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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1880.
inscriptions mostly occur, I do not think it probable that so much of the work could have been done in five years. The whole design was never completed, perhaps because it took longer than the reign of the prince who founded it, and I should think that the Great Vimana alone must have been nearer 50 years than five in building.
The epoch of Vira Rajendra Chola A.D. 1064 (to 1079 and later) seems well established, and his identity with the “Koppara-Kesarivarma, also called Udaiyar Sri Rajendra Devar" of the Vaishnava (Tamil) inscriptions at the Seven Pagodas, so that the year 1000 A.D. seems hardly too early for the foundation of this
I temple.
NOTES ON THE TANDU PULAYANS OF TRAVANKORE.
BY REV. W. J. RICHARDS, C. M. S. MISSIONARY, COTTAYAM. The men of the Tandu Pulayans (or Pulayans numerous slaves who are found there at this day. who wear Tanda grass) wear the ordinary lower They are also called Kuri, or Pit Pulayans, from cloth of the kind worn in this country, but the having originated as abovesaid. distinctive name of the tribe comes from the | Their language is Malayalam. They worship the women's dress, which is a very primitive article sun and heavenly bodies, and I have seen among indeed. The leaves of a certain waterplant them a little temple about the size of a large rabare cut into lengths of a foot long, and tied bit hutch in which was a plank for the spirits of round the waist in such a fashion that the their deceased ancestors to come and rest upon. strings unwoven hang in a bushy tail behind, The spirits are also supposed to fish in the and present the same appearance in front, backwaters, and the phosphorescent appearance, reaching nearly to the knees. This-is accounted seen sometimes on the surface of the water, is for by a tradition that in former days a certain taken as an indication of their presence. high caste man of that region had been sowing The food of the Pulayans is fish often cooked grains and planting vegetables in his fields, with arrak and with the liliaceous roots of but found that his daily work was in some un- certain waterplants. known way frustrated; for whatever he plant. When visited about 11-1 o'clock they are ed or sowed in the day was carefully picked found intoxicated, especially the men. up and taken " when men slept." So he set a They live in the Malayalam country, Travanwatch, and one night he saw, coming out of a kore, south of Cochin, between the backwater hole hitherto unknown to him, certain beings like and the sea, and another division of them is men but quite naked, who set to work destroy- found more youth near Aleppey, wbo are called ing his hopes of a crop. Pursuing them, he Kanna Pulayans. These wear rather better and succeeded in catching a man and woman, and more artistically made 'aprons. When a girl of he was so impressed with shame at their con- the Tanda Pulayans puts on this garmentdition, that he gave the man his own upper cloth sign of maturity-for the first time, there is a which was hanging on his shoulder, and made ceremony called the Tanda marriage. The state him put it on, but not having one to spare for of these poor people is virtually that of slavery, the woman, sbe (following Mother Eye's example) though some of them possess property. I should made herself an apron of grass es above de be glad to see in the Antiquary any notes of scribed. These were the progenitors of the similarly dressed natives of India.
NOTE ON A ROCK-CUT INSCRIPTION FROM RIWA. BY DR.A.T. RUDOLF HOERNLE, PHILOLOGICAL SECRETARY, ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL,
The inscription under notice was not long | Taņwas in the Riwa State. Of the locality in ago sent by Mr. M. A. Markham, Collector of which it was found, Mr. Markham gave the Allahabad, to the Asiatic Society of Bengal.' following charming description in a subsequent It had been discovered by him in a cave near communication : "As the name of the place the falls of Keoti Kunda on a tributary of the (Keoti Kunda) implies, there is a pool, into
See the Proceedings of March 1880.
