No More Learning

VIII, 55.
Rev. Maharajasa rajatirajasa mohatasa Pakurasa. Same
type.
Æ
Obv. Imperfect Greek legend beginning BAEAEYE.
Similar type.
VIII, 56.
Rev. Gk. legend including [ ANABAPOY, Same
type.
Æ
Pacores
Sanabares


## p. 537 (#575) ############################################

CHAPTER XXIV
THE EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTHERN INDIA
I. THE DRAVIDIAN PEOPLES
The great peninsula of India, from the Vindhya mountains south-
ward to Comorin, is the home of the 'Dravidian' peoples. And here at
the outset we are faced by a difficulty of terms.
The word 'Dravidian' comes from an ethnic name Dravida or
Dramida, in Pali Damila, which is apparently identical in origin with
the adjective Tamil ; and thus a title which is strictly applicable only
to a single branch, the Tamils, is extended to a whole family. Again, not
only is the term ‘Dravidian' used sometimes to denote all the members of
the one ethnic family, but it is also often employed to designate all the
cognate languages spoken by that family - the Tamil, Malayālam, Telugu,
Kannada (Kanarese), and various minor dialects-without regard to
the possible differences of race among the groups speaking these tongues ;
and furthermore, by a still more deplorable looseness of terminology,
it has been applied by anthropologists to a group of races characterised
by common physical features, who are chiefly inhabitants of the peninsula,
and for the most part, but by no means entirely, use languages which
are variants of Dravidian speech. Lastly, we must note that an ancient
Tamil tradition speaks of a pañcha-dravidam or five Dravidian regions,
understanding thereby the Tamil, Andhra or Telugu, and Kanarese
countries, the Mahārāshtra or Marāthā provinces, and Gujarāt. The
conclusion which is suggested by a review of all the available data is as
follows.
At some very early date, several millennia before the Christian
era, the greater part of India was inhabited by a dark negroid race of
low culture characterised more or less by the physical features now
known as 'Dravidian. ' This early people however should more properly
be termed pre-Dravidian. In course of time another race, higher in
1 These features are very dark hue ; long head; broad nose ; abundant and
sometimes curly hair ; and dark eyes,
537


## p. 538 (#576) ############################################

538
[CH.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTHERN INDIA
culture and speaking a language of ‘Scythian' affinities, from which are
derived the tongues now known as 'Dravidian,' gradually made its
way from the north or north-west- probably through Baluchistān-into the
plain of the Indus, and thence ultimately passed down into the regions
south of the Vindhya. This race may be called the proto-Dravidian.
Wherever it came, it mixed its blood to a greater or less degree with
that of the earlier inhabitants. From this combination have arisen the
Dravidians of history, who have preserved few traces of the physical
characteristics of the proto-Dravidians, whatever those may have been'.
Most of the pre-Dravidian tribes in the countries south of the Vindhya
adopted the speech of the proto-Dravidians, while they absorbed their
blood, notably in the centre and south of the peninsula, the Tamil,
Kannada, and Telugu regions. In Gujarāt the waves of Āryan immigration
gradually submerged Dravidian blood and speech ; in Mahārāshtra the
same influences obliterated the language, and the same has happened in
Kalinga (now Orissa and part of the Circārs), where a Dravidian language,
the Telugu, survives only in the southern districts.
Long before the beginning of the Christian era the Dravidian South
had developed a considerable culture of its own, and its inhabitants
had consolidated themselves into powerful kingdoms, some of which
cried on a thriving trade with Western Asia, Egypt, and later with the
Greek and Roman empires”. The chief of these were the three Tamil
kingdoms, the Andhras, Kalingas and Mahārāshtra.
II. THE TAMIL KINGDOMS
The Tamils have retained more tenaciously than any of their kindred
the ancient traditions of the proto-Dravidian race. True, they have written
no histories until modern times ; but they have preserved a large number
of ancient poems relating to the exploits and administration of kings and
princes in an age far earlier than the oldest existing literature of their
Dravidian neighbours.
In the earliest time of which we have any record the Tamilagam or
Tamil realm extended over the greater part of the modern Madras Pre-
1 It is possible that the Seythian' features that have been observed among the
Marāthā Brahmans, Kunbis, Coorgs, and Telugus may be survivals of proto-Dravidian
characteristics. For other views see Chapter II, pp. 36 ff.
2 The Tyrians apparently imported tience ivory, apes, and peacocks (Tannil isgai
„Greek TX Ws) as we know from I Kings X, 22 and II Chroronicles IX, 21. Somewhat
later we find India—to a large extent Southern India-exporting pepper (@tzspi,
Tamil pippali), rice (opuld, Tamil ariçi) ginger (Seyyißsols, Tamil inji-ver) and cin-
namon (káprio', Tamil krerupp! ı or kārppi), besides spices, precious stones, coral,
pearls, cloth, muslin, silk, tortoise-shell, etc. See J. Kennedy, The Early Commerce of
India with Babylon, J. R. A. S. , 1898, pp. 241 ff.


