Page:Tamil studies.djvu/132

Rh In this state of connubial relationship there was no need for terms to express the idea of a 'father-in-law' or a ‘mother-in-law.' The early Dravidians had no words for father's sister, mother's brother, &c., their relationship being confined only to father, mother, brother and sister. Thus the term mama (Tam. மாமா) was borrowed from Sanskrit, and the meaning of attai (Tamil. அத்தை), which is also not a Dravidian word, is so vague and indefinite that it meant in Tamil mother, elder sister, mother-in-law, father's sister and the teacher's wife. Similarly akka and ammai are both mother and elder sister ; aiyan, father-in-law, mother's brother, etc. Then, these words do not help us in the least to infer one way or the other regarding the matriarchal or the patriarchal theory, except that the Dravidians were in a very primitive state destitute of terms to express any relationship other than father, mother and children.

Turning now to the origin oi the dispute, we find from a careful study of the Tamil inscriptions and the history of the South Indian castes that there are three obvious causes. The first and the most important is the political dissension which led to the final overthrow of the powerful kingdoms of the Pallavas(which besides other provinces then embraced the modern state of Mysore) and the Pandyas. They were the hereditary enemies of the Cholas ; the very name Pallava was hateful to them ; and the Pallava gods of Kanchipuram shared the miserable fate of the Pallava kings and their subjects. As the Kanchi