Know the Etymology: 335
Place Name of the Day: Saturday, 29 March 2014

Jambu-kola-pattana

ஜம்பு₃கொலபட்டன
Jambukolapaṭṭana

Jambu+kola+pattana

The seaport at the point of reeds

The seaport at the point of rose apple trees

Jambukola Pattana	An ancient port in Naagadeepa (Jaffna Peninsula), referred to for its contacts with the eastern coast of India (Mahavamsa, 19:60; Sammohavinodanee, 445-446); Kola-pattana: Equated with Jambukola Pattana (Milindapagnha, Indrapala, K., 2006, p. 358, 380, citing Gunawardana, R.A.L.H, 1990); Champu-thu'rai: Local name as recorded in early 20th century for the place identified with Jambukola Pattana in Jaffna Peninsula (Jambulingam Pillai, S.V., preface to the edition of Pa'raa'lai Vinaayakar Pa'l'lu)
Jambu	A bulrush, sedge (Telugu, DED 2347); A kind of reed or sedge, Typha angustifolia (Kannada, DED 2347); Champu: Elephant grass, Typha elephantine, Sola pith, a swamp plant (Tamil, DED 2347); Champan-koarai: Elephant grass (Tamil, DED 2347); Cha'npu: Elephant grass (Tamil, DED 2347); Jambu: The rose apple tree, Eugenia jambolana (Sanskrit, Pali, CDIAL 5131); Jambu, Damba: The rose apple tree, Eugenia jambolana (Sinhala)
Kola	1. Cognate of Kozhu: Point, tip, end, as in ploughshare (Tamil, DED 2147, MTL); Koliha: Extreme point of a tree (Sinhala); Ke'la: End, bud, sprout (Sinhala); 2. Cognate of Kuzhai, Kozhunthu: Foliage, tender leaves, sprout, shoot (Tamil, DED 2149); Kola (plural), Kole (singular), sometimes written as Ko'la: Leaf, branch, herbs, and in combinations means young shoots of the leaves, leaf, weed and foliage (Sinhala). See columns on Colombo and Kola-munna for further details.
Pattana	Sea port, trading town (Sinhala); Patuna (singular), Patunu (plural), also Patana: Sea port, town (Sinhala, also Brahmi inscriptions of the island, Godawaya inscription, 2nd century CE); Pattana: Town (Sanskrit, CDIAL 7705, probability of Dravidian etymology noted); City (Pali, Prakrit, CDIAL 7705); Pattinam: Maritime town, small town (Tamil, DED 3868); Harbour capital (Tamil, Changkam usage, Pattinappaalai 218); Port town or village (Tamil, Changkam usage, Natti'nai, 258: 9-10); Seaside settlement or village (Tamil, Changkam usage, Chi'rupaa'naattuppadai 153)

Jambukola Pattana was the name of an ancient seaport in the Jaffna Peninsula. It was referred to in the Pali texts, in association with the events of the 3rd century BCE, as such the arrival of the Buddhist emissary of Asoka bringing the branch of the sacred Bo tree from the port of Tamralipti in the Gangetic delta.

The early Pali texts referring to the place name are Mahavamsa and Sammohavinodanee.

A place name Kola-pattana, mentioned in another early Pali text, Milindapagnha, is also equated to Jambukola Pattana.

In the early 20th century, the location of the ancient port was traced to a place called Champu-thu'rai or Thiruvadi-nilai at the northwest tip of the Jaffna Peninsula.



Applying common meanings found in Sinhala, Jambukola was explained as meaning the foliage of rose apple trees that might have been found at the port in the ancient times.

But looking at the geography of the place at a corner tip, and considering comparable place names such as Ko'zhumpu/ Ko'lamba/ Colombo, Neer-kozhumbu (Negombo), Kozhumputh-thu'rai (in Jaffna), Kollam (in Kerala), which are all ports at a point, and a host of place names in the islands of the Maldives, Kola in Jambukola Pattana seems to mean a tip or point where the port was located. See column on Colombo.

In such a meaning, Kola corresponds to Kozhu in Tamil/ Dravidian, and meaningful cognates are found in Sinhala too (see box and the column on Colombo).

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Jambu is taken as meaning the rose apple tree, as it is the common meaning for the word in Sanskrit, Pali and in Sinhala.

But Jambu in the Dravidian languages Telugu and Kannada mean a kind of bulrush, reed or sedge (DED 2347). Champu is the corresponding Tamil word, meaning elephant grass, and that is the term found in the local usage of the place name.

