Chapter XVI

CONCERNING THE GREAT PROVINCE OF MAABAR, WHICH IS
CALLED INDIA THE GREATER, AND IS ON THE MAINLAND.

When you leave the Island of Seilan and sail westward about 60 miles, you come to the great province of MAABAR which is styled INDIA THE GREATER; it is best of all the Indies and is on the mainland.

You must know that in this province there are five kings, who are own brothers. I will tell you about each in turn. The Province is the finest and noblest in the world.

At this end of the Province reigns one of those five Royal Brothers, who is a crowned King, and his name is SONDER BANDI DAVAR. In his kingdom they find very fine and great pearls; and I will tell you how they are got.{1}

You must know that the sea here forms a gulf between the Island of Seilan and the mainland. And all round this gulf the water has a depth of no more than 10 or 12 fathoms, and in some places no more than two fathoms. The pearl-fishers take their vessels, great and small, and proceed into this gulf, where they stop from the beginning of April till the middle of May. They go first to a place called BETTELAR, and (then) go 60 miles into the gulf. Here they cast anchor and shift from their large vessels into small boats. You must know that the many merchants who go divide into various companies, and each of these must engage a number of men on wages, hiring them for April and half of May. Of all the produce they have first to pay the King, as his royalty, the tenth part. And they must also pay those men who charm the great fishes, to prevent them from injuring the divers whilst engaged in seeking pearls under water, one twentieth part of all that they take. These fish-charmers are termed _Abraiaman_; and their charm holds good for that day only, for at night they dissolve the charm so that the fishes can work mischief at their will. These Abraiaman know also how to charm beasts and birds and every living thing. When the men have got into the small boats they jump into the water and dive to the bottom, which may be at a depth of from 4 to 12 fathoms, and there they remain as long as they are able. And there they find the shells that contain the pearls [and these they put into a net bag tied round the waist, and mount up to the surface with them, and then dive anew. When they can’t hold their breath any longer they come up again, and after a little down they go once more, and so they go on all day].{2} The shells are in fashion like oysters or sea-hoods. And in these shells are found pearls, great and small, of every kind, sticking in the flesh of the shell-fish.

In this manner pearls are fished in great quantities, for thence in fact come the pearls which are spread all over the world. And I can tell you the King of that State hath a very great receipt and treasure from his dues upon those pearls.

As soon as the middle of May is past, no more of those pearl-shells are found there. It is true, however, that a long way from that spot, some 300 miles distant, they are also found; but that is in September and the first half of October.

NOTE 1.—MAABAR (_Ma’băr_) was the name given by the Mahomedans at
this time (13th and 14th centuries) to a tract corresponding in
a general way to what we call the Coromandel Coast. The word in
Arabic signifies the Passage or Ferry, and may have referred either
to the communication with Ceylon, or, as is more probable, to its
being in that age the coast most frequented by travellers from
Arabia and the Gulf.[1] The name does not appear in Edrisi, nor,
I believe, in any of the older geographers, and the earliest use
of it that I am aware of is in Abdallatif’s account of Egypt, a
work written about 1203–1204. (_De Sacy, Rel. de l’Egypte_, p. 31.)
Abulfeda distinctly names Cape Comorin as the point where Malabar
ended and Ma’bar began, and other authority to be quoted presently
informs us that it extended to _Niláwar_, _i.e._ Nellore.

There are difficulties as to the particular locality of the port
or city which Polo visited in the territory of the Prince whom
he calls Sondar Bandi Davar; and there are like doubts as to the
identification, from the dark and scanty Tamul records, of the
Prince himself, and the family to which he belonged; though he is
mentioned by more than one foreign writer besides Polo.