## p. 539 (#577) ############################################

XXIV]
THE TAMIL KINGDOMS
539
>
sidency, its boundaries being on the north a line running approximately
from Pulicat on the coast to Venkatagiri (Tirupati), on the east the Bay of
Bengal, on the south Cape Comorin, and on the west the Arabian Sea as
far north as the 'White Rock’ near Badagara, to the south of Mahé.
Malabar was included in it; the Malayālam language had not yet branched
off as a separate tongue from the parent Tamil. It consisted of three
kingdoms, those of the Pāņdyas, Chõļas or Colas, and Chēras or Kēralas.
The Pāņdya kingdom comprised the greater part of the modern Madura
and Tinnevelly Districts, and in the first century also Southern Travancore,
and had its capital originally at Kolkai (on the Tāmbraparni river in
Tinnevelly), and later at Madura. The Chõļa region extended along the
eastern coast, from the river Penner to the Vellār, and on the west reaching
to about the borders of Coorg. Its capital was Uraiyūr (Old Trichinopoly),
and it had a great port at Kāviri-pattinam or Pugār, on the northern bank
of the river Cauvery (Kāveri). Another of its chief towns was Kāñchi,
now Conjeeveram. The Chēra or Kērala territory comprised Travancore,
Cochin, and the Malabar District ; the Kongu-deça (corresponding to the
;
Coimbatore District and the southern part of Salem District), which at one
time was separate from it, was afterwards annexed to it. Its capital was
originally Vañji (now Tiru-karūr, on the Periyār river, near Cochin), and
later Tiru-vañjikkalam (near the mouth of the Periyār). It had important
trading centres on the western coast at Tondi (on the Agalappulai, about
five miles north of Quilāndi), Muchiri (near the mouth of the Periyar),
Palaiyūr (near Chowghāt), and Vaikkarai (close to Kottayam).
The races within these bounds were various. To the oldest stratum of
pre- -Dravidian blood probably belonged the savages termed by the ancient
poets Villavar (bowmen') and Minavar (“fishers'), of whom the former may
possibly be identical with the modern Bhils, while the latter may be des-
cendants in the Minās. Another group is that termed by the poets Nāgas,
a word which in Hindu literature commonly denotes a class of semi-divine
beings, half men and half snakes, but is often applied by Tamil writers to a
warlike race armed with bows and nooses and famous as free-booters.
Several tribes mentioned in early literature are known with more or less
certainty to have belonged to the Nāgas, among them being the Aruvā! ar
(in the Aruvā-nādu and Aruvā-vadatalai around Conjeeveram), Eyinar,
Maravar, Oļiyar, and Paradavar (a fisher tribe). A race of uncertain
affinity was that of the Āyar, who in many respects resembled the Abhīras
of Northern India, and seem to have brought into the south the worship of
the herdsman-god Krishna.
The overlords of the Tamil-agam were the descendants of the proto-
Dravidian invaders, the Tamils in the strict sense of the term. They with
the races subject to them formed the three kingdoms of the Pāņdyas,
>


