A Legend has it that Kihirikanda (Kudiramalai), a point on the shore was the landing place of Vijaya, while Kuveni lived in 'Kālivila (Kali Villu)', in the Wilpattu National Park.
Pointedly, Kāli" is a female demonic (Yakkha) representation of Durga. Kihirikanda was visited by Roman sailors during the time of Claudius (417 AD), and Pliny talks of a large settlement called "Hippuros" here. The worf "hippuros" evokes horses, and connects with the word "Kudira" which is a Dravidian root word for "horse". Thus there may have been a name like "Thuranga-male" which was directly rendered in to Malayalam during the Magha invasions, giving the form Kuthirimalai, as it exists today. That the Magha invaders simply translated place names into Dravidian equivalents is seen from the rendering if Meepathota into Illupiakadavai by the Magha.
Another possibility is that the word 'Kadira', from Sanskrit, probably refers to Mimosa Catechu' of the 'accacia' family, and is the 'Kihiri' tree in Sinhala and 'Karuveal' in Tamil. This is consistent with the vegetation of the area.
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