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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XXI. 



moved down further south, and taken possession of the 

 forest tracts of the Tamil country. Although no direct 

 reference is to be found in the Sanscrit works to the emigration 

 of the Yadavas to South India, it seems but fair to take the 

 above meagre, but clear, hints as, at least, an indirect allusion 

 to that event. I would here draw attention to what a modern 

 writer of world-wide reputation has written on this matter. 

 The learned Romesh Chunder Dutt, in his " Civilization of 

 Ancient India," writes 1 to the following effect, viz.: "The 

 Yadavas who acknowledged the leadership of Krishna quitted 

 Mathura, 2 and founded a colony in Dwaraka in Gurjara : 3 

 they did not, however, stay there for a long time ; fighting 

 among themselves, most of them quitted Dwaraka, and 

 voyaged to other places by sea, and those who thus left 

 Dwaraka are believed to have reached South India, and 

 founded a new kingdom there." It is easy to see how closely 

 this tallies with what Nachchar has recorded concerning the 

 primitive Vels. If it be said, however, that Mr. Dutt's 

 statement may have been based, possibly, on what some 

 South Indian author or writer had previously published, it 

 must suffice to answer that no South Indian writer has as yet 

 advanced the opinion that the Vels were Yadavas by race. 

 The conclusion seems inevitable, therefore, that the learned 

 historian has relied upon some oral or written traditions 

 current in North India, corresponding to that current in the 

 south. Our commentator's account of the ancestors of the 

 Tamil Vels being thus corroborated by an independent writer 

 of admitted scholarship, it may fairly be conceded that it is, 

 at least, not open to any serious objection. 



But there is another proof that the Vels were settlers from 

 the north, and members of the Yadava race. Many of us are, 

 perhaps, aware that a line of rulers known as " Hoysalas " 4 

 to their contemporaries, invading Mysore about nine hundred 



1 Dutt's " Ancient India," p. 219. 



2 Now called "Muttra" in Northern India. 



3 Guzerat. 



4 For an account of this dynasty, please see " Gazetteer of Mysore,' 5 

 by Lewis Rice,*' Historical Period." The Hoysalas belonged to the 

 Ganga Vamsa. — V. J. T. 



