No. 61. — 1908.] TAMIL VELALAS. 



21 



Inasmuch as the designation of Vel, and the story of 

 miraculous birth in the sacred pot of a Muni in the north, is 

 thus seen to have been of common application to the Velir 

 and the Chalukkyas, it is concluded that they were born of the 

 same race, and offshoots of the Yadava class of it. The 

 Puranas and the epics do not contain, 1 it is to be admitted, 

 any passage referring to the birth of the first Yadava in the 

 sacred pot of an ascetic (but this does not matter, as it does 

 not affect our investigation). In addition to what has been 

 said above, there is one more excellent proof of the racial 

 identity of Vels and Chalukkyas. We learn from the Greek 

 traveller Pliny that the Andhras were an imperial race about 

 the commencement of the Christian era. Now, that it was to 

 the Chalukkyas, who were a section of the Andhras, that the 

 early Tamils gave the name Velir is proved by the name 

 " Andiran " *f which is found applied to the great 

 Vallal " Vel Ay " in the Tamil records. Assuming that " Vel 

 Ay " was an " Andhra " by race, his designation " Andiran " 

 {jtj«9*L$.irw) can be easily explained as a modified form of 

 " Andhran," especially as the word " Andiran " is perfectly 

 meaningless in Tamil. To the ancient Greeks, the kings of 

 the Andhras would appear to have been known as "Andorea" 2 

 ( jy twr if Put). 



1 The names " Kudamuni " — the pot-born ascetic — and " Kum- 

 basambahva " — he who was born of a pot — assigned to the Rishi 

 Agastiyar in the Puranic traditions, may well be taken to be a direct 

 reference to this legend. — V. J. T. 



2 In old Sanscrit literature the Andhras are spoken of as an impure 

 tribe. In the " Aitareya Brahmana," for instance, the Pulindas, the 

 Andhras, Pundras, Sabaras, and Mutibas are said to be the offspring 

 of the cursed elder sons of Visvamitra, while, in " Amarakosha," the 

 oldest Sanscrit lexicon now extant, the " Bheda, Kirata, Sabara, and 

 Pulinda" races appear included among the 44 Mleccha Jatis." The 

 mere fact of the Andhras being mentioned as a race of common origin 

 with such admittedly aboriginal tribes as the Sabaras and the Pulindas 

 affords strong ground for regarding them as a non- Aryan people. 

 The Andhras were a race closely akin, I am inclined to think, to 

 the modern inhabitants of Telingana, i.e., the Telugu country, which, 

 as well as the language spoken there, is even now known as ' ' Andhram. 



The kings of the Andhras call themselves " Haritiputras," i.e., 

 4 'the sons of Hariti," in their inscriptions. <£ Hariti" is one of the 

 progenitors of the Chalukkyas. 



