to the enjoyment of the eternal ānanda of immortal life unconditioned by time and space. The early Tamil poets were of the earth, earthy; they revelled in concrete images of the actualities of life as men know it: the post-Vedic Āryas were for ever forging abstract ideas which escape, like cotton wool, the grip of earthly minds, but are glorious realities only to those who have gone to the world where the sun and the moon shine not, not even the twinkling stars. The Tamil temperament was optimistic, whereas the Ārya temperament was pessimistic with regard to the seen world. The Tamils of those days were not divided into rigid castes, but the Āryas were divided into four varṇas. The conventions of early Tamil poetry were utterly different from those of Sanskrit poetry. So the bulk of the Tamil and the Southern Āryas lived their separate lives without affecting each other's culture. Much of the early Tamil poetry is lost but enough remains to prove that for some time even after the beginning of the Christian era, there was absolutely no intrusion of Sanskrit culture into the minds of Tamil poets.

V. The Marriage Ceremony

The reading is from P. T. SRINIVASA AIYANGAR, History of the Tamils from the earliest times to 600 A.D., Madras, 1929, pages 78 to 80.

THE ANCIENT CEREMONY of marriage which obtained among the Tamils before it was altered by the Aryans is described in two odes of the anthology called the Agam. Thus it is said : "There was a huge heap of rice cooked with pulse (even after many guests had been fed). On the floor of a pandal built on long rows of wooden columns was spread freshly brought sand. House lamps were lighted. The bride and the bridegroom were adorned with flower-garlands. In the beautiful morning of the day of the bent, bright moon, when the stars shed no evil influence, some women carrying pots on the head, others bearing new, broad bowls, handed them one after another while fair elderly dames were making much noise. Mothers of sons, with bellies marked with beauty-spots, wearing beautiful ornaments, poured water on the bride, so that her black hair shone bright with cool petals of flowers and rice-grains (which had been mixed with the water), and at the same time they blessed her, saying 'do not swerve from the path of chastity, be serviceable in various ways to your husband who loves you and live with him as his wife'. On the night after the marriage ceremony was over, the neighbouring ladies assembled, (dressed the bride in new clothes)