Topic started by Moustapha Mahdi (@ adsl-68-78-202-41.dsl.klmzmi.ameritech.net) on Fri Sep 19 21:05:50 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Recently I heard that Tamil was the official language of Indian Ocean trade , i believe even the pirates spoke it.
Arabs adopted Tamil in Sri Lanka and is now the language of all Tamils there.
Can someone elaborate about the age of sail and the influence of Tamil

Responses:

• From: Namakkal (@ 209.b.001.syd.iprimus.net.au) on: Fri Sep 19 22:23:49 EDT 2003
  
  Tamil Trade
  -XAVIER S. THANI NAYAGAM
  
  The evidence furnished by the Tamil Classics (the nine anthologies and the Cilappatikaram composed between the second century B.C. and before the end of the second century A.D.) for Tamil trade with the countries to the East and to the West, needs to be examined further. Whatever study has been made so far of the Tamil texts side by side with comparable data available in Strabo, Pliny, the Periplus Maris Erythraei and Ptolomey, and with the archaeological and numismatic finds in Southern India, has shown that the Tamil texts contain illuminating corroborative evidence.
  
  Discussions of Roman Tamil trade made by Jean Filliozat, Mortimer Wheeler, Pierre Meile, E.H. Warmington and M.P. Charlesworth have taken into consideration the tests interpreted by V. Kangasabai Pillai in his book the "Tamils one thousand eight hundred years Ago". 1904. The late lamented Pierre Meile made a more detailed study of some of the Tamil texts in his article in the Journal Asiatique of 1940 entitled, Les Yavanas Dans I' Inde tamoule. A
  comprehensive study is required of the entire corpus of Tamil classical literature to gather from it all the evidence concerning the maritime trade of the Tamil country during the classical period.
  
  Information
  
  The literature of which this examination of maritime trade has to be made is pure literature, and it was not composed even with the remote intention of presenting in any manner a picture of the social and commercial life of the Tamil harbours and inland cities to which it refers. Both in the panegyric and love poetry, the allusions to the harbours and emporia are made merely to illustrate that the busy scenes and the bulk and variety of the merchandise are generally indications of the wise rule and prosperity of the king within whose territory the harbours and emporia are situated.
  
  To us these references seem vague and generalised but to the poet's contemporaries the sights and scenes described in a phrase or two, were very evident allusions of maritime communication and great economic significance. One has to study these texts in the context of all other available evidence to draw the most information from them.
  
  Georgraphical Compulsion
  
  The availability of luxury articles in the Tamil kingdoms and a geographical location favoured by the trade winds, account partly for the commercial prosperity of the Tamil kingdoms during this period. Maritime activity was imposed on these kingdoms by geographical compulsion, and therefore a deep feeling for the sea and allusions to navigation arise from a proximate familiarity with maritime enterprise.
  
  Pathirruppathu (52:3-4) speaks of ships which go from port to port in search of rare merchandise. The poets describe the harbours of Kaaveeri of Korkai, of Musiri as 'filled with ships' in the same manner as the Periplus describes Musiri as floret navibus. As geographers or as navigators, the Greek and Latin authors note the emporia and town in sequence together with their corresponding imports and exports. But the Tamil poets, who did not have similar professional interests, state in poetic fashion in several places what had become stereotyped phrases that large varieties of goods (pala pandam, panniyam) are brought by sea (kaal tara vanta) from several countries (pal naadu). (Narrinai 31)
  
  variety of Ships
  
  Not only is the merchandise brought from many quarters and of a noticeable variety, but the ships themselves which transport them vary in size and workmanship. The Periplus mentions the megala ploia (large ships) to be found in these emporia because of the large quantities of pepper and malabathrum which were exported from the Southern ports, and distinguishes on the Coromandel coast between (a) the boats for coastal trade. (b) the very large vessels bound together called 'sangara', identified with samghadam and (c) the still larger vessels which sailed to Chryse and the Gangetic ports. The last category has been called 'colandia' and the text emended from 'colandiaphonta' to 'colandia' by Fabricius. Far fetched suggestions have been made that 'colandion' might be of Malay origin from koleh panjail (sailing ship-Schoff, Pritchett). The term is however, none else than the Tamil word 'kalam' (าล ) which is frequently used in ancient literature for ocean going vessels.
  
