Kamara

Information from the Periplus

Ancient Toponym: Kamara
Place Type: Port of trade
Route: Eastern route
Next on Route: Podoukē
Ancient Area: India
Periplus Chapter: PME, Ch. 60

Topographic info

Longitude 79.85456
Latitude 11.025067
Location Source: Pleiades

Modern Identification: Kaviripattinam
Modern Country: India

Passage from the Periplus

Of the ports of trade and harbors in these parts at which vessels sailing from both Limyrike and the north call, the more important, lying in a row, are the ports of trade of Kamara, Poduke, and Sopatma. They are the home ports for local boats that sail along the coast as far as Limyrike and others, called sangara, that are very big dugout canoes held together by a yoke, as well as for the very big kolandiophdnta that sail across to Chryse and the Ganges region. There is a market in these places for all the [sc. Western] trade goods imported by Limyrike, and, generally speaking, there come to them all year round both the cash originating from Egypt and most kinds of all the goods originating from Limyrike and supplied along this coast. (from the Casson translation)

Bibliography

Ancient source: Ptolemy, 7.1.13

Bibliography: Kaveripattinam Excavations 1963-73 (A Port City on the Tamil Nadu Coast). 1994. Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India 90. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Bibliography: Rao, S. R. 1991. “Marine Archaeological Explorations of Tranquebar-Poompuhar Region on Tamil Nadu Coast.”

Bibliography: Rao, S.R. 1987. Progress and Prospects of Marine Archaeology in India. Goa: National Institute of Oceanography.

Bibliography: Tripati, Sila, A. S. Gaur, and P. Gudigar. 1996. “Marine Archaeological Explorations in the Kaveripoompattinam Regions: Fresh Light on the Structural Remains.”

Bibliography: Vora, K. H. 1987. “A Note on Geophysical Explorations for Marine Archaeology off Tamilnadu Coast, India.” International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 16 (2): 159–64.