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94
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ MAY, 1926
PALOURA-DANTAPURA.
(A translation of a Note by M. Sylvain Lévi.)
THE issue of the Journal Asiatique (Tome CCVI) for January-March, 1925, contains a collection of 'Notes Indiennes by M. Sylvain Lévi, one of which is concerned with the identification of the place called "Paloura" by Ptolemy the geographer. As M. Lévi's conclusions cannot but be of interest to students of the early history of India, I give below as faithful an English rendering as I can of his erudite note.-S. M. EDWARDES.
"Ptolemy mentions a locality named Paloura on the eastern side of India (VII, 1, 16), which he took as one of the bases in the construction of his map. He locates Paloura in 136° 40' E and 11°20′ N, near the mouths of the Ganges, 20 degrees north of the aphetêrion, where vessels bound for the Golden Peninsula (Khrusê Khersonêsos) ceased to hug the shore and sailed for the open sea. Ptolemy's map locates this aphetêrion at the southern extremity of an imaginary peninsula, which inclines in a south-easterly direction from a point approximately corresponding to Point Calimere, immediately to the north of Ceylon, and then after running straight northward finally bends west-by-east towards the Gangetic delta. In his first book (I, 13, 5-7) Ptolemy discussed at length the position assigned to Paloura by his predecessor, Marin of Tyre, and corrected according to his own ideas his predecessor's estimate of the distance between Paloura and the port of Sada, situated on the opposite shore.
"It is surprising to find that, except by Ptolemy, no mention is made of a locality situated in so exceptional a position on the maritime trade-route between India and the Far East. The name belongs to the Dravidian type, and is one of the large series of names ending in our and oura, suffixes which have long been recognized as derived from the Dravidian term ûr (town). Caldwell (Comp. Grammar of the Dravidian Languages, Introduction, p. 104) derives the name Paloura from the Tamil pâl-ûr, i.e., 'milk-town.' But there is an alternative explanation. The Tamil word for 'tooth' is pallu (Tel. pallu; Kan. hallu; Mal. pallu; Gond. pal; etc.; cf. Linguistic Survey, vol. IV, 650-652, No. 37). Paloura can quite well signify "the city of the tooth." Indian tradition has known from a very remote date of a "tooth-city," Dantapura, in the country of Kalinga, the very region in which we meet with Paloura. Dantapura is renowned chiefly in Buddhist tradition, which associates the name of the city with a famous relic, the tooth of Buddha, worshipped to-day at Kandy in Ceylon. The ordinary tradition regarding the division of the relics soon after the Parinirvâna related that one of the teeth of the Master was taken to the kingdom of Kalinga (Digha, II, p. 167; Buddhavamsa, chap. XXVIII; Dulva in Rockhill, Life, p. 147). A late poem in Pali, the Dathavamsa by Dhammakitti, gives the supposed history of this relic. It was carried to Dantapura by the sage Khema, in the reign of Brahmadatta of Kalinga, and was worshipped there until the reign of Guhasiva, who, to save it from profanation, entrusted it to his sonin-law, Dantakumâra of Ujjayinî. Carried by the latter to Tamralipti, the tooth was thence carried by sea to Ceylon, where it was piously welcomed by Mahasena's successor, Kitti-sirimegha (middle of the 4th century), the same prince who despatched an embassy to Samudragupta in connexion with the Mahabodhi monastery. The two facts are closely connected; Kitti-siri-megha appears as the champion of Buddhist interests, while India is experiencing a wave of reaction against Buddhism.
"According to Buddhist tradition, Dantapura is one of the most ancient Indian cities; it stands first on the list of the six towns founded by Mahagovinda in the time of king Reņu :
Dantapuram Kalinganam Assakanan cha Potanam Mahissati Avantinam Sovíránañ cha Rorukam Mithila cha Videhânam Campå Angesu mâpitá Bârânasi cha Kásinam ete Govindamapita.
