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August, 1873.]
TUMULI IN THE SALEM DISTRICT.
227
But the Aryans never conquered the south About this time, then, I am inclined to place the by force: hence they neither denationalized the total disappearance of the ancient customs of people nor changed their languages. They the pre-Aryan Dravidians, and, of course, the conquered the south, however, by the influ- custom of burying in cairns and cromlechs. ence of higher civilization and superior know- In remote and isolated places where Brahmanical ledge. Aryan civilization was probably intro- influence did not freely penetrate, the ancient duced into the Dakhan about the sixth or seventh custom of burying in tumuli probably continued century B.C. In the time of Rama, it is stat- till a very late period. In the tumuli found ed in the Rámáyana, that during his expedition on the Nilgiri Hills there are rude sculptures to the south he met holy Rishis here and there and inscriptions both in Tamil and Kanarese. among the savages, by which it is supposed According to Dr. Caldwell, the eighth or ninth that he met Aryan Missionaries from the north, century A.D. is the earliest date to which dwelling among the aboriginal inhabitants of any extant Tamil composition can be safely the south. About the commencement of the attributed. The Tamil letters used in those Christian era, Aryan influence had spread ex- inscriptions are not of the oldest type, but the tensively in the south. The Pandya kingdom more modern. Judging from a specimen I saw of Madura, which was established on Aryan in the corner of a photograph, I should conclude principles, was then well known even in Europe. that they differ but little from the characters It is reasonable, then, to suppose that before now in use. Photographs of the whole inscripsuch influence the religion and primitive cus- tions, I hear, have been sent to Germany to toms of the aboriginal inhabitants would sooner be deciphered, and I doubt not that when or later disappear. Then it must be remem- published and translated, it will be found that bered that during the following thirteen cen- they cannot be much earlier than the fifteenth or turies there were other influences at work more sixteenth century A.D. aggressive for a time than Brahmanism, and To sum up, then, I conclude that the tumuli which must have stimulated the Brahmans were the burial-places of the non-Aryan greatly, not only to maintain, but to extend aboriginal inhabitants of the south, who are their own influence. Buddhism became the now represented by the Dravidians, and who, national religion of the north by public edicts like the pre-Aryan inhabitants of the north, in the time of Asoka, about 250 B.c. Buddhist are proved by their language to have belonged Missionaries came to the south probably before to the same branch of the human family as the that time, and it seems pretty evident that up Turanians; that their ancient customs and to the seventh century A.D. Buddhism gained religion disappeared before the combined inconsiderable influence in the south. The Bud- fluence of Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Jainism, dhists burnt their dead, like the Brahmans. precisely in the same way as the ancient customs Then from the sixth or seventh to the twelfth of the Teutons, Celts, Lating, and Slavs disapcentury A.D. Jainism made wonderful progress, peared in Europe before the influence of Chrisand seems to have been the predominant religion tianity, or the ancient customs of the Skythians at one time. The Jains also practised crema of Central Asia disappeared before the influence tion, like the Brahmans and Buddhists. In the of Muhammadanism. If this theory be correct, twelfth century there was a reaction against I do not think that any tumuli in the plains of Jainism and in favour of Brahmanism. The India are later than the thirtswath century A. D., Jains were finally expelled from the Påndya and on the Nilgiri Hills proba!y none are later kingdom, and the Brahmana firmly established than the fifteenth or sixteenth century A.D. their influence, which has continued down to The natives know nothing abont the tumali, the present day.
and according to Dr. Caldwell there is no Under the influence of the rival reformers tradition respecting them either in Sanskrit Sankaracharya and Råmannjya Acharya, the literature or in that of the Dravidian languages. whole of the inhabitants of the sonth became “The Tamil people call them Pándu-kuris. gradually absorbed in Saivaism and Vaishnavism. kuri' means a pit or grave, and Panda
• But the Buddhista buried the ashes and relics in tombs.-ED.
der
