Tamraparni

Tamraparni (Tamil/Sanskrit) is an ancient name of the river proximal to Tirunelveli and Puttalam of South India and Western Sri Lanka.[1] Movement of people across the Gulf of Mannar during the early Pandyan and Anuradhapura periods, between the Tamilakam coasts of the river and Northwest Sri Lanka, led to the shared application of the name for the closely connected region.[2] The entire island of Sri Lanka itself came to be known in the ancient world as "Tamraparni". It is a rendering of the original Tamil name Tan Porunai of the Sangam period, "the cool river Porunai".[3][4]

Etymology

From the Tamilakam era, the area of the Tamraparni river, in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, has had name modifications,[5] from the original Tan Porunai river to Tamira Porunai, from Tamraparni to Tambraparni and now called Thamirabarani River.[6][7][8] A common meaning for the term is "copper-colored leaf", from the words Thamiram (copper/red) in Tamil/Sanskrit and parani meaning leaf/tree, translating to "river of red leaves".[9][10] According to the Tambraparni Mahatmyam, an ancient account of the river from its rise to its mouth, a string of red lotus flowers from sage Agastya at Pothigai hills transformed itself into a damsel at the sight of Lord Siva, forming the river and giving it its divine name.[11] Other name derivations include "Tambapanni", "Tamradvipa" and "Taprobana".[12][13][14] Robert Knox reported from his 20 years of captivity on the island in the hills that "Tombrane" is a name of the Sri Lankan Tamil people for God in Tamil, which they often repeated as they lifted up their hands and faces towards Heaven".[15]

In literature

The region south of Tirunelveli, the citadel of the Pandyan kingdom on the river in Tamil Nadu, was referred to as Tamraparni by extension in the ancient period; Korkai, the epicentre of the pearl trade and the kingdom's capital, was located at the river's mouth.[16] Referring to pearls, Kautilya speaks of "Thamro Par nika, that which is produced in the Tamraparni".[17] Varahamihira's Brihat Samhita mentions the river Tamraparni, pearls whereof are said to have been slightly copper-coloured or white and bright.[18] Kālidāsa praises the pearl fisheries of the river Tamraparni in South India, while giving details that an Ikshvaku king had conquered the Pandyas by carrying successful arms up to the mouth of the river.[19]

"Tamraparni" is, according to 5th century legends of Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa, the name given by the banished Prince Vijaya to an area he invaded in Western Sri Lanka, bringing with him Pandyan queens.[14] The name was adopted in Pali as Tambapanni. Later, this was made his "capital" of a country north of the island, Rajarata. The point on the Gulf of Mannar, near Chilaw/Mannar and north of Puttalam on the west coast, is where it was established, opposite the mouth of the Thambiraparani River in Tirunelveli.[20][21] Puttalam served as a second capital to kings of the Jaffna kingdom, who directed their energies towards consolidating its economic potential by maximising revenue from a lucrative pearl fishing industry developed there.[22] The Divyāvadāna or "Divine narratives" a Sanskrit anthology of Buddhist tales from the 2nd century, calls Sri Lanka "Tamradvipa" and gives an account of a merchant's son who met Yakkhinis, dressed like celestial nymphs (gandharva), in Sri Lanka.[14] A Pali story of the Jataka tales from the period renders the island of Sri Lanka's name as "Tambapanni"; the islands of Nagadipa and Kalyani too are mentioned.[14] These mentions corroborate writers of the period in relating Tambapanni island as a "fairyland" inhabited by Yakkhinis or "she demons" and the story of Kuveni.[14]

Mahabharata

"Listen as I now recount the isle of Tamraparni below Pandya-desa and KanyaKumari, gemmed upon the ocean. The gods underwent austerities there, in a desire to attain greatness. In that region also is the lake of Gokarna. Then one should go to Gokarna, renowned in the three worlds. O Indra among kings! It is in the middle of the ocean and is worshipped by all the worlds. Brahma, the Devas, the rishis, the ascetics, the bhutas (spirits or ghosts), the yakshas, the pishachas, the kinnaras, the great nagas, the siddhas, the charanas, the gandharvas, humans, the pannagas, rivers, ocean and mountains worship Uma's consort there". Mahabharata. Volume 3. pp. 46-47, 99.

