The Travels of Marco Polo Volume II Part 54

"I am tempted to carry this long account of Kayal a little further, so as to bring to light the _Kolkhoi_ [[Greek: kolchoi emporion]] of the Greek merchants, the situation of the older city being nearly identical with that of the more modern one. _Kolkhoi_, described by Ptolemy and the author of the Periplus as an emporium of the pearl-trade, as situated on the sea-coast to the east of Cape Comorin, and as giving its name to the Kolkhic Gulf or Gulf of Manaar, has been identified by La.s.sen with Keelkarei; but this identification is merely conjectural, founded on nothing better than a slight apparent resemblance in the names. La.s.sen could not have failed to identify Kolkhoi with KORKAI, the mother-city of Kayal, if he had been acquainted with its existence and claims. Korkai, properly KOLKAI (the _l_ being changed into _r_ by a modern refinement--it is still called _Kolka_ in Malayalam), holds an important place in Tamil traditions, being regarded as the birthplace of the Pandyan Dynasty, the place where the princes of that race ruled previously to their removal to Madura. One of the t.i.tles of the Pandyan Kings is 'Ruler of Korkai.'

Korkai is situated two or three miles inland from Kayal, higher up the river. It is not marked in the Ordnance Map of India, but a village in the immediate neighbourhood of it, called _Maramangalam_, 'the Good-fortune of the Pandyas,' will be found in the map. This place, together with several others in the neighbourhood, on both sides of the river, is proved by inscriptions and relics to have been formerly included in Korkai, and the whole intervening s.p.a.ce between Korkai and Kayal exhibits traces of ancient dwellings. The people of Kayal maintain that their city was originally so large as to include Korkai, but there is much more probability in the tradition of the people of Korkai, which is to the effect that Korkai itself was originally a sea-port; that as the sea retired it became less and less suitable for trade, that Kayal rose as Korkai fell, and that at length, as the sea continued to retire, Kayal also was abandoned. They add that the trade for which the place was famous in ancient times was the trade in pearls." In an article in the _Madras Journal_ (VII. 379) it is stated that at the great Siva PaG.o.da at Tinnevelly the earth used ceremonially at the annual festival is brought from Korkai, but no position is indicated.

NOTE 2.--Dr. Caldwell again brings his invaluable aid:--

"Marco Polo represents Kayal as being governed by a king whom he calls _Asciar_ (a name which you suppose to be intended to be p.r.o.nounced _Ashar_), and says that this king of Kayal was the elder brother of Sonderbandi, the king of that part of the district of Maabar where he landed. There is a distinct tradition, not only amongst the people now inhabiting Kayal, but in the district of Tinnevelly generally, that Kayal, during the period of its greatness, was ruled by a king. This king is sometimes spoken of as one of 'the Five Kings' who reigned in various parts of Tinnevelly, but whether he was independent of the King of Madura, or only a viceroy, the people cannot now say.... The tradition of the people of Kayal is that ... _Sur-Raja_ was the name of the last king of the place. They state that this last king was a Mahommedan, ... but though Sur-Raja does not sound like the name of a Mahommedan prince, they all agree in a.s.serting that this was his name.... Can this Sur be the person whom Marco calls Asciar? Probably not, as Asciar seems to have been a Hindu by religion. I have discovered what appears to be a more probable identification in the name of a prince mentioned in an inscription on the walls of a temple at Sri-Vaikuntham, a town on the Tamraparni R., about 20 miles from Kayal. In the inscription in question a donation to the temple is recorded as having been given in the time of '_Asadia-deva called also Surya-deva_' This name 'Asadia' is neither Sanskrit nor Tamil; and as the hard _d_ is often changed into _r_, Marco's _Ashar_ may have been an attempt to render this _Asad_. If this Asadia or Surya-deva were really Sundara-pandi-deva's brother, he must have ruled over a narrow range of country, probably over Kayal alone, whilst his more eminent brother was alive; for there is an inscription on the walls of a temple at Sindamangalam, a place only a few miles from Kayal, which records a donation made to the place 'in the reign of Sundara-pandi-deva.'"[3]

NOTE 3.--["O aljofar, e perolas, que me manda que lha enuic, nom as posso auer, que as ha em Ceylo e Caille, que so as fontes dellas: compralashia do meu sangue, a do meu dinheiro, que o tenho porque vos me daes." (Letter of the Viceroy Dom Francisco to the King, Anno de 1508). (_G. Correa, Lendas da India_, I. pp. 908-909.)--_Note by Yule_.]