## p. 540 (#578) ############################################

540
(ca.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTHERN INDIA
Chola3, and Chēras, where the ruling element was the land-tilling class or
Vellalar, at the head of whom were the kings. The Pāņdya king claimed
descent from a tribe styled Mārar, which however had for many years
another important representative in the princes bearing the title Palaiyan
Māran, 'the Ancient Māran,' whose capital was Mõgūr, near the Podiya
Hill, not far from Comorin. The Chöļa kings were alleged to belong to the
tribe of Tiraiyar or “Men of the Sea'; another Tiraiyan dynasty was
reigning at Conjeeveram in the time of Karikāl Chōļa. The Chēra kings in
their turn were said to be of the Vanavar tribe. Lastly we may mention a
tribe called Kõçar, who may possibly belong to the Tamil race. From
the references of the poets to them it would seem that they once made an
unsuccessful attack on Mögūr, and found allies in the Vamba-Moriyar or
'Bastard Mauryas' (possibly a branch of the Konkani Mauryas). At one
time-possibly in the first century A. D. —they seem to have wielded
considerable authority in the Pāndyan regions and Kongu-deça, and to
have given some trouble to the Cholas.
Even in the first century of the Christian era the south seems to have
felt little influence from the Aryan culture of Northern India. Some
Brahman colonies had made their way into the south, and in a few cases
Brahmans had gained there a certain position in literature and religion ;
but on the whole they counted for little in the life of the people, especially
as their teachings were counterbalanced by the influence of the powerful
Buddhist and Jain churches, and Dravidian society was still free from the
yoke of the Brāhman caste-system'. Next to the arivar or sages, the
highest place among the Tamils was held by the land-owning class, after
whom ranked herdsmen, hunters, artisans, soldiers and at the bottom of
the social scale fishers and scavengers. Government under the
supreme control of the kings ; but they were considerably influenced
by the 'Five Great Assemblies,' bodies representative of five classes of
society. Probably there was also some organisation of the provinces for
local administration, as we find in historical times that each shire or
nādu was divided into village communities and its representatives met
in a shire-mote of several hundred men representing the families of
the nādu, which possessed considerable power in the control of local affairs.
Before the first century of the Christian era there are very few
allusions in the literature and historical records of other nations that testi-
1 The tradition that the Brāhman sage Agastya led the first Āryan colony to the
Põdiya Hill and created Tamil literature probably arose in a later age, after Brāhman
influences had gained the ascendant in the south, on the basis of the legends in the
Sanskrit epics.
2 The actual constitution of these dim-berun-gulu is rather uncertain. They are
said to have been composed of ministers, chaplains, generals, commissioners, and secret
agents (e. g. by Adiyārkku-nallār on Çilapp'-adhikāram, v, 157; but see ibid. on III, 126).
9
was


## p. 541 (#579) ############################################

xxiv]
THE TAMIL KINGDOMS
541
fy to the vigorous life of these southern kingdoms. Of the evidence
of their commerce with the west we have already spoken (above, p. 538).
Megasthenes, who visited the court of Chandragupta the Maurya towards
the end of the 4th century B. C. , has left on record some rumours concerning
them, including a legend that Heracles (i. e. the god Çiva) put the south
under the rule of his daughter 'Pandaia. ' The Sanskrit epies mention them
‘'
vaguely, as foreign lands outside their purview, though the legendary
connexion of the Pāņdyan kings of Madura with the Pāņdava heroes of the
Mahābhārata seems to have been acknowledged in the north as early as the
second century B. O. , if any reliance is to be placed on the scholion to Pānini
iv, 1,168. Açoka in his inscriptions speaks of them among the foreign
nations who have accepted the teachings of Buddhism. Lastly, Strabo
(xv, 4, 73) makes mention of an embassy sent to Augustus Caesar about the
year 22 B. c. by a king 'Pandion,' possibly a Pandya of the Tamil country.
Even in the next century the history of the Tamils is sadly obscure. Ancient
Tamil poems and the commentaries upon them, supplemented by meagre
notices in Pliny and other western writers, are almost the only sources of
information, and their data are very uncertain. It seems however fairly
probable that the course of events was as follows.
About the beginning of the Christian era the Chõļa king was Peru-nar-
killi and the Chēra Neduñ-jeral-ādan. They went to war with one another,
and both perished in the same battle. Peru-nar-ki! i was succeeded by his
son Iļañ-jēt-çenni, the latter by his son Karikāl, a vigorous ruler under
whom the Chēļas became the leading power of the south. Karikál
at Veņņil (possibly the modern Koyilvenni, in Tanjore District) defeated an
allied army of Chéras under Ādan I and Pāņdyas, and made a successful
expedition to the north. At home he suppressed the turbulent Āyar,
Aruvāļar, Kurumbar, and Oļiyar, and made his capital at Kāviri-Pattinam
or Pugār, which he secured against floods by raising the banks of the
Cauvery and constructing canals.
After his death the Chola kingdom suffered grievously from rebellion
within and attack from without. The course of events is obscure :
apparently Nedu-muļu-killi, who was reigning some time after him, gained
a victory over the allied Chēras and Pāņdyas by the river Kāri, but
later was reduced to sore straits by a flood which destroyed Kāviri-pattinam
and by an insurrection. He was however released from his difficulties by
the aid of his kinsman the Chēra Çen-guttuvan, the son of Ādan II
by a daughter of Karikāl, who defeated the rebellious Chõlas at Nērivayi
1 The references in the edition of Senart are as follows: Cheras, G. II, XIII, K II,
Kh. II; Cholas, G. II, J. II, K, XIII, Kh. II, XIII; Pāņdyas, G. II, JII. K. XIII, Kh. II,
XIII. The Choļas also appear in the scholion on Pāņini IV, 1. 175 (possibly dating from
the second century B. C. )


