written otherwise Onore, situated on the estuary of a broad river,
the +Śarâvatî+, on which are the falls of Gêrsappa, one of
the most magnificent and stupendous cataracts in the world. If the
+Nitra+ of Ptolemy (VII. i. 7) and the +Nitria+ of Pliny be
the same as +Naoura+, then these authors extend the pirate coast
a little further south than the _Periplûs_ does. But if they do not,
and therefore agree in their views as to where Dimurikê begins, the
+Nitra+ may be placed, Müller thinks, at Mirjan or Komta, which
is not far north from Honâvar. [Yule places it at Mangalur.] Müller
regards the first supposition however as the more probable, and quotes
at length a passage from Pliny (VI. xxvi. 104) referring thereto,
which must have been excerpted from some _Periplûs_ like our author’s,
but not from it as some have thought. “To those bound for India it is
most convenient to depart from Okêlis. They sail thence with the wind
Hipalus in 40 days to the first emporium of India, Muziris, which is
not a desirable place to arrive at on account of pirates infesting the
neighbourhood, who hold a place called +Nitrias+, while it is not
well supplied with merchandize. Besides, the station for ships is at
a great distance from the shore, and cargoes have both to be landed
and to be shipped by means of little boats. There reigned there when I
wrote this +Caelobothras+. Another port belonging to the nation
is more convenient, +Neacyndon+, which is called +Becare+
(_sic. codd._, Barace, Harduin and Sillig). There reigned Pandiôn in
an inland town far distant from the emporium called +Modura+.
The region, however, from which they convey pepper to Becare in boats
formed from single logs is +Cottonara+.”
54. To the kingdom under the sway of +Kêprobotres[22] Tundis+ is
subject, a village of great note situate near the sea. +Mouziris+,
which pertains to the same realm, is a city at the height of
prosperity, frequented as it is by ships from +Ariakê+ and Greek
ships _from Egypt_. It lies near a river at a distance from Tundis of
500 stadia, whether this is measured from river to river or by the
length of the sea voyage, and it is 20 stadia distant from the mouth
of its own river. The distance of +Nelkunda+ from +Mouziris+
also nearly 500 stadia, whether measured from river to river or
by the sea voyage, but it belongs to a different kingdom, that of
+Pandiôn+. It likewise is situate near a river and at about a
distance from the sea of 120 stadia.
(54) With regard to the names in this extract which occur also in
the _Periplûs_ the following passages quoted from Dr. Caldwell’s
_Dravidian Grammar_ will throw much light. He says (Introd. p.
97):—“+Muziris+ appears to be the +Muyiri+ of Muyiri-kotta.
Tyndis is +Tuṇḍi+, and the Kynda, of Nelkynda, or as Ptolemy
has it, Melkynda, _i. e._ probably Western kingdom, seems to be
+Kannettri+, the southern boundary of Kêrala proper. One MS. of
Pliny writes the second part of this word not _Cyndon_ but _Canidon_.
The first of these places was identified by Dr. Gundert, for the
remaining two we are indebted to Dr. Burnell.
“Cottonara, Pliny; Kottonarike, _Periplûs_, the district where
the best pepper was produced. It is singular that this district
was not mentioned by Ptolemy. +Cottonara+ was evidently the
name of the district. κοττοναρικον the name of the pepper for
which the district was famous. Dr. Buchanan identifies Cottonara
with +Kaḍatta-naḍu+, the name of a district in the Calicut
country celebrated for its pepper. Dr. Burnell identifies it with
+Koļatta-nâḍu+, the district about Tellicherry which he says
is the pepper district. _Kadatta_ in Malayâlam means ‘transport,
conveyance,’ +Nâdû+, Tam.—Mal., means a district.”
