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Rh we find in the early Tamil works that the Nagas are described as a race of dark people with curly matted hair. The ancient Tamils were acquainted also with a tribe of naked nomads (நக்கசாரணர்), probably a section of the Nagas living in an eastern Island. They were cannibals and spoke an unknown language.

(The cruel-eyed, curly-haired and able-bodied Maravas (robbers) with tiger-look and banded bows waiting on the roads to harass the travellers).

(The tender infant which Pilivalai, the daughter of the ruler of Naganadu, bore for Killi (Chola) who wields the victorious lance).

From the first quotation we learn that the Pânans—the ancestors, or rather, a sub-caste of the modern Paraiyas—were an aboriginal tribe of dark men; from the second that the Maravas—not the present caste of that name—were a tribe of hunters and robbers with tiger-look and curly matted hair; while the third