Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t1.4

c5.s2.t1.4

² In the third century B. C., the Açoka Edicts show that Keraḷaputra (*i. e.* the Cera sovereign) was one of the three great powers of the South. Ptolemy (2nd century A. D.) and the Periplus of the Red Sea (3rd century A. D.) prove (§ 34) that this was still the case. According to the former (vii., 1, 86) Karūr was then the capital. Hiouen-Thsang (about 640 A. D.) does not mention this kingdom, but under the name of the kingdom of Kŏṅkaṇapura (the present Kŏṅkaṇa-haḷḷi) he describes a part of it ("Pèlerins Bouddhistes" iii. pp. 146-9). The dynasty which the inscriptions mention extends from