“The prince called Kêrobothros by Ptolemy (VII. i. 86) is called
Kêprobotros by the author of the _Periplûs_. The insertion of π is
clearly an error, but more likely to be the error of a copyist than
that of the author, who himself had visited the territories of the
prince in question. He is called Caelobothras in Pliny’s text, but
one of the MSS. gives it more correctly as Celobotras. The name in
Sanskrit, and in full is ‘Keralaputra,’ but both _kêra_ and _kêla_ are
Dravidian abbreviations of _kêralâ_. They are Malayâļam however, not
Tamil abbreviations, and the district over which Keralaputra ruled
is that in which the Malayâļam language is now spoken” (p. 95). From
Ptolemy we learn that the capital of this prince was +Karoura+,
which has been “identified with +Karûr+, an important town in the
Koimbatur district originally included in the Chêra kingdom. Karûr
means the black town.... Ptolemy’s word +Karoura+ represents
the Tami[l:] name of the place with perfect accuracy.” Nelkunda, our
author informs us, was not subject to this prince but to another
called +Pandiôn+. This name, says Dr. Caldwell, “is of Sanskrit
origin, and +Pandæ+, the form which Pliny, after Megasthenês,
gives in his list of the Indian nations, comes very near the Sanskrit.
The more recent local information of Pliny himself, as well as the
notices of Ptolemy and the _Periplûs_, supply us with the Dravidian
form of the word. The Tami[l:] sign of the masc. sing. is _an_, and
Tami[l:] inserts _i_ euphonically after _ṇḍ_, consequently Pandiôn,
and still better the plural form of the word +Pandiones+,
faithfully represents the Tami[l:] masc. sing. +Pâṇḍiyan+.” In
another passage the same scholar says: “The Sanskrit Pâṇḍya is written
in Tamil Pâṇḍiya, but the more completely tamilized form +Pâṇḍi+
is still more commonly used all over southern India. I derive Pâṇḍi,
as native scholars always derive the word, from the Sanskrit Pâṇḍu,
the name of the father of the Pâṇḍava brothers.” The capital of this
prince, as Pliny has stated, was +Modura+, which is the Sanskrit
Maṭhurâ pronounced in the Tami[l:] manner. The corresponding city in
Northern India, Maṭhurâ, is written by the Greeks +Methora+.
+Nelkunda+ is mentioned by various authors under varying forms of
the name. As has been already stated, it is Melkunda in Ptolemy, who
places it in the country of the Aii. In the _Peutingerian Table_ it is
Nincylda, and in the Geographer of Ravenna, Nilcinna. At the mouth of
the river on which it stands was its shipping port +Bakare+ or
Becare, according to Müller now represented by +Markari+ (lat.
12° N.) Yule conjectures that it must have been between Kanetti and
Kolum in Travancore. Regarding the trade of this place we may quote a
remark from Vincent. “We find,” he says, “that throughout the whole
which the _Periplûs_ mentions of India we have a catalogue of the
exports and imports only at the two ports of Barugaza and Nelcynda,
and there seems to be a distinction fixed between the articles
appropriate to each. Fine muslins and ordinary cottons are the
principal commodities of the first; tortoise shell, precious stones,
silk, and above all pepper, seem to have been procurable only at the
latter. This pepper is said to be brought to this port from Cottonara,
famous to this hour for producing the best pepper in the world except
that of Sumatra. The pre-eminence of these two ports will account
for the little that is said of the others by the author, and why he
has left us so few characters by which we may distinguish one from
another.”
Our author on concluding his account of Nelkunda interrupts his
narrative to relate the incidents of the important discovery of the
monsoon made by that Columbus of antiquity Hippalus. This account,
Vincent remarks, naturally excites a curiosity in the mind to enquire
how it should happen that the monsoon should have been noticed by
Nearkhos, and that from the time of his voyage for 300 years no one
should have attempted a direct course till Hippalus ventured to
commit himself to the ocean. He is of opinion that there was a direct
passage by the monsoons both in going to and coming from India in use
among the Arabians before the Greeks adopted it, and that Hippalus
frequenting these seas as a pilot or merchant, had met with Indian or
Arabian traders who made their voyages in a more compendious manner
than the Greeks, and that he collected information from them which he
had both the prudence and courage to adopt, just as Columbus, while
owing much to his own nautical experience and fortitude was still
under obligations to the Portuguese, who had been resolving the great
problems in the art of navigation for almost a century previous to his
expedition.
