150 



Mr. Taylor on Professor Wilson's 



[Julv 



mandel coast. In the first part of the identification I am disposed to con- 

 cur : in the latter part of it to differ. Notwithstanding the many cau- 

 tions given by so many scholars on the subject of etymological deducti- 

 ons, they are not abandoned ; yet they are not safe, without a knowledge 

 of the vernacular language to which they refer. I have not No. 5. 

 J. R. A. S. to refer to; and therefore can here only observe that kilkarai, 

 simply means the east-shore; and is written Wz£«5«C5Bin", whereas 

 Q&n p6S)&> Gorrkai, the native name of Madura in early times, has 

 no other meaning, that I am aware of, and is radically a different 

 word. In such a point however both D'Anville and Wilson might ea- 

 sily mistake by etymology. I should hesitate to hint even at any ana- 

 logy between the name of old of Madura, and the distant Goorkhas of 

 Nipal, had I not recently traced a resemblance between the Tamil al" 

 phabet and that of Thibet, as exhibited in some specimens from M. 

 Csoma de Coros, given in the Bengal Asiatic Journal ; and there may be 

 added to this resemblance the fact that Agastya the acknowledged 

 " father of the Tamil language" (that is, as I presume of its written lan- 

 guage), was, according to tradition, a native of Thibet. Of course this 

 resemblance must not be made the basis of any premature conclusion. 



Any supposed discrepancy between the Pandya Rajakal, and the 

 Tiruvilliyadal, on the spelling of the word Chedi in the former, with 

 the Setu-raya of the latter may be easily obviated, without any necessi- 

 ty of adverting to central Hindustan. The Tamil language has proper- 

 ly no sibilant s — its own character corresponds with the first palatal 

 letter in Sanscrit that is c/?, and it is rather a modern erroneous refine- 

 ment which tends to give the sound of s, rather than ch, to such words 

 asGV^y, which I have myself represented it is true by Sethu; but 

 which would be correctly given by Chethu. Add that the p which 

 corresponds with the first Sanscrit dental letter ta, is by various persons 

 written in English characters either t or d, the u final is very short, 

 and if a person were to write by ear, he might write Chedi just as pro- 

 Labi y as Sethu : if a Telugu man, he would, I think certainly do so. 

 Hence, the two authorities in the original characters I presume to be 

 perfectly harmonious ; and the difficulties to be experienced by a com- 

 piler from crude translations may receive some passing elucidation. 

 In my copy of the Pandya-rajakal, accurately taken from one so la- 

 belled in the Mackenzie collection, I do not find the particular fact re- 

 ferred to recorded ; but I am apprehensive that this is not the docu- 

 ment referred to by the Professor; a supposition which I prefer to 

 blaming the translation made use of by him. 



The daily aerial visit of the Chola prince to the shrine of Sundar6s- 

 vara, is not recorded in my copy of the Madura Purana. It has in it 



