Tanjore

Speaking of Chu-lién (Chola Dominion, Coromandel Coast), Chau Ju-kwa, pp. 93–4, says: —

“The kingdom of Chu-lién is the Southern Yin-tu of the west. To the east (its capital) is five li distant from the sea; to the west one comes to Western India (after) 1500 li; to the south one comes to Lo-lan (after) 2500 li; to the north one comes to Tun-t’ien (after) 3000 li.”

Hirth and Rockhill remark, p. 98: “Ma Tuan-lin and the Sung-shï reproduce textually this paragraph (the former writer giving erroneously the distance between the capital and the sea as 5000 li). Yule, Marco Polo, II, p. 335, places the principal port of the Chola kingdom at Kaveripattanam, the Paṭṭaṇam par excellence of the Coromandel Coast, and at one of the mouths of the Kaveri. He says that there seems to be some evidence that the Tanjore ports were, before 1300, visited by Chinese trade. The only Lo-lan known to mediæval Chinese is mentioned in the T’ang-shu, 221, and is identified with the capital of Bamian, in Afghanistan. I think our text is corrupt here and that the character lo should be changed to si, and that we should read Si-lan, our Ceylon. Both Ma and the Sung-shï say that 2500 li south-east of Chu-lién was ‘Si-lan-ch’ï-kuo’ with which it was at war. Of course the distance mentioned is absurd, but all figures connected with Chu-lién in Chinese accounts are inexplicably exaggerated.”

XVI., pp. 336–337.