tageously be sent to the Pulneys. I understand, too, that it is in contemplation to form a Company for the cultivation of coffee on these hills, in which case it is to be hoped that the extension of the growth of chinchona-plants will be advanced by private enterprise, from motives of humanity as well as with a view to successful commercial speculation.5

I did not visit the Anamallay hills, to the south of Coimbatore and westward of the Pulneys, as no planter was as yet established on them, and a considerable time must elapse before they are prepared for the introduction of the chinchonaplant. At the time of my visit no bold clearer of jungles had ventured to invade the domains of the conservators of forests on the Anamallays.

Dr. Cleghorn reports that these hills are under the influence of the south-west monsoon, though not so much so as the Koondahs at Sispara: but I do not find that he gives any detailed account of the amount of moisture in the atmosphere during the winter. The soil is described as deep and covered with rich pasture, streams of water are numerous, there are table-lands 6000 to 7000 feet above the sea, and very fine timber in the ravines. The three hill-tribes, called Kaders, Poliars, and Malsars, trade in cardamoms, turmeric, ginger, honey, wax, resins, soapnuts, and millet. Dr. Cleghorn considers that, from the extent of forest, the resemblance of the flora to that of Ceylon, and the altitude, the Anamallays are suitable for the cultivation of coffee on a large scale, and for colonization of small communities of Englishmen. In this

5 For short accounts of the Pulney hills, see

1. Memoir of the Varagherry Hills, by Capt. B. S. Ward, Madras Journal of Literature and Science, Oct. 1837, vol. vi. p. 280.

2. Observations on the Pulney Mountains, by Dr. Wight, Madras Journal, V. p. 280.

3. Report on the Pulneys, by Lieut.

R. H. Beddome, Madras Journal, 1857.

4. Sir Charles Trevelyan's Official Tour in the South of India. He says, "It is an important fact that, as regards much the largest portion of this tract, there is no claim to the soil which can interfere with the establishment of the most absolute freehold." 6 For a very interesting account of

case they are also adapted for the growth of chinchona-plants, and their introduction, which will of course be simultaneous with the settlement of Europeans, will be the more beneficial because the lower slopes of the Anamallays are the haunts of fevers. The quinine-yielding trees will confer blessings on those whose duties or interests oblige them to frequent the forests of the Anamallays, while their cultivation will be a remunerative speculation to the settlers on the upper plateau.

the Anamallay hills, see Forests and | by Dr. Cleghorn, Conservator of Forests Gardens of South India, p. 289-302, ❘ in the Madras Presidency.

CHAPTER XXV.

MADURA AND TRICHINOPOLY.

Brahmin

Arrive at Madura - Peopling of India -The Dravidian race colonists in Southern India - Foundation of Madura - Pandyan dynasty — Tamil literature Aghastya - Naik dynasty - The Madura Pagoda — The Sangattar - The Choultry - Tirumalla Naik's prejudices-Trichinopoly- Coleroon anicut - Rice cultivation — The palmyra palm-Caroor - Return to the Neilgherries - Shervaroy hills — Courtallum.

THE road from the foot of the Pulney hills to Madura, a distance of upwards of forty miles, is very bad, but it passes through avenues of shady banyan and peepul trees most of the way, and is, therefore, not so wearisome for the natives. on foot, as for a European jolting at the rate of three miles an hour in a bullock-cart without springs.

Near Madura there are tracts of rice cultivation, plantain groves, and topes of palm-trees; and at sunrise I came in sight of the gopurams or towers of the great pagoda, rising above thick groves of palmyra palms, with a foreground of bright green paddy-fields. The city is very interesting from its remarkable palaces and temples, as the capital of a once powerful kingdom, and as the ancient centre of Tamil civilization: and a few words respecting the former history of this part of India appear necessary before describing the pagoda, and other architectural remains of the former greatness of Madura.

Tradition relates that in the most ancient times the country from the mouths of the Godavery to Cape Comorin was one vast forest. Here the great Aryan hero Rama is said to have resided during his exile, with his wife Sita, and here he

commenced his wars against the Rakshasas or fiends, who divided with hermits and sages the possession of the wilderness. The simple truth probably is that these " fiends" were the original inhabitants of Southern India, which was called Dravida Desa, and that Rama was the first Hindu invader. Dravida denotes the country of the Dravidas, who are described in Sanscrit writings as men of an outcast tribe, descended from degraded Kshatriyas.

The history of the early peopling of India, by its various races, is involved in much obscurity; and the little light which has been thrown upon it is chiefly derived from a comparison of languages. The prevailing opinion is that India was originally inhabited by a people whose remains are to be found in the Koles, Sontals, Bheels, and other wild hill tribes; that the Dravidians, a Scythic people, came from the north, settled in Hindustan, and drove the aborigines into the hills and fastnesses; that in their turn the Dravidians were driven across the Vindhya mountains by another Scythic race, and became the ancestors of the present population of Southern India; and that finally the Aryan race, with its Vedic civilization, brought this pre-Aryan Scythic race under subjection, and formed it into the servile Sudra caste.

Thus the Dravidian people of Southern India were of Scythic origin, and they spoke a language from which the four modern ones of the Madras Presidency, Tamil, Telugu, Canarese, and Malayalam,' are derived. These are all grouped as Dravidian languages, and their source is no

Tamil is spoken throughout the Carnatic, in the southern part of Travancore, and north part of Ceylon, by about 10,000,000 souls. Telugu, the first of the Dravidian languages in euphonious sweetness, is spoken in the Ceded districts, Kurnool, part of the Nizam's territory, and part of

Nagpore; Canarese in Canara and Mysore; and Malayalam in Malabar. The whole Dravidian race numbers 30,000,000 souls. The Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam languages have each a system of written characters peculiar to itself: the Canarese letters are borrowed from the Telugu.

2

longer a matter of doubt. It was formerly supposed that they were Aryan, from the great number of apparently IndoGermanic roots; but it is now known, from the structure of their grammar, that they belong to the great Turanian or Scythic group of tongues. Mr. Caldwell considers that the Scythian family to which they are most closely allied is the Finnish or Ugrian; and in this view Professor Max Müller concurs with him.3 The ancient Dravidian religion, before the people were converted to the belief taught in the Puranas, also favours Mr. Caldwell's view. If we may judge from the creed which still lingers in Tinnevelly and other districts, it consisted in the worship of evil spirits by means of bloody sacrifices and frantic dances, while a Supreme Being was acknowledged but not venerated, and there was no trace of worship of the elements. In these respects it closely resembled the Shamanism of the Scythic races of High Asia.

It is tolerably certain that the Dravidian races had attained to some degree of civilization before the Aryans appeared in their country, and, with a system of castes, introduced the worship of Vishnu and Siva. One evidence of the ancient civilization of the Dravidians is that they possessed a system of numerals up to 1000, essentially the same in all the four languages; though in counting above 1000 they make use of Sanscrit numerals. From the existence of these native numerals among the Dravidian nations, Mr. Crawford draws the inference that these people must have attained a considerable measure of civilization before they adopted the Hinduism of the north, and hence stood in no need of foreign numerals.1

2 Caldwell's Comparative Dravidian Grammar. Preface, p. v.

3 Lectures on the Science of Language, p. 341,

4 Adam Smith says that numerals are among the most abstract ideas

which the human mind is capable of forming. See a paper read before the Ethnological Society in Feb. 1862, On the numerals as evidence of the progress of civilization, by Mr. Crawford.