If the wind, called Hippalus (Southwest Monsoon), happens to be blowing it is possible to arrive in forty days at the nearest market in India, "Muziris" by name.
Here king Pandion (Pandya) used to reign, dwelling at a considerable distance from the market in the interior, at a city known as Modiera (Madurai).
The district from which pepper is carried down to Barace in boats hollowed out of a single tree is known as Cottonara (Kuttanadu).The present location is actually not self-evident.
The details like "Nelcynda is distant from Muziris by river and sea about five hundred stadia..." and other evidences of ancient ports are used in arriving at these possibilities.
[5] Kollam (Nelcynda) shares fame with Kodungallur (Muziris) as an ancient sea port on the Malabar coast of India from early centuries of the Christian era.
Spices, pearls, diamonds and silk were exported to Egypt and Rome from these two ports on the South Western coast of India.
That would also satisfy the mention "This place also is situated on a river, about one hundred and twenty stadia from the sea...."[9] Yule writes That Nelkynda cannot have been far from this is clear from the vicinity of the Red Hill of the Periplus.
Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar, Introduction, 97Writer and Renowned Social Anthropologist Susan Visvanathan wrote a novella based on Nelcynda, called "Nelycinda and Other Stories" (Roli Books, 2012).