## p. 542 (#580) ############################################

512
[Ch.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTHERN INDIA
and restored Nedu-mudu-killi. By Çen-guttuvan the Chēra Kingdom was
raised to the hegemony of the south, and this position it maintained as long
as he lived. The defeat of his successor Çēy (Yanai-kat-çēy) at Talaiy
ālangānam by the Pandya king Neduñ-jeliyan I made the Pandyas
the premier power until the rise of the Pallavas Neduñ-jeliyan II was the
son of Verri-vērçeliyan or I! añ-jeliyan, and grandson of Neduñ-jeliyan
I, who is reputed to have defeated an Aryan army of unknown provenance.
III. THE ANDHRAS OR TELUGTS
The tribe of the Andhras, now known by the name of Telugus? ,
appears early in Sanskrit literature? . But these references are very vague,
and only tell us that the Andhras were a non-Aryan people of some
importance in the north-east of the Deccan. It may be inferred that their
home then, as now, included the modern Telingāna—the provinces along
the eastern coast between the deltas of the rivers Godāvari and Kistna-
together with as much of the Circārs as they could hold against the
rival kingdom of Kalinga on the north. More light is thrown upon
them by the statements recorded by Pliny, H. N. vi, 19 (22), from which it
would appear that some time before the first century A. D. , perhaps
in the age of Chandragupta the Maurya, they formed an independent
kingdom and they possessed 30 fortified towns and an army estimated at
100,000 infantry, 2000 horsemen, and 1000 elephants. Their earliest
capital, according to the current view, was Çri-kākulam (now probably
Sreewacolum on the Kistna some, nineteen miles west from Masulipatam).
Somewhat later we find them with a capital at Dhānya-kataka (Dharanikota
or Amarāvati on the Kistna, in the Guntūr District), and in the first
century A. D. again with the centre of their western provinces at Pratishthāna
(Paithan on the Godāvari, in North-western Hyderabad). How far their
territories in the earlier period stretched westward into Central India and
the Deccan is unknown : their extent probably varied from time to
time. Acoka mentions them in his catalogues of the foreign countries
which, according to him, had espoused his doctrine4; but there is nothing to
show that the Andhras were in any sense subject to him. Soon after his
death however their history entered upon a new phase, on which consider-
able light is thrown by coins, inscriptions, and literature.
1 The word Telugu, Telung', Tenning, is of uncertain derivation. Native scholars
derive it from the Sanskrit trailinga, «belonging to the Trilinga' or land of the Three
Phallic Emblems, a little semetimes given to the Telugu country, or from the Telugu
word tene 'honey. ' It seems more likely to be from ten, ‘south,' and to mean 'southern'
(probably from the standpoint of Kalinga).
2 It is found in the Aitareya Brāhmana (VII, 18) and the epics, and often later.
3 This is however denied by Mr. P. T. Srinivas Iyengar, Ind. Ant. 1913, pp. 276 ff.
4 G. XIII and K. XIII, ed. Senart.


