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12 points to the fusion of the Tamils with the aboriginal tribe of Nagas even so early as the first or second century of the Christian era. It might also be learnt from Pattuppattu or the Ten Tamil Idylls and the Mahabalipuram inscriptions of Rajendra Chola (A. D. 1012-1044) that there were among the Nagas at least four sub-divisions, viz., Oli-Nagan, Mugali-Nagan, Sanka-Nagan and Nila-Nagan. The Paraiyas, who constitute nearly a seventh of the Tamil population and who will be shewn hereafter to be the descendants of the ancient Eyina tribe dislike to call themselves Tamils, thus suggesting that they belong to a different race altogether. Further, the various modes of disposing of the dead prevalent among the Tamils of ancient times, namely, cremation, interment and exposure, could not have been practised at the same time by one and the same race. These facts clearly go to prove that there were in the Tamil country at least three distinct races namely, the aborigines (whatever may be their names), the Dravidian Tamils and the Aryan immigrants. Though there was a free intermixture of the aborigines and the Dravidian Tamils and though some isolated instances of the fusion of the second and third are noticeable, the existence of three different types is clear.

Sir Herbert Risley, however, considers that all the South Indians are Dravidians-a dark-complexioned, short-statured people with long head, broad and thick-set nose and long fore-arm. Doubtless this description applies to some of the hill and