Page:The Periplus of the Erythræan Sea.djvu/215

 quantities of timber. (Imp. Gaz. VIII, 17.) But the distance of 500 stadia between Tyndis and Muziris indicates Ponnāni.

53. Damirica.—The text has Limyrikê, which previous editions have retained. That name does not appear in India, or in other Roman accounts of it, and it is clearly a corruption caused by the scribe's confusing the Greek D and L. The name appears in its correct form in the XIIth segment of the Peutinger Tables, almost contemporary with the Periplus, and in Ptolemy as Dimirikê; and there seems no good reason for perpetuating the mistake.

Damirica means the "country of the Tamils," that is, the Southern Dravidians as they existed in the first century, including particularly the Chēra, Pāndya and Chola kingdoms; known in their own records as the Drāvida-dēsam.

53. Muziris.—The location of this port was fixed by Burnell, Caldwell and Yule at Muyiri-kotta, which as Kodungalur or Cranganore (10° 14′N., 76° 11′E.), was an important port in mediaeval times. Their argument was based on the 7000 stadia named in the text as the distance between Barygaza and Damirica.

Vincent Smith (Early History 340–1) is confident that Muziris and Cranganore are the same. He says "The Kingdom of Satiyaputra must have adjoined Keralaputra; and since the Chandragiri river has always been regarded as the northern boundary of that province, the Satiyaputra Kingdom should probably be identified with that portion of the Konkans—or lowlands between the Western Ghāts and the sea—where the Tulu language is spoken, and of which Mangalore is the center. The name of Kerala is still well remembered and there is no doubt that the Kingdom so called was equivalent to the Southern Konkans or Malabar coast. The ancient capital was Vanji, also named Karuvūr, the Karoura of Ptolemy, situated close to Cranganore; which represents Muziris, the port for the pepper trade, mentioned by Pliny and the author of the Periplus at the end of the first century A.D." Vanji, according to the Imperial Gazetteer (XX, 21), must be placed at the modern Parūr or Paravūr (10° 10′N., 76° 15′E.), where the Periyār River empties into the Cochin back-waters. Parūr is still a busy trading center, as well as the headquarters of the district. While now in the district of Travancore, it formerly belonged to Cochin,—that is, to Chēra or Kerala. It is said to comprise almost all the Jews in Travancore; and the settlement may date from the end of the first century, when it is known that there was a considerable Jewish migration to Southern India.

The earlier identification of Muziris and Nelcynda placed them at Mangalore and Nīleshwar (12° 52′N., 74° 51′E., and 12° 16′