Note {1} — Chapter XXIII

Note 1.—Kumári is in some versions of the Hindu cosmography the most southerly of the nine divisions of Jambodvipa, the Indian world. Polo’s Comari can only be the country about Cape Comorin, the κομάρια ἄκρον of Ptolemy, a name derived from the Sanskrit Kumári, “a Virgin,” an appellation of the goddess Durgá. The monthly bathing in her honour, spoken of by the author of the Periplus, is still continued, though now the pilgrims are few. Abulfeda speaks of Rás Kumhări as the limit between Malabar and Ma’bar. Kumări is the Tamul pronunciation of the Sanskrit word and probably Comări was Polo’s pronunciation.