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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(AUGUST, 1902.
the Vayu-Purana,' the Matsya Purana, 19 and the Markandeya-Purana20 make mention of Kerala and Gokarnam. The latter also occurs in the Bhagavata, Padma and Skanda Puranas. The Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Harivamsa refer to the Koralas as a class of despicable people in the south, such as the Hûņas, Pulindas, Chandalas, Svapachas, etc. They attribute the degeneration of the times to the existence of such nations of the lowest origin, 21 To them were also ascribed the atrocities of warfare 22
The 2nd and the 13th Edicts of the great king Abška (B, C. 257) refer to the ruler of Keralam as Koralaputra and classes his country as one of the Pratyantas or border lande.
In the 1st century A. D. Pliny refers to the ruler of Kerala as Calobothras, and mentions Muziris, the first emporium in India, as his capital. Muziris has been satisfactorily identified by Dr. Burnell with the modern Cranganore or Kodungallur. From Pliny we may gather that the country ruled by Calobothras extended southwards to Neacyndon, Nilkanda or Kallada, near Quilon, where the sway of the Pandyan king began.
The Periplus written probably in the first century A. D., also refers to Keprobothras and the land he ruled, which it calls Limurike. It extended from Nouro and Tyndis in the north to Nilkanda in the South,
Ptolemy (2nd century A. D.) mentions Karoura as the capital of Limarike where Kerobothras lived. The description given by Pliny, Arrian and Ptolemy, of Limurike, or, as the Peutingerian Tables call it, Damurike, enables us to fix approximately the extent of the sway of Calobothras, Keprobothras or Kerobothras. Limurike or Damurike has been shown by the learned Bishop Caldwell to represent the Dravida or the Tamil-Malayalam country. From Pliny it is somewhat difficult to gather its northern limit; but after making mention of the important port of Muziris, he goes southwards and names Neacyndon, which, according to him, belonged to the Pandyans. In this the Periplus agrees with him. Ptolemy calls the place Melkynda and locates it in the country of the Aioi, identified by Caldwell with South Travancore. Ptolemy and the author of the Periplus are at one in making Tyndis the most northern port in Limurike. The Periplus gives its distance at 700 stadia or nearly 12° of latitude, if we reckon 600 stadia to the degree. Notwithstanding this authoritative statement which makes Limurike begin somewhere near Calicut (11° 15' N. Lat.), ite frontier has generally been placed nearly farther north, Tyndis having been located at Barcelore. This error has been rectified by Sir Henry Yule, whose adherence to the data of the Periplus has been completely justified by the satisfactory identification of Muziris with Cranganore instead of with Mangalore, as previously accepted. It is, perhaps. necessary to point out here that Tyndis, too, has been satisfactorily identified by Dr. Burnell with Kadalundi noar Beypore, the former south-western terminus of the Madras Railway near Calicut.28
The Kerabothras of Ptolemy, Keprobothras of the Periplup and Calobothras of Pliny has been identified by Bishop Caldwell with the Tamil Keralaputra. The insertion of the letter "p" in one of the above names is pointed out to be an error, perhaps of the transcriber. "The name in Sanskțit and in full," says the learned Bishop, "is Kèraļaputra, but the Kêra and Kela are Dravidian abbreviations of Kerala. They are Malayalam, however, not Tamil abbreviations and the District over which the Tamil Kéra la putra ruled is that in which the Malay&ļam Language is now spoken."24
18 Chap. 45, v. 124, Ed. Bib. Indica.
19 Chap. 112, v. 46, Poona Lithogrph Ed. # Chap. 67, v. 45, Ed. Bib. Ind.: Prof. Bhandarkar classes the Vayu, the Mataya, and the Bhagavata w among the later Puranas. Of these the oldest appears to him to be the Vayu, and next to it the Matsya, and the Bhagavata he latest. See Early History of the Dekhan,
See Dr. Opport on the Weapons, Army Organisation and Political Marime of the Ancient Hindogs. n. n Nutiprakasika : Mad. Jour. Of Lit, and Science for 1881.
33 See MoOrindle's Translation of Ptolomw. * Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, Introduction, p. 98.
