The Colas c10.40

c10.40

26. Caldwell says: 'General Cunningham objects to this identification that Arcot is quite a modern name; but it must, as Col. Yule has pointed out, be at least as old as A.D. 1340, for it is mentioned by Ibn Batuta. The name is properly *ār—kāḍ*, Tam. the six forests, and the Hindus of the place regard it as an ancient city, though not mentioned by the name in the Purāṇas, and point out the 'six forests' in which six of the ṛiṣis of the ancient period had their hermitage.’ (*op. cit.* pp. 93-4) Such local legends are not of much value in the face of the much stronger and earlier evidence cited. Ptolemy places Arkatos in the country between Mt. Bettigo and Adeisathros (VII, 1. 68); but on account of the inextricable confusion into which he falls over the second of these names (*IA.* xiii. p. 337), this does not help us much in the location of Arkatos on a modern map. The references in the early Tamil literature are valuable in this respect. Cunningham was doubtless influenced by Yuan-chwang's data about Chu-lien when he proposed to identify Ptolemy’s Sora, the capital of Arkatos, with Zora or Jora (the Jorampun of the maps), an old town lying immediately under the walls of Karnūl (*Anc. Geogr.* p. 626).