Kudiramalai (, ) is a

cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment of any length that hangs loosely and connects either at the neck or shoulders. They usually cover the back, shoulders, and arms. They come in a variety of styles and have been used th ...

and ancient port town on the west coast of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. On the

Gulf of Mannar The Gulf of Mannar ( ) (; ) is a large shallow bay forming part of the Laccadive Sea in the Indian Ocean with an average depth of .Mannar and the Ketheeswaram temple. Kudiramalai is the northernmost point of

Puttalam District Puttalam is a district of Sri Lanka situated near the west coast of the country. The district has an area of . Along with the Kurunegala District, it forms the North Western Province of Sri Lanka. The district capital is Puttalam, which border ...

and was a southern port of Mannar during the classical period, serving the northern kingdoms of the Jaffna Peninsula and Vanni country as one of their southernmost border towns. It is west of Vanni from

Trincomalee Trincomalee (; , ; , ), historically known as Gokanna and Gokarna, is the administrative headquarters of the Trincomalee District and major resort port city of Eastern Province, Sri Lanka, Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. Located on the east coast o ...

, home of Koneswaram temple. Rulers included Alli Raani, Korran, his father (Pittan) and contemporaries,

Athiyamān Nedumān Añci Athiyaman Neduman Anci was one of the velir kings of the Sangam period who ruled the Mazhanadu region.''Śrī puṣpāñjali, page 125'' Belonging to the Athiyaman clan,''Tamil Literature, page 92'Madras district gazetteers, page 201'' he was ...

and his son Kumanan. Traders brought several horses on watercraft to the island during the

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

. The port was known as ''Hippuros'' by Pliny (Nat. Hist. Book 6, 24). Archaeological excavations have found that Kudiramalai was inhabited from the first century BCE to the seventh century CE.

History

Classical period

Kudiramalai shares the legends of the Tamil queen Alli Raani with Mannar; during her rule, major changes to the western coastline occurred. According to legend, she often travelled from Kudiramalai to Mannar and traded Mannar pearls for horses from Arabia; this is how the port town acquired its name. Although the

Gulf of Mannar The Gulf of Mannar ( ) (; ) is a large shallow bay forming part of the Laccadive Sea in the Indian Ocean with an average depth of .cyclone In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an ant ...

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

, a portion of the walls of Queen Alli's palace are still visible. An ancient, cave-like structure is at the upper part of the palace wall's entrance. According to Alexander Johnston, he had a history of Queen Alli (who ruled northwestern Sri Lanka 1,800 years before him). The

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

chief Korran, a commander-in-chief of the

Chera dynasty The Chera dynasty ( or Cēra, ), also known as Keralaputra, from the early historic or the Sangam period in Tamil-speaking southern India, ruled over parts of present-day states Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Cheras, known as one of the mu-ventar ...

under King Makkotai, ruled Kudiramalai during the first century BCE. An avid horseman and patron of poets, he was known as ''Kattuman Korran'' ("Horseman Korran"). Korran's father was Pittan, another Chera chief. His name is sometimes written Pittan-Korran, following the

naming convention in the ''

Tolkāppiyam ''Tolkāppiyam'', also romanised as ''Tholkaappiyam'' ( , ''lit.'' "ancient poem"), is the oldest extant Tamil grammar text and the oldest extant long work of Tamil literature. It is the earliest Tamil text mentioning Gods, perhaps linked to ...

''. Korran oversaw trade with

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

, Romans, Serica and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. Inscriptions in Tamil-Brahmi script from the first century BCE to the first century CE bearing his name (''Korra-Puman''; Korra the Chieftain) were found in an

amphora An amphora (; ; English ) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storage rooms and packages, tied together with rope and delivered by land ...

fragment at the Roman port of

Berenice Troglodytica Berenice Troglodytica, also called Berenike (Greek language, Greek: ) or Baranis, is an ancient seaport of Egypt on the western shore of the Red Sea. It is situated about 825 km south of Suez, 260 km east of Aswan in Upper Egypt and 140 ...

in present-day Egypt. Korran's rule is described at length in the ''

Purananuru The ''Purananuru'' (, literally "four hundred oemsin the genre puram"), sometimes called ''Puram'' or ''Purappattu'', is a classical Tamil literature, Tamil poetic work and traditionally the last of the Eight Anthologies (''Ettuthokai'') i ...

