that either the cocoanut might have been omitted to be mentioned by an oversight, or might not have been an article of export. In Southern India it was certainly valued and much used by the Tamils for drink and food during the first century A. D.
தெங்கி னிளநீ ருதிர்க்கும் வளமிகுநன்னாடு.-Pur.
At any rate this argument is not strong enough to support the theory of the migration of such a numerous caste from the tiny island of Ceylon. It is also contrary to the general law of migration from the north to south India during the historic times.
The argument from the Tamil name of the cocoanut palm is more imaginary than real. The word tengu found in the Dravidian languages, as tenkaya in Telugu and tengina in Canarese, is derived from the root tem or ten which means 'honey' or 'sweetness.' Tengu is the sweet or honey tree and not the southern tree as some philologists would have us believe. And ten-disai is the sweet direction where Tamil or the 'sweet tongue is spoken. This direction is called in Tamil ten with reference to the habitat of the Tamilians, just as mel (merku) and kil (kilakku) denote 'west and east' with reference to the lofty mountains of their country. Since ten (r) ku and tengu are derivatives of the same root ten, it is not right to say that tengu (cocoa nut) is derived from terku and call it par excellence the 'southern tree', a sif there had been no cocoanut trees in India before the introduction of that useful palm from Ceylon by the Tiyans.
What then is the etymology of the terms Izham, Izhavan and Tiyan. 'Izham' means the land of Kubera or the Indian god of gold (Izham) for which the island of
