Kalangu or the seeds of (guilandina bonduce) were used for counting (iv. 2). They believed in omens and auguries, the withering of leaves in the silkcotton tree being considered an evil foreboding (iv.10). They believed in astrology and in the appearance of eleven suns to dry up the universal deluge (vii.2). Chastity was considered the highest virtue and sign of ‘learning' in women and they believed in the story of செம்மீன் or arundhati. Among the Tamils the ordinary custom was the burial of dead bodies (v. 4). They used to be kept in big pots and buried under Vahni (Prosopis spicigera) trees.
கழிந்தமன்னர் மறைத்ததாழி வன்னிமன்றம்.
Feudalism was prevalent. The Tamil kings and their governors of provinces were constantly at war. Each was bent upon subduing the other and becoming the overlord. Thus, at the battle of Nerivayil near Uraiyur as many as nine Chola princes were defeated by Senguttuvan, the Chera king. A part of the Chera country, called the Puzhi Nadu was conquered and lost alternately by the Cheras and Pandyas. These chiefs had small forts with deep ditches surrounded with forests, one tree among which—like the கடம்பு (Eugenia racemosa) of Nannan and the வேம்பு (Azadirachta indica) of Palayan—was considered sacred to the ruler. This was one of the vestiges of the Australian totemism. In war the first business of an enemy was to cut down such sacred trees and to make war drums out of the wood, to burn the villages, to plunder
