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Rh clearly that those sciences were cultivated by the Tamils long before the arrival of the Brahmans or other Aryan immigrants’. This is not good logic, as these terms might be later Tamil translations or adaptations from Sanskrit. It would be more reasonable to ask,—Did the Tamils possess any literature on these subjects before the arrival of the Brahmans ? So far as we know they had none. We need not attempt to refute these statements seriatim, but shall content Ourselves for the present with quoting the views of Dr. Caldwell on the pre-Aryan civilization of the Tamils. 'They were without hereditary priests and idols and appear to have had no idea of 'heaven' or 'hell' or the 'soul' or 'sin'... They had numerals up to 100 ; ...but no acquaintance with sculpture, architecture, astronomy, astrology, grammar or philosophy'.

The existing Tamil works, most of them, are either translations or adaptations of Sanskrit originals. There are, however, certain compositions which are not so. The five major and the five minor epics, the eight anthologies, the ten major and the eighteen minor poems belong to this class. Dr. Caldwell thinks that ‘in one department at least, that of ethical apothegms it is generally maintained that Sanskrit has been outdone by Tamil.' But, on the other hand, we are inclined to think that the existence of so many works on the ethics of daily life is an indication of the low state of morality among the early Tamils. Because 13