55. At the very mouth of this river lies another village, +Bakare+,
to which the ships despatched from Nelkunda come down _empty_ and
ride at anchor off shore while taking in cargo: for the river, it may
be noted, has sunken reefs and shallows which make its navigation
difficult. The sign by which those who come hither by sea know they are
nearing land is their meeting with snakes, which are here of a black
colour, not so long as those already mentioned, like serpents about the
head, and with eyes the colour of blood.
(55) +Nelkunda+ appears to have been the limit of our author’s
voyage along the coast of India, for in the sequel of his narrative
he defines but vaguely the situation of the places which he notices,
while his details are scanty, and sometimes grossly inaccurate. Thus
he makes the Malabar Coast extend southwards beyond Cape Comorin as
far at least as Kolkhoi (near Tutikorin) on the Coromandel coast, and
like many ancient writers, represents Ceylon as stretching westward
almost as far as Africa.
56. The ships which frequent these ports are of a large size, on account
of the great amount and bulkiness of the pepper and betel of which
their lading consists. The imports here are principally—
Χρήματα πλεῖ στα—Great quantities of specie.
Χρυσόλιθα—(Topaz?) Gold-stone, Chrysolite.
Ἰματισμὸς ἁπλοὸς οὐ πολὺς—A small assortment of plain cloth.
Πολύμιτα—Flowered robes.
Στίμμι, κοράλλιον—Stibium, a pigment for the eyes, coral.
ὕαλος ἀργὴ χαλκὸς—White glass, copper or brass.
Κασσίτερος, μόλυβδος—Tin, lead.
Οἵνος οὐ πολύς, ὡσεὶ δὲ τοσοῦτον ὅσον ἐν Βαρυγάζοις—Wine but not much,
but about as much as at Barugaza.
Σανδαράκη—Sandarach (_Sindûrâ_).
Ἀρσενικὸν—Arsenic (Orpiment), yellow sulphuret of arsenic.
Σῖτος ὅσος ἀρκέ σει τοῖς περὶ το ναυκλήριον, διὰ τὸ μὴ τοὺς ἐμπόρους
αὐτῷ χρῆσθαι—Corn, only for the use of the ship’s company, as the
merchants do not sell it.
The following commodities are brought to it for export:—
Πέπερι μονογενῶς ἐν ἐνὶ τόπω τούτων τῶν ἐμπορίων γεννώμενον πολύ τῇ
λεγομενῇ Κοττοναρικη—Pepper in great quantity, produced in only one of
these marts, and called the pepper of Kottonara.
Μαργαρίτης ίκανὸς καὶ διάφορος—Pearls in great quantity and of superior
quality.
Ἐλέφας—Ivory.
Ὀθόνια Σηρικὰ—Fine silks.
Νάρδος ἡ Γαγγητικὴ—Spikenard from the Ganges.
Μαλάβαθρον—Betel—all brought from countries further east.
Λιθία διαφανὴς παντοία—Transparent or precious stones of all
sorts.
Αδάμας—Diamonds.
Ὑάκινθος—Jacinths.
Χελώνη ἥτε Χρυσονησιωτικὴ καὶ ἡ περὶ τὰς νήσους θηρευομένη τὰς
προκειμένας αὐτῆς τῆς Λιμυρικῆς—Tortoise-shell from the Golden Island,
and another sort which is taken in the islands which lie off the coast
of Limurikê.
The proper season to set sail from Egypt for this part of India is
about the month of July—that is, Epiphi.
57. The whole round of the voyage from +Kanê+ and +Eudaimôn
Arabia+, which we have just described, used to be performed in
small vessels which kept close to shore and followed its windings, but
+Hippalos+ was the pilot who first, by observing the bearings
of the ports and the configuration of the sea, discovered the direct
course across the ocean; whence as, at the season when our own Etesians
are blowing, a periodical wind from the ocean likewise blows in the
Indian Sea, this wind, which is the south-west, is, it seems, called in
these seas Hippalos [after the name of the pilot who first discovered
the _passage by means of it_]. From the time of this discovery to the
present day, merchants who sail for India either from +Kanê+, or,
as others do, from +Arômata+, if Limurikê be their destination,
must often change their tack, but if they are bound for +Barugaza+
and +Skythia+, they are not retarded for more than three days,
after which, committing themselves to the monsoon which blows right in
the direction of their course, they stand far out to sea, leaving all
the gulfs we have mentioned in the distance.
