Page:Tamil studies.djvu/50

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE TAMIL PEOPLE
25

this theory the Dravidians had lived somewhere on the plateau of Central Asia along with the Mongolians before they entered India by the North-eastern passes from Tibet or Nepal, or by the way of Assam and the Tennaserim provinces. This theory has been very strongly supported by Mr. Kanakasabhai in his Tamils Eighteen Hundred years ago. According to him the aboriginal inhabitants of Southern India were the Villavas and Minavas. They were conquered by a highly civilised race called the Nagas who hailed from Central Asia. They were very good weavers and from them the Aryans learnt their alphabet which thenceforth was known as Dêva-Nâgari. He is of opinion that the Maravas, Eyinas, Oliyas, Oviyas, Aruvâlas and the Paratavas mentioned in the Tamil works of the academic period belonged to the above Naga race, and that they had always been hostile to the Dravidian Tamils. Subsequently, these Nagas were in their turn conquered by a Mongolian race called the Tamralittis or the Tamils who had migrated from the Tibetan plateau. They came to the south of India along the east coast in four bands the earliest of whom he considers to be the Mârar who founded the Pandya kingdom. The second were the Thirayar tribe of the Cholas and the third the Vânavar, a mountainous tribe from Bengal, who were the ancestors of the Chera kings ; and the fourth and last, the Kôsar tribe of the Kongu country, In this way he accounts for the origin of the four ancient Tamil kingdoms.