The early history of the Tamil country is still involved in obscurity. Some have supposed that the aborigines, as in Malaya and other parts of Asia, were an Oceanic Negro tribe. This has not yet been established. The Tamils do not seem to have any traditions of a race preceding themselves. The general investigation of the question throughout India, propos * Taken from Muir's Sanskrit Texts, Vol, III, ed by the Bengal Asiatic Society, may throw light on the question. State of the Pre-Aryan Dravidians.-Dr. Caldwell is of opinion that the earliest specimens extant of Tamil literature are not older than the 8th century A. D. The local Puranas, which profess to give the history of the country from the earliest times, contain little more than childish legends. The Ramayana and the Laws of Manu represent the Coromandel Coast as inhabited by Mlechchas' who 'ate human flesh,'' consorted with demons,' and 'disturbed the contemplations of holy hermits.'* Dr. Caldwell, from an examination of the Tamil language, arrives at the following conclusions with regard to the degree of civilization reached by the Pre-Aryan Dravidians : 6 They had kings,' who dwelt in 'fortified houses,' and ruled over small districts of country;' they were without 'books,' and probably ignorant of written alphabetical characters; but they had minstrels,' who recited 'songs' at 'festivals ;'... They are acquainted with all the ordinary metals, with the exception of tin' and 'zinc;' with the planets which were ordinarily known to the ancients, with the exception of 'Mercury' and 'Saturn.' They had numerals up to a hundred,'-some of them to a thousand;' but were ignorant of the higher denominations, as ‘lakh' and a 'crore.' They had 'medicines,' but no medical science,' and no 'doctors;' 'hamlets' and 'towns,' but no cities;' 'canoes,'' boats,' and even 'ships' (small 'decked' coasting vessels), but no foreign commerce;' no acquaintance with any people beyond sea, except in Ceylon, which was then accessible on foot at low water; and no word expressive of the geographical idea of 'island' or 'continent.' They were well acquainted with 'agriculture,' and delighted in 'war.' All the ordinary or necessary arts of life including cotton weaving' and dyeing,' existed amongst them, but none of the arts of the higher class. They had no acquaintance with painting, sculpture,' or 'architecture;' with 'astronomy,' or even astrology;' and were *Caldwell's Dravidian Comparative Grammar, p. 18, The notice of their religion which follows will be found quoted at page 63 in the body of the Catalogue. 6 ignorant, not only of every branch of 'philosophy,' but even of grammar.' Their uncultivated intellectual condition is especially apparent in words that relate to the operations of the mind. Their only words for the mind' were the diaphragm' (the p of the early Greeks), and the inner parts' or interior.' They had a word for thought;' but no word distinct from this for 'memory,' 'judgment,' or 'conscience,' and 'no word for will.' express the will' they would have been obliged to des cribe it as that which in the inner parts says, 'I am going to do so and so.'* To It is an interesting fact that probably the first Tamil word that was ever written is to be found in the Bible. The Hebrew term for peacocks, brought by the fleets of Solomon, is, in the opinion of Dr. Caldwell, "certainly Dravidian."+ The terms for 'apes' and "ivory" are found both in Sanscrit and Tamil. A few Dravidian words are met with in the Ramayana and Mahabharata; but the "largest stock of primitive Dravidian words which is contained in any authentic written document of ancient times...are those which are contained in the notices of the Greek Geographers, Ptolemy, Strabo," and others. Max Muller has not found any allusion to writing in the Vedic hymns. He says, "We shall not be able to trace the Indian alphabet back much beyond Alexander's invasion."|| Some time must have elapsed before a knowledge of writing reached the south. Aryan Civilization. In the north the Aryans had desperate struggles with the aborigines, whom they termed a "black-sprung host." There is no evidence that this was also the case in South India. Dr. Caldwell says, "The introduction of the Dravidians within the pale of Hinduism and the consequent change of their appellation from Mlechchas to that of Sudras appears to have originated, not in conquest, but in the peaceable process of colo+ Ibid, p. 66. * Dravidian Comparative Grammar, p. 79. Ancient Sanscrit Literature, p. 516. nisation and progressive civilisation.. All existing traditions, and the names by which the Brahmanical race is distinguished in Tamil, viz., ‘Eiyar,' instructors, fathers, and 'Parppar,' overseers, (probably the episkopoi of Arrian), tend to show that the Brahmans acquired their ascendancy by their intelligence and their administrative skill."* In North India, Vyasa is regarded as the great author of Sanscrit literature. Agastya occupies as distinguished a place in the South. His name occurs in the Rig-veda; but the Tamil tales about him are derived from the Ramayana and Mahabharat.† Dr. Caldwell gives the following account of him ;-- :་ "The leader of the first, or most influential colony (of Brahmans from Upper India), is traditionally said to have been Agastya, a personage who is celebrated in Northern India as a holy 'rishi,' or hermit, but who is venerated in the South with greater reason as the first teacher of science and literature to the primitive Dravidian tribes. It is very doubtful whether Agastya (if there were ever such a person) was really the leader of the Brahman immigration; more probably he is to be considered as its mythological embodiment.The Vindhya mountains,' it is said, 'prostrated themselves before Agastya;' by which I understand that they presented no obstacle to his resolute, southward progress; for he is said to have penetrated as far south as Cape Comorin, He is called by way of eminence the Tamir muni,' or Tamilian sage; and is celebrated for the influence which he acquired at the court' of Kulasekhara, according to tradition the first Pandyan king, and for the numerous elementary treatises which he composed for the enlightenment of his royal disciple; amongst which his arrangement of the grammatical principles of the language has naturally acquired most renown. He is mythologically represented as identical with the star Canopus, the brightest star in the extreme southern sky in India, and is worshipped near Cape Comorin as Agastisvara. By the majority of orthodox Hindus he is believed to be still alive, though invisible to ordinary eyes, and to reside somewhere on the fine conical mountain, commonly * Dravidian Comparative Grammar, p. 75. † Dr. Caldwell in Calcutta Christian Intelligencer for 1861, p. 63. |