Ptolemy & the Tamil Language

J.R.Sinnathamby

I think those interested in the history of the Tamils and their language will be interested to know something of the earliest authentic documents in which, as it appears to me, the word " Tamil " (Damirike), is recorded, and of the unique value of these documents for establishing beyond any doubt the antiquity of the " Tamil " language.

It is of interest to note that the two earliest documents which contained the word " Tamil " (Damirike) are both maps dating back to about 20 B.C. and 140 A.D. The earliest map of which copies are still available is known as the Peutinger Table and dates back to about 20 B.C. The second earliest map is the map based on Ptolemy's geography and dates back to 140 A.D. It is also of interest to note in this connection that " Thuki " in Kings and the Chronicles of the Bible is the oldest specimen of the Tamil language extant in any written record, according to Caldwell.(l)

The full history of the Peutinger Table with the map, of great value to the research worker, has been published by H. Von Konrad Miller of Germany. The full history of the maps based on Ptolemy is Geography has been published by A. E. Nordenskiold, the famous Arctic explorer. Other writers have also dealt with Ptolemy's Geography.

The Emperor Augustus was responsible for the Peutinger Table. This map was essentially meant to serve the practical needs of the soldier, administrator and traveller. General Agrippa was placed in charge of the survey by the Emperor Augustus. This project took a team of surveyors twenty years to complete. A survey of over 5,000 miles of paved highways, with mileages on mile-stones served as a framework.

A large master map engraved in marble was erected near the Roman Forum. Several copies on Papyrus rolls were made and distributed. The map extends from the shores of the Atlantic across the Mediterranean to Ceylon and the Ganges in India. A late copy (Peutinger Table) has survived belonging to the third century. The present copy was reproduced in the thirteenth century. Peutinger is the name of the-scholar who acquired this copy. The copy published by H. Von Konard is apparently a copy of the thirteenth century copy referred to above.

Ptolemy prepared his Geography in about 140 A.D. In this Geography reference is made to the word " Tamil " (Damirike), but it is actually shown as " Limyrike ". of this McCrindle, who edited a version of Ptolemy's Geography, says, " Lassen was unable to trace this name to any Indian Source", but Caldwell has satisfactorily explained its origin.

In the introduction to his Comparative Grammar he states, (2) that in the Indian segment of Roman maps called the Peutinger Table the portion of India to which this name is applied is called Damirike, and that we can scarcely err in identifying this name with the Tamil country, since Damririke evidently means -Damirike. In the map referred to there is, moreover, 2 district called Scythia Dymirice and it appears to have been this word which by a mistake of 'delta' for /\, Ptolemy wrote Lymrike. The D he adds retains its place in the cosmography of the Geographer of Ravenna, who repeatedly mentions Dimirica as one of the three divisions of India.

The "Geographer of Ravenna " referred to above is an unknown Christian author who wrote a Cosmographia in the seventh century, giving a list of places and river names covering the known world.

In this connection it is of interest to note Nordenskiold's observations at page 8 of this fascimile atlas:

" Ptolemy's work is the only geographical atlas still extant which has come down to us from the ancients, and it is doubtful, if any other so complete and so systematic as this was ever composed during that period. "

It is therefore remarkable that the word " Tamil" should appear in the only known geographical atlas that has come down to us from the ancients.

Two ancient manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geography are known today. One is known as the Vatican manuscript and is available at Biblioteca Apostotica Vaticana and the other Vatapodi manuscript at Mt. Athos. Nordenskiold has dealt with the question of the authenticity of the maps in use today in the Atlas under reference. The Arabs made a translation of this geography about the eighth century A.D. This is now not available, but a unique thirteenth century translation into Arabic is extant.

The value of Ptolemy's geography for historical research, particularly in tracing the history of the Tamil people and their language, is being increasingly realised, as is evident from various articles published by historians and research scholars.

As an illustration of an ancient Tamil word in Ptolemy's geography, I must point out that the name for mountain (malai in Tamil) is the origin for place names and of districts in Spain, Malabar, Ceylon and Malaysia. A town on the Southern sea coast of Spain in the vicinity of a mountainous region in Spain, is shown as Malacca by Ptolemy and Malagga in Peutinger Table. This is even today shown as Malaga in modern maps. The mountainous district in South India is known as Malabar, the mountainous area in Ceylon referred to as Malea (Malaia) by Ptolemy; and, according to McCrindle in his edition of Ptolemy's geography of Ceylon (p. 2) Malaia is the Tamil word ma/ai for mountain. The mountainous district in the Malay Peninsula is also shown as Maleicolon, where even today this region is shown as Malaya (Malaia).

