The Colas c18.50

c18.50

We have, however, still to explain why the king ruling over the empire is called the king of Kaḍā-ram and to locate it. This is a place which is mentioned under the name of Kaṭāha in Sanskrit literature and epigraphy,¹²⁷ and of Kaḍāram or Kiḍāram in the *Kalin-gattu-pparaṇi* besides the Leyden grant (Tamil part) and Rājēndra's inscriptions. The *Kalingattupparaṇi* clearly states that Kaḍāram was laved by the waves of the ocean.¹²⁸ The word Kāḷagam in the *Paṭṭinappālai*, according to the commentator Nacciṉārkkiniyar, designates the country known as Kaḍāram,¹²⁹ an interpretation which has the sanction of old lexicons like the *Pingaḷam*. From these references to Kāḍaram especially the one in the *Paṭṭinappālai*, we may conclude that it was an important port on the ocean route along which the trade between India and the East passed. 'Now there is a country,' says Coedès,¹³⁰ 'known to the Chinese of which the name seems to correspond very well with Kaṭāha, that is, Kie-tch'a where I-tsing stayed on two occasions.' The same place is called in later Chinese works Kie-t'o. These different names represent phonetically and geographically the modern Kedah, on the west coast of the Malay peninsula. Ancient Kedah would appear to have been more to the south than modern Kedah which as has been shown above was occupied by Laṅkāśuka. At any rate, a study of I-tsing's itineraries proves to us that Kie-tch'a was the last stage in Malay before the pilgrim started to cross the Bay of Bengal on his outward voyage, and, inversely, the first place he touched after crossing the Bay on his return from India. In this fact is perhaps to be found the explanation for the Cōḷas calling the ruler of Śrī Vijaya the king of Kaḍāram. For if, as seems most probable, Kaḍāram was at the time a dependency of Śrī Vijaya, and if it was also the first place which the Tamils touched in their passage into that kingdom, nothing could be more natural for them than to describe the ruler of the country as the king of Kaḍāram. And this port was then from a commercial point of view enjoying the same importance which the port of Penang is gaining in the same region to-day.¹³¹