'' and he is eulogised in several Sangam poems. He ruled the region with two other chieftains: Elini Athiyamān Nedumān Añci and Kumanan. Chief Elini of Kudiramalai is described at length in the ''Purananuru'' and ''

Akanaṉūṟu The ''Akananuru'' (, literally "four hundred oemsin the akam genre"), sometimes called ''Nedunthokai'' (''lit.'' "anthology of long poems"), is a classical Tamil poetic work and one of the Eight Anthologies (''Ettuthokai'') in the Sangam li ...

''. French biblical scholar Samuel Bochart first suggested

Tamilakam Tamilakam () also known as ancient Tamil country as was the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people, covering the southernmost region of the Indian subcontinent. Tamilakam covered today's Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, La ...

, whose people were known for their gold, pearl, ivory and peacock trade, for the ports of Ophir and

Tarshish Tarshish (; ; ) occurs in the Hebrew Bible with several uncertain meanings, most frequently as a place (probably a large city or region) far across the sea from Phoenicia (now Lebanon) and the Land of Israel. Tarshish was said to have exported v ...

during King

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

's reign. According to Bochart, Tarshish was Kudiramalai.

Old Tamil Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning from the 3rd century BCE to the seventh century CE. Prior to Old Tamil, the period of Tamil linguistic development is termed as Proto-Tamil. After the Old Tamil period, Tamil becomes Middl ...

words for ivory, apes, cotton cloth and peacocks were imported by the

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

and preserved in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Tamil Nadu 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 ...

were excavated at megalithic burial sites at Pomparippu on the west coast (just south of Kudiramalai) and in Kathiraveli, on the island's east coast. Resembling early Pandyan Kingdom burials, these sites were established from the fifth century BCE to the second century CE. Kudiramalai shared a similar Tamil name with the northern Sri Lankan port of Kandarodai, known as ''Kadiramalai'', on the Jaffna Peninsula.Indrapala, K. ''The Evolution of an ethnic identity: The Tamils of Sri Lanka'', p. 91

Medieval period

By the medieval period, the capital moved from Kudiramalai to Nallur. Nearby

Puttalam Puttalam (; ) is the largest town in Puttalam District, North Western Province, Sri Lanka, North Western Province, Sri Lanka. Puttalam is the administrative capital of the Puttalam District and governed by a municipal council. Climate Under the ...

was the medieval

Jaffna kingdom The Jaffna kingdom (, ; 1215–1619 CE), also known as Kingdom of Aryachakravarti, was a historical kingdom of what today is northern Sri Lanka. It came into existence around the town of Jaffna on the Jaffna peninsula and was traditionally t ...

's second capital during the pearling season, and increased fishing activity was noted along the banks between Kudiramalai and Mannar.

Mukkuvar Mukkuvar is a maritime ethnic group found in the Indian states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Eastern and North Western coastal regions of Sri Lanka. They are mostly found on the Malabar Coast, and Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, who have tradit ...

Tamils began migrating from Kilakarai in mainland Tamilakkam to Kudiramalai and other Malabar cities (such as Puttalam and

Jaffna Jaffna (, ; , ) is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a Jaffna Peninsula, peninsula of the same name. With a population o ...

) of the northern kingdom during the eighth century. The

Shaivites Shaivism (, , ) is one of the major Hindu denominations, Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the Para Brahman, supreme being. It is the Hinduism#Demographics, second-largest Hindu sect after Vaishnavism, constituting about 385 million H ...

fled to the west coast from mainland Tamilakkam to escape forced conversion to Islam. In return for aid from Arabs in a struggle with a rival chief, many embraced Islam. During the 16th-century increase in Portuguese influence, many of the Mukkuvars converted to Christianity.

References

{{reflist, 30em Populated places in North Western Province, Sri Lanka Populated places in Puttalam District

History

Classical period

Medieval period

See also

References