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NOVEMBER, 1884.]
represented as having been settled by Parasurama in 61 villages, and as having at first lived under a republican constitution. In section 74 Ptolemy mentions a town called Brahmê belonging to the Brahmanoi Magoi, i.e., 'sons of the Brahmans.'
PTOLEMY'S GEOG. BK. VII, CH. 1, §§ 8, 9.
Kalaikarias:-The last half of this word (Karias) is doubtless the Tamil word for "coast," karei, which appears also in another of Ptolemy's names, Peringkarei, mentioned as one of the inland towns Kandionoi (sec. 89). I find in Arrowsmith's large Map of India a place called 'Chalacoory' to the N. E. of Kranganur, and at about the same distance from it as our author makes Kalaikarias distant from Mouziris.
Mouziris may anhesitatingly be taken to represent the Muyiri of Muyiri-Kodu, which, says Yule, appears in one of the most ancient of Malabar inscriptions as the residence of the King of Kodangalur or Kranganur, and is admitted to be practically identical with that now extinct city. It is to Kranganur he adds that all the Malabar traditions point as their oldest seaport of renown; to the Christians it was the landing-place of St. Thomas the Apostle.
Mouth of the river Pseudostomos, or 'false-mouth.' According to the table the river enters the sea at the distance of of a degree below Mouziris. It must have been one of the streams that discharge into the Backwater.
Podoperoura must be the Poudopatana of Indikopleustes-a word which means new town,' and is a more correct form than Ptolemy's Podoperoura.
Semnê: The Sanskrit name for Buddhist Ascetics was $ramana, in Tamil Samana, and as we find that this is rendered as Semnoi by Clemens Alexandrinus, we may infer that Semne was a town inhabited by Buddhists, having perhaps a Buddhist temple of noted sanctity. For a different explanation see Lassen's Ind. Alt. vol. III, p. 194.
Bakarei is mentioned by Pliny as Becare, and as Bakarê by the Author of the Periplus, who places it at the mouth of the river on which, at a distance of 120 stadia from the sea. was situated the great mart called Nelkynda, or Melkynda as Ptolemy writes it. The river is described as difficult of navigation on account of shallows and sunken reefs, so that ships despatched from Nelkynda were obliged to sail down empty to Bakarê and there take in their cargoes. The distance of Nelkynda from Mouziris is given at about 500 stadia, and this whether the journey was made by sea or by river or by land. Upon this Yule thus remarks: "At this distance south from Kranganur we are not able to point to a
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quite satisfactory Nelkynda. The site which has been selected as the most probable is nearly 800 stadia south of Mouziris. This is Kallada, on a river of the same name entering the Backwater, the only navigable river on this south-west coast except the Perri-år near Kranganur. The Kallada River is believed to be the Kanetti mentioned in the Kêralotatti legendary history of Malabar, and the town of Kallaḍa to be the town of Kaněṭṭi. It is now a great entrepôt of Travankor pepper, which is sent from this to ports on the coast for shipment. That Nelkynda cannot have been far from this is clear from the vicinity of the Пupóóv opos or Red-Hill of the Periplús (sec..58). There can be little doubt that this is the bar of red laterite which, a short distance south of Quilon, cuts short the Backwater ravigation, and is thence called the Warkallê barrier. It forms. abrupt cliffs on the sea, without beach, and these cliffs are still known to seamen as the Red Cliffs. This is the only thing like a sea cliff from Mount d'Ely to Cape Comorin." The word Bakarei may represent the Sanskrit dváraka, 'a door.'
Mouth of the river Baris:-The Baris must be a stream that enters the Backwater in the neighbourhood of Quilon.
9. Country of the Aïoi. Melkynda .120° 20′ 14° 20' Elangkôn (or Elangkôr), a
......
mart ..120° 40′ 14° 14° Kottiara, the metropolis ......121° Bammala ......121° 20 14° 15' Komaria, a cape and town...121° 45′ 13° 30' The Aïoi:-This people occupied the southern parts of Travankor. Their name is perhaps a transliteration of the Sanskrit ahi, 'a snake,' and if so, this would indicate the prevalence among them of serpent worship. Cunningham, in his Geography of Ancient India (p. 552), states that in the Chino-Japanese Map of India the alternative name of Malyakata is Hai-an-men, which suggests a connection with Ptolemy's Aïoi. I note that the entrance to the Backwater at Kalikoulan is called the Great Ayibicca Bar, and an entrance farther south the Little Ayibicca Bar. The first part of this name may also be similarly
connected.
Melkynda, as already stated is the Nelkynda of the Periplás, which places it, however, in Limyrikê. Pliny speaks of it as portus gentis Neacyndon (v. 11. Neacrindon, Neachyndon, Nelcyndon.) The name, according to Caldwell, probably means West Kynda, that is Kannetri, the south boundary of Kerala Proper. When Mangalur was taken as the representative of