“
”

Vyasa, Mahabharata. c.401 BCE. Corroborating the map of Ptolemy drawn four hundred years later, this text also elaborates on two ashrams of the Siddhar Agastya in the region, one near the bay and another atop the Malaya mountain range.[23]

In the Mahābhārata (3:88) a Sanskrit passage relates to the island region before the Anuradhapura period. "Listen, O son of Kunti, I shall now describe Tamraparni. In that asylum the gods had undergone penances impelled by the desire of obtaining salvation".[24]

2nd century BC Sangam and Tamil texts Purananuru mention Tamraparni; they mention that Lanka, a province of Tamilakam as once lying close to the estuary of the Tamraparni River before a huge deluge, most likely a tsunami, separated Lanka with a broad channel from whence it has remained the island of Sri Lanka.[25][26]

In Valmiki's Ramayana, "Tamraparni" is related "Search the empire of the Andhras, the sister nations three, Cholas, Cheras and the Pandyas dwelling by the southern sea. Pass Kaveri's spreading waters, Malaya's mountains towering brave, seek the isle of Tamraparni, gemmed upon the ocean wave!"[27]

Tamraparni is mentioned in particular in the Edicts of Asoka, as one of the areas of Buddhist proselytism in the 3rd century BCE:

"The conquest by Dharma has been won here, on the borders, and even six hundred yojanas (5,400–9,600 km) away, where the Greek king Antiochos rules, beyond there where the four kings named Ptolemy, Antigonos, Magas and Alexander rule, likewise in the south among the Cholas, the Pandyas, and as far as Tamraparni)." (Edicts of Ashoka, 13th Rock Edict, S. Dhammika).

Tamraparni in the edicts was the name by which the Buddhists of the ancient times referred to Sri Lanka.[28]

"Tamraparniya" is a name given to the Theravada Buddhist school lineage in Southern India and its nikāya predecessor, one of the early Buddhist schools. Theravada descends from the school of Tamraparniya, which translates to "the Sri Lankan lineage".[29] Vasubandhu writing in the 4th century in the Sanskrit Abhidharmakośakārikā on Buddhism mentions the Tamraparniya-nikaya.[30]

The name was adopted into Greek as Taprobana, called as such by Megasthenes in the 4th century BC.[31] Megasthenes says that "Taprobane is separated from the mainland by a river; that the inhabitants are called Palaiogonoi, and that their country is more productive of gold and large pearls than India."[32] Nearchus and Onesicritus, contemporaries of Alexander the Great mention the island as Taprobana, which also finds mention in De Mundo of Aristotle.

Map of Taprobana
1562 Ruscelli map after Ptolemy
Ptolemy's map of Taprobana of 140 CE in a 1562 Ruscelli publication. Other locations in present day Sri Lanka are identifiable on the map.

In the world map drawn by the ancient Egyptian Greek Ptolemy (Claudious Ptolemaeus "Geographia", 150 AD), a huge island located south of the Indian subcontinent is referred to by the Greek as “Taprobane”, which the historian has identified as the island of Sri Lanka.[33]

The Bengali poet Krishnadasa Kaviraja mentions in Chaitanya Charitamrita the Tamraparni river in Tirunelveli, Pandya Desa, as a holy place Chaitanya Mahaprabhu visited as a pilgrim, and glorifies the Vishnu temple Alwarthirunagari Temple on its bank.

The Greek name was adopted in medieval Irish (Lebor Gabala Erenn) as Deprofane (Recension 2) and Tibra Faine (Recension 3), off the coast of India, supposedly one of the countries where the Milesians / Gaedel, ancestors of today's Irish, had sojourned in their previous migrations.[34][35]

The name remained in use in early modern Europe, alongside the Persianate Serendip, with Traprobana mentioned in the first strophe of the Portuguese national epic poem Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões. John Milton borrowed this for his epic poem Paradise Lost and Miguel de Cervantes mentions a fantastic Trapobana in Don Quixote.[36]

In epigraphy

A Prakrit inscription at Bodh Gaya in Bihar, on one of the railing bars of the Bodh-Gaya temple, details a gift donation to the temple from Bodhirakhitasa, a man from Tamraparni.

