‘kings’, who dwelt in ‘strong houses’, and ruled over small ‘districts of country’. They had ‘minstrels’, who recited ‘songs’ at ‘festivals’, and they seem to have had alphabetical ‘characters’ written with a style on palmyra leaves. A bundle of those leaves was called ‘a book’; they acknowledged the existence of God, whom they styled ‘k†’, or king - a realistic title little known to orthodox Hinduism. They erected to dishonour a ‘temple’, which they called K†-il, God's -house. They had ‘laws’ and ‘customs’, but no ‘lawyers’ or judges. Marriage existed among them. They were acquainted with the ordinary metals, with the exception of ‘tin’, ‘lead’, and ‘zinc’, with the planets, which were ordinarily known to the ancients with the exception of ‘Mercury’ and ‘Saturn.’ They had ‘medicines’, ‘hamlets’ and ‘towns’, ‘canoes’, ‘boats’, and even ‘ships’ (small ‘decked’ coasting vessels), no acquaintance with any people beyond sea, except in Ceylon, which was then, perhaps accessible on foot at low water; and word expressive of the geographical idea of ‘island’ or ‘continent’. They were well acquainted with agriculture, and delighted in ‘war’:They were armed with ‘bows’ and ‘arrows’ with ‘spears’ and ‘swords’. All the ordinary or necessary arts of life, including ‘spinning’, ‘weaving’ and ‘dyeing’ existed amongst them. They excelled in ‘pottery’, as their places of sepulture show”.¹

      This is only an abridgement of the original given in the second edition of Dr.Caldwell's Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian Languages. The original is still more derogatory. The most disparaging statement is, that the Tamilians had no acquaintance with any people beyond sea. Tolkƒppiyam, a grammar of the 7th century B.C refers to the sea-borne trade of the ancient Tamilians. Silappadikƒram refers to a Pƒ-diyan king of the Lemurian country, who took a naval expedition against the island of Sƒli (whose name was later translated into Sanskrit as Java), conquered it and set his lapidary footmarks on its sea-shore, so that the sea-waves may wash them perpetually, which act of insolence is said to have enraged the humiliated Pacific Ocean and brought about the submergence of the original Pandiyan