South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c13.s1.67

c13.s1.67

Wassaf mentions that Jamalu-d-din’s ambassador to China died on the sea two days’ sail from Fattan, and was buried in or near Fattan itself. There is the Mussalman tomb not far from Marakāyarpaṭṭaṇam which now-a-days goes by the name Śīniyappa Paḷḷivāśal. My local enquiry there elicited that it is so-called because of a Fakir in residence there. He saw some people who went on driving a number of animals laden with sacks of sugar. When the holy man enquired what it was they carried, the drivers gave it out, to hide the fact from him, that it was salt; and when they moved away from the Fakir some distance they opened one of the bags for some purpose and discovered it was salt actually. On further examination they discovered the whole of the sugar bags were converted to salt. This story notwithstanding, it is just possible that the Śīniyappa perhaps contains a reference to the local Muhammadan trader who went on an embassy to China and returned from there. If the ambassador was locally called Śīniyappa, the grave in the place would be the grave of this man.