For the geography of the place at the northwest tip of the peninsula, bulrush, reed and elephant grass are the more appropriate natural vegetation than rose apple trees. (See column on Champoor for place name associated with Champu reed)

Even if Kola is taken as foliage of rose apple, or the rose apple tree itself, the word is a cognate of Tamil/ Dravidian Kuzhai, Kozhunthu or Ku'laku, meaning foliage, tender leaves etc. (DED 2149). See column on Kola-munna, Anguna-kola-pelessa.

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Pattana in Sinhala means a seaport or trading town, and the shades of meaning are the same as in the Tamil/ Dravidian term Pattinam, meaning a maritime town (DED 3868). A cognate Pattana found in the Sanskrit/ Pali/ Prakrit diction, generally means a town (CDIAL 7705). CDIAL notes the probable Dravidian origin of the word and adds that in meaning a town it is a Dravidian loan word to Indo-Aryan.

DED's presentation of the entry for Pattinam implies the word's etymological roots to Patti, Pattu, Pattam, Patappu etc., which in Tamil and in other Dravidian languages mean from an enclosure to hamlet, village and town.

In usages found in the Changkam literature, the form Pattinam is specifically associated with coastal settlements, ranging from a harbour capital of a kingdom and port towns or villages to any seaside settlement or village.

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Pattinam meaning a harbour capital:

“Muddaach chi'rappin Paddinam pe'rinum” (Paddinappaalai, 218)

“முட்டாச் சிறப்பின் பட்டினம் பெறினும்” (பட்டினப்பாலை, 218)

Even if I get this city (Kaavirippoom-paddinam) that is never deficient of prosperity...


Pattinam meaning a maritime village:

Akal angkaadi asai nizhal kuviththa
Pachchi'raak kavarntha pasung kad kaakkai
Thoongkal vangkaththuk koompil cheakkum
Marungkoorp paddinaththu anna (Natti'nai 257-59)

அகல் அங்காடி அசை நிழல் குவித்த
பச்சிறாக் கவர்ந்த பசுங் கட் காக்கை
தூங்கல் வங்கத்துக் கூம்பில் சேக்கும்
மருங்கூர்ப் பட்டினத்து அன்ன (நற்றிணை 257-59)

Like the maritime village, Marungkoor Paddinam, where the youthful-eyed crow that has robbed the fresh shrimps heaped under the moving (tree) shade of the broad market, would perch on the mast of the sail-ship that is berthed


Paddinam meaning a settlement along the seaside:

“Pani neerp paduvin paddinam padarin” (Chi'rupaa'naattuppadai 153)

“பனி நீர்ப் படுவின் பட்டினம் படரின்” (சிறுபாணாற்றுப்படை 153)

If you go to a settlement along the cool-watered sea...

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Commenting on the place name Jampukola Pattana, K. Indrapala noted: “The fact that the leading port of the northernmost region in the island had a name, according to the early Pali sources, with the suffix pattana is not without significance. […] The name Jambukolapattana may […] indicate the presence of a strong Tamil element or other Dravidian element in the northernmost port very early in the early historic period.” (The Evolution of an Ethnic Ientity, 2006, p. 181-182)

The use of similar Dravidian toponyms in the Pali literature even for the central part of the island “at a very early date may also point to the presence of speakers of Dravidian languages at the time of the spread of Prakrit,” he further wrote, citing another toponymic term Malaya (ibid. p. 181-182).

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Patuna (singular) and Patunu (plural) are also forms prevalent in Sinhala, meaning the same as Pattana.

There is yet another form Patana found in a 2nd century CE Brahmi inscription coming from Godawaaya in Hambantota district of Southern Province.

Apart from Jambukola Pattana the other major ports in the island that had the title Pattana in the ancient times were Mahapatana (Maatota) in Mannaar and Go'nagaamaka Pattana, i.e., Gokar'na (Trincomalee).

The existence of a Pattana port in the southernmost part of the island too could be seen in the Godawaya inscription that refers to a port called Goda-pavata-patana that existed at that place.

The late Brahmi inscription is engraved on a rock near a Buddhist temple located on the top of a hillock bordering the sea.

Goda-pavata (parvata)-patana means the port of the shore hill. Both Goda and Patana in the place name are of Dravidian etymology, while Pavata is Prakrit.



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The site identified as Jambu-kola-patuna is at a place called Thiruvadi-nilai in the Valikaamam West division of Jaffna district.

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First published: Saturday, 29 March 2014, 10:29