the gradual reception into orthodox religion of the phallus cult and mother-goddesses, and the shift from abstract symbolism to anthropomorphic iconography in the period of theistic and bhakti development, mark a final victory of the conquered over the conquerors. In particular, the popular, Dravidian element, must have played the major part in all that concerns the development and office of image-worship, that is, of pūjā as distinct from yajña.2 To the Dravidians are probably due the forms of architecture based on bamboo construction; the architecture of the Toda hut has been cited as a prototype, or at any rate a near analogue, of the early barrel-vaulted caitya-hall and the horse-shoe arch.3 Curved roofs, common in India, are rare in the rest of the world. The stone slab construction of many early temples is likewise of Dravidian (dolmen) origin. Early maritime trade and all that has to do with fishing must be Dravidian. The chank or conch industry is a case in point; the use of chank bangles, and of the conch as a trumpet in ritual and war must have been borrowed from Dravidian sources before the epic period. 4 The early history of the Dravidians in the Dekkhan and Southern India is obscure. It is fairly evident that in these areas Dravidian culture had already attained a high level, economic, martial, and literary, in centuries preceding the Christian era. Already in the third century B.C. the great Āndhra empire stretched across the Dekkhan from east to west.5 In the far south a powerful and prosperous Pāṇḍyan kingdom flourished before the beginning of the Christian era, with a capital at Korkai. The first three centuries of the Christian era represent an Augustan period in the history of Tamil culture, and there is sufficient literary evidence for a high state of development of poetry, music drama, sculpture and painting. At the same time there had grown up a flourishing trade with Rome on the one hand, and with Farther India and Indonesia on the other, the principal articles of export being pepper, cinnamon, pearls and beryl.6 A brief reference must be made to the prehistoric Indian antiquities which cannot be exactly placed or dated. Eoliths have been found in India and Ceylon, and paleoliths are widely distributed. Remains ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2 For the theory of northern and southern races see Strzygowski, Altai-Iran, etc. In India, Marshall, II; and Kramrisch, pp. 79-87. 3Simpson, 3. But I cannot regard the "Indo- Āryan." śikhara as directly derived from a primitive type of bamboo construction: it is a later development, produced by the reduplication of vertically compressed storeys. 4 Hornell, I. 5 Smith, 4, p. 217; Jouveau-Dubreuil, 6; Bhandarkar, Sir R. G., Early History of the Dekkhan. 6 Smith, 4, Ch. XVI; Aiyangar, M. D., Tamil Studies, Madras, 1914; Kana-kasabhai. |