Nagarjunakonda inscriptions belonging to the Andhra Ikshvaku king Madhariputa Sri Vira Purisadata's reign of 275 CE speak of a convent founding a Chaitya-griha (Chaitya hall) dedicated to the Sthaviravadin (Theravada) teachers, nuns and monk fraternities from Tamraparni. These Buddhist monks are credited to have converted the people of Kashmir, Gandhara, China, Tosali, Aparanta, Vanga, Vanavasa, Yavana (Greece), Damila and the isle of Tamraparni at the monastery to their doctrine, a site of great cultural influence and exchange. Vanga, according to the inscription, was among several regions where "tranquility" (pasada) was brought about by the Sthaviravadin teachers of Tamraparni.

Buddhist Bhikkus monks from Tamraparni resided at Navahatta in Bengal in 600 CE.[37] A seal excavated at the site of the Raktamrittika Vihara at Rajbadiganga mentions the community thus Navahatte Tamavanika Bhikshunam meaning "the bhikshus from Tamraparni residing in Navahatta".[38] The language of the inscription is an amalgam of Sanskrit and Prakrit — "Navahatta" is Sanskrit and "Tamavanika" is the Prakritized form of the Sanskrit word "Tamraparnika".[39] It is an identity seal of the monks from Sri Lanka residing at the monastery, part of a votive insignia to the shrine in an offering on behalf of all monks.[40]

