Puhar (also known as Poompuhar) is a town in the
Mayiladuthurai district
Mayiladuthurai district is one of the 38 List of districts of Tamil Nadu, districts of the state of Tamil Nadu in India. The district headquarters is located at Mayiladuthurai.
Geography
The district is bounded on the north by Cuddalore di ...
in the southern Indian state of
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is 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 India ...
. It was once a flourishing ancient port city known as Kaveri Poompattinam, which is described in
Sangam literature
The Sangam literature (Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், ''caṅka ilakkiyam'';) historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' (Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், ''Cāṉṟōr ceyyuḷ'') connotes ...
like Silappadikaram, Manimekalai, Pattinapalai and Akananuru as the capital of the
Early Chola
The Early Cholas were a Tamil kingdom of the pre and post Sangam period (600 BCE–300 CE). It was one of the three main kingdoms of South India. Their early capitals were Urayur or Tiruchirapalli and Kaveripattinam. Along with Pandyas and ...
kings in
Tamilakam
Tamiḻakam (Tamil: தமிழகம்; Malayalam: തമിഴകം), refers to the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people, covering the southernmost region of the Indian subcontinent. Tamilakam covered today's Tamil Nad ...
. Puhar is located near the mouth of the
Kaveri
The Kaveri (also known as Cauvery, the anglicized name) is one of the major Indian rivers flowing through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Kaveri river rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri range in the Western Ghats, Kodagu dis ...
river, on the sea coast. It is mentioned in the
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' ( grc, Περίπλους τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς Θαλάσσης, ', modern Greek '), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and ...
.
It has now been established by marine archaeological research (conducted by the National institute of marine archaeology, Goa) that much of the town was washed away by progressive erosion and floods. In the 1960s and 1970s, archaeological research was conducted under the leadership of the noted archaeologist K. V. Soundararajan. Submerged wharves and several meter lengths of pier walls excavated in recent times have corroborated the literary references to Poompuhar. It was rebuilt several times after that. Ancient Pottery dating back to the 4th century BCE have been discovered off shore by marine archaeologists east of this town.
City layout
The general plan of the city of Puhar is described in considerable detail in the fifth book of ''
Silapathikaram
''Cilappatikāram'' ( ta, சிலப்பதிகாரம் ml, ചിലപ്പതികാരം,International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ʧiləppət̪ikɑːrəm, ''lit.'' "the Tale of an Anklet"), also referred to as ''Silappathikaram' ...
''. The town was built on the north banks of the river
Kaveri
The Kaveri (also known as Cauvery, the anglicized name) is one of the major Indian rivers flowing through the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Kaveri river rises at Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri range in the Western Ghats, Kodagu dis ...
. The town had two distinct districts, Maruvurpakkam near the sea and Pattinappakkam to its west. These two villages were separated by a stretch of gardens and orchards where daily markets were held under the shades of the trees. The market place was known as ''Naalangadi'' during the day and as ''allangadi'' by night.
Maruvurpakkam
The district of Maruvurpakkam was near the beach and had several terraced mansions and warehoused with windows shaped like the eyes of the
deer
Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...
. Maruvurpakkam being close to the shore and hence to the shipyard was naturally preferred by the many overseas travellers, merchants and ''yavanas'' (Greeks).
Maruvurpakkam was inhabited by the fisher folk. The town had several
warehouses
A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the rural–urban fringe, outs ...
. Weavers,
silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the coc ...
merchants,
vendors
In a supply chain, a vendor, supplier, provider or a seller, is an enterprise that contributes goods or services. Generally, a supply chain vendor manufactures inventory/stock items and sells them to the next link in the chain. Today, these terms ...
,
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
and
meat
Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...
sellers,
potters
A potter is someone who makes pottery.
Potter may also refer to:
Places United States
*Potter, originally a section on the Alaska Railroad, currently a neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, US
* Potter, Arkansas
* Potter, Nebraska
*Potters, New Jer ...
,
grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
merchants, jewellers and
diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
makers lived in Maruvurppakkam.
Pattinappakkam
The King and
nobles
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteristi ...
, rich traders,
physicians
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
,
astrologers
Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Dif ...
, members of the king's
army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
and court dancers occupied Pattinappakkam. The five Manrams - Vellidai Manram, Elanchi Manram, Nedankal manram, Poothachathukkam and Pavaimanram were located in Pattinappakkam. Gardens like Elavanthikaicholai, Uyyanam, Chanpathivanam, Uvavanam, and Kaveravanam added beauty to the town.
In culture
The city of Poompuhar is a very ancient one.
Descriptions in Tamil poetic works
A ''
Purananuru
The ''Purananuru'' (, literally "four hundred oemsin the genre puram"), sometimes called ''Puram'' or ''Purappattu'', is a classical Tamil poetic work and traditionally the last of the Eight Anthologies (''Ettuthokai'') in the Sangam literatu ...
'' poem (poem 30) says that big ships entered the port of Puhar without slacking sail, and poured out onto the beach precious merchandise brought from overseas. In the extensive markets of Puhar there were many tall mansions surrounded by platforms reached by high ladders. These mansions had many apartments and were provided with doorways, great and small, and with wide hallways and corridors (''
Pattinappaalai'' – II –142-158). In all parts of the town there were flags flying of various kinds and shapes.
''
Pattinappaalai'', a poem that describes the ancient Puhar very vividly, was written by the poet Kadiyalur Uruthirangannanaar is part of the ''
Ten Idylls
The Ten Idylls, known as Pattuppāṭṭu ( ta, பத்துப்பாட்டு) or Ten Lays, is an anthology of ten longer poems in the Sangam literature – the earliest known Tamil literature. They range between about 100 and 800 lin ...