Thus Wassáf: “Ma’bar extends in length from Kaulam to Niláwar,
nearly 300 parasangs along the sea-coast; and in the language of
that country the king is called Devar, which signifies, ‘the Lord
of Empire.’ The curiosities of Chín and Máchín, and the beautiful
products of Hind and Sind, laden on large ships which they call
_Junks_, sailing like mountains with the wings of the wind on the
surface of the water, are always arriving there. The wealth of the
Isles of the Persian Gulf in particular, and in part the beauty and
adornment of other countries, from ’Irak and Khurásán as far as Rúm
and Europe, are derived from Ma’bar, which is so situated as to be
the key of Hind.

“A few years since the DEVAR was SUNDAR PANDI, who had three
brothers, each of whom established himself in independence in some
different country. The eminent prince, the Margrave (_Marzbán_)
of Hind, Taki-uddin Abdu-r Rahmán, a son of Muhammad-ut-Tíbí,
whose virtues and accomplishments have for a long time been the
theme of praise and admiration among the chief inhabitants of that
beautiful country, was the Devar’s deputy, minister, and adviser,
and was a man of sound judgment. Fattan, Malifattan, and Káil[2]
were made over to his possession.... In the months of the year 692
H. (A.D. 1293) the above-mentioned Devar, the ruler of Ma’bar,
died and left behind him much wealth and treasure. It is related
by Malik-ul-Islám Jamáluddín, that out of that treasure 7000 oxen
laden with precious stones and pure gold and silver fell to the
share of the brother who succeeded him. Malik-i ’Azam Taki-uddin
continued prime minister as before, and in fact ruler of that
kingdom, and his glory and magnificence were raised a thousand
times higher.”[3]

Seventeen years later (1310) Wassáf introduces another king
of Ma’bar called _Kalesa Devar_, who had ruled for forty
years in prosperity, and had accumulated in the treasury of
Shahr-Mandi (_i.e._, as Dr. Caldwell informs me MADURA, entitled
by the Mahomedan invaders Shahr-Pandi, and still occasionally
mispronounced _Shahr-Mandi_) 1200 crores (!) in gold. He had
two sons, SUNDAR BANDI by a lawful wife, and Pirabandi (Vira
Pandi?) illegitimate. He designated the latter as his successor.
Sundar Bandi, enraged at this, slew his father and took forcible
possession of Shahr-Mandi and its treasures. Pirabandi succeeded in
driving him out; Sundar Bandi went to Aláuddin, Sultan of Delhi,
and sought help. The Sultan eventually sent his general Hazárdinári
(_alias_ Malik Káfúr) to conquer Ma’bar.

In the third volume of Elliot we find some of the same main facts,
with some differences and greater detail, as recounted by Amír
Khusru. Bir Pandiya and Sundara Pandiya are the _Rais_ of Ma’bar,
and are at war with one another, when the army of Alaúddin, after
reducing Bilál Deo of Dwára Samudra, descends upon Ma’bar in the
beginning of 1311 (p. 87 _seqq._).

We see here two rulers in Ma’bar, within less than twenty years,
bearing the name of Sundara Pandi. And, strange to say, more than
a century before, during the continental wars of Parákráma Bahu
I., the most martial of Singhalese kings (A.D. 1153–1186), we find
_another Kulasaíkera_ (= _Kalesa_ of Wassáf), King of Madura, with
_another Víra Pandi_ for son, and _another Sundara Pandi_ Rája,
figuring in the history of the _Pandionis Regio_. But let no one
rashly imagine that there is a confusion in the chronology here.
The Hindu Chronology of the continental states is dark and confused
enough, but not that of Ceylon, which in this, as in sundry other
respects, comes under Indo-Chinese rather than Indian analogies.
(See _Turnour’s Ceylonese Epitome_, pp. 41–43; and _J. A. S. B._
XLI. Pt. I. p. 197 _seqq._)

