No. 61.— 1908.] 



TAMIL VELALAS. 



11 



their race having become very numerous, Sri Krishna, 1 in 

 order to further its prosperity, led a large colony of it to the 

 shore of the western ocean, founded Dwaraka, and clearing 

 the jungles and forests of the surrounding districts, and 

 preparing the ground for cultivation and human residence, 

 settled his Yadava followers on them, and himself ruled over 

 the new kingdom. From the " Maha Bharata " we also learn 

 that, shortly before the death of Sri Krishna a civil war 

 broke out, 2 and raged among the Yadavas of Dwaraka, in 

 which large numbers of them perished, while, of the rest, the 

 majority left for other places ; and that the districts to the 

 south of the Godaveri were largely inhabited by the Yadavas. 

 From these accounts it is obvious that the Yadavas were a 

 race fond of colonizing, that they originally inhabited 3 the 

 Gangetic regions, and that thence they removed to that part 

 of India now known as Maharashtra. If the above have any 

 foundation in fact, it is nothing incredible that the Yadavas, 

 who so settled in Maharashtra, should have, as time went on, 



The Tamil records mention also another Vel prince who belonged to 

 the Aviyar race, who was the lord of Pothiyil, the traditional seat of the 

 sage Agastiyar, I mean the prince " Ay Andiran," one of the last seven 

 Vallals of the Tamil country. 



From the above it is clear that there were sections of people whose 

 occupation was mainly that of preparing intoxicating beverages for the 

 use of the liquor-loving Yadavas, and who, nevertheless, belonged to 

 the very race to which the Tamil Vels belonged. In fact, the words liar, 

 Cherar, Konkar, Yadavar, and Surar are only different designations 

 of the same class of people, and are so strictly synonymous that they 

 can be used interchangeably with the utmost freedom. — V. J. T, 



1 Krishna and his clansmen were, at first, settled in the kingdom of 

 Mathura. But, subsequently, through fear of the Magadha king, 

 Jarasandha, father-in-law of Kansa whom Krishna had slain, they 

 fled towards the west, and founded Dwaraka. — Vide " Maha Bharata," 

 " Sabha Parva," chap. XIV., slokas 48-55.— V. J. T. 



2 An account of this civil war is given in the " Mushala Parva" of the 

 " Maha Bharata." The origin of the war is attributed to drunkenness, 

 to which they had become so fatally addicted that Krishna was obliged 

 to pass a law enforcing capital sentence on all those found drunk. — 

 V. J. T. 



3 The Velalas were called Gangakula or Ganga Vamsa, because they 

 derived their descent from the powerful tribe of Gangaridae which 

 inhabited the valley of the Ganges, as mentioned by Pliny and Ptolemy. 

 — Vide " The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago," p. 114. — V. J. T. 



