The Colas c10.12

c10.12

Writing about half a century later, the geographer Ptolemy has rather more to tell us about the Cōḷa country and its ports and inland cities.²⁴ Leaving aside all doubtful names which cannot be properly identified, we find that he gives particulars sufficiently precise of the positions of Kāvērippaṭṭinam (Khaberis) at the mouth of the Kāvēri and of Negapatam (Nikama); and as Cunningham has said: ‘Cōḷa is noticed by Ptolemy, whose *Orthura regia Sornati* must be Uṟaiyūr, the capital of Soranatha, or the king of the Soringae, that is the Soras, Choras or Cholas.²⁵ Ptolemy also makes mention of the ‘Sorai nomads’ with ‘Sora the capital of Arkatos.’ ‘One is strongly tempted to suppose that here,’ as Caldwell remarks, ‘the names given by the natives of the country to his informants had got transposed,’ and that, consequently, we have to consider Arkatos as the capital of the Sorai nomads. Arcot is not so modern a name as it is often imagined to be.²⁶ A Cōḷa princeling by name Aḻiśi is said to have had for his residence 'Ārkkāḍu surrounded by paddy fields'²⁷ and very likely Ārkkāḍ means 'forest of Ār' (*Bauhinea Racemosa*) *ār* or *ātti* being a Cōḷa emblem. This Ārkkāḍu may or may not be identical with the Arcot celebrated in later days as the seat of the Nawabs of the Carnatic; but it is probably the same as Ptolemy's Arkatos.²⁸ From the statement of Ptolemy on the 'Sorai nomads' and 'Arkatos,' the inference has been made²⁹ that there were two different Cōḷa countries or kingdoms at the same time; it is quite possible, however, that the 'Sorai nomads' were some nomadic tribe or tribes in the Cōḷa country itself. That such tribes were in existence, and that some of the early Cōḷa kings, especially Karikāla, made an effort to civilise them and train them to more settled ways of life, is borne out by Tamil literature.