Indian Antiquary Vol 16

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 12

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JANUARY, 1887.
was made down the Bay of Bengal from some (7) According to the Janaka-játaka, a seapoint on the Ganges and intermediately from a route for large ships existed in pre-Buddhist port in Kalinga. The clue to the true direction times and presumably continued through of this route was included in Dr. Burgess' Buddha's life-time, which started from the discovery 16 that the port of Supara at which Ganges and terminated at a place called Vijaya touched on his way to Ceylon,"") was 'Caumavatoura, '151 (Kamavaturai). In the sitaated on the western coast of the Dakhan. termination 'turai' of this name, I recognize
(3) This port of Supara or Suppåraka, a Tamil word meaning sea-port,' 'harbour,' according to that identification, lay near the roadstead' and I would therefore place this modern Bassein. It is mentioned in the legends port of call somewhere on the sea-coast of the of Punna, and in the earlier legend of the Tamil country: and if & reference to the Suppáraka Bodhisat.11. It was also the start- amorous reputation of the Pallava kings is to ing point of the voyage of Punna's brother to be detected in the adjectival Kamava, '199 a still the region of the red-sanders. 140
closer location may be found for it on the No other port on the western coast south of Pallava section of the Tamil Coast between the Suppâraka is mentioned in any of these legends. mouths of the Northern and Southern Pennar
(4) From some unnamed port in the south- rivers. ernmost section of the eastern coast, pro- (8) The voyage of the merchants of Srávasti bably in the neighbourhood of Tuticorin, in the Tibetan legend of the Singhalese princess ships sailed to the opposite coast of Ceylon. Ratnávali," who were driven down the By this route Vijaya's Paụdyan bride and her Bay of Bengal by contrary winds, ran in the retinge were conveyed to their new home; his main in the track of Fa-Hisn's voyage from ambassadors having already come by it from the Ganges to Ceylon in the fifth century Ceylon to the Påndyan coast."
A.D.180 Their subsequent voyage to Ceylon (5) Higher up in the northern section of the and back is described in terms wbich imply that eastern coast, apparently in Kalinga, lay the their course was the ordinary mariners' route. port of Adseitta mentioned in the Burmese A similar voyage by this route from Morelegends"" as the terminus of a sea-route across pur or Kimbulawat-pure on the Ganges the Bay of Bengal," at which the merchant to Ceylon was made in the generation which brothers Tapoosa and Palekat landed their succeeded Buddha's nirvana by the consort of goods on their way to Suvama in Magadha Vijaya's nephew and her companions, and
(6) Underlying some of the Vijayan tradi- shortly afterwards by her six brothers :1" and tions there is a consciousness of a coasting route here we have the additional information that along the eastern coast from the mouth of the voyage occupied twelve days.153 the Ganges to Ceylon, having intermediate (9) In one of the Chinese legends of the points of communication in the Kalinga country, lion-prince Sinhala1sthe boat in which the and probably in the delta of the Krishna. daughter of the lion was cast away, was driven A landing place lower down this coast, some by the winds westwards into the Persian gull. where near the mouth of the Northern Pennår, where she landed and founded & colony in is-implied in the legend of the cargo of red- the Country of the Western Women.' sanders," and its counterpart-legend of the The tradition embodied in the Dipavainsa Bodhisat of Suppåraka.1* Along this routes version of this legend 184 makes her land on an apparently, according to the Chinese version island which was afterwards called the of the tradition, the open boat in which the Kingdom of Women.' Underneath the parricide son of the lion was exposed, drifted legendary matter we may here trace the existfrom his mother's country of Southern India" ence of a sea-route between India and the to Ceylon, 196
Persian consts in the days of Buddha. 116 See ante, IV. 282 and note. 111 Turn. 46. 11 Bigandet, 415. 118 See p. above. 11. Man. Bud. 18.
1 One of the Pallava districts bore the name of Kame180 Uph. III. 118. Han. Bud. 57.
kottam. Winslow, Tamil Dict., rub. voc. 11 Turn. 51. Bee Cph. 11. 840. 19 See page 5 above. 11. Rock. 59.
180 Fa-Hlian, 149. as Bigandet, 101 ; Man. Bud. 182.
in Uph. I. 71; II. 177. Turn. 55. 1* See page 8 above. 181 Man. Bud, 18.
13 Uph. I. 72II. 177. 2 Si-yu-ki, II. 289. See note 78, page 1 above.
23. Si-yu-I, II. 240.
13ante, XIII. 35.
*
Turn. Bb.