58. After +Bakare+ occurs the mountain called Pyrrhos (or the
Red) towards the south, near another district of the country called
+Paralia+ (where the pearl-fisheries are which belong to king
Pandiôn), and a city of the name of +Kolkhoi+. In this tract the
first place met with is called +Balita+, which has a good harbour
and a village on its shore. Next to this is another place called
+Komar+, where is the cape of the same name and a haven. Those who
wish to consecrate the closing part of their lives to religion come
hither and bathe and engage themselves to celibacy. This is also done
by women; since it is related that the goddess (_Kumârî_) once on a
time resided at the place and bathed. From +Komarei+ (towards the
south) the country extends as far as +Kolkhoi+, where the fishing
for pearls is carried on. Condemned criminals are employed in this
service. King Pandiôn is the owner of the fishery. To +Kolkhoi+
succeeds another coast lying along a gulf having a district in the
interior bearing the name of +Argalou+. In this single place are
obtained the pearls collected near the island of +Epiodôros+. From
it are exported the muslins called _ebargareitides_.
(58) The first place mentioned after +Bakare+ is +Pyrrhos+,
or the Red Mountain, which extends along a district called
+Paralia+. “There are,” says Dr. Caldwell (Introd. p. 99), “three
Paralias mentioned by the Greeks, two by Ptolemy ... one by the author
of the _Periplûs_. The Paralia mentioned by the latter corresponded
to Ptolemy’s country of the Ἄïοι, and that of the Καρεοι, that is,
to South Travancore and South Tinnevelly. It commenced at the Red
Cliffs south of Quilon, and included not only Cape Comorin but also
Κόλχοι, where the pearl fishing was carried on, which belonged to King
Pandiôn. Dr. Burnell identifies Paralia with Parali, which he states
is an old name for Travancore, but I am not quite able to adopt this
view.” “Paralia,” he adds afterwards, “may possibly have corresponded
in meaning, if not in sound, to some native word meaning coast,—viz.,
Karei.” On this coast is a place called +Balita+, which is
perhaps the +Bammala+ of Ptolemy (VII. i. 9), which Mannert
identifies with Manpalli, a little north of Anjenga.
[Transcriber’s Note: There is no Paragraph 59]
60. Among the marts and anchorages along this shore to which
merchants from Limurikê and the north resort, the most conspicuous
are +Kamara+ and +Podoukê+ and +Sôpatma+, which occur
in the order in which we have named them. In these marts are found
those native vessels for coasting voyages which trade as far as
Limurikê, and another kind called _sangara_, mode by fastening together
large vessels formed each of a single timber, and also others called
_kolandiophônta_, which are of great bulk and employed for voyages
to +Khrusê+ and the +Ganges+. These marts import all the
commodities which reach Limurikê for commercial purposes, absorbing
likewise nearly every species of goods brought from Egypt, and most
descriptions of all the goods exported from Limurikê and disposed of on
this coast _of India_.
