408 MADURA. Chap. XXV. 



CHAPTEE XXV. 



MADURA AND TEICHINOPOLY. 



Arrive at Madiu'a — Peopling of India — The Dra\adian race — Bralmiin 

 colonists in Southern India — Foundation of Madura — Pandyan dynasty — 

 Tamil literature — Aghastya — Naik dynasty — The Madura Pagoda — 

 The Sangattar — The Choultry — Tirumalla Naik's palace — Caste preju- 

 dices — TrichinojDoly — Coleroon auicut — Eice cultivation — The j^almyra 

 palm — Caroor — ■ Ketrun to the Neilgherries — Shervaroy hiUs — Court- 

 allum. 



The road from the foot of the Puhiey hills to Madura, a 

 distance of upwards of forty miles, is very bad, but it passes 

 through avenues of shady banyan and peepul trees most of 

 the way, and is, therefore, not so wearisome for the natives 

 on foot, as for a European jolting at the rate of three miles 

 an hour in a bullock-cart without springs. 



Near Madura there are tracts of rice cultivation, plantain 

 groves, and topes of palm-trees; and at sunrise I came in 

 sight of the gopurams or towers of the great pagoda, rising 

 above thick groves of palmyra palms, with a foreground of 

 bright green paddy-fields. The city is very interesting from 

 its remarkable palaces and temples, as the capital of a once 

 powerful kingdom, and as the ancient centre of Tamil 

 civilization : and a few words respecting the former history 

 of this part of India appear necessary before describing the 

 pagoda, and other architectural remains of the former great- 

 ness of Madura. 



Tradition relates that in the most ancient times the country 

 from the mouths of the Godavery to Cape Comorin was one 

 vast forest. Here the great Aryan hero Rama is said to have 

 resided during his exile, with his wife Sita, and here he 



