Korkai is a small village in the Srivaikuntam

taluk A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative ...

Thoothukudi district The Thoothukkudi District is one of the 38 districts of Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India. On 20 October 1986, an M. G. Ramachandran-led government bifurcated the Tirunelveli district to form the district. It is shared by its boundaries w ...

Tamil Nadu, India Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. It was called Pandya-Kavada in the Kapatapuram in Kalithogai. It is situated about 3 km north of the Thamirabarani River and about 6 km from the shore of

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

History

Korkai was the capital, principal center of trade and important port of the Early Pandyan Kingdom. At that time, it was located on the banks of the Tamiraparani River and at the sea coast, forming a natural harbour. Due to excessive sedimentation, the sea has receded about 6 km in the past 2000 years, leaving Korkai well inland today. The famous urn burial site, Adichanallur, is located about 15 km. from Korkai. In ancient times, Korkai was a well known center of pearl fishery; it is mentioned often in the

Sangam literature The Sangam literature (Tamil language, Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், ''caṅka ilakkiyam''), historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' (Tamil language, Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், ''Cā ...

and in classical western literature.

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

refers to the place as Kolkhai and says that it was an emporium. The ''

Periplus A periplus (), or periplous, is a manuscript document that lists the ports and coastal landmarks, in order and with approximate intervening distances, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore. In that sense, the periplus wa ...

'' says that the Pandyan kingdom extended from Comari towards the north, including Korkai, where the pearl fisheries were. A 2000-year-old 'Vanni' tree is in Korkai. Correct identification of Korkai by archaeological excavations came in 1838. The findings of megalithic burial urns at Korkai indicates that it was fairly well populated during megalithic times. Carbon dating of the artifacts in the area indicates an age of 785 BC. The finds of black and red pottery ware with old Tamil Brahmi scripts (two to four letters in a line or two), apart from drawn graffiti of the sun, fish, bow and arrow have been dated to a period between 3rd century BC and 2nd century AD. The occurrence of Roman ware, and rouletted ware indicates external links. Archeologists have found ruins of chunk cutting factories, centres for split opening of pearl oysters at the site. Palaeo-channels traced from the satellite imagery scenes all around Korkai indicate that the Tamiraparani river has shifted its course progressively east and south and earlier it had mixed with sea near Thoothukudi. Interpretation of satellite imagery indicates that in the 1st and 2nd century CE, the Tamiraparani river might have flowed towards northeast from Eral, parallel to the coast and joined the sea south of Thoothukudi. Korampallam tank, Peykulam, and Arumugamangalam tank might be the relicts of palaeo channel of the Tamiraparani river. Within a short span of nearly 2000 years, now Korkai is nearly 6 Kilometers away from Bay of Bengal and 3 Kilometers north of Thamirabarani, which was once a port and in the banks of the Tamirabarani and

Thoothukudi Thoothukudi (formerly called Tuticorin) is a port city, port industrial city in Thoothukudi district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It lies on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. The city is capital and headquarters of the di ...

has no river.

History

See also

Notes

References

Further reading