  The reading 'colandiaphonta' was obviously puzzling and Muller (1855) retained the reading in the text while suggesting other readings in the footnote and in the Prologomenon of his Geographi Graeci Minores. Fabricius in 1883 chose 'colandia' in preference to colandiaphonta found in his text of 1849, and translated the text as "die aber nach Chryse und zum Ganges absegeln, heissen Kolandia und sind sehr gross". Schoff adopted colandia as the reading and now "colandia" has become the name that the Periplus is supposed to report. The actual text which mystified Muller as Muller himself published, is:
  
  Legomena sanggara, ta de eis ten krysen kai eiston Ganggen diaironta kolonandiaphonta to megista.
  
  I find that Muller himself suggested among others two other readings: kolana diapheronta and kolana legontai onta megista. Whatever be the reading of the sentence, kolana should be substituted for kolandia in the restored text since it is the word which corresponds to what was used on the Coromandel coast, namely kalam.
  
  Like the foreign geographers, the Tamil poets notice the largeness as well as the variations in the build of ships. The ships are large and of wonderful craftmanship vinaimaan nankalam (Aham 149) vilumia naavaai, (Maduraikkaanchi 321) and of different sizes - pala vinai naavaai (Narrinai 295) The very large ships seen by the author of the Periplus, or by his informants are known to the Tamil poets and kalam or naavaai. There is also a category called vaknam probably originating from the name given to ships which frequented the ports of Vanga (part Bihar part Bengal), and one text speaks of a kankai vankam which does not refer to a ship on the Ganges. The Tamil poems speak of all the goods which come from the northern ports of the East coast of India as 'Kankai Vaari' and 'vadavalam'. (This merchandise included the raw silk, the silk cloth from China, the malabathrum and spikenard from the Himalayas, fine Muslins from Dacca, and the pearls of the Bay of Bengal.) The Periplus states expressly that the merchandise from the region of China was not only taken overland, but also "exported to Damirica by way of the river Ganges". The Tamil poet included all these goods under Vadavalam. (Perumbanarruppadai 319-21).
  
  
  Exports and Imports
  
  The exports and imports are carefully noted by Pliny and the Periplus. Of Bacare, the Periplus says that the ships anchor out at sea because the river is full of shoals. This was done also at Musiri where the gold or precious imports are carried in small boats to the shore. (Puram. 343) This is a confirmation of what Pliny says concerning Musiri that ships anchor at a great distance, and the cargoes have to be landed by employing goats. The Periplus while speaking of trade with Socotra, the Persian Gulf and East Africa Speak of rice as one of the imports from India. Tondi, the Tyndis of the geographers which they point as a city of note, was very celebrated among the poets for its rice. Among the imports, the poets note, not only the gold which arrives in exchange for pepper but also the horses which are imported from foreign countries. Other imports which they specify are wine, lamps, white candy incense, fragrant black agaru woods, silk, sandalwood, perfumes, camphor.
  
  They do not specify the countries by name except Kalaham. The merchandise is merely said to come poetically from the East or the West.
  
  The foreigners, when mentioned, fall under two categories. The Yavanas are the merchants and soldiers from the Roman Empire and Arabia. Other foreigners seem to have been included under the term 'pulam peyar maakkal', or those who live abroad and create wealth through maritime enterprise ('kalam taru tiru'). The question has been raised whether the Chinese were included under the terms 'Yavanar'. It does not appear to be so, The Yavanar are a category of people well defined in Tamil poetry if we consider all the texts which speak of them both as soldiers, merchants and mercenaries in the service of Tamil kings, and of the contingent of Yavana soldiers whom the Ceran punished, and the Yavana territory which the Ceran traversed on his way to the Himalayas.
  
