South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c9.s2.7.3

c9.s2.7.3

Any one of these three places might do, and that is the place where one would expect a boat sailing from Ceylon to land, having regard in particular to the fact that the port of embarkation at the time seems to have been Puttalam (Bathelar) in Ceylon, the Bhattala of Ibn Batuta; and the distance would be perhaps about sixty miles, a little more or less. We are bound to look for Fitan in that locality as the Mali Fitan seems certainly to be Dēvi Paṭṭaṇam about ten miles north of the town of Ramnad, but on the northern side of the island of Ramēśvaram. A medieval map is said to mark Mali Fatan in or about the locality.¹ For the mere name Paṭṭaṇam there are any number along the coast, more than twenty along the Tanjore coast; of which, at the time to which we are referring, the very town of Topputturai, as it is known at present, was called Vīraśoḷan Paṭṭaṇam; not far was a Kuḷottuṅga-śoḷa-paṭṭaṇam set over against Tirutturaippūṇḍi. A little way to the north of it was Negapatam; Kaveripatam at the mouth of the Kaveri; Jayangoṇḍapaṭṭaṇam near the mouth of the Coleroon and so on. In the Palk Strait itself south of Topputtorai, there is Adirāmpaṭṭaṇam to begin with, the name may be a later one; there is Ammāpaṭṭaṇam, there is Sundara Pāṇḍyan Paṭṭaṇam itself, and any number of paṭṭaṇams like that.