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



The facts above set forth demonstrate that the statement 

 advanced by the erudite Nachchar, namely, that the community 

 of Velir were the kindred of Sri Krishna, who quitted Dwaraka 

 and settled in the south, is one that receives full and ample 

 support from many well-known and authoritative sources. 



Again, the Tamil classics state that the " Shen-Tamil " 

 Nadu, i.e., the country in which pure Tamil was spoken and 

 cultivated, was surrounded by twelve Nadus, or countries, in 

 which " Kodun-Tamil," i.e., corrupt Tamil, was spoken, and 

 that, of these, " Venadu " was one. I incline to think that 

 this Venadu was no other than Velpulam, 1 the old home of the 

 Yadavas, which has already been pointed out to be that part 

 of the country lying to the north of what is now called Kon- 

 kanam. That this country, viz., Konkanam, was inhabited 

 by a Tamil- speaking population in ancient times is estab- 

 lished by the odes sung by old Tamil bards in praise of Vel 

 Konkanam Kilan, some of which have luckily found place 

 in the Sangam anthology of ' ' Purrananooru. " 2 As Venadu lay 

 next to Konkanam, which was a Tamil country, bands of 

 Tamils moved about and settled there, as may well be 

 expected in course of time, and the Tamils who thus settled 

 spoke a vulgar patois of their mother tongue — which was 

 hence called "Kodun-Tamil" by the pure Tamil-speaking 

 people of the extreme south. It has, therefore, to be supposed 

 that, although Venadu, which belonged to the Yadavas, 3 was 



The Andhras are called " Andrse Indi " in the Pentigerian Tables, 

 and "Gens Andarse " by Pliny. — V. J. T. 



1 The Sanscrit pundits of old thought that there was no essential 

 difference between the leading languages spoken in the countries 

 lying to the south of the Vindhyas. So they called the Tamil, the 

 Andhra, Karnataka, Maratha, and the Gurjara languages as " the 

 five Dravidas." It is, therefore, not improbable that Tamil was the 

 original language not only of Konkanam but also of Gurjara. 

 According to an address delivered by Mr. Kanagasabhai Pillai, B.A. , 

 B.L., before the Tamil Sangam at Madura in 1906, there were numer- 

 ous Tamil settlements round about Rajagriha, the capital of Magadha, 

 about the 7th century B.C. — V. J. T. 



2 Vide " Purrananooru/' odes Nos. 154, 155, and 156. 



3 It seems indeed very difficult to believe that the Pandiyas were, 

 at any time, a people speaking any language other than Tamil. The 