## p. 543 (#581) ############################################

XXIV]
THE ANDHRAS
543
After the death of Açoka the Maurya empire rapidly decayed, and
neighbouring rulers were left free to indulge their ambitions and enlarge
their boundaries. Among these was a certain Simuka, who in the last
quarter of the third century B. C. established the powerful Sātavāhana or
Çātakarņi dynasty, which ruled the Telugu country for nearly five centuries'.
In his reign or in the reign of his immediate successor, his younger brother
Krishņa (vernacularly Kaṇha), the Andhra empire spread westward to at
least 74' long. , and possibly even to the Arabian Sea? . Under these
early Sātavāhana kings the boundaries of the Andhra dominions were
enlarged so as to include a great part, if not the whole, of Vidarbha (Berār,)
the Central Provinces, and Hyderābād. A conflict between this formidable
power and the declining Cunga empire of Magadha was inevitable ; and
about 170 B. C. war broke out between Agnimitra, ruling as viceroy of his
father Pushyamitra at Vidiçā (Bhilsa), and the king of Vidarbha, who at
this period must almost certainly have been a feudatory of the Andhras? .
The campaign against Vidarbha is the only event in the struggle which is
mentioned in literature ; and in this the Çungas were successful. There
can, however, be no doubt that the Andhras were ultimately victorious.
Although no detailed records have been preserved, coins seem to show
that the Andhras were in possession of Ujjain (W. Mālwā) in about the
middle of the second century B. C. , and the inscription bearing the name of
a king Çātakarņi proves that they superseded the Çungas in the kingdom
of Vidicā (E. Mālwā) about a hundred years later (v. sup. 478 ff. ).
But the Cungas and the Andhras were not the only powers which
at this period were contending for the mastery in the region now known as
1 The origin and the meaning of the name of this dynasty are obscure. Usually
the word Çālakarņi is regarded as a patronymic from an assumed Çata-karna,
*Hundred-Ears' which however is found nowhere ; more probably it is connected
with Sāta-rāhana, which means having for emblem the sāta'. One is tempted to
connect them with the Sātiya. putas mentioned by Açoka (inscr. II), the Setae to
whom Pliny alludes directly after his description of the Andhras, and the tribe of the
Sātakas (Epigr. Ind. vol. X, App. no. 1021) or Çātakas (Mārkandeya Purūņa, LVIII,
46). The inscriptions give the following forms of the name : Sātakaại, Satakani, Salakant
Sāta, Sada, and Sati.
If the identification with the Sātiya-putas is right, it would
seem that the Çātakarnis were originally a tribe living outside the borders of the
Andhra country, perhaps on the west of it, who about a generation after Açoka made
themselves masters of the Andhradeça and played in a part like that of the Normans
in England. Mr. V. S. Sukthankar On the Home of the so-called Andhra Kings,
Annals of the Bhandarkar Institute, I, i, pp. 21 ff. ) seeks with much probability to
locate their original home in the Bellary District.
2 This is indicated by the inscription at the Nāsik (no. 1144) and at Nānāghāt, 50
miles north-west of Poona (no. 1114).
3 The poet Kālidāsa in his play Mālavikāgnimitra writing some centuries later,
gives to this king of Vidharbha the name of Yajñasena ; he may be right.


## p. 544 (#582) ############################################

544
[ch.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTHERN INDIA
Central India. The Hāthigumpha inscription shows that, c. 150 B. C. ,
Khāravela, king of Kalinga, appeared in the field as a new combatant.
We find here mention of a Çātakarni, who is supposed to be the successor
of Kộishṇa and the third monarch of the Andhra dynasty; and, according
to the interpretation most commonly accepted of two passages in the
inscription, Khāravela in the second year of his reign sent a large army to
the West 'disregarding Çātakarņi,' and in his fourth year humbled the
Rashtrikas (of the Marāthā districts) and the Bhojakas (of Berar), who
were no doubt subjects of the Andhra suzerain (v. sup. pp. 477-78).
In his twelfth year Khāravela marched into Magadha, and there
seems to have forced its king to sue for peace. Whether that king was
still Pushyamitra, or indeed any member of the Çunga dynasty, is at
present uncertain (p. 484). In any case this humiliation of the once
powerful kingdom of Magadha was doubtless to the advantage of the
Andhras.
The Nānāghāt inscriptions of this period record the names of a king
Çātakarņi, who may be identified with the rival of Khāravela, of his
wife Nāganikå or Nāyaṇikā, and of their young sons Vedi-siri and
Sati Sirimanta ; but it is not clear whether either Vedi-siri or Sati
ever attained to manhood and a thronel. For many years after this
date Andhra history lies in darkness, faintly lighted only by the uncertain
records of the Purāņas. Trustworthy data fail us at this point, and
the Andhras disappear from sight until the period to which the second
volume of this History will be devoted.
IV. THE KALINGAS
The boundaries of Kalingas, the territory under the Eastern Ghāts
lying along the coast of the Bay of Bengal on the north of Telingāna,
seem to have been uncertain. On the north it may at one time have reach-
ed up to the delta of the Ganges, if reliance can be placed on the statements
of Pliny. H. N. VI, 17-18 (21-22), and thus included
included Odra-deça,
now Orissa ; but usually its northern limit was somewhat lower. South of
this it comprised Utkala (Ganjām) and the Northern Circārs down
1 The name Sati was taken by Bühler as equivalent to Sanskrit Cakti, and hence
Sati has been identified with Haku-siri (Ep. Ind. vol. x, App. no. 1117) and Mahābaku-
siri (ib. no. 1141). But there are serious phonetic difficulties. Possibly Sati is the same
person as the prince Sātavāhana of inscr, no. 1118. and the name of Haku-siri may
perhaps be connected with that of Saksena in the Kānheri inscription (Arch. Surrey of
W. India, v, p. 79; cf. Rapson, Andhra Coins, pp. xlvii, lxxv).
2 He speaks of Macocalingae or Mactocalingae as a subdivision of the Brach
manae, ‘of Calingae on coast, and of Modogalingae on an island in the Ganges.


