52 ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF THE TAMILS tuft was one of the practices of early Tamils, adopted in Crete and Egypt. Among the customs and amusements which are many, I shall mention one or two. Among the earliest animals domesticated was the cock, the emblem of God Muruga. It was the ensign of the Greek god Apollo. Could Apollo be identified with Kanda ? A South Indian scholar is inclined to this view. The appearance of domesticated fowl in East Africa and Madagascar takes us to the geological time of the submerged continent when the fowl was domesticated. This may have some basis in the Tamil Velan epic.97* Among the amusements, game cock fighting (ParyuGurp) was peculiar to South India. On an amulet seal in Mohenjo Daro are portrayed two jungle fowls in a fighting attitude. From this Mackay says it is possible that with the Indus people game cock fighting was a sport. » The foregoing survey, however rambling it may be, would be in itself an eloquent testimony of the fundamental unity of South Indian culture. Its record down the ages is unbroken. While it has assimilated all the best in alien cultures with which it came into contact, it is still a live force. Its place in the world, ancient, mediaeval or modern, is something unique, something arresting. It civilized the ancient world by its arts and crafts, by its religion and language. It
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The Origin of Indo-European Races and Peoples by V. Chokkaam Pillat, 1938, ta fall of spooglation and of unconvincing theories.