The word malai, Tamil for mountain, can be understood as being the source of the words Malea, Maleicolon, in Ceylon and Malaya, as the Tamil language apparently prevailed in these areas at least twenty centuries ago, in a fully developed form, as it does even now. It would appear therefore that we have to look for some similar reason for the origin of the name Malaga, for a town in Spain, both in the time of Ptolemy and now. The mountain range (Malea) in Ceylon is noted for the footprint on Adam's Peak, which rises sharply from the surrounding hills and has been an object of veneration by millions of many faiths for several centuries.

What is unique is that the fact that this footprint is actually recorded by Ptolemy in his geography of Ceylon, is very evident from the fact that he has described it as Ulipada (also Ulispada). This constitutes what can be considered the earliest authentic record of the footprint and dates back to at least 140 A.D. when the Geography was compiled. Its relative position on Ptolemy's map is just where Adam's Peak is shown on modern maps and that it is the footprint is further confirmed by the fact that according to Casie Chitty, Adam's Peak was called " Baha-Aadamalei " by the Moors, " Samanella Sripada" or "Samanakoota Parvuta " by the Sinhalese, "Amala Saripada " by the Burmese and " Sivanolipadam " by the Malabars.(3)

Ulipada is phonetically and even orthographically almost identical with oli patham (' radiant footprint ' in Tamil) and so is Malea with malai (' mountain ' in Tamil) on which this footprint is stamped. The strongest argument that can be urged in favour of this identification! which has as far as I am aware, not been noticed or considered hitherto by those who have dealt with the identification of place names in Ptolemy's Geography, is that it is a unique topographical feature. which rises sharply a few thousand feet from the surrounding hills and can be seen from many miles out to sea. It must therefore have been a landmark, that every sailor who reached the shores of Ceylon from early times would have specially noted in his chart, and it was from information gathered and passed down by generations of sailors from Phoenician to Roman times that Ptolemy used for compiling his Geography. This can also be inferred from what Tennent has observed in his work on Ceylon:

    " Like the Greek geographers the earliest Chinese authorities grossly exaggerated the size of Ceylon.... They were struck by the altitude of the hills and above all by the lofty crest of Adam's Peak, which served as the landmark for ships approaching the Island. They speak reverentially of the sacred footmark impressed by the first created man, who in their mythology bears the name." (4)

In view of the above, the following extract from the Geography of Avienus, fourth century poet and geographer, can be taken as a clear reference to Adam's Peak. The word ' coliadis ' is obscure and I have taken it as ' colian'. In lines 593 and 594 of Orbis descriptio by Dionysius, Ceylon is referred to as the large island of Colias (Coliadis). Is it a reference to a people called Colas or a Goddess Venus worshipped by them? The editor has inserted " Veneris ?" within brackets against " Coliadis" in the text consulted by me. The extract, as given by Pridham, reads as follows:

" Contemplator item qua se mare tendit in Austrum,
Inque notum Oceanus freta ponti caerula curvat;
Altaque coliadis mox hic tibi dorsa patescent
rupis, et intenti spectabis cospitis arces."

The translation is as follows:

" Mark also the point where the sea stretches out towards the South and the ocean curves the blue straits of the deep into its familiar paths and soon here the tall ridges of the colian rock will lie open before you and you will behold the towers of the roof sketched out." (5)

Ptolemy can therefore claim to have done signal service to the millions of followers of so many faiths by recording this footprint in his Geography, whereby its antiquity can be traced back authentically for about twenty centuries at least. What is most remarkable is that the description itself should have retained its identity with practically no change for nearly nineteen centuries from Ulipada at the time of Ptolemy to Olipadam as recorded by Casie Chetty in the Ceylon Government Gazetteer of 1833 (3), while the description of the mountain on which it is stamped varies only from Malaia at the time of Ptolemy to Malai nearly nineteen centuries later.

I must mention that no footprint as such exists, at least today. The depression which is referred to as the footprint is unlike that of a human being in size. This can well form the subject of a separate paper.

Footnotes:

1. R. CALDWELL, Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian . . . Languages, 3rd ed. reprint, University of Madras, 1956, p. 66.

2. Ibid., p. 14.

3. See the Ceylon Gazetteer, 1933.

4. SIR JAMES EMERSON TENNENT, Ceylon: an Account of the Island . . ., London 1859, Vol. I, p. 609.

5. CHARLES PRIDHAM, An Historical, Political and Statistical Account of Ceylon and its Dependencies, London 1849, Vol. I, p10