No. 61.— 1908.] 



TAMIL VELALAS. 



5 



current in the Tamil country in the remote past concerning 

 the origin of the primitive " Vels " as follows, viz. : — 



1 " The gods assembling said among themselves, ' We being 

 all gathered here in one place (on Mount Meru), Meru has 

 gone down (by our combined weight), and the south has 

 gone up, Agastiyar alone (amongst us all) is competent to 

 reside in the south (in order to preserve the balance of the 

 earth),' and so they entreated him ; and he also consenting, 

 went to Dwarapati, 2 and taking along with him the eighteen 



Mr. Kanakasabhai Pillai, not earlier than the 3rd century of our era. 

 The traditions, however, make him a contemporary of the Rishi Agas- 

 tiyar of Vedic fame. The author above referred to has not given his 

 reasons for assigning to him a later date. — Vide " Tamils Eighteen 

 Hundred Years Ago," p. 116.— V. J. T. 



1 The following is a somewhat different reading of the same passage 

 as quoted by the learned Shehagiri Sastri, M.A., viz. : — 



" All the gods who had assembled on Mount Meru requested 

 Agastiya to go to the south and remain there to keep up the balance 

 when the whole earth had bent on the southern side owing to the 

 weight of all the gods. Before he went to the south, Agastiya went 

 to the Ganges and received the river Kaviri from her; He then 

 proceeded to Jamadhadhagniyar (Sans. Jamadhagni) and got from 

 him Tirunadhumagniyar (Sans. Tranadhumagni), who was Tolkappian 

 himself. He married Lopamudraiyar, who was given to him by her 

 brother Pulathiyanar (Sans. Pulastya). He went to Tuwarapati (Sans. 

 Dwaraka) and took the eighteen kings of the line of Krisna, the 

 Velirs of the eighteen families, and Aruvalars. He denuded the 

 country of its forests, and made it inhabitable. He settled on Mount 

 Pothiya, and having defeated Ravana by his skill in music, freed his 

 habitation from the incursions of the Rakshasas." — Report on a 

 Search for Sanscrit and Tamil Manuscripts for the Years 1893-94, 

 No. 2, p. 109.— V. J. T. 



a Same as Dwaraka. Its Tamil form is "Dwarai " or " Dwarakai." 

 The reference to Ravana has, obviously, no connection with the 

 context. Nachchar makes the same remarks in his comments on 

 " Madura Kanchi." If the Ravana here referred to is identical with 

 the Ravana slain by Rama, there is no reason for introducing him here 

 after the time of lord Krishna. 



The above observation obviously ignores the fact that the Puranic 

 legends represent Ravana and Agastiyar, not only as contemporaries, 

 but also as relatives, the latter being, according to one account, an 

 uncle of the former. The ' 4 Ramayana ' ' also makes Agastiyar a contem- 

 porary of Ravana, and makes express reference to the existence of the 

 Pandiyan kingdom at the time the epic was composed. — V. J. T. 