In a note with which Dr. Caldwell favoured me some time before the
first publication of this work, he considers that the Sundar Bandi
of Polo and the Persian Historians is undoubtedly to be identified
with that Sundara Pandi Devar, who is in the Tamul Catalogues
the last king of the ancient Pandya line, and who was (says Dr.
Caldwell,) “succeeded by Mahomedans, by a new line of Pandyas,
by the Náyak Kings, by the Nabobs of Arcot, and finally by the
English. He became for a time a Jaina, but was reconverted to the
worship of Siva, when his name was changed from _Kun_ or _Kubja_,
‘Crook-backed,’ to _Sundara_, ‘Beautiful,’ in accordance with a
change which then took place, the Saivas say, in his personal
appearance. Probably his name, from the beginning, was Sundara....
In the inscriptions belonging to the period of his reign he is
invariably represented, not as a joint king or viceroy, but as
an absolute monarch ruling over an extensive tract of country,
including the Chola country or Tanjore, and Conjeveram, and as the
only possessor for the time being of the title _Pandi Devar_. It
is clear from the agreement of Rashiduddin with Marco Polo that
Sundara Pandi’s power was shared in some way with his brothers, but
it seems certain also from the inscription that there was a sense
in which he alone was king.”

I do not give the whole of Dr. Caldwell’s remarks on this subject,
because, the 3rd volume of Elliot not being then published, he had
not before him the whole of the information from the Mussulman
historians, which shows so clearly that _two_ princes bearing the
name of Sundara Pandi are mentioned by them, and because I cannot
see my way to adopt his view, great as is the weight due to his
opinion on any such question.

Extraordinary darkness hangs over the chronology of the South
Indian kingdoms, as we may judge from the fact that Dr. Caldwell
would have thus placed at the end of the 13th century, on the
evidence of Polo and Rashiduddin, the reign of the last of the
genuine Pandya kings, whom other calculations place earlier even
by centuries. Thus, to omit views more extravagant, Mr. Nelson,
the learned official historian of Madura, supposes it on the whole
most probable that Kun Pandya _alias_ Sundara, reigned in the
latter half of the 11th century. “The Sri Tala Book, which appears
to have been written about 60 years ago, and was probably compiled
from brief Tamil chronicles then in existence, states that the
Pandya race became extinct upon the death of Kún Pandya; and the
children of concubines and of younger brothers who (had) lived in
former ages, fought against one another, split up the country into
factions, and got themselves crowned, and ruled one in one place,
another in another. But none of these families succeeded in getting
possession of Madura, the capital, which consequently fell into
decay. And further on it tells us, rather inconsistently, that up
to A.D. 1324 the kings ‘who ruled the Madura country, were part
of the time Pandyas, at other times foreigners.’” And a variety
of traditions referred to by Mr. Nelson appears to interpose such
a period of unsettlement and shifting and divided sovereignty,
extending over a considerable time, between the end of the genuine
Pandya Dynasty and the Mahomedan invasion; whilst lists of numerous
princes who reigned in this period have been handed down. Now we
have just seen that the Mahomedan invasion took place in 1311, and
we must throw aside the traditions and the lists altogether if we
suppose that the Sundara Pandi of 1292 was the last prince of the
Old Line. Indeed, though the indication is faint, the manner in
which Wassáf speaks of Polo’s Sundara and his brothers as having
established themselves in different territories, and as in constant
war with each other, is suggestive of the state of unsettlement
which the Sri Tala and the traditions describe.

There is a difficulty in co-ordinating these four or five brothers
at constant war, whom Polo found in possession of different
provinces of Ma’bar about 1290, with the Devar Kalesa, of whom
Wassáf speaks as slain in 1310 after a prosperous reign of forty
years. Possibly the brothers were adventurers who had divided the
coast districts, whilst Kalesa still reigned with a more legitimate
claim at Shahr-Mandi or Madura. And it is worthy of notice that the
Ceylon Annals call the Pandi king whose army carried off the sacred
tooth in 1303 _Kulasaikera_, a name which we may easily believe
to represent Wassáf’s Kalesa. (_Nelson’s Madura_, 55, 67, 71–74;
_Turnour’s Epitome_, p. 47.)

