248 



MANUAL OP THE NiLAGIRI DISTRICT. 



CHAPTER XL 



EARLY HISTORY. 



CHAP. XL 



Early 

 History. 



Sketch of the 

 history of 

 peninsular 

 India. — 

 Early race 

 movements. 



Sketch of the history of peninsular India. — Early race movements.— Early 

 religions of the peninsula. — Relation of early hill-tribes to race movements.— 

 Divisions of South India.— Kongu or Chera.— Chdlas.— Kadamba dynasty.— 

 Hoysala Bellala.—Vijayanagar.— Mysore.— Fall of Seringapatam.— Malaydlam, 

 — Early Portuguese Missionaries. 



Although tlie Nilagiris, prior to our occupation, have no history, 

 that is, no written record of the changes in the varying peoples 

 who have found a refuge on their heights from the turmoils of 

 the open lands below, or of their doings, yet, from their peculiar 

 geographical position, they possess an interest for the historian 

 when considered in relation to the movements and development 

 of the principal races of the south. The Nilagiri mountain-block 

 stands forth, not only as a divider of winds and waters, but also 

 as a divider of races and peoples, or, viewed in another way, as 

 a pillar marking their point of contact, just as it marks the point 

 of union of the great mountain systems of peninsular India. 



Around its base, from the earliest ages, contending tribes and 

 nations have struggled, the men of the north with the men of the 

 south, and each and both of these with the people of the west, 

 whilst in its wild recesses remnants of savage races have found a 

 place of shelter and a home. To its south is the high road from 

 the east to the west coast, the great Palghat Pass through which 

 the Dravidians^ pushed their way into Malabar ; to its north the 

 Gajalhatti Pass, through which the same people pressed upwards 

 into the table-lands of Mysore ; to its west Karkur and other 

 passes, through which the Malayalams penetrated into Wainad. 

 But the tide of conquest was ever rising and falling, and down- 

 wards from Mysore or upwards from Malabar marched the 

 avengers of these conquests. 



Though small the area of the Nilagiris, yet it has probably at one 

 and the same time been divided between the three great historic 

 races of the south— the Tamulians, the Malaydlams, and the 

 Kanarese— and consequently its history combines in a measure 

 that of Coimbatore, Malabar and Mysore, whose inhabitants 



Thoy also entered, perhaps later, from the extreme south by Cape Comoriu. 



