'The
Governor in Council is pleased to sanction the removal of the old tower at
Negapatam by the officers of St. Joseph's College, at their own expense,
and the appropriation of the available material to such school-building
purposes as they appear to have in contemplation.
"The Fathers were not slow in availing themselves of this permission. The
venerable building was speedily levelled, and the site cleared."
In making excavations connected with the college a bronze image
representing a Buddhist or Jaina priest in the costume and attitude of the
figures in wood and metal brought from Burma was found; it was presented
to Lord Napier, in 1868; a reproduction of it is given in Sir Walter
Elliot's paper.
In a note added by Dr. Burnell to this paper, we read: "As I several times
in 1866 visited the ruin referred to, I may be permitted to say that it
had become merely a shapeless mass of bricks. I have no doubt that it was
originally a vimana or shrine of some temple; there are some of
precisely the same construction in parts of the Chingleput district."
XVI., p. 336 n.
NEGAPATAM.
We read in the Tao yi chi lio (1349) that "T'u t'a (the eastern stupa)
is to be found in the flat land of Pa-tan (Fattan, Negapatam?) and that it
is surrounded with stones. There is stupa of earth and brick many feet
high; it bears the following Chinese inscription: 'The work was finished
in the eighth moon of the third year hien chw'en (1267).' It is related
that these characters have been engraved by some Chinese in imitation of
inscriptions on stone of those countries; up to the present time, they
have not been destroyed." Hien chw'en is the nien hao of Tu Tsung, one
of the last emperors of the Southern Sung Dynasty, not of a Mongol
Sovereign. I owe this information to Prof. Pelliot, who adds that the
comparison between the Chinese Pagoda of Negapatam and the text of the
Tao yi chi lio has been made independent of him by Mr. Fujita in the
Tokyo-gakuho, November, 1913, pp. 445-46. (Cathay, I., p. 81 n.)
XVII., p. 340. "Here [Maabar] are no horses bred; and thus a great part of
the wealth of the country is wasted in purchasing horses; I will tell you
how. You must know that the merchants of Kis and Hormes, Dofar and Soer
and Aden collect great numbers of destriers and other horses, and these
they bring to the territories of this King and of his four brothers, who
are kings likewise as I told you..."
Speaking of Yung (or Woeng) man, Chau Ju-kwa tells us (p. 133): "In the
mountains horse-raising is carried on a large scale.
