Benjamin of Tudela, in the 12th century, gives the following account of trade on this coast:
"Thence is seven days' journey to Khulam (Quilon) which is the beginning of the country of the Sun-worshippers. These are the sons of Cush, who read the stars and are all black in color. They are honest in commerce. When merchants come to them from distant lands and enter the harbour, three of the King's secretaries go down to them and record their names and then bring them before the King, whereupon the King makes himself responsible even for their property which they leave in the open unprotected. There is an official who sits in his office, and the owner of any lost property has only to describe it to him when he hands it back. This custom prevails in all that country. From Passover to New Year, that is all during the summer, no man can go out of his house because of the sun, for the heat in that country is intense, and from the third hour of the day onward, everybody remains in his house until evening. Then they go forth and kindle lights in all the market places and all the streets, and then do their work and business at night-time. For they have to turn night into day in consequence of the great heat of the sun. Pepper is found there. They plant the trees thereof in the fields, and each man of the city knows his own plantation. The trees are small and the pepper is as white as snow. And when they have collected it they place it in sauce-pans and pour boiling water over it, so that it may become strong. Then they take it out of the water and dry it in the sun, and it turns black. Cinnamon and ginger and many other kinds of spices are found in this land."
54. Pandian kingdom.—This was Pāndya, the southernmost, and traditionally the earliest, of the three Tamil states. Roughly it coincided with the modern districts of Tinnevelly and Madurā; at the time of the Periplus it extended beyond the Ghāts and included Travancore. The capital, originally at Korkai (the Colchi of § 59, which see) had been removed to Madurā (9° 55′ N., 78° 7′ E.).
Here too, as in the Chēra Kingdom, the name is used for the country and as a dynastic title, not as the name of any king.
55. Bacarē.—(Ptolemy gives Barkarē; which is perhaps the preferable reading.) This place, distant 120 stadia from Nelcynda, at an inlet of the sea, can be no other than Porakād (9° 22′ N., 76° 22′ E.), for which it is a close transliteration; while the distance from Kottayam is exactly in accord with the text.
Porakād was once a notable port, but declined with the rise of Alleppey, built a few miles further north after a canal had been cut
