Page:Origin and spread of the Tamils.djvu/55



44 ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF THE TAMILS States, as due to trade even in the 9th or 10th century A.D. Gold diadems being long, thin, oval gold plates found in the urns at Adicchanallur point to the custom of binding them round the heads of the dead. Still this practice of பட்டயம் கட்டரது (Pattayam Kattaradu) is seen in some communities in Madura. It is surprising that exactly the same shaped diadems on gold were discovered at Mycenae (Ar. S. L. A. R. 1902-3, p. 120)." Add to this the gold necklaces and girdle of the 17th dynasty of Egypt found in a burial and regarded as foreign jewellery. A similar claim is made for the Indian origin of the musical bow. Anklets were worn as still worn by our girls and even some elderly ladies in South India. From some clay figurines and a little bronze statue in Mohenjo Daro, we find anklets used in the Indus cities. What is really interesting is that the same pattern of anklet appears on a figure in a fresco at Knossos in Crete. And the great epic Silappadikaram centres round an anklet. A key to formulate a reliable chronology of early South Indian connections with Mesopotamia ® is furnished by the excavations at the Sumerian sites, especially Kish and Susa dating from the 5th to the 3rd millennium B.C. The fact is that they have revealed the existence of Indian products. Some of the interesting things are: (1) Funerary pottery. (2) Oblong short-legged terra cotta sacrophagi.