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JOUENAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. X. 



or Cail, is only another form of Cairo, properly Kahira. 1 

 The simplicity of the new creed, especially at a time when 

 the masses knew not whether to follow the Saivite sages or 

 their opponents, the Yishnuite Achariyas, was so attractively 

 preached that great numbers of Tamils of various castes were 

 converted. Negapatam, Nagur, Atirampet, and Kilakkarai 

 soon became other centres of proselytism. In the tenth century 

 the Chola dynasty overthrew the neighbouring sister king- 

 doms of the Chera and Pandiya, 2 and reigned paramount from 

 the vicinity of Madras to Cape Comorin. It was doubtless 

 subsequent to this period that the Tamil Muhammadans 

 of South India became known as the "Choliya Muham- 

 madans," or more commonly Chdliyar, or people of the Tamil 

 country called Chdla-desam. To this day the Hindustani 

 Muhammadan speaks of his southern co-religionist as 

 61 Choliya," for, save as to religion, the vast majority of the 

 Chojiyar are Tamils in point of language, general appearance , 

 and social customs, and for the following reason. 



The men of Cairo, who are said to have originally settled 

 at Kayal, could not have been very many : including 

 priests and laymen, the proportion which they bore to 

 the annually increasing number of native converts must 

 have naturally diminished in an inverse ratio. In the course 

 of a century, after the arrival of the foreigners at that town, 

 it is perhaps too much to suppose that they could have repre- 

 sented even five per cent, of the proselytes. There are at the 

 present day 164,000 Christians among the Sinhalese and 82,000 

 among the Tamils, against 422 missionaries and ministers, 



Perhaps there is some truth in this tradition, seeing that in the 

 marriage contract or kaduttam (properly haditam, Tamil for " a paper ") 

 the moJir is always stipulated to be paid in " Egyptian gold." The same 

 currency is referred to in the Ceylon kaditam. 



2 These three Tamil kingdoms occupied the whole of South India. 

 The Chdla kings originally reigned north of the Kaveri, having for their 

 capital a city near the site of the modern Trichnopoli. The capital city 

 of the Pandiyans was Madura, and that of the Che'ras, Karur, in the district 

 of Koimbatur. 



