IV
THE TAMIL CASTES
An examination of the South Indian inscriptions shows that, from time to time, small bands of Brahmans from Northern India were invited by the Tamil kings and made to settle in their countries, Even at that remote period the Dravidians were sufficiently civilized and the Brahmans felt no necessity to bring with them either the Kshatriyas or the Vaisyas. We have neither heard nor read of any extensive in migrations, within historic times, of other races from outside the Tamil country. Of course, we leave out of consideration the handful of ‘Skilled artisans from Magadlia, mechanics from Maratam, smiths froin Avanti and carpenters from Yavana (Ionia or Europe)’[1] who were found in the city
- ↑ "The name 'Yavana' was derived from the Ionians or descendants of Javan, the first Greeks with whom the Hindus became acquainted, and in the ancient Tamil and Sanskrit period denoted the Greeks in general. In subsequent times, when the Greeks were succeeded by the Arabs, it was the Arabs that were denoted by this name; so that in the later Sanskrit of the Vishnu Purana we are to understand by the Yavanas not the Greeks but the Arabs or more widely the inhabitants of both shores of the Persian Gulf, as that work speaks of the national custom of the Yavanas shaving their heads entirely without leaving a lock. The name Sonagan by which these Muhammadans of Arab descent are sometimes called in Tamil, is merely a corruption of the Skt. Yavana or Yavanaka."—See Ind. Ant, for 1876, p. 110.
