380
TITE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
simply, in order to obtain specimens of the ancient Gujaráti. The oldest pieces in that language are some verses preserved in Ratnasekhara's Praban dhakosha written A.D. 1347, one of which is ascrib ed to a Cháran, belonging to Rājaviradhavala's camp, A.D. 1235. As I hope to give in my catalogue of Jaina manuscripts an account of the most inter esting works bought, I omit here the enumeration of important acquisitions.
[Dec. 6, 1872.
My operations since July have had even more important results than those of last year. I have already acquired several manuscripts, which are fully 600 years old, and have full confidence, that I shall obtain others which exceed that age by 200 years. The more I become acquainted with Gujarát, the more offers of old and valuable books I get, and I trust that Government will see fit to allow the
grant for Sanskrit manuscripts also for next year.
CORRESPONDENCE. • HULLE MUKKALU."
of anything of this sort among the caste. An out
It came officially before me that the goldsmiths of a certain village laid claim to the property of
they could be grafted on to another.
some men of the “Hulle Mukkalu” (old sons) caste
IIassan, 1872.
caste might create a new caste, but I never thought J. S. F. MACKENZIE.
who had died intestate. That one caste should claim
the property of another caste on the grounds that they had performed the burial-service, &c. seemed so strange that I made enquiries. It appears that the “IIulle Mukkalu” is a caste grafted on to the gold smiths. The term “Hulle Maga,” an old son, is now a term of reproach among the Canarese. The following story of the rise of this caste I have had confirmed by different members of the goldsmith caste :-
“About 500 years ago in the kingdom of Gol konda lived a soucar of the Komti merchant caste
who held some high Government appointment but had embezzled large sums of money entrusted to him. This having come to light the king ordered the soucar to be impaled unless he made good the
money. None of his caste people would assist him. In the same village lived the widow of a goldsmith. She had gone to the well to get some water, and on her way back she met the soucar being led out to execution. She asked and was told all the circum stances of the case. The amount embezzled was
about two lakhs of rupees which she offered to pay
provided the soucar would bind himself and his descendants to become the sons of her caste.
On
being formally resigned by his own caste, the soucar received a copper grant which created him the “old son” of the goldsmith caste. This caste is now said to be of 1,000 families: they live by begging and from the realization of the following fees which the Panchalas pay them :-
(1) The pagoda for every goldsmith's workshop. (2) One fanam = 4 an: 8 pie for every black smith's shop.
(3) One fanam for every marriage ceremony. Admissions to the caste which is performed by
granting the neophyte a copy of the grant toge ther with a peculiarly shaped knife are still made. The convert's children become “Hulle Mukkalu.”
It appears that a similar caste is to be found
COROMANDEL COAST.
It is now I believe pretty generally accepted that the first word in the phrase “Coromandel Coast' is derived from the name of a village between Madras and Pulicat called Coromandel, but how it came to be applied to so long a line of sea-board is another matter. The words ‘Kori manal,” known to the merest tyro in Tamil, means ‘black sand, and at this very village there is found the glittering black sand used so much by native clerks instead of blotting paper. My theory is that one of the early explorers landed at this spot and, being ignorant of the lan guage, went about what appears to me a very natural way of solving the difficulty by taking up a handful of this black sand and pointing to it. The answer he would receive would be “Kori manal, which he would take to be the name of the country instead of simply the sand grains in his palm. The mistake has, I conceive, been propagated, and on this supposition we have, what appears to me, a very simple solution of the question. J. B. J.
Palconda, Vizagapatam, March, 17th 1872. HA’SYA/RNAVA.
SIR,-In the Indian Antiquary p. 340, I find an article on Kālidāsa by Pandit Sashageri Sastri, B.A., who cites Hāsyārnava, among the works of Kãlidasa. It is a comparatively modern work of a Bengal Pandit, Jagadissara Tarkalankara. Prof. Wilson gives a short account of this work, in his Theatre of the Hindus, Vol. II., where he says, “It is the work of a Pandit named Jaga dísa, and was represented at the vernal festival.” Hāsyarnava is a prahasana’ or farce in two acts. There is a modern commentary on it by Mahendra Näth, son of Taraka Nāth Tarakavagisha.
both among the Komtis and the Chuklars. I have -
RAM DAs Sz.N.
not however yet had an opportunity of learning anything about them.
I have never read or heard
Berhampur, Bengal, 11th Nov. 1872.
