Re: [INDOLOGY] River कायकुटी

Fri Sep 1 03:45:00 UTC 2017

Special thanks for the last mail sent by Christophe which is quite
promising.

On 31-Aug-2017 9:32 PM, "Christophe Vielle" <christophe.vielle at uclouvain.be>
wrote:

> There is a Kāyakuṭī/"Kayakudi" river in Tamil Nadu, more precisely in the
> Pandya country. See:
>
> The imperial gazetteer of India, W.W. Hunter, vol. 1, 1885, p. 12:
>
> https://archive.org/stream/imperialgazette01huntuoft#page/12/mode/2up
>
> Achandaviltán. — Town in Srivilliputtur *táluk*, Tinnevelli District,
> Madras Presidency. Lat. 9 29' n., long. 77 42' e. ; population (1881), 2765
> ; houses, 544. Situated on the left bank of the Kayakúdi river.
>
> http://www.angelfire.com/nc2/achamthavilthan/about.htm
>
> "Achamthavilthan" ,  means "the lord has removed the fear from the minds
> of the people".  There is a small story behind this.
>
> There is a river in between the two parts of the village.  People have to
> go to other side of the river to buy Vegetables and other items. Once a
> pragrent lady has gone to other side to buy some items. On return, due to
> sudden rainfall there was a heavy water in the river and she has prayed to
> the Lord Venkatesa Perumal and he made the way for her. Due to this the
> people of this village has changed the name as "Achamthavilthan".
>
> 11km from there, the same  river (a tributary of the Vaippar river/stream,
> which flows between the Vangai and the Tamraparni) is also linked to the
> Madavar Vilagam Vaidyanathar temple in Srivilliputhur (now Virudhunagar
> District):
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madavar_Vilagam_Vaidyanathar_temple
> http://temple.dinamalar.com/en/new_en.php?id=686
> The lord also said that as the spring healed her wounds and quenched her
> thirst, *the stream would be known as Kayakudi Aaru*.  Those having a dip
> in the river would be free of all fears of life and attain all comforts in
> life.
>
> This should be the river to which refers the South-Indian commentator
> Dakṣiṇāvartanātha (who himself originated from some village called
> Mahārjuna, identified with the "region called Madhyārjuna which is the
> Sanskritised form of the popular name of Tiruviṭaimaruttūr"
> [Thiruvidaimaruthur] near Kumbakonam, according to N. P. Unni).
>
> Why Dakṣiṇāvartanātha says that [the supposed Pandyan capital] Nāgapuram
> is on the border of this river? Maybe because at the time of the late
> Pandyas (from the second third of the 14th c. onwards, after the
> establishment of the Sultanate of Madurai), their real capital was no
> longer in Madurai (even if they never stopped in their inscriptions to
> symbolically present themselves as the true rulers of Madurai); "they found
> themselves restricted to their more southern possessions" (K.A. Nilakanta
> Sastri, The Pandyan Kingdom, 1929, p. 217) in the regions of Srivilliputur,
> Tenkasi and Tirunelveli.
>
> I am not sure that more historical importance has to be ascribed to this
> possibly "new" location of Nāgapura by Dakṣiṇāvartanātha, who is a rather
> fanciful commentator.
>
> Best wishes,
> Christophe Vielle
>
> Le 29 août 2017 à 23:27, Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan <palaniappa at aol.com> a
> écrit :
>
> If the question is really about the river mentioned by a commentator,
> there is no river in Tamil Nadu called Kāyakuṭī. If one considers the
> possibility that this name is a translation of some Tamil name, one has to
> allow for ‘losses in translation’. According to Monier Williams, kāya also
> means "assemblage , collection , multitude SaddhP.” This seems to be a
> synonym of saṅgha (perhaps referring to the legendary Tamil assembly in
> Madurai) or a translation of ‘Ta. Kūṭal’, another name of the city of
> Madurai.
>
> If it was related to the city called uraga, there was a discussion in
> Indology earlier such as
> http://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology_list.
> indology.info/1999-March/016494.html
>
> I was not able to navigate and get to all the posts from this link. You
> may want to do a search on ‘uraga’ and look at the posts.
>
> Regards,
> Palaniappan
>
> On Aug 29, 2017, at 9:32 AM, Christophe Vielle via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
> The name of this river is reminding of 'Kāyal', the name of the emporium
> in the delta of the Tamraparni (Tinnevelly District) referred to by Marco
> Polo (https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/p/polo/marco/travels/book3.21.html -
> cf. Kólkhoi emporion, Ptolemy Geogr. 7, 1, 10). But the Tamil word kāyal
> ('backwater, mouth of a stream") is far from the meaning of "Curve of the
> body" (kuṭī is found in several words for/names of "curving" rivers). The
> Tāmraparṇī  herself is described by Kālidāsa in 4.50 (53  crit. ed.
> Goodall & Isaacson).
> This explanation of Nāga(/Uraga)-pura as a city on the border of the Kā
> yakuṭī  river in the  Pāṇḍya country was already made by
> Dakṣiṇāvartanātha  (13th-14th c.) in his unpublished *dīpikā* on the
> *Raghuvaṃśa* according to N. P. Unni (*Highways and Byways in Sanskrit
> Literature, *Delhi: New Bharatiya Book Corporation, 2012, p. 159, who
> relies on a KUML transcript-manuscript). It is in this case (like in other)
> the source of  Aruṇagirinātha (contemporary of  Mallinātha, early 15th
> century - the latter who also sometimes uses Dakṣiṇāvartanātha has
> possibly misread his source here or, as you guess, his text has been later
> corrupted), himself followed by  Nārāyaṇa Paṇḍita.
> The commentary of Vallabhadeva could be useful here, but I have not
> Goodall & Isaacson edition at hand.
> On his side, the commentator Hemādri says: uragākhyasyeti kalpitārtham.
> Best wishes,
> Christophe Vielle
>
> Le 28 août 2017 à 21:34, Krishnaprasad G via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> a écrit :
>
> Dear all
>
> In Raghuvamsa 6th Canto and Verse 58 or 59
> अथोरगाख्यस्य पुरस्य नाथं first foot says about Nagapura or Uragapura
> Mallinatha explains as कान्यकुब्जतीरवर्तिनागपुरस्य but this seems to be a
> mistake as Kanouj is on the North of India , whereas the poet in further
> verses clearly places it on the south.
>
> And on further search I found Arunagirinatha and Narayana in the
> commentary to the above mentioned verse give the details as the place  in
> the bank of the river कायकुटी
> पाण्ड्येषु कायकुटी नाम नदी प्रवहति तस्मिन् तीरे नागपुराख्यं...
>
> Does any one knows about this river or its modern name kindly inform.
>
> I also believe that even Mallinatha has written कायकुटी as the name is not
> famous that must be due to लिपिसारूप्य scribal error occurred
> Thanks
>
> Correction :
> Not तस्मिन्
>
> _______________________________________________
> INDOLOGY mailing list
> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
> indology-owner at list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing
> committee)
> http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or
> unsubscribe)
>
>
> –––––––––––––––––––
> Christophe Vielle <http://www.uclouvain.be/christophe.vielle>
> Louvain-la-Neuve
>
> _______________________________________________
> INDOLOGY mailing list
> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
> indology-owner at list.indology.info (messages to the list's managing
> committee)
> http://listinfo.indology.info (where you can change your list options or
> unsubscribe)
>
>
>
> –––––––––––––––––––
> Christophe Vielle <http://www.uclouvain.be/christophe.vielle>
> Louvain-la-Neuve
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20170901/fb9433d8/attachment.htm>