## p. 545 (#583) ############################################

XXIV]
THE KALINGAS
545
9
a
to the basin of the Godāvari, or thereabouts'. Early literature however dis-
tinguishes the Kalingas from the Odras or natives of Orissa. A somewhat
unedifying epic legend (Mbh. I, 104) makes the races of Anga, Vanga,
Kalinga, Pundra and Suhma (v. sup. p. 283) to be descendants of the saint
Dirghatamas by Sudeshṇā, wife of king Bali; and similarly the grammar of
Pāṇini (iv, 1, 170; cf. if, 4, 62, schol. ) groups together Anga, Vanga,
Kalinga, Pundra, etc. The Odras also appear very early in Sanskrit litera-
ture (Taittiriya Aranyaka, 11. 1, ll, and the epics) ; and the law-book
of 'Manu' wrongly classes them, with the natives of Pundra and the
Dravidas, as degraded Kshatriyas (x, 44). How far Kalinga is to be regard-
ed as a Dravidian province is not clear. The name Pertalis, which is given
by Pliny, H. N. vi, 18 (22), as that of the capital of Kalinga, has a Dravidian
sound, and Dravidian etymologies for it readily suggest themselves. At the
present day the Circārs and southern Ganjām are mainly Telugu in
speech, and 'Dravidian' physical features are found in their population, as
well as in Orissa.
The only data of the early history of Kalinga, apart from unenlighten-
ing references in literature, are those that are supplied by the inscriptions of
Açoka and the Hāthigumphā cave in Orissa. The edicts of Açoka (XIII, eà.
Senart) tell us that early in his reign-about 262 s. c. - he conquered
Kalinga and ravaged it pitilessly. The sight of the horrors which he
had brought upon the wretched land caused a revulsion of feeling in
the king, and inclined him towards the Buddhist faith. When after
his death the Maurya empire began to decay, Kalinga asserted its indepen-
dence, and rose again to prosperity. The most important of the
.
Hāthigumphā inscriptions is the record of Khāravela or Bhikshurāja,
to whom reference has already been made (p. 544). . From this we
learn that Khāravela of the Cheta family succeeded to the throne in
the 24th year of his age. He claims to bave had a population of 350,000
men in his capital, and to have increased the power of Kalinga by triumphs
gained over his western and northern neighbours. He seems to have been
a magnificent ruler of liberal tendencies, and styles himself ‘a worshipper of
men of all sects. ' Other inscriptions record the names of the king Vakradeva,
probably his son, and of a prince Vadhukha. For the rest, all is dark.
1 Pliny (ut supra) mentions a cape Calingon, probably Point Godāvari, as being
625 miles from the mouth of the Ganges.
2 The first syllable is most probably per, peru, 'great'; the rest of the word may
be connected with tali, which in Kanarese means 'covert,' 'refuge,' and in Tamil
'temple,' or Tamil talai, 'office of a district official,' or talai, 'head. '
3 Epigr. Indica, vol. X, App, nos. 1347—8,
3
9
а


