Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 13
Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

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Page 380
________________ 332 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [NOVEMBER, 1884. explained by the fact just stated that each of these projections was called Koti. This word Kóti takes another form in Greek and Latin besides that of Kory, viz., Kolis, the name by which Pomponius Mela and Dionysios Periêngêtês (v. 1148) designate Southern India. The promontory is called Coliacum by Pliny, who describes it as the projection of India near. est Ceylon, from which it was separated by a narrow coral sea. Strabo (lib. XV, c.i, 14) quoting Oudsikritos, speaks of Taprobane as distant from the most southern parts of India, which are opposite the Koniakoi, 7 days' sail towards the south. For Kôniakoi the reading Kóliakoi has been with reason suggested. Ptolemy, like the anthor of the Periplus and other writers, regarded Cape Kôry as the most important projection of India towards the south, and as a well-established point from which the distances of other places might conveniently be calculated. He placed it in 125 degrees of E longitude from Ferro, and at 120 degrees east of the mouth of the River Bætis in Spain from which, however, ita distance is only 864 degrees. Ita latitude is 90 20' N. and that of Cape Comorin 8° 5', but Ptolemy makes the difference in latitude to be only 10. The identity of Kalligikon with Point Kalimfr has already been pointed out. Calimere is a corrupt form of the Tamil compound Kallimedu, Euphorbia eminence, and so the first part of the Greek name exactly coincides with the Tamil Kalli, which means the Euphorbia plant, or perhaps a kind of cactus. Pliny mentions a projection on the side of India we are now considering which he calls Calingon, and which the similarity of name has led some to identify with Kalligikon, and therefore with Point Kalimfr. It seems better, however, taking into account other considerations which we need not here specify, to identify this projection with Point Godavart. Before concluding this notice we may point out how Ptolemy has represented the general configuration of the eastern coast beyond the Orgalic Gulf. His views here are almost as erroneous as those he entertained concerning the west coast, which, it will be remembered, he did not carry southward to Cape Comorin, but made to terminate at the point of Simylla, thus'effacing from the Map of India the whole of the Peninsula. The actual direction of the east coast from point Kalimir is first due north as far as the mouths of the Krishna, and thereafter north-east up to the very head of the Bay of Bengal. Ptolemy, however, makes this coast run first towards the south-east, and this for a distance of upwards of 600 miles as far as Paloura, a place of which the site has been fixed with certainty as lying near the southern border of Katak, about 5 pr 6 miles above Ganjam. Ptolemy places it at the extremity of a vaat peninsula, having for one of its sides the long stretch of coast just mentioned, and he regards it also as marking the point from which the Gangetic Gulf begins. The coast of this gulf is made to run at first with an inclination to westward, so that it forms at its outlet the other side of the peninsula. Its curvature is then to the north-east, as far as to the most eastern mouth of the Ganges, and thence its direction is to the south-east till it terminates at the cape near Témala, now called Cape Negrais, the south-west projection of Pegu. 12. Country of the Batoi. Nikama, the Metropolis ......126° 16° Thelkheir ......... 16° 10 Kouroula, a town ...............128° 16° 13. In Paralia specially so called : the country of the Toringoi. Mouth of the River Khabêros 129° 15° 15' Khabêria, an emporium ......128° 30' 15° 40' Sabouras, an emporium ......130° 14° 30' The Batoi occupied the district extending from the neighbourhood of Point Kalimir to the southern mouth of the River Kåvêri and corres: ponding roughly with the Province of Tanjore. Nikama, the capital, has been identified with Nagapatam (Nagapattanam) by Yule, who also identifies (but doubtingly) Thelkyr with Nagor and Kouroula with Karikal. Paralia, as a Greek word, designated generally any maritime district, but as applied in India it designated exclusively (idios) the seaboard of the Tôringoi. Our author is here at variance with the Periplús, which has a Paralia extending from the Red Cliffs near Quilon to the Pearl Fishery at the Kolkhoi, and comprising therefrom the coastlines of the Aioi and the Kareoi. “This Paralia," says Yule,"is no doubt Purali, an old name of Travankor, from which the Raja has a title Puralićan, Lord of Purali.' But the "instinctive striving after meaning" which so often modifies the form of words, converted this into the Greek Tlapalía, the coast.' Dr. Caldwell however inclines rather to think that Paralia may possibly have corresponded to the native word meaning coast, viz. karei. In sec. 91, where Ptolemy gives the list of the inland towns of the Tôringoi, he calls them the Sorêtai, mentioning that their capital was Orthoura, where the king, whose name was Sörnagos, resid. ed. In sec. 68 again he mentions the Sôrai as a race of nomads whose capital was Sgra where

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