References

  1. ↑ Pillai, M. S. Purnalingam (2010-11-01). Ravana The Great : King of Lanka. Sundeep Prakashan Publishing. ISBN 9788175741898.
  2. ↑ K. Sivasubramaniam - 2009. Fisheries in Sri Lanka: anthropological and biological aspects, Volume 1. "It is considered most probable that the name was borrowed by the Greeks, from the Tamil 'Tamraparni' for which the Pali...to Ceylon, by the Tamil immigrants from Tinnelvely district through which ran the river called to this date, Tamaravarani"
  3. ↑ Leelananda Prematilleka, Sudharshan Seneviatne - 1990: Perspectives in archaeology: "The names Tambapanni and Tamra- parni are in fact the Prakrit and Sanskrit rendering of Tamil Tan porunai"
  4. ↑ John R. Marr - 1985 The Eight Anthologies: A Study in Early Tamil Literature. Ettukai. Institute of Asian Studies
  5. ↑ Leelananda Prematilleka, Sudharshan Seneviatne - 1990: Perspectives in archaeology: "The names Tambapanni and Tamra- parni are in fact the Prakrit and Sanskrit rendering of Tamil Tan porunai"
  6. ↑ Leelananda Prematilleka, Sudharshan Seneviatne - 1990: Perspectives in archaeology: "The names Tambapanni and Tamra- parni are in fact the Prakrit and Sanskrit rendering of Tamil Tan porunai"
  7. ↑ Pillai, M. S. Purnalingam (2010-11-01). Ravana The Great : King of Lanka. Sundeep Prakashan Publishing. ISBN 9788175741898.
  8. ↑ Caldwell, Bishop R. (1881-01-01). History of Tinnevelly. Asian Educational Services. ISBN 9788120601611.
  9. ↑ K. Sivasubramaniam - 2009. Fisheries in Sri Lanka: anthropological and biological aspects, Volume 1. "It is considered most probable that the name was borrowed by the Greeks, from the Tamil 'Tamraparni' for which the Pali...to Ceylon, by the Tamil immigrants from Tinnelvely district through which ran the river called to this date, Tamaravarani"
  10. ↑ Caldwell, Bishop R. (1881-01-01). History of Tinnevelly. Asian Educational Services. ISBN 9788120601611.
  11. ↑ The Indian Geographical Journal, Volume 15, 1940 p345
  12. ↑ K. Sivasubramaniam - 2009. Fisheries in Sri Lanka: anthropological and biological aspects, Volume 1. "It is considered most probable that the name was borrowed by the Greeks, from the Tamil 'Tamraparni' for which the Pali...to Ceylon, by the Tamil immigrants from Tinnelvely district through which ran the river called to this date, Tamaravarani"
  13. ↑ Leelananda Prematilleka, Sudharshan Seneviatne - 1990: Perspectives in archaeology: "The names Tambapanni and Tamra- parni are in fact the Prakrit and Sanskrit rendering of Tamil Tan porunai"
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 Mendis, G.C. (2006). "The ancient period". Early History of Ceylon (Reprint ed.). Asian Educational Services. p. 33. ISBN 81-206-0209-9. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
  15. ↑ Robert Knox. 1651. An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon in the East-Indies. - London. p167
  16. ↑ Arumugam, Solai; GANDHI, M. SURESH (2010-11-01). Heavy Mineral Distribution in Tamiraparani Estuary and Off Tuticorin. Publishing. ISBN 9783639304534.
  17. ↑ N. Subrahmanian - 1994. Original sources for the history of Tamilnad: from the beginning to c. A.D. 600
  18. ↑ Ajay Mitra Shastri, Varāhamihira (1996). Ancient Indian Heritage, Varahamihira's India: Economy, astrology, fine arts, and literature. Aryan Books International.
  19. ↑ Govind Sadashiv Ghurye. Caste and Race in India. p357
  20. ↑ Leelananda Prematilleka, Sudharshan Seneviatne - 1990: Perspectives in archaeology: "The names Tambapanni and Tamra- parni are in fact the Prakrit and Sanskrit rendering of Tamil Tan porunai"
  21. ↑ Caldwell, Bishop R. (1881-01-01). History of Tinnevelly. Asian Educational Services. ISBN 9788120601611.
  22. ↑ Pfaffenberg, Brian (1994). The Sri Lankan Tamils. U.S: Westview Press. p. 247. ISBN 0-8133-8845-7.
  23. ↑ Vyasa. (400 BCE). Mahabharata. Sections LXXXV and LXXXVIII. Book 3. pp. 46-47, 99
  24. ↑ Mahabharata Online.
  25. ↑ Pillai, M. S. Purnalingam (2010-11-01). Ravana The Great : King of Lanka. Sundeep Prakashan Publishing. ISBN 9788175741898.
  26. ↑ "Rivers of Western Ghats - Origin of Tamiraparani". Centre for Ecological Sciences. Indian Institute of Science. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  27. ↑ Romesh Chunder Dutt (2002). The Ramayana and the Mahabharata Condensed Into English Verse. p99
  28. ↑ Sri Nandan Prasad, Historical Perspectives of Warfare in India: Some Morale and Matériel Determinants, Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy, and Culture - 2002
  29. ↑ Śrīdhara Tripāṭhī. 2008. Encyclopaedia of Pali Literature: The Pali canon - Page 79
  30. ↑ Nalinaksha Dutt. Buddhist Sects in India. p 212
  31. ↑ Friedman, John Block; Figg, Kristen Mossler (2013-07-04). Trade, Travel, and Exploration in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. ISBN 9781135590949.
  32. ↑ Jyotirmay Sen. "Asoka's mission to Ceylon and some connected problems". The Indian Historical Quarterly. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  33. ↑ W. J. Van Der Meulen, Suvarnadvipa and the Chryse Chersonesos, Indonesia, Vol. 18, 1974, page 6.
  34. ↑ Lebor Gabala Erenn Vol. II (Macalister translation)
  35. ↑ In the early 1800s, Welsh pseudohistorian Iolo Morganwg published what he claimed was mediaeval Welsh epic material, describing how Hu Gadarn had led the ancestors of the Welsh in a migration to Britain from Taprobane or "Deffrobani", aka "Summerland", said in his text to be situated "where Constantinople now is." However, this work is now considered to have been a forgery produced by Iolo Morganwg himself.
  36. ↑ Don Quixote, Volume I, Chapter 18: the mighty emperor Alifanfaron, lord of the great isle of Trapobana.
  37. ↑ Parmanand Gupta (1989). Geography from Ancient Indian Coins & Seals. p183
  38. ↑ Indian History Congress. 1973. Proceedings - Indian History Congress - Volume 1 - Page 46.
  39. ↑ Indian History Congress. 1973. Proceedings - Indian History Congress - Volume 1 - Page 46.
  40. ↑ Parmanand Gupta (1989). Geography from Ancient Indian Coins & Seals. p183

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