NOTE 4.--_Tembul_ is the Persian name for the betel-leaf or _pan_, from the Sanskrit _Tambula_. The latter is also used in Tamul, though _Vettilei_ is the proper Tamul word, whence _Betel_ (_Dr. Caldwell_).

Marsden supposes the mention of camphor among the ingredients with which the pan is prepared to be a mistake, and suggests as a possible origin of the error that _kapur_ in the Malay language means not only camphor but quicklime. This is curious, but in addition to the fact that the lime is mentioned in the text, there seems ample evidence that his doubt about camphor is unfounded.

Garcia de Orta says distinctly: "In chewing _betre_ ... they mix areca with it and a little lime.... Some add _Licio_ (i.e. catechu), _but the rich and grandees add some Borneo camphor_, and some also lign-aloes, musk, and ambergris" (31 v. and 32). _Abdurrazzak_ also says: "The manner of eating it is as follows: They bruise a portion of _faufel_ (areca), otherwise called _sipari_, and put it in the mouth. Moistening a leaf of the betel, together with a grain of lime, they rub the one upon the other, roll them together, and then place them in the mouth. They thus take as many as four leaves of betel at a time and chew them. _Sometimes they add camphor to it_" (p. 32). And Abul Fazl: "They also put some betel-nut and _kath_ (catechu) on one leaf, and some lime-paste on another, and roll them up; this is called _a berah. Some put camphor and musk into it_, and tie both leaves with a silk thread," etc. (See _Blochmann's Transl._ p.

73.) Finally one of the Chinese notices of Kamboja, translated by Abel Remusat, says: "When a guest comes it is usual to present him with _areca, camphor, and other aromatics_." (_Nouv. Mel._ I. 84.)

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map showing the position of the Kingdom of ELY in MALABAR]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sketch showing the position of KaYAL in TINNEVELLY]

NOTE 5.--This is the only pa.s.sage of Ramusio's version, so far as I know, that suggests interpolation from a recent author, as distinguished from mere editorial modification. There is in Barbosa a description of the _duello_ as practised in Canara, which is rather too like this one.

[1] "Sonagar or Jonagar is a Tamil corruption of _Yavanar_, the Yavanas, the name by which the Arabs were known, and is the name most commonly used in the Tamil country to designate the mixed race descended from Arab colonists, who are called _Mapillas_ on the Malabar coast, and _Lubbies_ in the neighbourhood of Madras." (Dr. C.'s note)

[2] I am sorry to say that the coin never reached its destination. In the latter part of 1872 a quant.i.ty of treasure was found near Kayal by the labourers on irrigation works. Much of it was dispersed without coming under intelligent eyes, and most of the coins recovered were Arabic.

One, however, is stated to have been a coin of "Joanna of Castille, A.D. 1236." (_Allen's India Mail_, 5th January, 1874.) There is no such queen. Qu. Joanna I. of _Navarre_ (1274-1276)? or Joanna II. of _Navarre_ (1328-1336)?

[3] See above, p. 334, as to Dr. Caldwell's view of Polo's Sonderbandi. May not _Ashar_ very well represent _ashadha_, "invincible," among the applications of which Williams gives "N. of a prince". I observe also that _aschar_ (Sansk. _aschariya_ "marvellous") is the name of one of the objects of worship in the dark _Sakti_ system, once apparently potent in S. India. (See _Taylor's Catalogue Raisonne_, II. 414, 423, 426, 443, and remark p. xlix.)

["Ils disent donc que Dieu qu'ils appellent _Achar_, c'est-a-dire, immobile ou immuable." (_F. Bernier, Voy._, ed. 1699, II. p.

134.)--_MS. Note_.--H.Y.]

CHAPTER XXII.

OF THE KINGDOM OF COILUM.