As regards the position of the port of Ma’bar visited, but not
named, by Marco Polo, and at or near which his Sundara Pandi seems
to have resided, I am inclined to look for it rather in Tanjore
than on the Gulf of Manar, south of the Rameshwaram shallows. The
difficulties in this view are the indication of its being “60 miles
west of Ceylon,” and the special mention of the Pearl Fishery in
connection with it. We cannot, however, lay much stress upon Polo’s
orientation. When his general direction is from east to west, every
new place reached is for him _west_ of that last visited; whilst
the Kaveri Delta is as near the north point of Ceylon as Ramnad is
to Aripo. The pearl difficulty may be solved by the probability
that the dominion of Sonder Bandi _extended_ to the coast of the
Gulf of Manar.

On the other hand Polo, below (ch. xx.), calls the province of
Sundara Pandi _Soli_, which we can scarcely doubt to be _Chola_
or _Soladesam_, _i.e._ Tanjore. He calls it also “the best and
noblest Province of India,” a description which even with his
limited knowledge of India he would scarcely apply to the coast of
Ramnad, but which might be justifiably applied to the well-watered
plains of Tanjore, even when as yet Arthur Cotton was not. Let it
be noticed too that Polo in speaking (ch. xix.) of Mutfili (or
Telingana) specifies its distance from Ma’bar as if he had made the
run by sea from one to the other; but afterwards when he proceeds
to speak of _Cail_, which stands on the Gulf of Manar, he does
not specify its position or distance in regard to Sundara Pandi’s
territory; an omission which he would not have been likely to make
had _both_ lain on the Gulf of Manar.

Abulfeda tells us that the capital of the Prince of Ma’bar, who was
the great horse-importer, was called _Bíyardáwal_,[4] a name which
now appears in the extracts from Amír Khusru (_Elliot_, III. 90–91)
as _Birdhúl_, the capital of Bir Pandi mentioned above, whilst
Madura was the residence of his brother, the later Sundara Pandi.
And from the indications in those extracts it can be gathered, I
think, that Birdhúl was not far from the Kaveri (called Kánobari),
not far from the sea, and five or six days’ march from Madura.
These indications point to Tanjore, Kombakonam, or some other
city in or near the Kaveri Delta.[5] I should suppose that this
Birdhúl was the capital of Polo’s Sundara Pandi, and that the port
visited was Kaveripattanam. This was a great sea-port at one of
the mouths of the Kaveri, which is said to have been destroyed by
an inundation about the year 1300. According to Mr. Burnell it was
the “_Paṭṭaṇam_ ‘par excellence’ of the Coromandel Coast, and the
great port of the Chola kingdom.”[6]

Chinese Pagoda (so called) at Negapatam. (From a sketch taken
in 1846 by Sir Walter Elliot.)]

Some corroboration of the supposition that the Tanjore ports were
those frequented by Chinese trade may be found in the fact that
a remarkable Pagoda of uncemented brickwork, about a mile to the
north-west of Negapatam, popularly bears (or bore) the name of
_the Chinese Pagoda_. I do not mean to imply that the building was
Chinese, but that the application of that name to a ruin of strange
character pointed to some tradition of Chinese visitors.[7] Sir
Walter Elliot, to whom I am indebted for the sketch of it given
here, states that this building differed essentially from any type
of Hindu architecture with which he was acquainted, but being
without inscription or sculpture it was impossible to assign to it
any authentic origin. Negapatam was, however, celebrated as a seat
of _Buddhist_ worship, and this may have been a remnant of their
work. In 1846 it consisted of three stories divided by cornices of
stepped brickwork. The interior was open to the top, and showed
the marks of a floor about 20 feet from the ground. Its general
appearance is shown by the cut. This interesting building was
reported in 1859 to be in too dilapidated a state for repair, and
now exists no longer. Sir W. Elliot also tells me that collectors
employed by him picked up in the sand, at several stations on
this coast, numerous Byzantine and _Chinese_ as well as Hindu
coins.[8] The brickwork of the pagoda, as described by him, very
fine and closely fitted but without cement, corresponds to that
of the Burmese and Ceylonese mediæval Buddhist buildings. The
_architecture_ has a slight resemblance to that of Pollanarua in
Ceylon (see _Fergusson_, II. p. 512). (_Abulf._ in _Gildemeister_,
p. 185; _Nelson_, Pt. II. p. 27 _seqq._; _Taylor’s Catalogue
Raisonné_, III. 386–389.)

