They State That This Last King Was A Mahommedan, ...
But though
Sur-Raja does not sound like the name of a Mahommedan prince, they all
agree in asserting that this was his name....
Can this Sur be the person
whom Marco calls Asciar? Probably not, as Asciar seems to have been a
Hindu by religion. I have discovered what appears to be a more probable
identification in the name of a prince mentioned in an inscription on the
walls of a temple at Sri-Vaikuntham, a town on the Tamraparni R., about 20
miles from Kayal. In the inscription in question a donation to the temple
is recorded as having been given in the time of 'Asadia-deva called also
Surya-deva' This name 'Asadia' is neither Sanskrit nor Tamil; and as the
hard d is often changed into r, Marco's Ashar may have been an
attempt to render this Asad. If this Asadia or Surya-deva were really
Sundara-pandi-deva's brother, he must have ruled over a narrow range of
country, probably over Kayal alone, whilst his more eminent brother was
alive; for there is an inscription on the walls of a temple at
Sindamangalam, a place only a few miles from Kayal, which records a
donation made to the place 'in the reign of Sundara-pandi-deva.'"[3]
NOTE 3. - ["O aljofar, e perolas, que me manda que lha enuic, nom as posso
auer, que as ha em Ceylao e Caille, que sao as fontes dellas: compralashia
do meu sangue, a do meu dinheiro, que o tenho porque vos me daes." (Letter
of the Viceroy Dom Francisco to the King, Anno de 1508). (G. Correa,
Lendas da India, I. pp. 908-909.) - Note by Yule.]
NOTE 4. - Tembul is the Persian name for the betel-leaf or pan, from
the Sanskrit Tambula. The latter is also used in Tamul, though
Vettilei is the proper Tamul word, whence Betel (Dr. Caldwell).
Marsden supposes the mention of camphor among the ingredients with which
the pan is prepared to be a mistake, and suggests as a possible origin of
the error that kapur in the Malay language means not only camphor but
quicklime. This is curious, but in addition to the fact that the lime is
mentioned in the text, there seems ample evidence that his doubt about
camphor is unfounded.
Garcia de Orta says distinctly: "In chewing betre ... they mix areca
with it and a little lime.... Some add Licio (i.e. catechu), but the
rich and grandees add some Borneo camphor, and some also lign-aloes,
musk, and ambergris" (31 v. and 32). Abdurrazzak also says: "The manner
of eating it is as follows: They bruise a portion of faufel (areca),
otherwise called sipari, and put it in the mouth. Moistening a leaf of
the betel, together with a grain of lime, they rub the one upon the other,
roll them together, and then place them in the mouth. They thus take as
many as four leaves of betel at a time and chew them.
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