Tyndis (alt. Tondis Tundis or Thundi) is an ancient sea-port and harbor-town north to Muziris in the Chera Kingdom, modern day India on the Malabar Coast.[1] The exact location of the port is still unknown, modern day Koyilandi[2] is often identified as Tyndis located in the Sangam Tamil kingdom of the Cheras. Tyndis was a major center of trade in South India between the Cheras and the Roman Empire, next only to Muziris. A branch of the Chera royal family is also said to have established itself at Tyndis.
Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (53-54) mentions Tyndis as a village (it was a village in that times) in plain sight by the sea, one of the first markets of Damirica (Limyrike) (present-day south India) located 500 stadia north of Muziris.[3]
In Sangam Age Tamil literature, Tyndis appears as Tondi, "It was bounded", says, a poet (Puram 17), "by groves of coconut trees bearing heavy bunches of fruits, a wide expanse of rice fields, verdant hills, bright sandy tracts and a salt river whose glassy waters are covered with flowers of brilliant colours".[4]