Page:Origin and spread of the Tamils.djvu/79



68 ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF THE TAMILS same statement is made in the Mahabharata ; and in the two lists of degraded Ksatriyas therein given, the Drāvidas are the only South Indian tribe mentioned. It must be concluded, therefore, that the term is generally used, seeing that the more specific names of Pāņdyas, Colas, etc., had become well known in Northern India by that time. Doubtless, it is in the same sense that Satyavrata, the Indian Noah, is called in the Bhagavata. Purana 'the lord of Dravida' (Muir's Sanskrit Texls, Vol. I) 23. See Dikshitar V.R.R., on "What is Tamil Culture" --New Review, Calcutta, June 1937, pp. 513-26. ' 24. Early Tamil Literature speaks of Kuriñji makkal, Neydal makkal, Pālai makkal, Marudam makkal. 25. Mr. R. Bruce Foote joined the Geological Survey of India in 1858 and spent the greater part of his service of 33 years in elucidating the Geology and Palaeontology of South India. He discovered some implements of the Palaeolithic Age near Madras in 1863 and became the pioneer of this branch of research in India. Thus he says of his own first discovery: 'In the early sixties of last century every one interested in the origin of mankind had been greatly stirred by the thorough confirmation by the great English geologists, Joseph Prestwich, John Evans, and Hugh Falconer, of Boucher de Pertbes' discovery in the drift beds of the Somme river valley of cbipped fint implements, the earliest human artifacts then knowo. The news of this remarkable revelation had turned my thoughts to the necessity of looking out for possible similar traces of early buman art in South India where my work then lay. It was therefore a matter of pure satisfaction, rather than great surprise, whep, on the 30th May 1863, I came