Korkai
| Korkai கொற்கை |
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 India
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| State : | Tamil Nadu | ||
| District : | Thoothukudi | ||
| Sub-district : | Srivaikuntam | ||
| Location : | 8 ° 38 ' N , 78 ° 3' E | ||
| Residents : | 3,986 (2011) | ||
Korkai ( Tamil : கொற்கை Koṟkai [ ˈkorkɛi̯ ]) was an ancient port city in southern India . In ancient times, Korkai was the most important port of the Pandya royal dynasty. Today there is still a village of the same name with a population of 4,000 in the Thoothukudi district of Tamil Nadu state .
Korkai is around 160 kilometers south of the old Pandya capital Madurai in the extreme south of India. The place was once located at the mouth of the Thamirabarani River in the Gulf of Mannar . The course of the river and the coastline have shifted over the centuries, so that today Korkai is around two kilometers north of the Thamirabarani and over seven kilometers from the sea coast.
In the old Tamil sangam literature , which probably originated in the first centuries AD, Korkai is mentioned as the port of the Pandya kings. In ancient times, there was brisk trade with the Roman Empire from the southern Indian ports . Korkai is very probably identical with the trading center ( Emporion ) Kolchoi ( Κόλχοι ), which is mentioned in the 1st century in the Periplus Maris Erythraei and in the 2nd century in the geographer Claudius Ptolemy . After the city of Kolchoi, Ptolemy called the Gulf of Mannar the " Colchian Gulf" ( Κολχικός κόλπος ).
After the harbor silted up, Korkai sank into an insignificant village. The port was moved to the nearby Kayal (today Palayakayal ), which was visited by Marco Polo in 1292 , but has now also silted up. The first excavations in Korkai were carried out in the 19th century by Robert Caldwell , the then Bishop of Tirunelveli .
Individual evidence
- ^ Census of India 2011.
- ^ R. Champakalakshmi: Trade, Ideology and Urbanization: South India, 300 BC to 1300 AD, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 123 ff.
- ↑ Klaus Karttunen: "Kolchoi", in: Der Neue Pauly , edited by Hubert Cancik, Helmuth Schneider and Manfred Landfester, first published online in 2006. doi : 10.1163 / 1574-9347_dnp_e618190 .
- ^ Robert Caldwell: A Political and General History of the District of Tinnevelly, Madras: Government Press, 1881, pp. 284 ff. (Digitized version)