Ma’bar is mentioned (_Mà-pa-’rh_) in the Chinese Annals as one of
the foreign kingdoms which sent tribute to Kúblái in 1286 (_supra_,
p. 296); and Pauthier has given some very curious and novel
extracts from Chinese sources regarding the diplomatic intercourse
with Ma’bar in 1280 and the following years. Among other points
these mention the “five brothers who were Sultans” (_Suantan_), an
envoy _Chamalating_ (Jumaluddín) who had been sent from Ma’bar to
the Mongol Court, etc. (See pp. 603 _seqq._)

NOTE 2.—Marco’s account of the pearl-fishery is still substantially
correct. _Bettelar_, the rendezvous of the fishery, was, I imagine,
PATLAM on the coast of Ceylon, called by Ibn Batuta _Batthála_.
Though the centre of the pearl-fishery is now at Aripo and Kondachi
further north, its site has varied sometimes as low as Chilaw,
the name of which is a corruption of that given by the Tamuls,
_Salábham_, which means “the Diving,” _i.e._ the Pearl-fishery.
Tennent gives the meaning erroneously as “the Sea of Gain.” I owe
the correction to Dr. Caldwell. (_Ceylon_, I. 440; _Pridham_, 409;
_Ibn Bat._ IV. 166; _Ribeyro_, ed. Columbo, 1847, App. p. 196.)

[Ma Huan (_J. North China B. R. A. S._ XX. p. 213) says that “the
King (of Ceylon) has had an [artificial] pearl pond dug, into which
every two or three years he orders pearl oysters to be thrown, and
he appoints men to keep watch over it. Those who fish for these
oysters, and take them to the authorities for the King’s use,
sometimes steal and fraudulently sell them.”—H. C.]

The shark-charmers do not now seem to have any claim to be called
Abraiaman or Brahmans, but they may have been so in former days.
At the diamond mines of the northern Circars Brahmans are employed
in the analogous office of propitiating the tutelary genii. The
shark-charmers are called in Tamul _Kaḍal-Kaṭṭi_, “Sea-binders,”
and in Hindustani _Hai-banda_ or “Shark-binders.” At Aripo they
belong to one family, supposed to have the monopoly of the charm.
The chief operator is (or was, not many years ago) paid by
Government, and he also received ten oysters from each boat daily
during the fishery. Tennent, on his visit, found the incumbent of
the office to be a Roman Catholic Christian, but that did not seem
to affect the exercise or the validity of his functions. It is
remarkable that when Tennent wrote, not more than one authenticated
accident from sharks had taken place, during the whole period of
the British occupation.

The time of the fishery is a little earlier than Marco mentions,
viz. in March and April, just between the cessation of the
north-east and commencement of the south-west monsoon. His
statement of the depth is quite correct; the diving is carried on
in water of 4 to 10 fathoms deep, and never in a greater depth than
13.

I do not know the site of the other fishery to which he alludes as
practised in September and October; but the time implies shelter
from the south-west Monsoon, and it was probably on the east side
of the island, where in 1750 there was a fishery, at Trincomalee.
(_Stewart_ in _Trans. R. A. S._ III. 456 _seqq._; _Pridham._, u.s.;
_Tennent_, II. 564–565; _Ribeyro_, as above, App. p. 196.)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] So the Barbary coast from Tunis westward was called by the Arabs
_Bár-ul-’Adwah_, “Terra Transitûs,” because thence they used to
pass into Spain. (_J. As._ for Jan. 1846, p. 228.)