## p. 546 (#584) ############################################

546
(ch.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTHERN INDIA
V. MAHARASHTRA,
ETC.
On the western side of the peninsula, south of the Vindhya, and
forming approximately the southern half of what is now the Bombay
Presidency, lies a group of provinces, which in ancient times were inhabited
by a population of more or less Dravidian blood, upon which were super-
imposed successive strata of Āryan immigrants entering apparently
from Vidarbha (Berār). The term Dakshiņā-patha, ‘southern region,' whence
comes the modern Deccan, is often applied to the greater part of this
country, but not very accurately, for strictly it denotes only the region
around the upper waters of the Godāvari and the lands between it and the
Kistna, which were also known by the names of Daņdakāranya and
Mahārāshtra, and were the home of the race which in later times became
famous in history under the name of Māhārāshtra or Marāthās. With the
latter were probably connected the tribes of Rattas and Rashtrakūtas who
some centuries later played an important part in the history of the Deccan,
as well as the Rathikas whom Acoka mentions as having accepted his doc-
trine (K. v, Dh. v, ed. Senart). West of the Mahārāshțra lay the realm of
A parānta (the Northern Konkan), with a capital at Çūrpāraka (now
Sopāra), also included by Açoka in his list of believers (K. v, Kh. v, Dh. v,
ed. Senart). The Petenikas, mentioned by him in the same connexion (K.
III, V, XIII, Kh. XIII, G. XIII), have been plausibly identified with
the Paithānikas or natives of Paithan (above, p. 542). Another tribe
to whom he alludes is that of the Sātiya-putas (inscr. II). Possibly they may
represent the region around Mangalore ; but it is at least equally likely that
they were the forefathers of the Sātavāhana dynasty of the Andhra-
deça (above, p. 543). It is recorded in the Mahāvamsa (XII) and Dipavamsa
(vii) that Buddhist missions were sent by Moggali-putta Tissa to
Mahārāshtra, A parānta, Vanavāsa (Banavāsi, in the extreme south of North
Kanara), and Mahisa-maņdala (probably Mabishmant or the country
of the Mahishakas, who in the Purāņas are associated with the Mahārāshțras
and are said to have had a capital Māhishmati on the Narbadā), and
hence it would appear that these regions were fairly civilised ; but no trust-
worthy details of their history in this period have been preserved.
>


## p. 547 (#585) ############################################

CHAPTER XXV
THE EARLY HISTORY OF CEYLON
>
LEGEND and ethnographic observation are the only materials for
constructing the history of Ceylon in the early period previous to the
death of Gautama Buddha (probably B. C. 483). Events from that date
onward are recorded in the official chronicles kept by the Buddhist Church
after its introduction into Ceylon by Mahinda (Mahendra) in 246 B. C. ;
and these chronicles were incorporated in the aſthakathās or canonical
commentaries upon the Pāli Scriptures, and thence into the Pāli histories
known as Dipavamsa, the Chronicle of the Island,' and Mahāvamsa,
the 'Great Chronicie. ' These records, while mainly interested in the
relations of the kings of Ceylon to the Church, and often erring in
important details, are nevertheless on the whole valuable sources of
information, to which however the later histories or Rājāvaliyas, 'Lists of
Kings,' and the inscriptions form an indispensable supplement.
The oldest and purest race in Ceylon is that of the Vāddas, who
inhabit the larger part of the Eastern Province, a small region in
Tamankaduwa, and nearly one-fifth of Uva, but are known to have been
formerly spread over the whole of Uva and a large portion of the Central,
North Central, and North Western Provinces, and no doubt were at
first undisputed masters of the island. Their ethnical affnities are somewhat
uncertain : but there is good reason for classing them with the Kurumbas,
Irulas, and some of the wilder tribes of the main land as pre-Dravidian”.
A few of them still live under the most primitive conditions as homeless
1 In this chapter names and titles usually appear in their Pāli form, and the
following abbreviations are used: Mhv. =Mahāvamsa, Dip. =Dipavamsa, Msr. =Mahā.
sammata-rājāvaliya, R. =Rājāvaliya, Rvp. =Rājāvikrama-pravșițțiya, Vr. =Vijaya-
rājāvaliya, Vry. =Vijayarāja. vamsaya. Dates in these works are given in years of the
era of Buddha (A. B. ) which probably began originally in 483 B. C. After the middle of
the eleventh century A. D. the era of Buddha was reckoned from 544 B. C.
2 Haddon, Races of Man, pp. 7, 13. Here and elsewhere the terms "Dravidian'
and “Āryan' are used with all due reserve.
547


