The Bhikṣuṇī Maṇimēkhalai

82 - The Historical Materials
But if that is Kārikkarai it is not likely to help us very much so long as
we do not find the river Kāri, which exactly is what we want. There is
a river, however, formed of two small streams, one on each side of the
Nagari Hills, the two uniting and forming what is called the Kāḷingi
river, which passes through the railway station at Sūḷurpet, and
empties itself into the Pulicat lake, not far from the salt
manufacturing townlet of Taḍa. The western stream which is a
respectable distance from Nāgalāpuram is called by the name Kāḷingi
and the eastern is now named Kālēru. The source of the Kālēru is not
any prohibitive distance from the place now called Rāmagiri, the
Vālīśvaram or Kārikkarai of olden times.
The Collector, Mr. C. A. Henderson, I.C.S., with whom I discussed the
matter, considers that the identification is perfect though Rāmagiri is
not actually on the stream Kālēru, as the level of water has gone down
considerably through the centuries. But this defect notwithstanding, it
is near enough on the map to mark the source of the holy river and
perhaps the river has its obscure beginnings in the Hill Rāmagiri itself.
Hence the modern Rāmagiri, the Vālīśvaram or Kārikkarai of the
inscriptions and the Periyapurāṇam, must mark the spot in which, or
in the immediate vicinity of which, there was a stream Kāri.
The Kālēru which takes its rise not far from it is sufficiently near to it
in geographical location and phonetic affinity to be equated with
each other. The present day [48] name Kālēru consists of two parts,
the latter part ‘ēru’ is the equivalent of river, the first part ‘Kāl’ must
be the equivalent of black, Kāla is black in Tamil and Kannada, and
Kāla itself certainly occurs in Telugu meaning black in Sanskrit
compounds, at any rate. It would not be surprising if the simple word
has passed in this as in the other languages into popular use, its