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cause of his debasement, he opposed himself openly to the prejudices and the intolerance of the Brahmans. The mode of vengeance he chose was the exaltation of the Malayalma tongue, declaring it his intention to raise this inferior dialect of the Tamil to an equality with the sacred language of the gods und Rishis. In the prosecution of this purpose he enriched the Malay&lma with the translations I have mentioned, all of which, it is said, he composed while under the immediate influence of intoxication. No original compositions are attributed to him.
This story, though obscured by the mist of fiction with which the Indians contrive to enve. lop every historical fact, shows with sufficient dis- tinctness that the Nambaris have discouraged the cultivation of the Malayalma. Their success in this respect is to be ascribed to the influence which the peculiar institutions of the country give them over the minds of the inferior castes, and to this cause the neglect of Tamil literature during the supremacy of the Chêram kings is in all probability referable, as it could not have been introduced without endangering the existence of the mental tyranny which it was the interest of the Nambaris to maintain.
The Ramdyanam, from which the preceding quotations are made, and which is one of the nu. merous works attributed to Elutt' Achchan, is not translated from Valmiki, but from the Adhydimaka Ramdyanam, attributed to Isvara himself, and said to have been revealed for the entertainment of Parvati. The Vyavahdra Samudram, from which I have taken a single extract, professes, in the commencement of the work, to have been collected from Närada and the other Rishis; but after a short exposition of the legal constitution of courts, of the rules of evi. dence, and of the eighteen titles of law, as usual in other law-books, it is confined exclusively to the local usages of Malayalam, which are often in direct opposition to the Smritis. The language of this work is sometimes entirely pure, and sometimes so intermixed with declined and conjugated terms from the Sanskrit as altogether to lose its native idiom.
NOTES BY DR. BURNELL. Note 4. Mr. Ellis has gone too far in deriving MalayAlam from the Son Tamil; for it is now pretty well certain that the latter is, to a great
extent, an artificial, poetical dialect, though it has preserved some old forms.
Note B.-Mr. Ellis's derivation of these alphabets is not correct, and he afterwards appears to have given it up (see Madr. Jour. vol. XIII. pt. ii. p. 2). For the present state of the question see my Elements of South Indian Palæography (2nd ed.), pp. 33-52. The final forms of R, L, and I are merely the ordinary forms of the letters combined in a peculiar way with virdma.
Note C.-Mr. Ellis's transcription is very irregular and full of uncorrected misprints; as far as was possible, it has been here restored to the orthography as settled by Dr. Gundert and other scholars. In a few instances it has been doubtful what words he intended.
Note D.-The people of Malabar (even in reading Sanskpit) substitute l for t, and for d, in certain cases : e.g. tasmát is pronounced tasmal.
Note E.-It seems that Mr. Ellis was wrong in supposing that the Tamil Mani-praválam compositions are recent; one is quoted in a work of the 11th century A.D.
Note F.-I have never seen, or even heard of, Tamil commentaries on the Vedas.
Note G.-Eluttachchan lived in the 17th century; there is no reason for supposing that he was a Brahman female's illegitimate son; he was certainly an Eluttachchan (or schoolmaster) by caste.
The above dissertation is of remarkable historical interest, for (taken with the essay on Telugu) it proves that before 1816 Mr. Ellis had already foreseen the possibility of comparative philology, not only as regards the so-called Aryan tongues. but also in respect of the Dravidian. Now it was not till 1816 (s0 Brunet says, and I must take his assertion, for I cannot refer to the original) that Bopp published his Conjugations System, which was the beginning of comparative philology in Europe. Ellis could considering the means of intercourse available in those days) hardly have seen or heard of this work at all, for he died early in 1819. He must then, in future, be considered one of the originators of one of the most remarkable advances in science in this century. His unfortunate end-he was poisoned by accidentprevented his doing much, for he was only forty when he died, but he cannot be robbed of his due fame by the success of others more lucky than he was.
CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEA. MODERN AVATARAS OF THE DEITY. Deity. The Hindds are generally ready to acMost readers of the Indian Antiquary must be knowledge that Christ Himself was an Avatdra. aware that the great leaders of religious move. The god supposed to be most addicted to these dements in India are believed by their followers to scents is, of course, Vishnu. be descents (Avatra) of portions (ansa) of the When I was in Gujarat a man named Kuvera
