Nora, Thyndys & Musiris of Periplus Maris Eritraea

Periplus Maris Eritraea is a Koinee Greek document of the first century of Common Era. It was not written by a navigator or a captain. Writing was not an easy job at that time. There was no pen or paper. In those days writings were done by scribes. The document must have been written on behalf of a Captain turned merchant of the ship as a manuel of the ports of those times. Among these ports, Nora and Thyndys are discussed as potential ports for the future, because his apprehension of the roughness of sea, and shallow waters off these ports. The word Nora means Light, Brightness or illumination. It may mean ancient system of burning torches to direct navigators to safe anchorage. Some of the place names given below suggest this line of thinking.

1. Vilakkupara: around 50 kilometres east of Kollam town.

2. Vilakkumadom:  east of Alappuzha 

3. Vilakkuvettom: east of Kollam 

4. Vettam: on the western bank of Ponnani River 

5. Vettathur: Northeast of Perinthalmanna:

6: Vilakkunad: around two kilometres northwest of Beypore port.

Some of these places are near sea, and some are far away. Coastlines are never permanent. It may shift seaward or shrink to inland.

Before the advent of lighthouse 

there must have been a crude system giving directions to the navigator using torches in the night and flag in daytime.

Thikk (തിക്ക്) Is an old Malayalam word for direction. Modern equivalent is Dhikk (ദിക്ക്). Thikkodi may be interpreted as an ancient arrangement for notifying the shippers that the place had safe anchorage. Thikkodi may literally mean a marker which indicates direction. If we split the word we get the root "thi" and "kodi". "Thi" may be a shortening of "thee" which means fire. By joining the word "kodi"  to thee the first sound is shortened and the "k" is doubled. Here the mark of direction alternate  between  day and night. While it is fire in the night, the day is marked by flag. This may seem logical, but a look at the discription of Nora as given by the document reveals that it is not so. Alternating between fire and flag was an arrangement prior to the advent of modern light houses. Nora reflects only fire part of Thikkodi, and is silent on the flag part. The Periplus Maris Eritraea often furnished Greek names to the ports that were documented. The Koinee Greek equivalent of Lighthouse is pronounced as "Pharos". Therefore, Nora is not indicative of a port.

Nora is a Koinee Greek word and it means bright or that illuminates. Based on this we can postulate that Nora was an ancient port city of Malabar which covered  modern time Kannur, Thikkodi and places upto Ponnani including modern day Kadalundi.  Unfortunately the Periplus Maris Eritraea does not mention Calicut or Beypore. According to the document Damarica begins from Nora. Damarica may be land of Dammar. Dammar is Canarium Strictum, also known as Black Dammar or Thelli (തെള്ളി) a kind of resin obtained from Canarium Strictum. Western Ghats is a natural habitat for Canarium Strictum. In our vernacular we call it "Adakka Payan". Damarica is not a word from local dialect. It also originated in Koinee Greek word. According to the document Damarica begins from Nora, and Thyndys comes after Nora. Thyndys, according to the document is around 500 Stadia (92 kilometres) North of Musiris (Most probably a locality in North Parur.) According to this calculation it is somewhere in modern day Ponnani. Eyyal, a small village near modern day Kunnamkulam is a possible candidate for Thyndys. The village lies between Perumpilavu and Kechery. A good hoard of Roman coins were unearthed from here in 1946. These coins belong a period between 123BCE to CE116. These coins are now with Thrissur Archeological Museum. Eyyal (എയ്യാൽ) is a possible candidate of Thyndys. It lies between Chiramanangad (ചിറമനങ്ങാട്) and Kechery (കേച്ചേരി). Air distance between Edakkazhiyur beach (എടക്കഴിയൂർ കടപ്പുറം) and Eyyal is only around between fifteen kilometres.

Let us now examine the toponym. Eyyal means sand-binding grass or Beach Spinifex. In our vernacular it is Eyyam Pullu (എയ്യംപുല്ല്). It is strictly coastal, and thrives in saline and sandy soil. It has horizontal runners, not deep roots. They stabilize sand dunes. Just like vetiver (രാമച്ചം) which prevents soil erosion, sand-binding grass stops sand drift and ingress. Sand-binding grass is also called Rolling grass, because the dry seed heads roll with the wind. There is a proverb in our vernacular,  "എയ്യംപുല്ല് കടിച്ചാൽ കടൽ കയറും" It means if you destroy sand-binding grass the sea will ingress. This reflects the idea that coastline shifts seaward or landward. But we have been discussing historic places and look at it based on modern cartography.

Cartographic coastline is fixed, and does not take into account the shifting of coastline.

Indian textbook history depends on (especially ancient and early history)quitely rests on three unspoken assumptions.

Fiction One: Geography is static.

° Coastlines are fixed.

° Rivers always flow the same course.

° Ports have permanent co-ordinates.

Fiction Two: Trade history is Port Centric

Ports were not static. It migrated from one place to another depending on the availability of safe anchorage of ships and shifting river courses. Markets were marked by trading communities. Eg. Chettikulam, Chettikulangara, Chettippadi, Vaniyambalam, Vaniyamkulam.  When we look linguistically the word "Ambalam" (അമ്പലം) means market (archaic). Later, "ambalam" became a a word for temple.

Muzris:  Where was Muzris? It was in Kodungallur? Paravur? Pattanam? None of these. Muzris is an ethnic name. It is a Koinee Greek term to show the presence Yemeni merchants in the trading posts of Malabar coasts. Where was the trading post? We do not know. But we know that these traders belonged to or were the natives of Musa in Modern day Yemen. And Musa is modern day Mocha or Mokha or Al Mukha of Yemen. It was an ancient port on the Red Sea coast. It is also spelled as Muza or Mousa.

While scholars historically associated Muza with modern site of Mocha, modern geographical and archeological evidence suggests that they are related but distinct locations.

Inland Shift: 

Due to centuries of siltation the original site of trading post or emporium of Muza is now believed to be located slightly inland from the current shoreline.

Successor Port:

Modern Mocha, or Al Mukha effectively succeeded Muza as the region's primary port, when the older harbour became unusable.

Archeological Debate:

Some researchers identify the specific site of Muza as modern Village of Mauza located about 20-30 kilometres or the coastal Village of Maushij. 

Periplus Maris Eritraea & Muza:

In the first century CE, that coincide with Periplus Maris Eritraea Muza was the emporion nomimom (legally established market) and served as the main port of the Himyarite and Sabaean kingdoms. Roman goods like purple dyed cloth, glassware, were imported to while local myrrh was exported. It was governed by king Charibael (Karib'il Watar Yuhan'im) who maintained strong diplomatic ties with Rome.  The Koinee Greek navigator marks a place he visited by the presence of merchants who are natives of Muza by the Koinee Greek word Muziri. This toponym is not unique to Western coast. They are there in Tamilnadu and Andhra coasts.