When you quit Maabar and go 500 miles towards the south-west you come to the kingdom of COILUM. The people are Idolaters, but there are also some Christians and some Jews. The natives have a language of their own, and a King of their own, and are tributary to no one.[NOTE 1]

A great deal of brazil is got here which is called _brazil Coilumin_ from the country which produces it; 'tis of very fine quality.[NOTE 2]

Good ginger also grows here, and it is known by the same name of _Coilumin_ after the country.[NOTE 3] Pepper too grows in great abundance throughout this country, and I will tell you how. You must know that the pepper-trees are (not wild but) cultivated, being regularly planted and watered; and the pepper is gathered in the months of May, June, and July. They have also abundance of very fine indigo. This is made of a certain herb which is gathered, and [after the roots have been removed] is put into great vessels upon which they pour water and then leave it till the whole of the plant is decomposed. They then put this liquid in the sun, which is tremendously hot there, so that it boils and coagulates, and becomes such as we see it. [They then divide it into pieces of four ounces each, and in that form it is exported to our parts.]

[NOTE 4] And I a.s.sure you that the heat of the sun is so great there that it is scarcely to be endured; in fact if you put an egg into one of the rivers it will be boiled, before you have had time to go any distance, by the mere heat of the sun!

The merchants from Manzi, and from Arabia, and from the Levant come thither with their ships and their merchandise and make great profits both by what they import and by what they export.

There are in this country many and divers beasts quite different from those of other parts of the world. Thus there are lions black all over, with no mixture of any other colour; and there are parrots of many sorts, for some are white as snow with red beak and feet, and some are red, and some are blue, forming the most charming sight in the world; there are green ones too. There are also some parrots of exceeding small size, beautiful creatures.[NOTE 5] They have also very beautiful peac.o.c.ks, larger than ours, and different; and they have c.o.c.ks and hens quite different from ours; and what more shall I say? In short, everything they have is different from ours, and finer and better. Neither is their fruit like ours, nor their beasts, nor their birds; and this difference all comes of the excessive heat.

Corn they have none but rice. So also their wine they make from [palm-]

sugar; capital drink it is, and very speedily it makes a man drunk. All other necessaries of man's life they have in great plenty and cheapness.

They have very good astrologers and physicians. Man and woman, they are all black, and go naked, all save a fine cloth worn about the middle. They look not on any sin of the flesh as a sin. They marry their cousins german, and a man takes his brother's wife after the brother's death; and all the people of India have this custom.[NOTE 6]

There is no more to tell you there; so we will proceed, and I will tell you of another country called Comari.

NOTE 1.--Futile doubts were raised by Baldelli Boni and Hugh Murray as to the position of COILUM, because of Marco's mentioning it before Comari or Cape Comorin; and they have insisted on finding a Coilum to the _east_ of that promontory. There is, however, in reality, no room for any question on this subject. For ages Coilum, Kaulam, or, as we now write it, Quilon, and properly Kollam, was one of the greatest ports of trade with Western Asia.[1] The earliest mention of it that I can indicate is in a letter written by the Nestorian Patriarch, Jesujabus of Adiabene, who died A.D.

660, to Simon Metropolitan of Fars, blaming his neglect of duty, through which he says, not only is India, "which extends from the coast of the Kingdom of Fars to COLON, a distance of 1200 parasangs, deprived of a regular ministry, but Fars itself is lying in darkness." (_a.s.sem._ III. pt.

ii. 437.) The same place appears in the earlier part of the Arab _Relations_ (A.D. 851) as _Kaulam-Male_, the port of India made by vessels from Maskat, and already frequented by great Chinese Junks.