(60) We now reach the great promontory called in the _Periplûs_
+Komar+ and +Komarei+, Cape Kumârî. “It has derived its
name,” says Caldwell, “from the Sans. _Kumârî_, a virgin, one of the
names of the goddess Durgâ, the presiding divinity of the place,
but the shape which this word has taken is, especially in _komar_,
distinctively Tamilian.” In ordinary Tamil _Kumârî_ becomes _Kumări_;
and in the vulgar dialect of the people residing in the neighbourhood
of the Cape a virgin is neither Kumârî nor Kumări but Kŭmăr pronounced
Kŏmar. It is remarkable that this vulgar corruption of the Sanskrit
is identical with the name given to the place by the author of the
_Periplûs_.... The monthly bathing in honor of the goddess Durgâ is
still continued at Cape Comorin, but is not practised to the same
extent as in ancient times.... Through the continued encroachments of
the sea, the harbour the Greek mariners found at Cape Comorin and the
fort (if φρουριον is the correct reading for βριάριον of the MS.) have
completely disappeared; but a fresh water well remains in the centre
of a rock, a little way out at sea. Regarding +Kolkhoi+, the
next place mentioned after Komari, the same authority as we have seen
places it (_Ind. Ant._ vol. VI. p. 80) near Tuticorin. It is mentioned
by Ptolemy and in the _Peutinger Tables_, where it is called ‘Colcis
Indorum’. The Gulf of Manaar was called by the Greeks the Colchic
Gulf. The Tami[l:] name of the place Kolkei is almost identical with
the Greek. “The place,” according to Caldwell, “is now about three
miles inland, but there are abundant traces of its having once stood
on the coast, and I have found the tradition that it was once the seat
of the pearl fishery, still surviving amongst its inhabitants.” After
the sea had retired from Κόλχοι ... a new emporium arose on the coast.
This was +Kâyal+, the Cael of Marco Polo. Kâyal in turn became
in time too far from the sea ... and Tuticorin (+Tûttrukuḍi+)
was raised instead by the Portuguese from the position of a
fishing village to that of the most important port on the southern
Coromandel coast. The identification of Kolkoi with Kolkei is one
of much importance. Being perfectly certain it helps forward other
identifications. _Kol._ in Tami[l:] means ‘to slay.’ _Kei_ is ‘hand.’
It was the first capital of Pandiôn.
The coast beyond +Kolkhoi+, which has an inland district
belonging to it called +Argalou+, is indented by a gulf called by
Ptolemy the Argarik—now Palk Bay. Ptolemy mentions also a promontory
called +Kôru+ and beyond it a city called +Argeirou+ and
an emporium called +Salour+. This Kôru of Ptolemy, Caldwell
thinks, represents the +Kôlis+ of the geographers who preceded
him, and the +Koṭi+ of Tami[l:], and identifies it with “the
island promontory of +Râmeśvaram+, the point of land from which
there was always the nearest access from Southern India to Ceylon.” An
island occurs in these parts, called that of +Epiodôros+, noted
for its pearl fishery, on which account Ritter would identify it with
the island of Manaar, which Ptolemy, as Mannert thinks, speaks of as
Νάνιγηρίς (VII. i. 95). Müller thinks, however, it may be compared
with Ptolemy’s +Kôru+, and so be Râmeśvaram.
This coast has commercial intercourse not only with the Malabar
ports, but also with the Ganges and the Golden Khersonese. For the
trade with the former a species of canoes was used called _Sangara_.
The Maļayâlam name of these, Caldwell says, is _Changâdam_, in Tuļa
_Jangâla_, compare Sanskrit _Samghâdam_ a raft (_Ind. Ant._ vol. I.
p. 309). The large vessels employed for the Eastern trade were called
_Kolandiophonta_, a name which Caldwell confesses his inability to
explain.
Three cities and ports are named in the order of their occurrence
which were of great commercial importance, +Kamara+,
+Podoukê+, and +Sôpatma+. +Kamara+ may perhaps be,
as Müller thinks, the emporium which Ptolemy calls +Khabêris+,
situated at the mouth of the River +Khabêros+ (now, the Kavery),
perhaps, as Dr. Burnell suggests, the modern Kaveripattam. (_Ind.
Ant._ vol. VII. p. 40). +Podoukê+ appears in Ptolemy as Podoukê.
It is +Puduchchêri+, _i. e._ ‘new town,’ now well known as
Pondicherry; so Bohlen, Ritter, and Benfey. [Yule and Lassen place it
at Pulikât]. +Sôpatma+ is not mentioned in Ptolemy, nor can it
now be traced. In Sanskrit it transliterates into _Su-patna_, _i. e._,
fair town.
