Malaya 5th. cent corrected

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In a message dated 2/19/99 5:29:52 PM Central Standard Time, erpet at COMP.CZ
writes:

> Do you know what kAtyAyana and what palce called CampA he
>  may mean?

According to the tamil Buddhist epic, maNimEkalai, the patron-goddess in
kAvirippUmpaTTin2am, the ancient capital of cOzar (anglicized as "Cholas") was
called campApati. (The place is also called campApati) The patikam ('an
executive summary') of the text seems to link it with jambu tree of the
jambudvIpa. (I do not know if the patikam was authored by the same person who
authored the main text. I have not looked into that.) But the name campApati
which is similar to maturApati of maturai (also mentioned in the same epic)
suggests that it is more likely to have been derived from campai/caNpu/campu
meaning "elephant grass". campai also means "luxuriant growth". In other words
campA could be a Sanskritized version of Tamil campai. In that case
campA/campApati as a place can refer to the ancient cOzar  capital.

Of course, you also have campA, the capital of aGga country in north India.

Regards
S. Palaniappan