1838.] 



tteport on the Maclcenzle Manuscripts, 



237 



13. It may be sufficient therefore to state that it contains a minute ac- 

 count of the customs of the curious race of people at the extreme end of 

 the peninsula, whose ancestors appear to have escaped extermination by 

 the colonizing Hindus. I paid particular attention, in the first in- 

 stance, to this document in order to see if it had any details of an al- 

 leged ascendancy of the Maravas over the Pandiya kingdom, which it 

 has not ; but it first fixed my attention to the fact that there are people 

 in the country not aboriginally Hindus i since otherwise extensively il- 

 lustrated from papers of this collection. 



Note. — The manuscript is complete, and in good order. It is briefly 

 entered in Des. Cat. vol. 1, p. 211. art. xxxvi. under the title of Marawa 

 Jail Vernanam. The title as above written is the one contained in the 

 heading of the MS. itself. On the envelope the word Kaifeyat appears 

 for Charitra. 



12. Alakesvaru-raja Cadcd, or the tale of king Alakesvara, No. 159. 

 — Countermark 146. 



12|. Another copy, No. 158. — Countermark 145. 



This is a v/ork of fiction, to be distinguished from another romance of 

 like title, which will be at a future time noticed.* The name of the 

 king is merely a derivative from Alacapuri the town of Cuvera, and 

 therefore an appellative, implying merely a wealthy king. This king, 

 Alalcendra, is stated to have had four ministers ; and the introductory 

 portion of the work adverts to their description of a camel to the owner 

 who had lost it, though they had not seen it ; on which the owner ac- 



I cused them of being thieves to the king ; but, on their detailing the 



I I principles on which they had described the animal, the king was 

 struck with their sagacity ; praised them ; and gave a compensation 

 to the camel owner. These ministers had charge of the king's 

 palace as guardians, and while one of them, named Potha-vdthittan, 

 Was attending to his office, in the interior apartments, he saw 

 a serpent enter which he killed with his sword, and the blood 

 falling on the queen, he attempted to wipe it off, which awoke her, 

 and the guardian became accused before the king. The latter then re- 

 lates a story to his ministers^ concerning a Sudra who brought up a dog ; 

 and these narrate tales in return. These different narratives being ended. 



* See Tamil MS, book No, 7, Sec. 2, in this report. 



