பக்கம் எண் :


202READINGS IN TAMIL CULTURE

the earliest commercial expeditions that went abroad from the shores of India, when they successfully sold to the bewildered natives of Mesopotamia one crow and one peacock for a hundred pieces of silver and gold respectively.4 The Dravidian origin of a number of words corresponding to articles of export clearly shows that they were exported by Dravidian merchants. "Apart from the existence of teak in the ruins of Mugheir Ur," says Prof. Sayce, "an ancient Babylonian list of clothing mentions sindhu or "muslin," the śadin of the Old Testament, the sindon of the Greeks."5 Similarly the Tamil arisi, "rice" had become the Greek orydsa, mentioned by Theophrastus and Arrian.6 Monkeys are also mentioned in the Bible as kophim, a word which is akin to the Egyptian gofe and to the Greek kebos or kepos. The Egyptian word was by some supposed to come from the Sanskrit kapi, though others refuse-to accept this derivation owing to the fact that the Egyptian word is older than the Sanskrit. It is now acknowledged however that the Sanskrit word comes from the Dravidian kapi, which is much older.7 No other is the origin of the biblical tukkim, "peacocks," which may be connected with the Greek taos, "peacock," both deriving from the Dravidian toka or tokai8. It is also admitted that the Egyptian eb, "elephant," and the Greek el-ephas come from the Dravidian ipa9

Further, the system of local administration now prevalent in the country is considered to be of Dravidian origin. Hewitt speaks of the six groups of five men who were ruling the cities, also mentioned by Strabo10 and in the Mahābhārata,11 whose remnants are still found in the modern Panchāñyats, as of Dravidian origin12 Such also is the wonderful institution of the village communities.13

In general, "the culture of India," says Hall, "is pre-Aryan in

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4The Jātaka (Trans.), Ill, pp. 83-84. It is possible that this is a traditional record of the first expedition of the Proto-Indians to Mesopotamia. The fact that they had taken a crow with them may suggest that they were going to unknown seas. Cf. Heras, "The Crow' of Noe", Catholic Biblical Quartely, X, pp. 131-139.

5Sayce, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, pp. 137-138.

6 Hewitt, op. cit, p. 205.

7 Hagen, Lexicon Biblicum, III, word "simiæ."

8 Ibid,, word "pavus."

9Ibid., II, word "elephantus"; Gnana Prakasar, Etymological Comparative Lexicon of the Tamil Language, word "ipam."

10 Strabo, XV, 51. Cf. McCrindle, Ancient India, p. 54.

11Mahābhārata, Sabhā Parva, 135-263.

12 Hewitt, op. cit. p. 202. Of. Altekar, A History of Village Communities in Western India p. 134; Heras, "Two Proto-Indian Inscriptions from Chañhu-Daro", p. 318; Kosambi, "The village Community in the 'Old Conquests of Goa'", Journal of the University of Bombay, XV, pp. 63-74.

13 Altekar, op. cit., p. 135.