1878.] B. R. BranfiU — Fhysiographicul Notes on Tanjore, 8fc. 187 



along the north-east Coast of Ceylon from April to September, and the 

 southward beat along the east Coast of Tanjore from November to January^ 

 must tend more or less to shoal the entrance to Palk's Bay from the Bay of 

 Bengal. 



This sea was known to the old geographers as Sinus Argaricus 

 (Colonel Yule's map of ancient India has Sinus Argalicus for Palk's Bay, 

 and a town marked at the mouth of the Vaigai named " Argari ? Argalu ? 

 Marallo ? (Maravar)" ; I would venture to suggest that the sea may very 

 likely have been so named from AnaiJcarai, The barrief% cross-hank or dam- 

 hank, by which term the great natural ' bund' or cause waj^ Adam's bridge, 

 between India and Ceylon was probably known. The early Arabian voyagers 

 knew it as (and thence called the country beyond it) * Ma,abar', i. e., 

 The ford, ferry OY passage. I understand, however, that the name appears 

 in Ptolemy as AvxetpovTroXts (? Anakarai-town) from which the Bay may 

 have been called, and, if so, this town may have been the old town now called 

 Attankarai (from Aru a river, and Karai a hank, shore) situated at the old 

 mouth of the Vaigai river. 



It is an interesting question whether the line of sand-banks and 

 islets forming ' Adam's bridge', between Ramesvaram and Mannar, is 

 undergoing any permanent change. I could learn nothing reliable on 

 the subject when I was there in 1874, '75 and '76, but it can scarcely 

 be at a perfect stand-still. On the one hand, there appear to be traditions 

 that at one time it was possible to walk across at low water dry shod, but 

 I could not learn that this had actually occurred within modern his- 

 toric times. On the other hand, it would appear that there was a consider- 

 able trade carried on between Arabia and China through these Straits, 

 and one would hardly suppose that it could have been carried on in such 

 small vessels as can alone have passed through the passages in " Adam's 

 bridge" previous to the excavation of the Pamban channel by the British 

 Government, unless there were passages that have silted up since. Dr. 

 Burnell tells me, he has a reliable Portuguese MS. of 1685, by a Captain 

 J. Ribeiro, stating that there was then " no passage, except two narrow 

 canals, one by Ramanacor and the other by Manar" ; and that " a small 

 * sumaca' only can pass by either at high water." 



At the present time, there is a single channel at Mannar answering 

 this description, and none elsewhere, except the new passage at Pamban, 

 which has been cut artificially through the rocky reef at a place where in 

 quite recent times, the old built-stone causeway had been breached by storm- 

 waves (in 1484 and since) which also destroyed the adjacent town on 

 the spit of land west of Pamban between Toni-turai and Vettilai Man- 

 dapam. 



The surf beats heavily all along " Adam's bridge" during both mon- 