  Indentification of Names
  
  The help of Cankam names has to be sought in the identification of the geographical names found in Greek and Latin literature. In the annotations concerning these place names made in the 19th century, the tendency was to seek correspondences with modern maps and contemporary usage. For instance, the Poudoupatana of Indikopleustes was considered a more correct form than the Podperoura of Ptolemy (McCrindle, 52) whereas probably Indokopleustes is giving us the name by which the town was known in his days, and is witness to a change which has occurred from a classical Putu-p-peroor to putu-p-pattinam; it was suggested that Aioi was derived from the Sanskrit, ahi, a snake, and that the Aioi might have been snakeworshippers; that Kolkai was changed into Korkai only in modern times by 'a modern refinement where the / changes into r'. It was also said with reference to Ptolemy that "we remain almost wholly in the dark as to the greater part of his voluminous catalogues: and are wholly unable to identify the localities which he meant to designate".
  
  At least for his catalogue of names in the Tamil country, if the help of the Tamil classics is sought, the position need not be a matter for such despair. Besides, an examination of variant readings in the Greek and Latin codices for the closest approximation to Tamil classical toponomy and topography should offer further solutions. For example, Melcunda which was the earlier reading has been replaced by Louis Renou as Melkuda (North of Quilon) and this reading has not only the codices but also the Tamil meaning more in its favour.
  
  Where Ptolemy has translated the name of the river as Pseudostomos, he has translated a place name (like 'spoi-vaai') of a particular embouchment as the name of the river itself; where he refers to Tennagora as an iniand town of the Colas, he probably takes the first; where he refers to Tennagora as an inland town of the Colas, he probably takes the first semanteme from the Tamil, and the second from the Greek, and we might have to look for a name like Tennankaadi (the southern market) or Tennoor. What was earlier read as Sosikourai (locality on the coast between Cape Comorin and Korkei) is the name of a Cankam poet whose name
  occurs in the body of a poem and not merely in the colophon.
  
  While the names of coastal towns, inland towns, mountains and rivers need this comparative investigation, I should like to make at least one suggestion concerning some of the lesser known principalities of the Tamil countries which have not been identified. As Ptolemy approaches the southern coast, kingdoms and regions are mentioned not so much by the name of the territory as by the name of the people who inhabit it. While at Tyndis he places the first town of Dimirika, with the Aioi he begins to name the people as Aion, Kareon, Baton, Pandionon koras, Soringon polis etc. Aioi, has been interpreted as the people connected with Ay, the munificient patron of several poets. Similarly kareoi and Batoi should be the people connected with the Chiefs Kari and Pari, two of the seven rulers who had territories and armies large enough to invite the cupidity of the kings of the larger kigdoms, either singly or jointly. Kareoi, has been interpreted earlier, as 'Karaiyaar'-- or people of the coast. Karaiyaar is today a term used for fisher-folk living along the coast, but it does not seem to have been employed in the earlier period. Further, Ptolomey lists four inland towns belonging to them which would not be likely if they were merely fisher folk.
  
  Karaiyaar is generic term and could not have ever designated a kingdom or a people. Batoi, however, has never been explained.
  
  It is to be noted that while the Tamil classics write Korkei with a cacuminal 'r' the Western writers speak of it as Kolkai or Colchis. or Colchi. If we accept that the Western from a reproduction of the oral pronounciation of the name, the etymology of Korkei means 'the hand that slays'. Could it be possible that Korkei was the locality where the Pandyan or their ancestors executed punishment. The Periplus says that condemned criminals were put to work at the pearl fisheries, and the Cilappatikaram states that a thousand gold smiths were sacrificed at Korkei in atonement for the miscarriage of Pandyan Justice when Kovalan was slain. The text of the Cilappatikaram does not help us in deciding on the etymology.
  
  Requirements
  
  These brief notes merely show that a closer study of the historical geography of the Tamil country during the classical period requires a comparative study of Tamil and Western texts, and that the one help in a better understanding of the other.
  
  Bibliography :
  
  E.H. WARMINGTON The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India, Cambridge, 1928. Mc. CRINDLE. J.W. Ancient India as described by Ptolemy, London 1885 and The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythraean sea, Calcutta, 1879;
  
  VINCENT, W. The commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the Indian Ocean, 2 Vols, London, 8107; The Voyage of Nearchus and the periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Oxford, 1809; R.C. MAJUMDAR. The Classical accounts of India, Calcutta, 1960.
  
  
  
  

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