Historical Geography of Ancient India c7.582

c7.582

Tambapaṃni (Tāmraparṇi).—It is Tanporunda-āru according to the Tinnevelly Inscription of Māravarman Sundara II Pāṇḍya (E.I., XXXIV, Pt. IV, p. 166). It is generally identified with Tāmraparṇi which name was generally applied to Ceylon. In the Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra (II, XI) it has been referred to as Pārasamudra. It is called Taprobane by Greek writers. It is mentioned in Aśoka’s Rock Edicts II and XIII. Vincent Smith thinks that the name Tāmraparṇi does not denote Ceylon but merely indicates the river Tāmpraparṇī in Tinnevelly. He refers to the Girnar text ā Tambapaṃni which, according to him, indicates the river and not Ceylon (Aśoka, 3rd Ed., 162). The Bhāgavatapurāṇa refers to it as a river (IV, 28, 35; V, 19, 18; X, 79, 16; XI, 5, 39). Opinions differ as to this point. This river must have flowed below the southern boundary of the kingdom of Pāṇḍya, and may be identified with the modern Tāmravari. The port of Korkai was situated, according to Ptolemy, at the mouth of this river, which was well-known for its pearl-fishery. According to Kālidāsa’s Raghuvaṃśa (IV, 49-50) the Tāmraparṇi locally called Tambaravari is celebrated for its pearl-fishery. According to the Bṛhat-saṃhitā pearls are obtained at Tāmraparṇi (XIV, 16; LXXXI, 2, 3). It may justify us in identifying this river with the Gundur, the name under which the combined waters of the three streams flow into the sea in two streams. This river is also called Tāmravaṛṇā (Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa, 49). It was a sacred river according to the Mahābhārata (Vanaparva, LXXXVIII, 8340). In the Rock Edict XIII the people of Tāmraparṇi are expressly mentioned as Tambapaṃniyā, i.e., Tāmraparṇyas. In this edict Tāmraparṇi or the country of the Tāmraparṇyas is placed below Pāṇḍya. In the great Epic also Tāmraparṇi is placed below Pāṇḍya or Drāviḍa and the mount Vaidūryaka is mentioned as its rocky land-mark. The āśramas of Agastya and his disciple and the Gokarṇatīrtha are located in it. All these facts enable us to identify Tāmraparṇi with Hiuen Tsang’s Malayakūṭa also placed below Drāviḍa with Mount Potalaka (Vaidūryaka) as its land-mark. By Tāmraparṇi or Taprobane Ceylon is meant, the word dvīpa or island is associated with it. In one of the Nāgārjunikoṇḍa Inscriptions Tambapaṃna is clearly distinguished from the island of Tambapaṇṇi (Barua, Aśoka and His Inscriptions, Ch. III). For further details vide Law, Indological Studies, Pt. I, pp. 59-60.