Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/36

Rh various authors, under varying forms of the name. In Pliny it is Neacyndi. It is Nelkunda in the Periplus, Melkunda in Ptolemy: in the Peutingerian Table it is Nincylda, and in the Geographer of Ravenna, Nilcinna. The site of this town is six miles east of Kottayam, not far from Meenachil, where the best pepper is grown to this day.

South Of Bakarei, Ptolemy places the country of the Aioi. This was the territory of the Ay a family of chiefs of the Pothiya hills, who were great patrons of poets. The towns Elankon, Kottiara and Bammala may be identified with the modern Vilavankodu, Kottaru and Ponnanai. It will appear therefore, that even south of Bakarei or the modern Kottayam, the sea coast has receded six or seven miles since the time of Ptolemy. Of the inland cities named by Ptolemy I would suggest the following identifications:

The region Kottanara from which pepper was exported