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JOURNAL, B.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. XXI. 



the Tamil country, 1 a powerful and numerous race of people 

 called " Nagas," and some other races which had descended 

 into India from the north-east of " Aryavarta," were holding 

 it, as permanent settlers, under their own kings. We learn 

 from the old works (in Sanscrit) how, about the time of the 

 Maha Bharata war, the above races had already spread out 

 and formed permanent colonies in Tamilakam. As the learned 

 Mr. Kanakasabhai Pillai has, in his valuable work, dealt 

 with this subject so fully as to meet with the approbation of 

 his readers, it will be superfluous for me to dwell on it further. 

 It suffices to say that the above-mentioned Nagas, and other 

 foreign settlers in Tamilakam, subdued the older inhabitants 

 of the country, and imposed their own rule upon them. It 

 was at this time, when the Naga and Mongolian supremacy 

 was fully established in Dravida, that the Yadavas of Vel- 

 pulam, clearing the great forests which covered the districts 

 in the north of Dravida, and founding colonies in them under 

 their own chiefs, gradually advanced further south 2 into the 

 Tamil country. The districts which they thus cleared up, 

 improved, and rendered fit for cultivation, they made their 

 own by settling in them permanently under their own chiefs. 

 Another section of these Yadavas, whose wealth consisted in 



1 According to Mr. Kanakasabhai Pillai " Villavar," i.e., the bowmen, 

 and " Minavar " (represented by the modern Minas) were the oldest 

 inhabitants of the Tamil country, who, in course of time, were subdued 

 by a numerous and powerful race called the Nagas, whose modern 

 representatives are the Maravas, Kallar, Kurumbar, and Parathavar or 

 Paravar. These were followed by races of Mongolian origin or extraction 

 called " Yakshas "or " Yakkos " by the Sanscrit and Pali chroniclers, 

 and identical with the Velala community of Southern India. — Vide. 

 " Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago," chap. IV., p. 39. 



2 The gradual extension, here referred to, of political power from the 

 north to the south of Tamilakam, by the Vels of the Maharatta country, 

 receives no support from either the situation or the tradition of the 

 origin of the Pandiyan kingdom. The earliest Tamil settlement, in 

 so far as our present knowledge of it goes, lay, not on the northern 

 border, as is here assumed, but in the southernmost section of Dravida, 

 Mount Pothiyil near Cape Comorin being one of its most hallowed 

 spots.— V. J. T. 



The festival of Indra called " Indra Vilavu " would seem to have 

 been one of the most popular festivals of the Tamils in ancient times. 

 Indra was a peculiarly Indian god. The Maravas, who are admittedly 



