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116
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1893.
Conjeveram, viz. about 232 miles to the north-west-by-north, seem to answer sufficiently well to the statement made by the Chinese writers, that the capital of Kong-kin-na-pu-lo was about 2,000 li, or approximately 333 miles, to the north-west from Kañchi, i.e. Conjeveram.
DANISH COINS FROM TRANQUEBAR.
BY E. HULTZSCH, PH.D.; BANGALORE. The seaport of Tranquebar is situated in the Mayavaram tâlukil of the Tanjore district, 18 miles north of Negapatam. The only ancient Hindú building in it is a Saiva temple, which is partially washed away by the sea. This temple contains three Tamil inscriptions :-1
No. I.-An inscription which is dated in the 37th year of the reign of the Pandya king K-Maravarman, (alias) Tribhuvanachakravartin Kulapokharadova.
No. II.-An inscription which is dated on the 20th day of the month of Kárttigai of the cyclic year Prabhava, and which records a gift by a certain Iramaiyar Ayyan, who was the agent of “the glorious Achchudappa Nayakkar A[y]yan." According to the Tanjore Manual, pp. 750 ff., Achyutappa was the name of the second of the four Nayaka rulers of Tanjavur If he is meant, the date of the inscription would correspond to A. D. 1627.
No. III.-An inscription which is dated in A. D. 1783, and which records that a certain A paduddhârama-Setti, the son of Subrahmanya-Setti, erected a flagstaff (dhvajastambha) and laid the pavement (taļavićai) of the temple.
The two last inscriptions call the temple MÀsilêmani-Isvara, while in the first, it is called Masivannisvara, and Tranquebar itself “Saqanganpadi, alias Kulasegaranpattinam (i. e. the city of Kulasekhara)." The modern Tamil designation of Tranquebar, Tarangampadi (.e. "the village of the waves"), is evidently a corruption, produced through a popular etymology, of the form which occurs in Kulasekhara's inscription, Sadanganpaời. The intermediate form Tadanganpåời appears to be scribbled between lines 4 and 5 of the inscription No. II.
A large number of deserted buildings in the European style, the fort of " Dansborg," and the tombstones with Danish epitaphs in the cemetery remind the visitor of this Indian Pompeii that it used to be the seat of the Government of a Danish colony. The Danes established an East India Company during the reign of Christian IV. in A. D. 1616.. Their first ship, the “Oeresund," which left Denmark in August 1618, in charge of Roelant Crape, a Dutchman
7 Beal, loc. cit. p. 253 and note 38. The Si-yu-ki says "north-wards;" and Hwui-li, "north-west."- Someone or other has, doubtless, already commented on the curions appearance which the word Konkap¶ presents, as the name of a country. The Chinese transliteration kong-kin-na might also represent the Sanskrit karkana, 'a bracelet,' or the Kanarese keingann, 'red eye,' which occurs in kengaunavakki, 'the black Indian cuckoo, having red eyes.' But the couutry lies so much in the direction of the province which in later records is called, with reference to the actual or traditional number of its villages, the Gangavili Ninety-six-thousand, and which may very well have included Karnal, that I canuot help thinking that, in the Chinese Kong-kin-na-pu-lo, we may find the word Ganga or Kongaại. With Gauga for kong.kin, it is not easy to say what na-pu-lo can represent; unless it may be t.
y to say what na-pu-lo can represent; unless it may be the Sanskrit niipura. 'an anklet,' or noivala (also written navall), 'abounding with reeds, a reed-bed.' With Kongani for kong-kin-na, we might, if Kongani can be shewn to be the ancient name of any river, take the whole word to be either Kongapipura, "(the country of) the floods of the Kongani,' or Konganipårs, (the country of) the fords of the Kongaņi.' There was also country named Konga, which is saggested to be the modern Kodagu or Coorg (Mysore Inscriptions, p. xli.). And this name, too, might be found in the Chinese word. But, if Kongu is Coorg, it seems too far to the west for the country traversed by Hiuen Tsiang.- Again, a Harihar inscription mentions a country named Kongana (id. p. 70); it is distinct from the Konkana, which is mentioned in the same passage.
Nos. 75 to 77 of my Progress Report for October 1890 to March 1891 ; Madras G.O., 10th June 1891, No. 452, Public.
The complete date of the inscription is :-"On the auspicious day, on which the Uttiratti dinakshatra fell on Friday, the 30th day of the month of Avani of the Sibh ukrit year, which was current after the Salivana-Saka year 1775 (read 1705) and the Kaliyuga year 1986."
Sadangan appears to be used in the sense of shad-anga-vid, 'one who knows the six Angas (of the Veda).' With Salanganpadi compare the term chaturvedi-mangalam, which is frequently employed in Tamil inscriptions as the designation of an agrahara.
4 Pastor Fenger's History of the Tranquebar Mission, Tranquebar 1863, p. 1.
