Nelcynda  Nelcynda () is a place in ancient Kerala. It was described in Pliny's classical work The Natural History as well as in Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. It was believed to be the capital of the Ay kingdom. Nakkada near Niranam in Pathanamthitta district are often identified with Nelcynda. Nelcynda is mentioned by various authors under varying forms of the name. As has been already stated, it is Melkunda in Ptolemy, who places it in the country of the Ay. In the Peutingerian Table it is Nincylda, and in the Geographer of Ravenna, Nilcinna. Pliny the Elder in his book Naturalis Historia calls the port Neacyndi. According to the "Periplus", numerous Greek seamen managed an intense trade with Muziris: Pliny the Elder (c. 23- 77 CE) gives a description of voyages to India in the 1st century CE. He refers to many Indian ports in his work The Natural History. The present location is actually not self-evident. Some researchers identity Nelcynda with Nakkada near Niranam. Other possible locations include Neendakara, Nirkunnam, Kannetri and Kollam. 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. Scholars have tried to identify the port of Nelcynda with Kallada on the Kallada River (Yule 1903), with Nirkunnam on the Meenachil River (Kanakasabhai 1904), with Niganda (which later on came to be known as Niranam) (I C Chacko 1979) and with Kottayam (Sastri 1955, Gurukkal and Whittakker 2001). 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. Kollam had a sustained commercial reputation from the days of the Phoenicians and the Romans. Pliny (23-79 AD) mentions about Greek ships anchored at Musiris and Nelkanda. Musiris is identified with Kodungallur (then ruled by the Chera kingdom) and Nelkanda (Nelcyndis) with Quilon or Kollam (then under the Pandyan rule).