The Colas c10.4

c10.4

Kāvērippaṭṭinam on the coast, about eight miles to the north of Tranquebar, serves to identify the Kāvērī proper from amidst its more considerable offshoots that find their way to the sea, and the little village apparently marks the site of the Cōḻa emporium of ancient renown.⁴ Negapatam, about ten miles south of Kāraikkāl, also on the sea board, was perhaps known to Ptolemy as an important town; at any rate it became a seat of trade and the centre of many religious faiths including Buddhism, long before it attracted the attention of European merchants and missionaries. Tanjore, Trichinopoly, the modern representative of the more ancient Uṟaiyūr which is now a suburb of Trichinopoly, and Kumbakonam are the other notable cities of the Cōḻa country. Gaṅgaikoṇḍa-cōḻapuram, at the meeting point of the modern districts of Trichinopoly, S. Arcot and Tanjore, rose into prominence as the Cōḻa capital in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and is now a small place with a magnificent temple in ruins.