Indian Antiquary Vol 61

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 45

FEBRUARY, 1932) REMARKS ON THE NICOBAR ISLANDERS AND THEIR COUNTRY
37
E.S. E...
1884 1885. 1886. 1887.
1888.
WIND. N. E. .. .. .. April, Decr. January .. Jany., Feb., Jany., Feby. Jany., Feby.,
March,
Mar., Novr.,
December. April
.. April .. March .. .... S. S. W. . .. .. .. .. .... May to Aug. .... S. W. .. .. .. May to Octr. May to Octr. Sept. Oetr. Apl. to Sept. Apl. to Octr.
November.. November.. .... E. .. .. .. .... Feby., Mar., December.. Octr., Novr., ....
December.
Decr. W. S. W. .. November.. ....
CLOUDS. Clouds usually are ..P. K. .. K. & P. K:1 P. K. P.K. P. K.
With these can be partially compared Meteorological Statistics for Car-Nicobar since the establishment of the station there.
. 1898.9
1899. 1900. 1901.3
TE. (PERATURE. Mean highest in shade .. Septr. 84.4 May 88.7 July 88.6 Apl. 91.6 Mean lowest in shade . : 76.7 April 77.9 Feby, 77.6 Octr. 74.6 Highest in shade
- 88.0 March 92.3 April 93.5 April 92.3 Lowest in shade . .. Novr. 70.7 Feby, 66.0 March 66.8 Jany. 71.6 Dry bulb mean
.. , 79.3 83.2 , 83.8 84.2 Wet bulb mean .. » 77.2 73.6
73.0 74.0
RAINFALL. Most wet days in a month .. Octr. 18 June 26 May 20 Septr. 22 Heaviest fall in a month . Septr. 11.38 , 20.96 , 16.79 19.77 Total fall in year .. .. 44 , 104 , 106
78. Total wet days .. .. 51 , 178
131 , 99.
V. HISTORY. The situation of the Nicobars along the line of a very ancient trade has caused them to be reported by traders and seafarers through all historical times. Gerini has fixed on Maniola for Car-Nicobar and Agathodaimonos for Great Nicobar as the right ascription of Ptolemy's island names for this region. This ascription agrees generally with the medieval editions of Ptolemy. Yule's guess that Ptolemy's Barussæ is the Nivobars is corrected by Gerini's statement that it refers to Nias. In the 1490 edition of Ptolemy the Satyrorum Insulæ, placed to the south-east of the Malay Peninsula, where the Anamba Islands east of Singapore, also on the line of the old route to China, really are, have opposite them the remark :qui has inhabitant caudas habere dicunturno doubt in confusion with the Nicobars. They are without doubt the Lankhabalus of the Arab Relations (861 A.D.), which term may be safely taken as & misapprehension or mistransoription of some form of Nicobar (through Nakkavar, Nankhabar), thus affording the earliest reference to the modern term. But there is an earlier mention of them by I-Tsing, the Chinese Buddhist monk, in his travels (672 A.D.) under the name of the Land of the Naked People (Lo-jen-kuo) and this seems to have been the recognised name for them in China at that time. “Land of the Naked " translates Nakkavaram, the name by which the islands appear in the great Tanjore inscription of 1050. This name reappears in Marco Polo's Necuveran (1292), in Rashidu'd. dîn's Nakwaram (1300), and in Friar Odorio's Nicoveran (1322), which are the lineal ancestors of the fifteenth and sixteenth century Portuguese Nacabar and Nioubar and the modern
1 P. K. = Pallio-Cumulus, K. = Cumulus. • The observations in 1898 are only given from the 1st September to 31st December 1898. 3 In 1901 the observations are only up to 31st October 1901.