the well-knoirn suffis of verbal nouns as in seygai and irukkai, and not an independent word meaning hand or arm. Though the worl ku meaning 'hand' is used by itself in connection with dispositions of armies, very much as the term "wing" in English, yet neither in poetical nor in popular Tami] dues kollui occur in the sense of 'army or cump.' That the verbal sutfix kui is sometimes found in .connection with words which by metonymy indicate localities may be admitted, but by itself it never means a place,' as Dr. Caldwell suggests as an alternative interpretation. Nor is le lappy in his illustrations. Podigai, & corruption of Potika, the Sanskritized form of Podiyam, is never found in classical Tamil, or in accredited lexicons like Diválrram aod Niyhan!. The Tamilians recognize only Podiyam and Podiyil - not Podigui or Pötika - as the name of the famous mountain of their patron saint Agastya.la Nor is it berond doubt whether Coleroon is Kollid!xlu or Kollidam. But whatever be its correct form, it is difficult to conceive why so large a river should also have been a place of slanghter in any age,
:owerer rude or remote. I feel quite sceptical, therefore, about the slaughter-theory of Dr. Coldwell. All that we can accept then out of these etymological speculations is that Korkai is analysable into kol + kai; and that is the important point we bave here to bear in mind.
If kol is the root of Ko kai, it is even more obviously the root of Kollam --- am being as good a suffix of verbal nouns as kai. Compare, for instance, the word nôkkam. It seems to me farther that Kochchi or Cochin, one of the best of the natural harbours in the world, is also derived from the same root. The equivalent term Balapuri is a ludicrous Sanskrit translation of the Dravidian name Kochchi, for which the Kéralamáhátmyam is chiefly responsible. Whether Cochin is identical or not with the Colcis Indorum - the Indian Colcis of the Peatinger Tables, as I surmise it is, we cannot be far wrong in analysing it into lol + chi, chi being another well-known suffix of Tamil words. It seems to me probable that the well-known ports Colombo and Colachel are also derived from the same root, though
? E. g., Valangai and Islangai -the Right and Left Wiaga' which have now come to stand as collective games of certain groups of castes.
20 [Compare ante, Vol. XVIII. p. 241.-E. H.]