Abulfeda defines the position of Kaulam as at the extreme end of _Balad-ul-Falfal_, i.e. the Pepper country or Malabar, as you go eastward, standing on an inlet of the sea, in a sandy plain, adorned with many gardens. The brazil-tree grew there, and the Mahomedans had a fine mosque and square. Ibn Batuta also notices the fine mosque, and says the city was one of the finest in Malabar, with splendid markets and rich merchants, and was the chief resort of the Chinese traders in India. Odoric describes it as "at the extremity of the Pepper Forest towards the south," and astonishing in the abundance of its merchandise. Friar Jorda.n.u.s of Severac was there as a missionary some time previous to 1328, in which year he was at home; [on the 21st of August, 1329, he] was nominated Bishop of the See of Kaulam, Latinised as _Columb.u.m_ or _Columbus_ [created by John XXII. on the 9th of August of the same year--H.C.]. Twenty years later John Marignolli visited "the very n.o.ble city of Columb.u.m, where the whole world's pepper is produced," and found there a Latin church of St. George, probably founded by Jorda.n.u.s.[2] Kaulam or Coilon continued to be an important place to the beginning of the 16th century, when Varthema speaks of it as a fine port, and Barbosa as "a very great city," with a very good haven, and with many great merchants, Moors and Gentoos, whose ships traded to all the Eastern ports as far as Bengal, Pegu, and the Archipelago. But after this its decay must have been rapid, and in the following century it had sunk into entire insignificance. Throughout the Middle Ages it appears to have been one of the chief seats of the St. Thomas Christians. Indeed both it and Kayal were two out of the seven ancient churches which Indo Syrian tradition ascribed to St. Thomas himself.[3]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ancient Christian Church at Parur on the Malabar coast.

(After Claudius Buchanan.)]

I have been desirous to give some ill.u.s.tration of the churches of that interesting body, certain of which must date from a very remote period, but I have found unlooked for difficulties in procuring such ill.u.s.tration.

Several are given in the Life of Dr. Claudius Buchanan from his own sketches, and a few others in the Life of Bishop D. Wilson. But nearly all represent the churches as they were perverted in the 17th century and since, by a coa.r.s.e imitation of a style of architecture bad enough in its genuine form. I give, after Buchanan, the old church at Parur, not far from Cranganore, which had escaped masquerade, with one from Bishop Wilson's Life, showing the quasi Jesuit deformation alluded to, and an interior also from the latter work, which appears to have some trace of genuine character. Parur church is probably _Palur_, or _Pazhur_, which is one of those ascribed to St. Thomas, for Dr. Buchanan says it bears the name of the Apostle, and "is supposed to be the oldest in Malabar." (_Christ. Res._ p. 113.)

[Quilon is "one of the oldest towns on the coast, from whose re-foundation in 1019 A.D., Travancore reckons its era." (_Hunter_, _Gaz._, XI., p.

339.)--H.C.]

_How_ Polo comes to mention Coilum before Comari is a question that will be treated further on, with other misplacements of like kind that occur in succeeding chapters.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Syrian Church at Caranyachirra (from "Life of Bp. D.

Wilson"), showing the quasi-Jesuit facade generally adopted in modern times.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Interior of Syrian Church at Kutteiyan in Travancore. (From "Life of Bp. D. Wilson.")]

Kublai had a good deal of diplomatic intercourse of his usual kind with Kaulam. De Mailla mentions the arrival at T'swan chau (or Zayton) in 1282 of envoys from KIULAN, an Indian State, bringing presents of various rarities, including a black ape as big as a man. The Emperor had three times sent thither an officer called Yang Ting-pi (IX. 415). Some rather curious details of these missions are extracted by Pauthier from the Chinese Annals. The royal residence is in these called _A-pu-'hota_[4]

The king is styled _Pinati_. I may note that Barbosa also tells us that the King of Kaulam was called Benate-deri (_devar?_). And Dr. Caldwell's kindness enables me to explain this t.i.tle. _Pinati_ or _Benate_ represents _Venadan_. "the Lord of the Venadu," or _Venattu_, that being the name of the district to which belonged the family of the old kings of Kollam, and _Venadan_ being their regular dynastic name. The Rajas of Travancore who superseded the Kings of Kollam, and inherit their t.i.tles, are still poetically styled Venadan. (_Pauthier_, p. 603 seqq.; _Ram._ I. f. 304.)

