centred on the Chola coast. “Horses were brought from distant lands beyond the seas, pepper was brought in ships; gold and precious stones came from the northern mountains; sandal and aghil came from the mountains towards the west; pearls from the southern seas and coral from the eastern seas. The produce of the regions watered by the Ganges; all that is grown on the banks of the Kaviri; articles of food from Elam or Ceylon and the manufactures of Kalakam” (in Burmah) were brought tO the markets of Kaviripaddinam.[1]
The Toringoi or Soretai who according to Ptolemy inhabited the country watered by the Kaviri were doubtless the Choliyar. Of the other towns mentioned by Ptolemy in this region “Orthoura the royal city of the Sornagos” is of course Uraiyoor or as it is more commonly written Uranthai, which I have alluded to above as the old capital of the Cholas; Karmara is either Kalumalam the ancient name of Shiyâli, the headquarters of a Taluq in the Tanjore District, or Kamalai the modern Tiruvaroor.[2]
North of Punal-Nadu was Aruva-Nadu and beyond the latter Aruvàvadathalai or North Aruva. The two provinces Aruva and North Aruva were together known as Mavilankai or the great Lanka. The country is said to have been so named because its natural products were similar to those of Lanka or Ceylon.[3] The capital of this province was Kachchi the modern Kanchipuram. It was fortified like all other chief towns in Tamilakam. There was a Buddhist Chaitya recently built by the Chola king.[4] A Vishnu temple is also mentioned.[5] The whole of this
- ↑ Ibid., II. 185—191.
- ↑ Pinkalanthai and Thivakaram.
- ↑ Chiru-panarrup-Pudai, II. 119—120. In Yule’s map Melange is placed at Krishnapatam a little to the South of the North Pennar River, which he identifies with Ptolemy’s Tyna. McCrindle’s, Ptolemy, p. 67. Cunningham who takes the Maisolos to be the Godavari, locates Melanga in the neighbourhood of Elur. Cunningham’s Geog. of Anc. India, pp. 539-40.
- ↑ Manimekhalai, xxviii., II. 175-176.
- ↑ Perum-panarrup-pudai, I. 373. When Hiuen Tsiang visited Kanchipuram, five centuries later, the circumference of the town was about 30 lis or 5 miles. There were about one hundred monasteries, wherein resided nearly 10,000 Buddhist monks. There were also about 80 temples of gods, visited by monks who went about naked (nigranthas) Si-yu-ki. Book X.
