Tamraparni (Sanskrit for "with copper leaves" [1] or "red-leaved" [2] ) is an older name for multiple distinct places, including Sri Lanka, Tirunelveli in India, and the Thamirabarani River that flows through Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.
The rock edicts of the 3rd century BCE Indian emperor Ashoka mention the word Tamraparni (as "Tambapanni") in connection with his foreign missions. [3] One edict states that his dhamma vijaya (victory through dhamma) prevailed in frontier kingdoms of the Choda (Cholas), Pada (Pandyas), and as far as Tambapanni. [4] This seems to be a reference to Sri Lanka, as the Buddhist chronicles of Sri Lanka mention that a port city called Tammapanni was established there during the reign of the legendary king Vijaya. The city was called "Tammena" during the reign of Vijaya's successor Panduvasdeva and "Tammapanni" during the reign of Ashoka's missionary son Mahendra. According to these chronicles, the place was so called because its dust stuck to Mahendra's skin, making him appear copper-coloured. The name was subsequently applied to the entire island of Sri Lanka. [3]
According to one theory, "Taprobane", an ancient Greek name for Sri Lanka, is derived from the word "Tamraparni". [2] The name may be a reference to the "copper colored" shores of Sri Lanka, and may have entered Greek via the Pali "Tambapanni". [5] Megasthenes, a Greek ambassador to Ashoka's grandfather Chandragupta, describes Taprobane as being separated from the mainland by a river, and as being "more productive of gold and large pearls than India." This seems to be a reference to Sri Lanka. [3] In the world map drawn by the ancient Greek (Claudius Ptolemaeus "Geographia", 150 CE), a huge island located south of the Indian subcontinent is referred to by the Greek as "Taprobane", which modern historians identify as the island of Sri Lanka. [6]
The name "Tamraparni" was applied to Tirunelveli and the river flowing through it relatively later, after having been used as a name for Sri Lanka. [3] Historian R. Champakalakshmi theorizes that the Sanskrit word "Tamraparni" and Prakrit word "Tambapanni" are renderings of the Tamil language words "Tan porunai". [7] According to this theory, the Thamirabarani River was originally known as "Tan Porunai" (literally "cool toddy"). [8] This name of the river occurs in Ettuthokai, the ancient Tamil anthologies. [9]
Ashoka, popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third Mauryan Emperor of Magadha in the Indian subcontinent during c. 268 to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, stretching from present-day Afghanistan in the west to present-day Bangladesh in the east, with its capital at Pataliputra. A patron of Buddhism, he is credited with playing an important role in the spread of Buddhism across ancient Asia.
Brahmi is a writing system of ancient India that appeared as a fully developed script in the 3rd century BCE. Its descendants, the Brahmic scripts, continue to be used today across Southern and Southeastern Asia.
Sinhala, sometimes called Sinhalese, is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also spoken as the first language by other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, totalling about 2 million speakers as of 2001. It is written using the Sinhala script, which is a Brahmic script closely related to the Grantha script of South India.
Mahendra is a Sanskrit compound word deriving from mahā (great) and indra from Hinduism. It has been used in compound royal styles.
The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka, as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire who ruled the most of the Indian subcontinent from 268 BCE to 232 BCE. Ashoka used the expression Dhaṃma Lipi to describe his own Edicts. These inscriptions were dispersed throughout the areas of modern-day India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and provide the first tangible evidence of Buddhism. The edicts describe in detail Ashoka's policy on dhamma, an earnest attempt to solve some of the problems that a complex society faced. According to the edicts, the extent of Buddhist proselytism during this period reached as far as the Mediterranean, and many Buddhist monuments were created.
The Pandyan dynasty, also referred to as the Pandyas of Madurai, was an ancient Tamil dynasty of South India, and among the four great kingdoms of Tamilakam, the other three being the Pallavas, the Cholas and the Cheras. Existing since at least the 4th to 3rd centuries BCE, the dynasty passed through two periods of imperial dominance, the 6th to 10th centuries CE, and under the 'Later Pandyas'. Under Jatavarman Sundara Pandyan I and Maravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I, the Pandyas ruled extensive territories including regions of present-day South India and northern Sri Lanka through vassal states subject to Madurai.
