- KAIL, now forgotten, was long a famous port on the coast of what
is now the Tinnevelly District of the Madras Presidency.
It is mentioned
as a port of Ma'bar by our author's contemporary Rashiduddin, though the
name has been perverted by careless transcription into Bawal and
Kabal. (See Elliot, I. pp. 69, 72.) It is also mistranscribed as
Kabil in Quatremere's publication of Abdurrazzak, who mentions it as "a
place situated opposite the island of Serendib, otherwise called Ceylon,"
and as being the extremity of what he was led to regard as Malabar (p.
19). It is mentioned as Cahila, the site of the pearl-fishery, by Nicolo
Conti (p. 7). The Roteiro of Vasco da Gama notes it as Caell, a state
having a Mussulman King and a Christian (for which read Kafir) people.
Here were many pearls. Giovanni d'Empoli notices it (Gael) also for the
pearl-fishery, as do Varthema and Barbosa. From the latter we learn that
it was still a considerable seaport, having rich Mahomedan merchants, and
was visited by many ships from Malabar, Coromandel, and Bengal. In the
time of the last writers it belonged to the King of Kaulam, who generally
resided at Kail.
The real site of this once celebrated port has, I believe, till now never
been identified in any published work. I had supposed the still existing
Kayalpattanam to have been in all probability the place, and I am again
indebted to the kindness of the Rev. Dr. Caldwell for conclusive and most
interesting information on this subject.
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