southern peak of the Anamalai mountains, about twenty miles northeastward of Trivandrum, the capital of Travancore. The sacred river Tamraparni had its source on this mountain and has the local name today of Tambravarni. It discharges into the Gulf of Mannar and was famous from very ancient times for its pearl fisheries. The legendary cradle of Tamil civilization lay on the Tamraparni River at Korkai (the Kolchoi of the Periplus and Ptolemy), which was the traditional home of the three eponymous brothers Pandiyan, Solan and Ceran, the founders of the three great Tamil nations and kingdoms, Pandya, Chola and Chera. These brothers find their places in the strange genealogies of the Sejarah Malayu as Raja Pandyan, Raja Chulan and Raja Jiran. The tradition recorded in ancient Indian literature, and particularly in Tamil, says that Agastya left India and travelled far south, so that in the Puranas the emphasis with regard to him shifts overseas and the Vayu-Purana places his venerable abode (asrama) on the Mandara Mountain in Malayadvipa. Inscriptions prove that the cult of Agastya was a remarkable feature in South-East Asia, and that it took deep root in Sumatra, Java and Bali.

Mandara was a mountain famed in Indian mythology and sacred to Siva, who went there after spending his honeymoon on Mount Meru. Trikuta means 'three peaked' and nilaya 'home'. Kalidasa records that King Raghu conquered Kerala at Trikutaand that its three peaks served as the pillars of victory. It has been plausibly identified as a hill to the west of Nasik. Gokarna is mentioned by Kalidasa, and was a celebrated place of pilgrimage. It is identified with Gendia in North Kanara, some thirty miles south of Goa, and there is a famed temple of Siva at Gendia. Gokarnasramin was a deity who was supposed to dwell on the summit of Mahendra Mountain, that is to say the Eastern Ghats. The writer has found no counterpart in ancient India for Kancapada or Kancanapada, but kusa grass (Poa cynosuroides) is a special grass used by the Brahman caste for worship, for example, on New Moon days, and Brahman sages, when contemplating God, sit upon a mat made from kusa grass. The juice of the soma plant was the favourite drink of the gods. In the Vedas, Mlecchas were indigenous people of barbarian tongue who seem to have been friendly to the Aryas when they invaded India, and the name came to be applied to all friendly indigenous peoples. The Raksasas were most unfriendly and the Ramayana tells of the great war in which Rama, King of the Aryas conquered Ravana, King of the Raksasas, whose capital was Lanka. The yojana was a land-measure of uncertain distance, usually stated as a league; but in verse composition such as the Vayu-Purana must not be treated literally.