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



records declare that the Cholas 1 also, likewise claimed Muchu- 

 kunta of the Solar race as their first great ancestor, and 

 the Puranas say that this Muchukunta was a devotee, 

 and one greatly favoured, of Sri Krishna. Leaving this 

 aside, we learn from Tamil literature that the nomadic 

 Yadavas who roamed about in the forests, had, at first, their 

 own line of kings, which was exterminated by the Cholas 2 

 and the Cheras 3 in later times. The Yadava tribes who 

 thus entered and settled in the Tamil country, Kshatriyas by 

 rank as they were primitively, being, nevertheless, split up 

 as time passed on into many separate communities, owing to 

 differences of occupation that had developed during the long 

 centuries of colonizing work upon which they had embarked 

 without any intercourse with their Aryan kindred and com- 

 peers in social status, abandoned their primitive customs and 

 habits little by little. They, nevertheless, never lost their 

 hereditary valour and indomitable energy. The Velir tribes, 

 who were thus forced by the stress of circumstances to take 

 to such diverse callings as husbandry, the making of pottery, 

 the five crafts, &c, generation after generation, were, in 

 course of time, looked upon as separate and distinct com- 

 munities, having no racial kinship with one another, so 

 that the facts of their common ancestry and origin were' 

 entirely forgotten with the lapse of time. The caste of 

 potters are, at present, known in the Tamil country as 

 ((&}Uj<sufr) " Kuyavar." They were, however, not known by 



' ' Mahavansa " also refers in one place to the five brothers who ruled over 

 the kingdom of Mathurai (vide chapter XC, vv. 43 and 44). The name 

 " Panchavan " applied to the Pandiyan king in Tamil literature may, 

 therefore, be explained as containing nothing more than a reference to 

 this historical fact. — V. J. T. 



1 The " Koli " race of Maharashtra has always laid claim to be the 

 descendants of the Solar race through Yuvanashwa and Mandata. But 

 this race is held to be aboriginal, and therefore non- Aryan ; the resem- 

 blance between " Koli " and " Choli "is, however, striking, especially 

 when it is contemplated along with the fact that Uraiyur, the capital 

 of the Cholas, was known also as " Koli-ur," i.e., the city of Koli. — 

 V. J. T. 



2 " Pattinapalai," line 288. 



3 " Pathittupaththu," 71, 88. 