NOTE 2.--The brazil-wood of Kaulam appears in the Commercial Handbook of Pegolotti (circa 1340) as _Verzino Colombino_, and under the same name in that of Giov. d'Uzzano a century later. Pegolotti in one pa.s.sage details kinds of brazil under the names of _Verzino salvatico_, _dimestico_, and _columbino_. In another pa.s.sage, where he enters into particulars as to the respective values of different qualities, he names three kinds, as _Colomni_, _Ameri_, and _Seni_, of which the _Colomni_ (or Colombino) was worth a sixth more than the _Ameri_ and three times as much as the _Seni_. I have already conjectured that _Ameri_ may stand for _Lameri_ referring to Lambri in Sumatra (supra ch. xi., note 1); and perhaps _Seni_ is _Sini_ or Chinese, indicating an article brought to India by the Chinese traders, probably from Siam.

We have seen in the last note that the Kaulam brazil is spoken of by Abulfeda; and Ibn Batuta, in describing his voyage by the back waters from Calicut to Kaulam, says: "All the trees that grow by this river are either cinnamon or brazil trees. They use these for firewood, and we cooked with them throughout our journey." Friar Odoric makes the same hyperbolic statement: "Here they burn brazil-wood for fuel."

It has been supposed popularly that the brazil-wood of commerce took its name from the great country so called; but the _verzino_ of the old Italian writers is only a form of the same word, and _bresil_ is in fact the word used by Polo. So Chaucer:--

"Him nedeth not his colour for to dien With _brazil_, ne with grain of Portingale."

--_The Nun's Priests Tale_.

The _Eastern_ wood in question is now known in commerce by its Malay name of _Sappan_ (properly _Sapang_), which again is identical with the Tamil name _Sappangi_. This word properly means _j.a.pan_, and seems to have been given to the wood as a supposed product of that region.[5] It is the wood of the _Caesalpinia Sapan_, and is known in Arabic (and in Hindustani) as _Bakam_. It is a th.o.r.n.y tree, indigenous in Western India from Goa to Trevandrum, and growing luxuriantly in South Malabar. It is extensively used by native dyers, chiefly for common and cheap cloths, and for fine mats. The dye is precipitated dark-brown with iron, and red with alum. It is said, in Western India, to furnish the red powder thrown about on the Hindu feast of the _Huli_. The tree is both wild and cultivated, and is grown rather extensively by the Mahomedans of Malabar, called _Moplahs_ (_Mapillas_, see p. 372), whose custom it is to plant a number of seeds at the birth of a daughter. The trees require fourteen or fifteen years to come to maturity, and then become the girl's dowry.

Though to a great extent superseded by the kindred wood from Pernambuco, the sappan is still a substantial object of importation into England. That American dye-stuff which _now_ bears the name of brazil-wood is believed to be the produce of at least two species of Caesalpinia, but the question seems to partake of the singular obscurity which hangs over the origin of so many useful drugs and dye-stuffs. The variety called _Braziletto_ is from _C. bahamensis_, a native of the Bahamas.

The name of Brazil has had a curious history. Etymologists refer it to the colour of braise or hot coals, and its first application was to this dye-wood from the far East. Then it was applied to a newly-discovered tract of South America, perhaps because producing a kindred dye-wood in large quant.i.ties: finally the original wood is robbed of its name, which is monopolised by that imported from the new country. The Region of Brazil had been originally styled _Santa Cruz_, and De Barros attributes the change of name to the suggestion of the Evil One, "as if the name of a wood for colouring cloth were of more moment than that of the Wood which imbues the Sacraments with the tincture of Salvation."

There may perhaps be a doubt if the Land of Brazil derived its name from the dye-wood. For the Isle of Brazil, long before the discovery of America, was a name applied to an imaginary Island in the Atlantic. This island appears in the map of Andrea Bianco and in many others, down at least to Coronelli's splendid Venetian Atlas (1696); the Irish used to fancy that they could see it from the Isles of Arran; and the legend of this Island of Brazil still persisted among sailors in the last century.[6] The story was no doubt the same as that of the green Island, or Island of Youth, which Mr. Campbell tells us the Hebrideans see to the west of their own Islands.

(See _Pop. Tales of West Highlands_, IV. 163. For previous references, _Delia Decirna,_, III. 298, 361; IV. 60; I.B. IV. 99; _Cathay_, p. 77; _Note by Dr. H. Gleghorn_; _Marsh's ed. of Wedgwood's Etym. Dict._ I. 123; _Southey, H. of Brazil_, I. 22.)