Ptolemy mentions the following provinces, rivers and towns on the east coast :—Country of the Kareoi : In the Kolkhic Gulf, where there is the pearl fishery: Sôsikourai, Kolkhoi an emporium, mouth of the river Solen. Inland cities of the Koreoi: Mendêla, Selour, Tittoua, Mantittour. Land of Pandion. In the Orgalic Gulf, Cape Koty, called also Kalligikon: Argeiron a town, Salour a mart. Inland cities of the Pandionoi: Tainour, Peringkarei, Korindiour, Tangala or Taga, Modoura the royal city of Pandion, Akour. Country of the Batoi: Nikama the metropolis, Thelkheir, Koroula a town: Inland cities of the Batoi: Kalindoia, Bata, Talara. In Paralia specially so called : the country of the Tôringoi: mouth of river Khabêros, Khabêris an emporium, Sabouras an emporium. Inland cities of the Paralia of the Sôrêtai : Kaliour, Tennagora, Eikour, Orthoura the royal city of Sôrnagos, Berê, Abour, Karmara, Magour.
The Arouarnori (Arvarnoi) : Podoukê an emporium, Melangi an emporium, mouth of the river Tyna, Kottis, Manarpha (or Manaliarpha a mart)—The inland cities of the Arvarnoi are these :- Kerauge, Phrourion, Karigê, Poloour, Pikendaka, Iatour, Skopoloura, Ikarta, Malanga the royal city of Basaranagos, Kandipatna.
North of the territory of the Arovarnoi, Ptolemy places Maisolia the region watered by the river Maisolos or the Krishna. Between Cape Comorin and Taprobane or Ceylon, he mentions an island Nanigeris and in the Argaric Gulf, another island Kory.[1]
The eastern coast extending from Cape Cumari was inhabited by a tribe called Parathavar who subsisted by fishing. They were the Kareoi of Ptolemy. The correct form of the name in Tamil is Karaiyar or the “Coast men,” which is to this day the ordinary designation of the Parathavar tribe amongst the Tamils. Korkai, the chief town in the country of the Parathavar was the seat of the pearl fishery and the population of the town consisted mostly of pearl divers and chank-cutters.[2] The pearl
- ↑ McCrindle’s Ptolemy, p. 57, ff. and 183, ff.
- ↑ Maduraik-kanchi, II. 134, 144.
sea, and remarked as follows :—“ But evidence is wanting to corroborate the assertion of such an occurrence at least within the historic period, no record of it exists in the earliest writings of the Hindus, the Arabians or Persians.” Tenant’s Ceylon, Vol. I., pp. 6 and 7. The mention of a similar catastrophe at the southern extremity of India, about the same period, in Tamil works, may be taken as strong evidence of the occurrence.
