South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c9.s2.7.1

c9.s2.7.1

Marco Polo.—Marco Polo calls the province that he first touched after leaving Ceylon Ma'bar, the usual Musalman designation of the Coromandal Coast extending from Kulam (Quilon) to Nilawar (Nellore). Marco Polo sailed westward from his port of embarkation for a distance of about sixty miles till he came to the province of Ma'bar, which he says was styled ‘India the Greater.’ According to him it is the best of the Indies and is on the mainland. He refers to the coast wherein he landed as among the possessions of the Pāṇḍyas, and of whom at the time there were five brothers ruling. ‘Sonder Bandi Dēvar’ (Sundara Pāṇḍya Dēvar), was the crowned king. He undertook to give a detailed account of the five provinces of the kingdom ruled by these brothers, and forgot to fulfil his promise. But the province that he describes at some length is ‘the finest and noblest in the world’, and was the sphere of Sundara Pāṇḍya. He refers apparently to the fishery coast where pearl fishing was the principal industry. This must be borne in mind to understand his itinerary. The port he visited on this coast has much exercised the ingenuity of scholars, and from various considerations both Yule and Cordier would refer the port to Kaveripaṭam.¹ The lead is taken by all these authorities from the statement of the Muhammadan writer Wassaf that Fittan, Mali Fittan and Kabil constituted the famous ports of which Takhiud-din Abdur-Rahman was the Marzaban (Margrave).