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SEPTEMBER, 1895.] EARLY SOVEREIGNS OF TRAVANCORE.
251 - to trust to úrúffu7 is certainly not desirable; to indulge in padaiyani or mock fights, in these days of peace, might be even more culpable; but when the úrá!! and padaiyani are gone for good, the historian will look in vain for equally good and clear evidences of the past history of certain localities.
The damp atmosphere of Travancore is another source of dread. It is fast demolishing and disintegrating sources of information of the highest scientific value possible. A host of historical temples with valuable inscriptions are fast going to rains. Left to the dissolving influences of nature, or worse still, to the tender mercies of Marâmut coolies, the temples of the land, with their many and diverse architectural peculiarities and memorable historical associations and inscriptions, will before long either quietly cease to be, or so atterly change their aspect as to present no meaning to the future inquirer. Our sources of historical information then, both ethnical and epigraphical, seem to be all equally moribund, muttering, as it were with their dying gasp: "Observe now or never!" How important, how helpful, these dying declarations of the past are often found to be, only those who have dealt with them can know, and, if I here venture to catch and interpret some of the still voices of antiquity in the midst of which I live, with a view mainly to awaken general interest in our history, I have no other justification to offer, no other apology to make, than that they might ere long cease to be heard at all.
I propose to begin the study with the royal house of Travancore, and I propose also to confine my attention at present to what light can be secured from public stone inscriptions.
Of all the materials available to the critical student of Indian history, inscriptions, as far as they go, are the very best. It may be possible, indeed, to extract a few scattered grains of historic truth from the old and genuine Puránas, but only those that have made the trial can be aware of the difficulties and doubts with which the process is beset. Even when the genuineness of & Pærána is settled beyond doubt, and its age determined, one ought to have an extraordinary fund of faith, or, as it is called, piety,' to lack a sense of insecurity, as one threads one's way through the endless accounts of dévas and asuras, and discerns here and there a glimmering, and perhaps distorted, view of matters earthly and human. But whatever may be the historical value of the real and old Ashtadasa-Puránas, to follow the Sthala-Mahatmyas as faithful guides would imply an unconditional surrender of all canons of historic criticism. They all profess to be integral portions of the old Eighteen Purúnas; but it is an open secret that their manipulation can scarcely be said to have yet ended. To quote a familiar instance, the late Mr. Minakshisundaram Pillai of Trichinopoly, the last of the Taini! bards, aged to supply Sthala-Purá nas on order; and I know a respected and scholarly physician in Kottayam is to this day engaged in writing a Mahatmya in Sanskrit on his own household deity. But whether old or new, it would be a satisfaction to find in these works of skill even remote references to events historical. For, true to their function, these religious com. positions begin and end with gods, and condescend to chronicle only their miraculous dealings with friends and foes.
Local traditions in some countries may subserve historical purposes, though the logical rule for the rapid deterioration of their testimony has always to be kept in view. But in Southeru India, all legendary lore is of the most mischievously misleading claracter. We cannot travel far, even in Travancore, without constantly coming across hills, valleys, streams, temples,
* Ortuis & village feast generally in honour of the heroine of the Silappadigaram, celebrated as a disinfectant of small-pox, exactly as it was resorted to in the days of that old Tamil epic; vide pago 31, Swaminatha Iyer's edition.
• Means literally battle array. It is a disorderly drunken march-past in torchlight, ofton ending in something worse than sham fights.
. Day labourers in the Government Public Works department. Maramut is a word of Arabic origin used in Travancore to mark off the native Pablio Worka agency from that under European engineers.
