OF BHARATAVARSA OR INDIA, 
49 
Mala Arayar or Malai Arasar, Malacar, Malayalis, Mala- 
vas (Malvas), Malair (Maler or Paliarias), Mallar, Mara 
(Maras, Mhars, Mahars, Maharas), Maris, Maravar, &c., as 
they are named in different places, are found scattered all 
over the country. 
The word Malla also shows in its various meanings 
all the vicissitudes to which individuals and nations are 
alike exposed. WTien the bearers of the name were prosperous 
in the enjoyment of wealth and power, kings were proud to 
combine the term Malla with their own appellation in order 
to add further splendour to themselves, so that the word 
Mallaka assumed also the meaning of royal, as in the Mrccha- 
katika yet when the wheel of fortune turned and the star 
of the Mallas had sunk beneath the horizon, the former term 
of honour became degraded into a byname of opprobrium 
and was applied to the lowest population, so that Malavadu 
is in modem Telugu the equivalent of Pariah. 
Still the recollection of former splendour is not forgotten 
and is cherished among the Pariahs or Malas. The 
Pariahs or Mahars of the Maratha country claim thus to 
have once been the rulers of Maharastra. And this is not 
improbable, for not only are the Mahars found all over the 
country, but philological evidence is also in their favour. An 
old tradition divides the Dravida and Gauda Brahmans into 
2' See Lassen's Indische Alterthumskunde, vol. I, pp. 433, 434 (364), 
note 1: "Die Malasir {Malliars, Journal of the R.A.S., II, 336) im Waldge- 
birge Malatars, haben keine Brahmanen oder Guru, verekren als ihren 
Gott MaUung einen Stein. Auch die Pariar Malabar's baben in ibren 
Tempeln nur Steine." "Each village (of the Mala Arayar) bas its priest, 
who, when required, calls on the HiU {3Iala), which means the demon resi- 
dent there;" see Native Life in Travancore, by the Rev. S. Mateer, p. 77. 
See note 28. 
Compare such names as Yuddhamalla, Jagadekamalla, Trailokamalla, 
Ahavamalla, Tribbuvanamalla, &c. See about the Malla Era, Archceolo- 
gical Survey of India, vol. VIII, p. 203 ff, and about Mallaka, Wilson's 
Theatre of the Hindus, vol. I, p. 134. 
