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 119

MAY, 1897.]
MISCELLANET US TRAVANCORE INSCRIPTIONS
115
greatly disguised. Kolambu and Kolachchai are respectively analysable into lol + am + pu, and leol + a + chai; am, pu and chui being kuown suffixes of Tamil words. That Sanskrit writers habitually translate Kollam into Kolamba may, to some extent, serve to show how Kolambu and Kolachchai may have been corrupted into Kolambu and Kolachchoi. If we are right so far, the root-meaning of kol becomes more or less manifest. All of them - Korkai and Colombo; Colachel, Cochin, and Qailon in Travancore; and Qailandy in Malabar - are sea-port towns; and Kolkai, Kollam, and Kolchi (Cochin) are known to have been famous in ancient days for their natural harbours. May not, then, the root-idea of these words be 'sex-port, harbour, or emporium of trade'? We find support for our conjecture in the current useof kolla in Malayalam - Kolla means a breach, as of a dam, through which water flows, -- and both Quilon and Cochin are remarkable for the inlet or breach in the const-line through which the ser communicates with the backwaters. That Korkui was situated at the mouth of the Tamra. pargi, and that the town which grew up in its neighbourhood and finally superseded it about the tine of Marco Polowas called Kiyal, meaning 'a lagoon,' would show tlant Korkai must have been in its paliny days as much distinguished for an inlet.into its back water as Cochin is to-day. This then strikes me as the most probable connotation of leol, and we may accordingly take Kollam (Quilon), Kolkai (Korkai), and Kolchi (Cochin), if not Colombo and Colachel as well, as originally meaning towns with natural harbours formed by a brench in the coast-line.
But as it is not safe to be dogmatíc in such matters, I would suggest one or tiro other possible explanations of the word kollam before proceciling to consider the erat named after it. Comparing such words as kolla: in Tamil, meaning an enclosure round a dwelling place,' kolli, which, in Canarese, means crooked,' in Malnyaļam 'crooked and therefore worn out,' as well as 'a crooked corner or valley,' and in Travancore Tamil 'a net made of ropes for enclosing and carrying anhusked cocoanats,' kõlal in Tamil ana kólnega in Malayalam meaning 'to enclose,' and kilam, 'a figure or form with the outlines meeting one another,' we may easily conclude that one of the root-ideas of kol nust be 'an enclosure,' and therefore 'a town,' Indeed, it will be remembered, the English word town," derived as it is from the Anglo-Saxon root "tun," meaning an enclosure or garden round it dwelling-house, would exactly correspond to the current use of kullai; and kullan, hulchi, kulkai, may, therefore, be all regarded as meaning nothing else than enclosed towns as opposed to the open country. If neither of the above derivations is found satisfactory for reasons I cannot now divine, there is yet a third which I may, perhaps, be perunitted to add. The word kolu means in all the Dravidian languages dignity, pomp, or majesty ;' and it is ousy to shew that the final vowel is no part of the root. The adjective or as in korrakkud aud the substantives korravan aud k rrani, meaning respectively king' and 'kingshin,' are evidently derived from the same root as kolu, which can be nothing else than kol, the radical in kollam, kulkai, and kolchi. These towns would then seem to mean places associated wit! power, pomp, or royal presence - meaning admirably suited to the facts (1) that at least two of them are known to have been real capitals of ancient royal families, and (2) that "other residences of kings were formerly called kılla', such as Kodungalur, etc.,” according to Dr. Gundert. In the face of these and similar other easy interpretations the root kol seems capable of, I am not prepared to accept Dr. Caldwell's slaughter-theory. More positively absurd would be any attempt to trace kollam to klambu, the meaninglese jargon of Sausksit writers.
Let us now turn to the era itself. Till recently European scholars would seem to have not known even so much as that it was an era. Mr. Prinsep calls it a cycle - the eycle of
See Dr. Caldwell's History of Tinevelly, p. 37. . Kayal is a good Tamil word, though current only in Malabar.
6 The particle tu wbich changes the l of kaliato ris an inportt anl willy-140 ! clembut in the formation of Tamil words, which it would be foreigu to our purpoze here to explain or to illustrato.