Page:Origin and spread of the Tamils.djvu/54



SPREAD OF TAMIL CULTURE ABROAD 43 Proceeding to examine some aspects of metal culture, it now seems settled on proper chemical analysis that gold used in the Indus Valley was of the superior variety obtainable only in the. Kolar fields of Mysore, and the precious amazon stones found al Mohenjo Daro and Harappa should have been the variety peculiar to the Nilgiris. Add to this the find of a cup at Mohenjo Daro made of a beautiful green stone which may have come from Mysore. This would establish the direct contact South India had with the Indus cities in the chalcolithic period. This same should have been the case with the Sumerian city of Ur where as I mentioned in the first lecture a bead of amazonite of the Nilgiris was dug up from a prediluvian layer. It may also be noted that predynastic Egypt used green felspar. I may also mention the similarity not only in type but also in the workmanship between the tapis cylindrical beads from the Raigir (Hyderabad) megalithic tomb and from Ur of 3500 B.C. So also the triangular barrel beads of quartz from the same place are parallel to the early civilization of Egypt. We have a Cretan specimen of square cylinder dated 1600 B.C. and a hexagonal barrel in quartz in the graves of Ur of 3500 B.C. Did these works of art evolve separately? Do they not suggest an active intercourse from early times between South India and Crete and Babylon? I leave you to judge for yourself. Again, a strong Indian influence is suggested in the case of etched carnelian beads found in Kuala Selingsing, Malaya Federated