'' anthology and was sung in praise of
Karikala Chola
Karikala ( ta, கரிகால சோழன்) was a Tamils, Tamil Chola dynasty, Chola Emperor who ruled southern India. He is credited with the construction of the flood banks of the Kaveri, river Kaveri. He is recognised as the greates ...
, a first-century BCE
Chola
The Chola dynasty was a Tamils, Tamil thalassocratic Tamil Dynasties, empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated ...
king.
In Buddhist literature
Buddhadatta Buddhadatta Thera was a 5th-century Theravada Buddhist writer from the town of Uragapura in the Chola kingdom of South India.Potter, Karl H; Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies: Buddhist philosophy from 350 to 600 A.D. pg 216 He wrote many of his w ...
, the 5th century writer who lived during the reign of
Accutavikkante vividly describes the capital
Kaveripattinam in his manuals (
Pali
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
language) as follows:
In the lovely Kaveripattana crowded with hordes of men and women from pure families
endowed with all the requisites of a town with crystal clear water flowing in the river,
filled with all kinds of precious stones,
possessed of many kinds of bazaars,
beautified by many gardens,
in a beautiful and pleasant vihara built by Kanhadasa,
adorned with a mansion as high as the Kailasa,
and having different kinds of beautiful entrance-towers on the outer wall,
I lived in an old mansion there and wrote this work..
In the ''Nigamanagātha'' of Vinayavinicchaya, Buddhatta describes how he wrote the work while staying at the monastery built by one ''Venhudassa'' (Vishnudasa) on the banks of the Kaveri in a town called Bhootamangalam near Kaveripattinam.
Merchants of Puhar
''Pattinappaalai'' also gives an idealised description of the merchants plying their trade in Puhar (''
Pattinappaalai'' – II –199-212):
:They shunned murder, and put aside theft, pleased the gods by fire offerings,…they regarded others rights as scrupulously as their own, they took nothing more than was due to them and never gave less than was due from them. Trading thus in many articles of merchandise, they enjoyed an ancient heritage of prosperity and lived in close proximity to one another.
City's destruction
The ancient city of Puhar was destroyed by the sea around 300 AD. Marine archaeologists from the National Institute of Oceanography have established that this could have been the effects of sediment erosion and periodic tsunamis. Such a tsunami is mentioned in the Tamil poem
Manimekhalai
''Maṇimēkalai'' ( ta, மணிமேகலை, ), also spelled ''Manimekhalai'' or ''Manimekalai'', is a Tamil-Buddhist epic composed by Kulavāṇikaṉ Seethalai Sataṉar probably around the 6th century. It is an "anti-love story", a s ...
(see below), which relates that the town Kāveripattinam or Puhār was swallowed up by the sea. This event is supported by archaeological finds of submerged ruins off the coast of modern Poompuhar.
The town of Kāveripattinam is believed to have disappeared around 300 AD due to this tsunami
Manimekalai
The ancient Tamil poem
Manimekalai
''Maṇimēkalai'' ( ta, மணிமேகலை, ), also spelled ''Manimekhalai'' or ''Manimekalai'', is a Tamil-Buddhist epic composed by Kulavāṇikaṉ Seethalai Sataṉar probably around the 6th century. It is an "anti-love story", a s ...
by the poet
Seethalai Saathanar is set in the town of Kaveripattanam.
Ancient ruins of a 4th-5th-century Buddhist monastery, a Buddha statue, and a Buddhapada (footprint of the Buddha) were found in another section of the ancient city, now at Pallavanesvaram.
Also some claim that Manimekalai attained Mukti there.
Geography
Kaveripattanam is located at . It has an average elevation of .
It is at a distance of 24km from Mayiladuthurai and 40km Chidambaram.
Politics
Poompuhar assembly constituency is part of
Mayiladuturai (Lok Sabha constituency).
Tourism
![Kaverippattanam OR Pumpuhar 360](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Kaverippattanam_OR_Pumpuhar_360.jpg)
Attractions in Poompuhar include:
* Silappathikara Art Gallery: Scenes from
Silappadikaram
''Cilappatikāram'' ( ta, சிலப்பதிகாரம் ml, ചിലപ്പതികാരം,IPA: ʧiləppət̪ikɑːrəm, ''lit.'' "the Tale of an Anklet"), also referred to as ''Silappathikaram'' or ''Silappatikaram'', is the e ...
are depicted in sculptures carved by the students of the Mamallapuram Art College.
* Masilamani Nathar Koil, Tarangambadi: Built in 1305 by Maravarma Kulasekara Pandiyan, this temple has been heavily eroded by the sea.
Gallery
Image:Kaverippattanam OR Pumpuhar 022.jpg, Fishermen's vessels
Image:Puhar-ILango.jpg, Ilango Adigal (poet prince)
Image:Puhar-KannagiInPandyaCourt.jpg, Kannagi In Pandya Court
Image:Puhar-Kannagi-Kovalan.jpg, Sculpture of Kovalan and Kannagi at the art gallery entrance
Notes
References
* Mudaliar, A.S, Abithana Chintamani (1931), Reprinted 1984 Asian Educational Services, New Delhi.
* Nilakanta Sastri, K.A. (1935). The CōĻas, University of Madras, Madras (Reprinted 1984).
Wayback Machine
External links
PoomPuhar CollegePoompugar in Memories in Asia
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Mayiladuthurai district
Ancient Indian cities
Former populated places in India
Buddhism amongst Tamils
Former capital cities in India