The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c35.s4.8

c35.s4.8

⁴ According to M. C. Rasanayagam, the name Maṇipallavam occurs only in the *Maṇimēkalai*, the island or peninsula being elsewhere called *Maṇipuram*, and by the Sinhalese *Maṇi-Nāgadīpa*, owing to its being populated by Nāgas and governed by Nāga kings. The Tamils retained the word *Maṇi* and added *pallavam*, meaning in Tamil, ‘a sprout’ or ‘shoot’, in allusion to the appearance of the isle, which to persons sailing from India to Ceylon would have looked very like a sprout or branch from the parent island. It is noteworthy also that the Pallava kings called themselves *Pōt-rāyar*, from the Tamil word *pōttu*, which is a synonym of *pallavam*. The later Pallavas adopted Sanskritic titles ending in *aṅkūra*, which also signifies a ‘sprout’, and may indicate memories of their origin. Though the derivation of the name is tentative, it seems to me quite as plausible as Mr. Rea’s derivation from Tamil *pal*, ‘milk’, and the masculine termination, *-avan* (sing.), or *-avar* (pl.), which would make the name equivalent to that of the Gwālas and Āhīrs of Hindustan.