61. Near the region which succeeds, where the course of the voyage now
bends to the east, there lies out in the open sea stretching towards
the west the island now called +Palaisimoundou+, but by the
ancients +Taprobanê+. To cross over to the northern side of it
takes a day. In the south part it gradually stretches towards the west
till it nearly reaches the opposite coast of +Azania+. It produces
pearl, precious (_transparent_) stones, muslins, and tortoise-shell.
(61) The next place noticed is the Island of Ceylon, which is
designated +Palaisimoundou+, with the remark that its former
name was +Taprobanê+. This is the Greek transliteration of
Tâmraparnî, the name given by a band of colonists from Magadha to the
place where they first landed in Ceylon, and which was afterwards
extended to the whole island. It is singular, Dr. Caldwell remarks,
that this is also the name of the principal river in Tinnevelly on the
opposite coast of India, and he infers that the colony referred to
might previously have formed a settlement in Tinnevelly at the mouth
of the Tâmraparṇi river—perhaps at Kolkei, the earliest residence of
the Pâṇḍya kings. The passage in the _Periplûs_ which refers to the
island is very corrupt.
62.(_Returning to the coast_,) not far from the three marts we have
mentioned lies +Masalia+, the seaboard of a country extending
far inland. Here immense quantities of fine muslins are manufactured.
From +Masalia+ the course of the voyage lies eastward across a
neighbouring bay to +Dêsarênê+, which has the breed of elephants
called Bôsarê. Leaving +Dêsarênê+ the course is northerly, passing
a variety of barbarous tribes, among which are the +Kirrhadai+,
savages whose noses are flattened to the face, and another tribe, that
of the +Bargusoi+, as well as the +Hîppioprosôpoi+ _or_
+Makroprosôpoi+ (the horse faced or long faced men), who are
reported to be cannibals.
(62) Recurring to the mainland, the narrative notices a district
called +Masalia+, where great quantities of cotton were
manufactured. This is the +Maïsôlia+ of Ptolemy, the region in
which he places the mouths of a river the +Maisôlos+, which
Benfey identifies with the Godâvarî, in opposition to others who
would make it the Krishnâ, which is perhaps Ptolemy’s +Tuna+.
The name Maisôlia is taken from the Sanskrit Mausala, preserved in
Machhlipatana, now Masulipatam. Beyond this, after an intervening gulf
running eastward is crossed, another district occurs, +Desarênê+,
noted for its elephants. This is not mentioned by Ptolemy, but a
river with a similar name, the +Dôsarôn+, is found in his
enumeration of the rivers which occur between the Maisôlos and the
Ganges. As it is the last in the list it may probably be, as Lassen
supposes, the Brâhmini. Our author however places Desarênê at a much
greater distance from the Ganges, for he peoples the intermediate
space with a variety of tribes which Ptolemy relegates to the East of
the river. The first of these tribes is that of the +Kirrâdai+
(Sanskrit, Kirâtas), whose features are of the Mongolian type. Next
are the +Bargusoi+, not mentioned by Ptolemy, but perhaps to be
identified with the cannibal race he speaks of, the +Barousai+
thought by Yule to be possibly the inhabitants of the Nikobar islands,
and lastly the tribe of the long or horse-faced men who were also
cannibals.
63. After passing these the course turns again to the east, and if you
sail with the ocean to your right and the coast far to your left, you
reach the Ganges and the extremity of the continent towards the east
_called_ +Khrusê+ (the Golden Khersonese). The river of this
region called the +Ganges+ is the largest in India; it has an
_annual_ increase and decrease like the Nile, and there is on it a mart
called after it, Gangê, through which passes _a considerable traffic_
consisting of betel, the Gangetic spikenard, pearl, and the finest of
all muslins—those called the Gangetic. In this locality also there is
said to be a gold mine and a gold coin called _Kaltis_. Near this river
there is an island of the ocean called +Khrusê+ (or the Golden),
which lies directly under the rising sun and at the extremity of the
world towards the east. It produces the finest tortoise-shell that is
found throughout the whole of the Erythræan Sea.