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Cattigara is the name of a major port city located on the Magnus Sinus described by various antiquity sources. Modern scholars have linked Cattigara to the archaeological site of Óc Eo in present-day Vietnam.^[1]

Ptolemy's description

Cattigara was the name given by the 2nd-century Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy to the land on the easternmost shore of the Indian Sea at (due to a scribal error) 8½° south of the Equator.^[2]

The name "Cattigara" was probably derived from the Sanskrit Kirti-nagara कीर्ति- नगर "Renowned City" or Kotti-nagara कोटि-नगर "Strong City".^[3]

Scholarship has determined that Ptolemy's Cattigara was at 8½° north of the Equator and was the forerunner of Saigon as the main port and entrepot at the mouth of the Mekong.^[4]

On some medieval maps, for example on the Martellus map of 1489 or the Waldseemüller map from 1507, published in the Ptolemy's Geography, Cattigara was located 8 and a half degrees below the equator and 178 degrees west of the Canary Islands.^[5]

John Caverhill deduced in 1767 that Cattigara was the Mekong Delta port Banteaymeas (now Hà Tiên),^[6] not far from Óc Eo.^[7] The plea in 1979 by Jeremy H.C.S. Davidson for "a thorough study of Hà-tiên in its historical context and in relation to Óc-eo" as indispensable for an accurate understanding and interpretation of the site, still remains unanswered.^[8]

The 18th-century French geographer, Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, located Cattigara at the mouth of the Mekong (Cottiaris) River, where it is shown on his map, Orbis Veteribus Notus (The World Known to the Ancients).^[9]

The Swedish yachtsman and writer Björn Landström also concluded, from the sailing directions given by the ancient merchant and seafarer Alexander, that Cattigara lay at the mouth of the Mekong.^[10]

The "father of Early Southeast Asian history", George Coedès, has said: "By the middle of the 3rd century Fu-nan had already established relations with China and India, and it is doubtless on the west coast of the Gulf of Siam that the furthest point reached by Hellenistic navigators is to be found, that is the harbour of Kattigara mentioned by Ptolemy".^[verify]^[11] A.H. Christie said in 1979 that "the presence of objects, however few in number, from the Roman Orient" added some weight to the conjecture that Óc Eo was the Ptolemaic Cattigara.^[12] The distinguished German classical scholar, Albrecht Dihle, supported this view, saying:

From the account of the voyage of Alexander referred to by Ptolemy, Kattigara can actually be located only in the Mekong delta, because Alexander went first along the east coast of the Malacca peninsula, northward to Bangkok, from thence likewise only along the coast toward the south east, and so came to Kattigara. We hear nothing of any further change of course. In addition, at Óc Eo, an emporium excavated in the western Mekong delta, in the ancient kingdom of Fu-nan, Roman finds from the 2nd century after Christ have come to light.^[13]

Adhir Chakravarti concluded: "The archaeological remains unearthed at Oc-Eo to the south of Phnom Bà Thên in the Trans-Bassac region of Cochin-China have proved beyond doubt that it was a great port of Fou-nan and, as suggested by Mallaret and Coedès may be identified with Ptolemy's Kattigara emporium (= Skt Kirtinagara or Kottanagara)".^[14]

The eminent scholar of ancient Indian civilization, Luciano Petech, concluded: "Kattigara was situated on the Mekong delta… At Go Oc Eo in western Cochinchina, along with Indian jewelry and Chinese bronze mirrors, several Roman objects were excavated: beads, gems, cammei, and, last but not least, Roman coins of the Antonines".^[15]

Columbus' search for Ciamba

Guided by Ptolemy, the discoverers of the New World were initially trying to find their way to Cattigara. On the 1489 map of the world made by Henricus Martellus Germanus, revising Ptolemy's work, Asia terminated in its southeastern point in a cape, the Cape of Cattigara. Writing of his 1499 voyage, Amerigo Vespucci said he had hoped to reach Malacca (Melaka) by sailing westward from Spain across the Western Ocean (the Atlantic) around the Cape of Cattigara into the Sinus Magnus ("Great Gulf") that lay to the east of the Golden Chersonese (Malay Peninsula), of which the Cape of Cattigara formed the southeastern point. The Sinus Magnus was the actual Gulf of Thailand.^[16]

Christopher Columbus, on his fourth and last voyage of 1502–1503, planned to follow the coast of Ciamba southward around the Cape of Cattigara and sail through the strait separating Cattigara from the New World, into the Sinus Magnus to Malacca. This was the route he thought Marco Polo had gone from China to India in 1292.^[17] Columbus planned to meet up with the expedition sent at the same time from Portugal around the Cape of Good Hope under Vasco da Gama, and carried letters of credence from the Spanish monarchs to present to da Gama.^[18] On reaching Cariay on the coast of Costa Rica, Columbus thought he was close to the gold mines of Ciamba. On 7 July 1503, he wrote from Jamaica: "I reached the land of Cariay...Here I received news of the gold mines of Ciamba which I was seeking".^[19]

