Page:Origin and spread of the Tamils.djvu/42



SPREAD OF TAMIL CULTURE ABROAD 31 and Mesopotamia both by sea and land. All the early voyages were done hugging the coast.' The ancient Dravidians of South India were adventurers of courage and skill. They seem to have spread all over India through the Dakşiņāpatha route. They could have gone to Sind by sea. The motive for their adventure does not seem to have been conquest but commercial. Their articles were in great demand in the then known world and these were taken to various parts of the globe. In important towns these people seem to have settled and imposed their language and culture. One route was to cross the Arabian Sea to Egypt en route to Asia Minor or the Mediterranean. Yet another route was up the Persian Gulf to ancient Sumeria. The tradition to which Berosus has referred, viz., Oannes or Man Fish swam up the Persian Gulf bringing with him arts of civilization is an important plank in our thesis of a sea-route to ancient Sumer from India, India being the home of civilization. We can also visualize caravans frequently entering and departing from India laden not only with commodities in daily demand but also with articles of luxury and of vertu through Persia to Sumeria. Coming nearer to a date when we can claim to have history, in the tenth century B.C. the international mart was Saba, the Biblical Sheba in the southwest corner of Arabia. Here were landed goods by the Indian merchants and here the Egyptians and Phoenicians' met them and exchanged their articles for the Indian ones. It appears the Sabaean traders acted