CHAPTER XXV.
MADURA AND TRICHINOPOLY.
Arrive at Madura—Peopling of India—The Dravidian race—Brahmin colonists in Southern India—Foundation of Madura—Pandyan dynasty—Tamil literature—Aghastya—Naik dynasty—The Madura Pagoda—The Sangattar—The Choultry—Tirumalla Naik's palace—Caste 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,[438] are derived. These are all grouped as Dravidian languages, and their source is no longer a matter of doubt. It was formerly supposed that they were Aryan, from the great number of apparently Indo-Germanic 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;[439] and in this view Professor Max Müller concurs with him.[440] 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.[441]