You're right, Tom. I thought it would be too detailed to relate how
Travancore became Kerala. But the hotel manager in Varkala who so
graciously took me to search for mollusks told me that Kerala is comprised
of the former Triangur (I guess that's Travancore), Kochi and Malabar. The
state of Kerala was formed on the basis of common language: Malayalam.
Of interest is that one of the hotel staff people exclaimed, "Cow-ree,"
when he saw one of the shells I'd pulled out from between some boulders. I
asked him how he knew it was a cowrie. He said that that's the word for
that shell in Malayalam.
Another Malayalee word relating to mollusks might NOT be so quick to catch
on. When crowds of children caught up with me with my magnifying loop and
figured out what I had in the zip-lok baggy, they called out the word for
shells, "Ka-Ka!"
--David K.
Durham, NC
>For those interested in shell related items (re: shells on flags), did you
>know that virtually all of the postage stamps issued by the Travancore
>(when it was an Indian Feudatory State up until 1949) showed a stylised
>Turbinalla pyrum as part of the design, and also that the watermark of
>many of these stamps also showed T pyrum. At that time the neighbouring
>state of Cochin also issued huge numbers of stamps showing the same shell,
>and then there were a couple of years when the two states combined. It
>was only after this that both were incorporated into Kerala.
>
>If anyone would like to have a few of the Travancore or Cochin stamps to
>see what is shown on them, let me know via my private e-mail, and I will
>willingly send you a few - I have many hundreds of duplicate stamps, each
>worth a few cents only, and I'd love to interest a few other shell
>collectors in this sideline.
>
>Tom Walker
>[log in to unmask]
>
>
><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
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><DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>For those interested in shell related items (re:
>shells on flags), did you know that virtually all of the postage stamps issued
>by the Travancore (when it was an Indian Feudatory State up until 1949)
>showed a
>stylised Turbinalla pyrum as part of the design, and also that the
>watermark of
>many of these stamps also showed T pyrum. At that time the neighbouring
>state of Cochin also issued huge numbers of stamps showing the same shell, and
>then there were a couple of years when the two states combined. It was
>only after this that both were incorporated into Kerala.</FONT></DIV>
><DIV> </DIV>
><DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>If anyone would like to have a few of the
>Travancore or Cochin stamps to see what is shown on them, let me know via my
>private e-mail, and I will willingly send you a few - I have many hundreds of
>duplicate stamps, each worth a few cents only, and I'd love to interest a few
>other shell collectors in this sideline.</FONT></DIV>
><DIV> </DIV>
><DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Tom Walker</FONT></DIV>
><DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
>href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]</A></
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