## p. 548 (#586) ############################################

548
[Ch.
THE EARLY HISTORY OF CEYLON
hunters ; others are somewhat more civilised, and practise rude arts of
culture similar to those of the Sinhalese peasantry.
The population of Ceylon however is for the most part a mixed
race. Besides Vāddas, both Dravidians and Aryans bave contributed
to their blood; and in modern times Europeans, Portuguese, Dutch,
and British-and the usual cosmopolitan visitors to their ports have all
added something to the strain. The proportion of Vādda blood in the
stock is uncertain, but probably considerable. To judge from the legends
recorded in Mhv. and Dip. and from the vernacular ballads, it is not
unlikely that in pre-Buddhist times some of the Vāddas had reached a fair
degree of civilisation, mingling on terms of approximate equality with
the Āryan and Dravidian invaders, and by this combination producing
the main stock of the Sinbalese race. The relative proportion of Aryan
and Dravidian blood is likewise uncertain. The stream of immigration
from the Dravidian regions of India, especially the Tamil country, has
been constant since the dawn of history, sometimes proceeding in drops,
sometimes in great waves, and at the present day the northern part of
the island is mainly Tamil ; but the Sinhalese language, though marked
by traces of Dravidian influence, is Āryan, and is descended from a
Sanskritic tongue closely akin to the Vedict. This fact, and certain data
of legend to which we shall recur in the succeeding paragraph, suggest
that at some early date an invading band of Aryans, conquering part
or the whole of Ceylon, imposed its language and perhaps something
of its culture and institutions upon the mixed Vādda-Dravidian population
which it found there, and then gradually became fused in the racial
congeries of the island.
Sinhalese tradition also relates that the Nāgas, or semi-divine
snake-men of Hindu myth, once dwelt in Ceylon, and gives details of
their wars, which are said to have been settled by the intervention of
Gautama Buddha. These Nāgas belong to the realm of fiction ; but as
traditions record that they drove out the earlier inhabitants from the North
and West, and it is a fact that the name Nāgadipa, Nāgas' Island,' long
clung in early times to these regions down to the neighbourhood of Mada-
wachchiya, it is possible that in these legends there may lie some faint
shadows of historical reality.
The Mhv. (VI, VIII) and Dip. (1x), with which a number of late
histories and popular ballads agree more or less, tell a singular story.
According to them, a daughter of a King of Vanga (Bengal) and a princess of
Kalinga (Orissa) was carried away by a lion, who begot on her a son, Sihabahu
("Lion-Arm'), and a daughter, Sihasivali (in Sinh, ballads Simbavalli).
After slaying his father, Sihabāhu reigned at Sihapura, 'Lion's Town,'
1 Even the Vaddas now use a dialect of Sinhalese. Only the Tamils who have
settled in Ceylon in comparatively modern times speak Tamil.


## p. 549 (#587) ############################################

xxv]
VIJAYA AND HIS SUCCESSORS
549
in Lāļa (Lāta, i. e. , Gujarāt)'. His son Vijaya, banished for his lawlessness,
departed from Sihapura with a band of adventurers and sailed southward.
After stopping at Suppāraka (Çūrpāraka, the modern Sopāra, in the
Thāna District, Bombay Presidency), he continued his voyage to Ceylon,
where he arrived very shortly before the death of Gautama Buddba,
who in a prophetic vision learned of his coming and commended him
to the care of the god Sakka (Çakra, or Indra). He found the island
in the possession of yakkhas, or fairies. Having overcome the wiles of
the Yakkha princess Kuvaņņā (in Sinh. Kuveni), he took her to wife,
and drove away her kinsmen. When he had established himself, he
repudiated her and his children by her--who became the ancestors of
the Pulinda tribes of the interior-in order to marry a daughter of the
Pāņdyan king of Madura, and reigned for 38 years (C. 483-435 B. c. ) with
much righteousness in the town of Tambapaņņi, which he had founded.
Anurādha pura, Upatissagāma, Vijitagāma, Uruvelā, and Ujjeni were
founded by his followers.
This tale seems to contain the following nucleus of fact. There
were apparently two streams of immigration celebrated in the earliest
legends'. The first, which probably was mainly Dravidian, came from Orissa
and perhaps southern Bengal : the second, mainly Āryan, started from
Sihapura in Lāța (possibly the modern Sihor, in Kāthiāwar) and Sopāra.
The latter band belonged to the Simhalas (Sihalas) or 'Lion-tribe,' and
it was probably they who imposed their Āryan tongue on Ceylon (v. sup.
p. 548). At any rate, they gave to their new home the name of
Simhaladvīpa (in Pāli Sihaladipa), whence are derived its later titles, the
Arabic Sarandib, the Portuguese Ceilão, and our Ceylons. Popular imagina-
tion combined the two movements by giving the eponymous Sīhabāhu-
a home on both sides of India and so the legend shaped itself into its
classical form. The Lion Kuvaņņā, and the Yakkhas are pure fiction. ?
9
1 The Mhv. VI, 4 seems to locate Lāļa in Magadha ; this may be due to a crude
recollection of the extent of the early Gupta empire.
2 Buddhist legend relates that the Buddha thrice visited Ceylon, and that after ubis
death his collar bone was brought thither to be enshrined in the Mahiyang na
(Miyuguna) Thūpa ; see Mhv I.
3 The same conclusion is suggested by the legends of the coming of the gods-
e. g. of Oddisa from Orissa and the Devol Deviyo from Debal in Sind.
4 See the Indian Antiquary, vol. XVI. pp.