﻿1t<Z6 ON THE SANSCRIT 



The five Hindu nations, whose peculiar dialects 

 have been thus briefly noticed, occupy the norr:vTii 

 and eastern portions of India ; they are denoniinuted 

 the fi\e Gaurs. , The rest, called the five Dravi7's, 

 inliabit the southern and western jiarts of tli? penin- 

 sula. Some Pandits indeed exclude Car ndta, and 

 substitute Ci)^mira ; but others, v.ith more propriety, 

 omit the Cdshmirian trine; and, by adciing the Ca- 

 naran to the list o^ Drdvirs, avoid tiie inconsistency 

 of placing a northern tribe among southern nations. 

 There is reason too for doubtino; v hether Caslunna 

 be occupied b\^ a distinct nation, and whether tlie 

 inhabitants of it be not rather a tribe of CdniiacubjaS: 



Dra'. IRA is the country which ternjinates tiiC pe- 

 ninsula of India. Its northern limits appear to lie 

 between the twelfth and thirteenrh degrees of north 

 latitude. The language of the pre \'ince is the Tamely 

 to M'hich Europeans have given ilie name of jSiala- 

 har *, from Malay-icar^ a province of Drr'rcira. Tiiey 

 have similarly corrupted the true name of the dialect 

 into Tamul, Tamulic, and Tamulian "f: but the word, 

 as pronounced by the natives, is Tamla, ov'I'amalah ; 

 and this seems to indicate a derivation from Tamra^ 

 or Tdmraparni a river of note, which waters the 

 southern Alaihuy^a, situated within the limits of 

 Drdvir. The provincial dialect is written in a cha- 

 racter which is greatly corrupted from the parent 

 Dhancigari, but which nevertheless is used by the 

 Brdhmens of Drdvir in writing the Sanscrit language. 

 After carefully inspecting a grammar published by 

 Mr. DRUMalO^D at Bombay, and a dictionary by 



missionaries 



* A learned Brahmen of Drd-j'tra positively assures me, that tlie 

 dialect of Malabar, though confounded by Europeans with the Tatnel^ 

 is different from it ; and is not the language to which Europeans have 

 allotted that appellation. 



+ The Romiih and Proteftant missionaries who have publifhed dic- 

 tionaries and grammars of this dialect, ^-efer to another language, 

 which they denominate Grandam and Grandomcum. It appears that 

 Sanscr'zt is meant, and the term thus corrupted by them is Grant' ha^ 

 a volume or book. 