Dharmarakṣita (Pali: Dhammarakkhita), was one of the missionaries sent by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka to proselytize Buddhism. He is described as being a Greek in the Mahavamsa, and his activities are indicative of some Hellenistic Greeks following Buddhism during its early centuries.
Mahadhammarakkhita was a Greek Buddhist master, who lived during the 2nd century BCE during the reign of the Indo-Greek king Menander.
Magas of Cyrene was a Greek King of Cyrenaica. Through his mother’s second marriage to Ptolemy I he became a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty. He managed to wrest independence for Cyrenaica from the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty of Ancient Egypt, and became King of Cyrenaica from 276 BC to 250 BC.
Taprobana, Trapobana, and Taprobane was the name by which the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka was known to the ancient Greeks.
Eelam is the native Tamil name for the South Asian island now known as Sri Lanka. Eelam is also the Tamil name for the spurge, toddy and gold.
The Thamirabarani or Tamraparni or Porunai is a perennial river that originates from the Agastyarkoodam peak of Pothigai hills of the Western Ghats, above Papanasam in the Ambasamudram taluk. It flows through Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts of the Tamil Nadu state of southern India into the Gulf of Mannar. It was called the Tamraparni River in the pre-classical period, a name it lent to the island of Sri Lanka. The old Tamil name of the river is Porunai. From the source to sea, the river is about 128 kilometres (80 mi) long and is the only perennial river in Tamil Nadu. This river flows towards north direction initially. However, it changes to east direction later.
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in the northern Indian Ocean which has been known under various names over time.
Tamil-Brahmi, also known as Tamili or Damili, was a variant of the Brahmi script in southern India. It was used to write inscriptions in the early form of Old Tamil. The Tamil-Brahmi script has been paleographically and stratigraphically dated between the third century BCE and the first century CE, and it constitutes the earliest known writing system evidenced in many parts of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Sri Lanka. Tamil Brahmi inscriptions have been found on cave entrances, stone beds, potsherds, jar burials, coins, seals, and rings.
Thamirabharani may refer to:
The earliest undisputed deciphered epigraphy found in the Indian subcontinent are the Edicts of Ashoka of the 3rd century BCE, in the Brahmi script.
The Kingdom of Tambapaṇṇī was the first Sinhalese kingdom in Sri Lanka. Its administrative centre was based at Tambapaṇṇī. It existed between 543 BC and 437 BC. According to the Mahavamsa, the Kingdom was founded by Prince Vijaya and his followers.
The Anuradhapura period was a period in the history of Sri Lanka of the Anuradhapura Kingdom from 377 BCE to 1017 CE. The period begins when Pandukabhaya, King of Upatissa Nuwara moved the administration to Anuradhapura, becoming the kingdom's first monarch. Anuradhapura is heralded as an ancient cosmopolitan citadel with diverse populations.
The Pre-Anuradhapura period of Sri Lankan history begins with the gradual onset of historical records in the final centuries of the prehistoric period and ending in 437 BC. According to the Mahavamsa, the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka are the Yakshas and northern Naga tribes. Sinhalese history traditionally starts in 543 BC at the arrival of Prince Vijaya, a semi-legendary king who was banished from the Indian subcontinent with his 700 followers, and is recorded in the Mahavamsa chronicle. This period was succeeded by the Anuradhapura period.
The Rock edicts of Khalsi, also spelled Kalsi, are a group of an Indian rock inscriptions written by the Indian Emperor Ashoka around 250 BCE. They contain some of the most important of the Edicts of Ashoka. The inscription in Khalsi contains all the Major Rock Edicts, from 1 to 14. They were discovered in Khalsi, a village in Uttarakhand, northern India, by Alexander Cunningham about 1850.
Tambapanni and Tamra- parni are in fact the Prakrit and Sanskrit rendering of Tamil "Tān Porunai" (Champakalakshmi 1967—68).
The river in Tinnevelly called by the Sanskrit authors Tambrapurny, like the Ceylon island, is called to this day by the Tamuls Poruni or the toddy river ; which appears decisive of the point.