PLACE NAMES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21457, 3 April 1933, Page 13

PLACE NAMES

Sir, —Your contributor, "Kotare," in gj an article on place names, suggests a || line of inquiry that may well havo re- || suits of far-reaching interest. The name |il "Coromandel" is a caso in point. || Where did that name come from and what does it mean? It has been tho g name of more than one ship that has |j come to New Zealand. Mention has % boon made lately of a coal hulk bearing M that name in Wellington, that was to bo taken outside tTie harbour and sunk, p But that vessel was built at Belfast in M, 1875, so that that ship could not have fj given its name to Coromandel as it had §| got on the map in 1854 as tho first f| place in New Zealand where gold was gf discovered. There was, however, another ship bearing tho name of Coro- fj mandel that came to Wellington first II of all in 1840, and again in 1843. Is it g possible that it was from that ship that f| our present Coromandel derived its i U name? But a prior question is raised: §J Where did that ship get its name from? §§ The obvious answer is—from the strip jg of country on the south-west coast of §1 India, known as Coromandel. Possibly fj then thcro is a link between tho New fl Zealand Coromandel and India. But U moro of interest may bo discovered -a when wo pursue tho further inquiry: What docs ■ the name Coromandel El mean? A cluo to that came to nio soon jj after tho beginning of my three years' stay in Coromandel, from 1871 to 1874. Ff Before leaving England I had been a \) student at tho Wcslcyan Theological jj College, Richmond. Tho governor of j| tho college at that time was the Rev. jj Sanderson, who had spent many years in India. On learning that I was living at Coromandel he sent mo the origin and meaning of the name. He said that "Coromandel" is the Anglicised form of the Indian word, Chola Maintain, which means "Tho Ringdove of Chola," Chola being the name of one of the many gods worshipped in that country. So that in its name our « Coromandel has a, link of association g stretching far across the world to the § religions of India. W. J. Williams. M March 30, 1933. |