Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 2.djvu/32

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24 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [January, 1873. is no shade to stand unde*. The road to the north is not to he taken (v. 4). With your dish of great millet you hare many varieties of split pulse and the milk of well-fed buffaloes. Look at the riches of the middle country I* (v. 5.) With your dish of Panicum you have suitable split pulse and a lump of butter as big as a sling-stone. Look at the means of the middle country !* * § (v. 6.) You hare your cakes of wheaten flour and the milk of the lusty buffaloes, and enjoy the love of a modest female. I have not seen the like (v. 7). May cake-dust (that does not satiate) fall into the mouth of him who says that the country, wherein Bengal gram and wheat are sown and grown, should be burnt I (v. 8.) The forest (of the west) is full of immature fruits ; the country is full of huge trees ; pro¬ mises are not kept. I have had quite enough of the Hill country (malanadu, v. 9). The climate is damp ; bellies are swollen ; ah, why should one go to a country where sinners stir and eat (their food) 'with wood (ladles—v. 10) ? There are green ginger and turmeric ; there are jag¬ gary and betel; there are good jack-fruits to eat. Can one declare the Hill country to be a good one ? (v. 11.) There is rice water, there is mud, there are hot dwellings, there are wives that are gratifying. Oh, look at the relieving features of the Hill country ! (v. 12.) (But) in this (southern)direction Asuras have been born as men ; Da£a£ira’s (Havana’s) enemy has given them their name and rejected the re¬ gion of the Tiyulast (i. e. Tamulians) (v. IS). There are the Kajakfi^a poison, and such malice as you might experience if you trusted a scor¬ pion. I have had quite enough of the wind of the Tigu/as, who are like mean dogs that bark in a deserted village (v. 14). Better than a friend of the Tigu/as is a barking bitch ; better than the shadow of the Magu]i treej is the alli¬ gator of swallowing habits (v. 15). How shall I tell the self-conceit of the country where reasoning § has been bom ! Sankara’s | worship (pftja) is practised excessively in the south (v.16). In the east is passion (raga), in the north abstract contemplation (yoga), and mere sick¬ ness (roga) in the west; the south is the resi¬ dence of sensual pleasure (bhoga, v. 17). In the east people have no proper waists (or perhaps II clothes”), in the north they have no proper words, in the west they are greatly given to anger, in the south they are pompons (v. 18). The east is for whoremasters (vi^a), the north for jesters (vidfishaka), the west for villainous catamites (pithamardaka), and the south for very smart fellows (nagarika, v. 19). The east is for Has- tinis, the north for Chitrinis, the west for 6an- khinis, and the south for PadminisT (v. 20). NOTES CONCERNING THE NUMERALS OF THE ANCIENT DRAVIDIANS. Br Rkv. f. kittel, merkara. Of the mental faculties of the ancient Dravi- dians their Numerals bear some witness. From them we learn that when apparently still free from all Aryan influence, they contrived to count up to a hundred. The earliest state of their herds and flocks, and of their^ bartering, did not make it necessary to go higher. In the same way, not before the tribes that at present form the Aryas of the West had left their brethren, the later Zoroastrians and Brahmanas, &c.} did these feel the necessity of the number “ sahasra.” This sahasra was, in course of time, borrowed from them by the Dravidians, and was also incorporated by them into their own lan-

  • Literally, country of growth (be/avalu).

f Tigu/a means “ a person of abuse." j The Maguli tree of the t^t is probably the Tamil Magi/, Maguda, Magila = Mimtuops Elengi. § Our manuscript has sank he, which is a corruption (eitherof sanke, doubt, or) of sankhye, reasoning, or •of s&nkhye, the system of philosophy. || S'ankara is either S'iva or the Vedintist S'ankara (S'an- kar&chirya). gunge, wherein it bears the forms s & 8 i r a, s a 8 i r, Bavira, fiyira. As we have seen, the early Dravidians were not behind the body of the Aryas in count¬ ing. To show their way of thinking in produc¬ ing the numerals, we give the numerals up to ten, together with the nearest words indicative of their meaning. The longer forms stand by themselves, the shorter are used only as the first members of compounds (compare Gondi Nu¬ merals in the Indian Antiquary, p. 129). 1. ondu, onru (pronounce : ondu), o fi j i, or, or, o m, on. ondu, ottu, to be undivided, be one. A unit without a branch.** <| ‘The Hindus say there are four classes of women— Padminis, Ha»t i$, ChitranU, and tfanikinU, of which the first is the most perfect.'—Forbes’ Has Mala, voL I., p. 60. —Ed. ♦* When the affix d a is Joined to a short monosyllabic root with final r, the root in this case being o r, this liquid is sometimes changed into the Bindo. Observe d a has become ji (in Tola), for which peculiarity compare No. 5.