| (1) |
Dr.Caldwell
supposed the names Ch„ra, Ch†la
and Pƒ-diya to have been originally
those of the people under the three Tamil Kings. This was never the
case. |
At
the end of the investigation into the origin of the word Tamil, he says,
“A discussion respecting the origin of the word Tamil would not be complete
without some reference to the names of the three great subdivisions into
which the Tamil people were divided in ancient times Ch„ras,
Ch†˜as, and Pƒ-diyas.”1
| (2) |
He identified the Third Tamil Academy which flourished from the 5th
century B.C. to the 4th century A.D. with the Jaina Sangham of the
9th century A.D. |
He
writes, “The period of the predominance of the Jainas (a predominance
in intellect and learning rarely a predominance in political power) was
the Augustan age of Tamil literature, the period when the Madura College,
a celebrated literary association, appears to have flourished, and when
the Kura˜, the Chintƒma-i,
and the classical vocabularies and grammars were written.2
| (3) |
He
very often mistook a derivative for its original and derived ‘Tamil’
from ‘Dravida’, ‘ulagu’ from ‘loka’, ‘arasu’ from ‘rƒjƒ,
‘tiru’ from šri’ and ‘ƒyiram’
from ‘sahasra’. |
| |
|
| (4)
|
His
estimation of the pre-Aryan civilization of the Dravidians, is too
poor to be accepted, and only serves to detract from his reputation
as an authority on Dravidian philology. It is as follows:
|
“The primitive Dravidians do not appear
to have been by any means a barbarous and degraded people. Whatever may
have been the condition of the forest tribes, it cannot be doubted that
the Dravidians properly so called, had acquired at least the elements
of civilization, prior to the arrival amongst them of the Brahmans.
“From the evidence of the words in use
amongst the early Tamilians, we learn the following items of information.
They had
1.D.C.G.Introduction,p,11
2.Ibid p,84
|