Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/34

Rh gara, about eight miles from the coast, is still known to the natives as Thoovak-kal or Vellaikal “the white rock.” Europeans have called it “the sacrifice rock,” because, when the Portuguese first settled at Calicut, the Kottakkal cruizers surprised a Portuguese vessel and sacrificed all their prisoners on that rock. I am unable to identify Naura. It appears to have been a small village on the banks of the Aka’appula. Tundis is of course Thondi which was near the site of the modern Pallikkara about five miles north of Quilandy. Even to this day trading vessels from Arabia regularly visit old Kollam or Pantalayini Kollam, a village about three miles south of Thondi.

Between Tundis and Muziris, Ptolemy mentions two towns on the sea coast, Bramaara and Kalaikarias, and three inland, Naroulla, Kouba and Paloura. Bramagara may be identified with Brahmakulam, Kalaikarais was most probably Chalacoory, and Paloura is doubtless Pâlayur which is still a large and populous amshomn near Chowghat. Mouziris may unhesitatingly be taken to represent Muchiri which, according to Tamil poets, was situated near the