Page:Pre-Aryan Tamil Culture.djvu/44

 kunṛavar, kūḷiyar, kolaiñar, śavarar, śilavar, śillar, tiyar, pullar, pulaiñar, maṛavar, marudar, vēḍar, showing how widespread that profession was. They were also employed as policemen, armed with the bow and the sharp arrow.

Round the Kōṭṭai where the king resided, grew the pēṭṭai, (from pē, vulgar, whence is derived pēdai, common people, the poor, pēy, the wild plant, also goblin). Naturally the followers of each trade gravitated towards each other and each principal profession was confined to a single pēṭṭai; there were thus many suburbs around a town, separated from each other. These pēṭṭais were each surrounded by rice-fields or gardens. There are many words to indicate a house, such as vīḍu, agam, il, illam, śērbu, pātti, manai, vayin, besides the compound words uṛaiyuḷ and pukkiḷ. The houses of richer men were called māḍam (whence perhaps māḍi, upper story) or māḷigai from the root māḷ, great. They were built almost entirely of timber up to about twelve centuries ago. The following words relating to parts of a house may be noted: iṛappu, iṛai, vaḷavu, tāḻvāram, sloping roof; munṛil, muṛṛam, courtyard, inside or outside a house; the compound word nilāmuṛṛam, a flat roof on which one can walk up and down; uttiram, tūlam, beam suṛṛuvāri, tāḻ, tuḍai, mugaḍu, viḍaṅgam, beam projecting beyond a wall. In front of the houses was the tiṇṇai a raised and covered platform, which served the purposes of a drawing-room and bed-room for the day and even for the night. Before the tiṇṇai, was the kuṛadu, open platform, flanked by the oṭṭuttiṇṇai. The walls, the tiṇṇai and the floor of the house were no doubt polished like a mirror or black-marble, the cement being compounded of clay, charcoal and cattle-dung, maṇ, kari, and śāṇi, and applied to the surface wet and rubbed over for hours with a bit of flattened quartz, an art which is fast dying out. The entrance to the house was not flush with street, as there was a vāyilpaḍi, door-step. It was provided with a wooden frame work, nilai, and a door, kadavu, also called araṇam, aravam, kāppu, tōṭṭi, pudavu, vāri, secured by a wooden bolt and heavily carved outside, as they are even to-day in houses not ruined by modern civilization. The houses were provided with windows, śālaram, śannal, palagaṇi, being, as the name implied, a many-eyed lattice window. Behind the door ran a narrow passage, iḍazkaḻi, or naḍai, which led into the house. The houses were provided with