It was eventually realized that Columbus had not reached Ciamba or any part of the Cape of Cattigara. The search for Cattigara continued during the early years of the sixteenth century. Johannes Schöner concluded after the circumnavigation of the world by the expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan that the Pacific Ocean was the Sinus Magnus and located Cattigara on the west coast of South America. In this he was followed by Oronce Fine and the makers of the Dieppe Maps but eventually geographers and cartographers had to admit that Cattigara could not be found. The mathematician and cosmographer Gemma Frisius said in 1531: "in the place where Ptolemy described Cattigara as projecting far beyond the Equator, and others by quite dubious reasoning as adjoining the kingdoms of Var, Moabar and other places now, following repeated voyages on both this side and the other of the Equator, no continental land was found but an almost infinite number of islands".^[20]

References

^ "Oc-Eo dans le delta du Mékong serait donc une identification plus probable": Germaine Aujac, Claude Ptolémée, Astronome, Astrologue, Géographe: Connaissance et Représentation du Monde habité, Paris, Editions du CTHS, 1993, p.125, n.10. See also Adhir Chakravarti, "The Economic Foundations of Three Ancient Civilizations of South-east Asia: Borobudur, Dvararavati and Angkor: Preliminary Report of a Study Tour in some countries of South-east Asia in April–May 1985", in Haraprasad Ray (ed.), Studies on India, China, and South East Asia: Posthumous Papers of Prof. Adhir Chakravarti, Kolkata, R.N. Bhattacharya, 2007, p.89; and Adhir Chakravarti, "International Trade and Towns of Ancient Siam", Our Heritage: Bulletin of the Department of Post-graduate Training and Research, Sanskrit College, Calcutta, vol. XXIX, part I, January–June 1981, pp1-23, nb p.9. An alternative proposed by J. L. Moens was that the name derived from the Sanskrit, Koti-nagara "Cape City", referring to its location near Cape Ca Mau, the southern point of Indochina: J. L. Moens, "De Noord-Sumatraanse Rijken der Parfums en specerijen in Voor-Moslimse Tijd," Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, LXXXV, 3, 1955, pp.325-336, p.335; also J. L. Moens, "Kotinagara het antieke handescentrum op Yava's. Eindpunt," Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, LXXXV, 3, 1955, pp. 437-48, p.448; and also W.J. van der Meulen, "Ptolemy's Geography of Mainland Southeast Asia and Borneo," Indonesia, no.19, April 1975, pp.1-32, p.17. Kasper Hanus and Emilia Smagur, “Kattigara of Claudius Ptolemy and Óc Eo: the issue of trade between the Roman Empire and Funan in the Graeco-Roman written sources”, Helen Lewis (ed.), EurASEAA14, Vol.1, Ancient and Living Traditions, Papers from the Fourteenth International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, Summertown (Oxford), Archaeopress, 2020, pp.140-145, p.144.
^ Paul Schnabel, „Die Entstehungsgeschichte des kartographischen Erdbildes des Klaudios Ptolemaios", Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften: Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften, Bd.XIV, 1930, S.214-250, nb 239-243. Erich Polaschek, ‘Ptolemy's "Geography" in a New Light’, Imago Mundi, Vol. 14, (1959), pp. 17-37, nb pp.25 & 35. Bagrow, L. (1 January 1945). "The Origin of Ptolemy's Geographia". Geografiska Annaler. 27. Geografiska Annaler, Vol. 27: 318–387, nb 322–323. doi:10.2307/520071. ISSN 1651-3215. JSTOR 520071. Claudius Ptolemy, India extra Gangem fluvium Sinarum situs, Rome, Arnoldus Buckinck, 1508 (same map reproduced in the Rome 1478 and 1490 edition).^{[permanent dead link]}
^ Adhir K. Chakravarti, "Early Sino-Indian Maritime Trade and Fu-Nan", D.C. Sircar (ed.), Early Indian Trade and Industry, Calcutta, University of Calcutta Centre of Advanced Study in Ancient Indian History and Culture, Lectures and Seminars, no. VIII-A, part I, 1972, pp. 101-117; also in The South East Asian Review (Gaya, India), vol. 20, nos.1 & 2, 1995, pp.5-14, p.10; and in India and South-East Asia Socio-econo-cultural Contacts, edited by N.N. Bhattacharyya, Kolkata, Punthi Pustak, 1998, p.413.
^ Albert Herrmann, "Der Magnus Sinus und Cattigara nach Ptolemaeus", Comptes Rendus du 15me Congrès International de Géographie, Amsterdam, 1938, Leiden, Brill, 1938, tome II, sect. IV, Géographie Historique et Histoire de la Géographie, pp.123-8; Louis Malleret, L’Archéologie du delta du Mékong, Tome Troisiéme, La culture du Fu-nan, Paris, 1962, chap.XXV, "Oc-Èo et Kattigara", pp.421-54.