[2] Wassáf has _Fitan, Mali Fitan, Kábil_, and meant the names so, as he
shows by silly puns. For my justification in presuming to correct
the names, I must refer to an article, in the _J. R. As. Soc._,
N.S. IV. p. 347, on Rashiduddin’s Geography.

[3] The same information is given in almost the same terms by
Rashiduddin. (See _Elliot_, I. 69.) But he (at least in Elliot’s
translation) makes _Shaikh Jumaluddin_ the successor of the Devar,
instead of merely the narrator of the circumstances. This is
evidently a mistake, probably of transcription, and Wassáf gives us
the true version.

The members of the Arab family bearing the surname of At-Thaibí (or
Thíbí) appear to have been powerful on the coasts of the Indian Sea
at this time. (1) The Malik-ul-Islám Jamáluddin Ibrahim At-Thaibí
was Farmer-General of Fars, besides being quasi-independent Prince
of Kais and other Islands in the Persian Gulf, and at the time
of his death (1306) governor of Shiraz. He had the horse trade
with India greatly in his hands, as is mentioned in a note (7) on
next chapter. (2) The son of Jamáluddin, Fakhruddin Ahmed, goes
ambassador to the Great Kaan in 1297, and dies near the coast of
Ma’bar on his way back in 1305. A Fakhruddin Ahmed _Ben Ibrahim_
at-Thaibí also appears in Hammer’s extracts as ruler of Hormuz
about the time of Polo’s return. (See _ante_, vol. i. p. 121); and
though he is there represented as opposed by Shaikh Jumáluddin
(perhaps through one of Hammer’s too frequent confusions), one
should suppose that he must be the son just mentioned. (3)
Takiuddin Abdurrahmán, the Wazír and Marzbàn in Ma’bar; followed
successively in that position by his son Surajuddín, and his
grandson Nizamuddín. (_Ilchan._ II. 49–50, 197–198, 205–206;
_Elliot_, III. 32, 34–35, 45–47.)

[4] بيّرْدَاول

[5] My learned friend Mr. A. Burnell suggests that Birdhúl must
have been Vriddachalam, _Virdachellam_ of the maps, which is in
South Arcot, about 50 miles north of Tanjore. There are old and
well-known temples there, and relics of fortifications. It is a
rather famous place of pilgrimage.

[6] It was also perhaps the Fattan of the Mahomedan writers; but in
that case its destruction must have been after Ibn Batuta’s time
(say middle of 14th century).

[7] I leave this passage as it stood in the first edition. It is a
mistake, but this mistake led to the engraving of Sir W. Elliot’s
sketch (perhaps unique) of a very interesting building which has
disappeared. Dr. Caldwell writes: “The native name was ‘the _Jaina
Tower_,’ turned by the English into _China_ and _Chinese_. This I
was told in Negapatam 30 years ago, but to make sure of the matter
I have now written to Negapatam, and obtained from the Munsiff of
the place confirmation of what I had heard long ago. It bore also
the name of the ‘Tower of the _Malla_.’ The Chalukya Malla kings
were at one time Jainas. The ‘Seven Pagodas’ near Madras bear their
name, Ma-_Mallei_ pûram, and their power may at one time have
extended as far south as Negapatam.” I have no doubt Dr. Caldwell
is right in substance, but the name _China Pagoda_ at Negapatam is
at least as old as Baldaeus (1672, p. 149), and the ascription to
the Chinese is in Valentyn (1726, tom. v. p. 6). It is, I find, in
the Atlas of India, “Jayne Pagoda.”

[8] Colonel Mackenzie also mentions Chinese coins as found on this
coast. (_J. R. A. S._ I. 352–353.)