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been placed too far north by most of the commentators. The infer- ence from the few words in the Periplus is that the South Konlcan and Kanara districts were those more particularly infested by pirates. These may be identified with the Satiya kingdom of Asoka’ s inscrip- tions. The Tamil ports, strictly speaking, lay within the region where the Malayalam language is now spoken, that is, within the modern districts of Malabar, Cochin, and Travancore. TheTulu, Kanarese and Telugu districts seem to be within our author’s Dachinabadcs rather than his Damirica. These four ports probably lay respectively within the four districts into which the Portuguese and Dutch found the Kerala kingdom divided: Cannanore, Calicut, Cochin and Tra- vancore; of which the last-named, at the time of the Periplus, was held by the Pandya kingdom.
The four Tamil states, Chola, Pandya, Kerala, and Satiya, are all named in the 2d Rock Edict of Asoka. (Vincent Smith, Asoka, p. 115). Mr. Smith thinks ( Early History, pp. 164, 340-1) that Kerala did not extend north of the Chandragiri river (12° 36’ N. ).
Naura being then in North Malabar, may be identified with the modern Cannanore (11° 52’ N. , 75° 22' E. ). The latter place is known to have been an active port in the days of the Roman trade, and has yielded one of the most important finds in India of Roman coins, of the reigns of Tiberius, Claudius and Nero.
It seems clear that the identification of this place with the modern Honavar (14° 17’ N. , 74° 2 T E. ), while a tempting one, owing to the similarity of names, is not in accord with the facts. Honavar lies rather within the strip of coast which was in dispute between the Andhra and Saka dynasties, as well as the petty Maurya and Pallava princes; while from similarity of name the modern Cannanore would answer equally well.
The location of Tyndis, of the Chera kingdom, depends on that of Muziris. It is described as “a village in plain sight on the shore, ” and may be identified with the modern Ponnani (10° 48' N. , 75° 56’ E. ). This place lying at the mouth of the river of the same name, which drains a rich section of the western mountains known as the Anaimalai Hills, would have been a natural terminus for the pepper produced there, as well as for the beryls of the Coimbatore district. This Ponnani river, according to the Imperial Gazetteer (XX, 164), unlike nearly all others on the west coast, is navigable for small vessels for some distance inland.
Dr. Burnell prefers Kadalundi near Beypore (11° 11 N., 75° 4-9' E. ) on the north bank of the river of the same name, which is also navigable to the foot of the mountains, and carries down large