^ lostcivilizations (2023-12-04). "The mystery of Cattigara, the city located at the ends of the ancient world • Neperos". Neperos.com. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
^ Nicholas Sellers, The Princes of Hà-Tiên (1682-1867): the Last of the Philosopher-Princes and the Prelude to the French Conquest of Indochina: a Study of the Independent Rule of the Mac Dynasty in the Principality of Hà-Tiên, and the Establishment of the Empire of Vietnam, Brussels, Thanh-long, 1983, p.164.
^ John Caverhill, "Some Attempts to ascertain the utmost Extent of the Knowledge of the Ancients in the East Indies", Philosophical Transactions, vol.57, 1767, pp. 155-174.
^ Jeremy H.C.S. Davidson, "Archaeology in Southern Viet-Nam since 1954", in R. B. Smith and W. Watson (eds.), Early South East Asia: Essays in Archaeology, History, and Historical Geography, New York, Oxford University Press, 1979, pp.215-222, see p.216.
^ Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d' Anville, Eclaircissements géographiques sur la carte de l'Inde, Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1753, pp.160-161; Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d' Anville, A Geographical Illustration of the Map of India, Translated by William Herbert, London, 1759, p.78; Atlas de d'Anville, 1786. Orbis Veteribus Notus
^ Bjorn Landström, The quest for India : a History of Discovery and Exploration from the Expedition to the Land of Punt in 1493 B.C. to the Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 A.D., in words and pictures, London, Allen & Unwin, 1964, p.56.
^ George Coedès, "Some Problems in the Ancient History of the Hinduized States of South-East Asia", Journal of Southeast Asian History, vol.5, no.2, September 1964, pp.1-14. Coedès clarified what he meant in his book, Les Peuples de la Péninsule Indochinoise: Histoire – Civilisations (Paris, Dunod, 1962, pp.62, translated by H.M. Wright, The Making of South East Asia, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1966, p.58-59): "Now Fu-nan occupied a key position with regard to the maritime trade routes, and was inevitably a port of call both for the navigators who went through the Straits of Malacca and for those – probably more numerous – who made the transit over one of the isthmuses of the Malay Peninsula. Fu-nan may even have been the terminus of voyages from the Eastern Mediterranean, if it is the case that the Kattigara mentioned by Ptolemy was situated on the western coast of Indochina on the Gulf of Siam".
^ A.H. Christie, "Lin-i, Fu-nan, Java", in R. B. Smith and W. Watson (eds.), Early South East Asia: Essays in Archaeology, History, and Historical Geography, New York, Oxford University Press, 1979, pp.281-7, see p. 286.
^ Albrecht Dihle, Umstrittene Daten: Untersuchenen zum Auftreten der Griechen an Roten Meer, Köln und Opladen, Westdeutsch Verlag, 1964, S.30.
^ Adhir Chakravarti, "International Trade and Towns of Ancient Siam", The South East Asian Review (Gaya, India), vol. 20, nos.1 & 2, 1995, p.20
^ Luciano Petech, “Rome and Eastern Asia”, East and West [Roma], Year II, no.2, July 1951, pp.72-76, p.74.
^ Albert Herrmann, "Der Magnus Sinus und Cattigara nach Ptolemaeus", Comptes Rendus du 15me Congrès International de Géographie, Amsterdam, 1938, Leiden, Brill, 1938, tome II, sect. IV, Géographie Historique et Histoire de la Géographie, pp. 123-8
^ George E. Nunn, ‘The Three Maplets attributed to Bartholomew Columbus’, Imago Mundi, vol.9, 1952, 12-22, p.15; Helen Wallis, ‘What Columbus Knew’, History Today, vol.42, May 1992, pp.17-23; Edmundo O'Gorman, The Invention of America: An Inquiry into the Historical Nature of the New World and the Meaning of its History, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1961, pp.106-122.
^ The letter, dated 14 March 1502, is published in Martin Fernandez de Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos, 2nd. edn., Madrid, Imprenta Nacional, 1858, p.430; the covering letter to Columbus is published in A. Millares Carlo (ed.), Historia de las Indias por Fray Bartólome de las Casas, México, Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1951, Lib.2, cap.iv, pp.219-20.
^ Letter dated 7 July 1503; quoted in J.M. Cohen (ed.), The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1969, p.287.
^ nunc cum eo loco quo Ptolemaeus Cattigaram longe vltra Aequatorem prominentem descripsit, et deinde alii adnectentes regnum Var, Moabar et alia incerta fere ratione, nulla post frequentes ultra citraque aequatorem navigationes terra continens inventa fuerit, sed insularum infinitus paene numerus: Reinerus Gemma Frisius, De Principiis Astronomiae et Cosmographiae, Louvain, 1530, caput xxx.