OF BHARATAVARSA OR INDIA. 
53 
grants. Agastya's residence is said to have been the 
mountain Malayam or Potiyam, not far distant from Cape 
Comorin ; in the firmament he shines as the star Canopus, 
To him is ascribed the civilisation of South -India, in fact 
the most famous ancient Tamil works in nearly every branch 
of science, such as divinity, astronomy, grammar, and medi- 
cine are attributed to him. In consequence he is specially 
called the Tamil sage {^tjSt^ (y^sofl). 
Explanation of the teems Dravida, Tamil 
AND Aravam. 
Sanskrit is called in South-India the jiorthern language or 
mta moli, Qlditl^, while the Dravidian goes by the name 
of the southern language, or ten moli Q^ssr Qlchtl^. Previous 
researches have established the fact that the words Dravida 
and Tamil are identical in meaning, that both resemble each 
other in form, and that Tamil seems to be a derivative from 
Dravida. Yet the origin of the word Dravida has hitherto 
not been explained. Though Dravida is generally restricted 
to denote Tamil : Dravida, Dramida or Dramila is also 
applied to denote ancient Malayalam ; in fact it is properly 
speaking applicable to all the Dravidian languages. The 
word Dramila occurs also in Sanskrit literature. I derive 
I Dramila from Tirumala and explain it to signify the sacred 
I Mala language, as Sanskrit is /car' i^o^yv the refined 
Aryan language. 
It is immaterial to us whether Tim is an original Dra- 
vidian word, or a derivation from the Sanskrit ^rl, prosperity. 
Some of the best Tamil scholars of the past as well as of 
the present day have declared in favour of Urn being a pure 
Dravidian word, and this has all along been my opinion also. 
Tiru was probably in course of time changed to tira or tara, 
then contracted to tra or dra, and finally to fa (da), both 
letters t and d being identical. The Yeda is called in Tamil 
Tiruvdy, the sacred word, and its Tamil adaptation specially 
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