Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.9267

c10.9267

MASULIPATAM, n.p. This coast town of the Madras Presidency is sometimes vulgarly called Machhli-patan or Machhli-bandar, or simply Bandar (see BUNDER, 2); and its name explained (Hind. *machhlī*, ‘fish’) as Fish-town, [the *Madras Gloss.* says from an old tradition of a whale being stranded on the shore.] The etymology may originally have had such a connection, but there can be no doubt that the name is a trace of the Μαισωλία and Μαισώλου ποταμοῦ ἐκβολαί which we find in Ptolemy’s Tables; and of the Masalia producing muslins, in the Periplus. [In one of the old Logs the name is transformed into Mesopotamia (J.R. As. Soc., Jan. 1900, p. 158). In a letter of 1605-6 it appears as Mesepatamya (Birdwood, First Letter Book, 73).