350 KEPORT — 1882. 



the Warkalle Barrier. It forms abrupt cliffs on the sea, without beach, 

 and these cliffs are still known to seamen (as the navigation books show) 

 .as ' the Bed Gllfft).' This is the only thing like a sea-cliff from Oananore 

 (or perhaps from Mount d'Ely) to Cape Comorin. A little further is 

 Komo.rel or Komaria (Cape Comorin), and beyond that Kolchoi and the 

 pearl-fishery (Jvorlnii or Kolkai, an ancient site near the mouth of the 

 Tamraparni River). The Periplus writer, as well as Ptolemy, it must be 

 noted, regard, not Cape Comorin but the next succeeding Cape, called by 

 Ptolemy Kory (i.e. Koti, the ' bow-tip,' the point of the island Ramesh- 

 waram) as the southernmost point of India. 



Here Taprobanc or Ceylon is apparently left to seaward, and the 

 navigator passes through Palk's Strait and touching at several ports, 

 such as Nifjama Metropolis (of Ptolemy) probably Negapatam, Kainara 

 (Chaheris emporium of Ptolemy, probably Kaveripatan, formerly a port 

 of importance near the mouth of the Cauvery), Focluke and Sopatma, 

 which we cannot identify, he reaches Masalia, or Maisolia (Ftol.) the 

 coast between the Kistna and Godavery, still marked by the' name 

 Masulipatan, which the striving after meaning has converted and vul- 

 garised into Macldlpatan, or 'Fish Town.' 



Prom Masalia the navigator of the Periplus 'crosses the Gulf,' i.e. 

 giving a wide berth to the Godavery sands, and leaving to port the bay 

 of Coringa, he strikes across the sea, making the land again in Besanme. 

 or Orissa, perhaps taking for his landmark Mount Mahendra, the highest 

 mountain on the coast (K Lat. 19°4', height 4,923 feet). From this point 

 ships bound for the Ganges would renew their coasting; tliose bound for 

 Chrijse, or Indo-China, took a fresh departure, and struck across the Bay 

 nearly on a parallel of latitude to Sada in Argijre or A.rakan. Her^e, 

 then, is the point which Ptolemy calls, 'Acjitri'ipKiy ruy elc tijv \pva7ii' 

 il^tirXa'ii'Twi' — not, as Lassen makes it, a harbour from which voyages to 

 Chryso were made, but the point of departure from which vessels buund 

 thither struck off from the coast of India. 



A little above this point Ptolemy has a town called Paliira, which we 

 still find — Pahlr — in latitude 19° 27^, some five or six miles above Ganjam. 

 This place is mentioned both by Barros (1552) and Liuschoten (1597), 

 and the passages in the Periplus and in Ptolemy to which we have been 

 referring are aptly illustrated by extracts showing the course of navi- 

 gation 1,500 to 1,G00 years later. 



Thus Linschoten has the following sailing directions (whieh I give 

 slightly condensed) : — 



'In the August monsoon, after leaving the Ceylon coast, the navigator 

 will keep north to the Cape called Fonta de Giiadovariii, [Point Godavery] 

 in 17°. . . . He will then continue to run along the coast, taking 

 care not to pass the 19^° [it should be 19°] without sighting land, for 

 here there is the mouth of a river called Pnacota. . . . AH this coast from 

 Point Guadovarin is high and mountainous, and easily seen from afar. 

 From the river of Pnacota to another called Faluor or Falura, a distance 

 of twelve leagues, you run along the coast with a course from S.W. to E. 

 Above this last river is a high mountain called Serra de Falura, the highest 

 mountain on the coast. This river is in 19^°,' &c. The Palura river in 

 19i° must be the river of Ganjam (19° 23'), and the river of Puacota must 

 be that of Barwa (18° 54'), which is just thirteen leagues down the coast. 

 The latter, lying under Mount Mahendra, seems to answer precisely to 

 Ptolemy's Ajpheterio7i. 



