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A line drawn from Mercara on the west to Tirupati on the east marked the northern limit of the ancient Tamil country; that portion of the Indian Peninsula to the south of this line, with the sea on the three sides was called per excellence the Tamilakam or Dravida-desa. It was inhabited by three distinct races—the Nagas, the Dravidians and the Aryans. The non-Aryan Tamils belong to this great Naga-Dravidian race.

Evidence points to Nagas as the aboriginal inhabitants of this country. They were divided into two sections—the earlier or the savage section, and the later or the semi-civilized section. The former belonged to the Negrito race and the latter to a mixed one. Apparently both migrated to India from the south when it was connected by land with Australia, the earlier tribes being driven to the interior hills and forests and the later immigrants occupying the east coast from Cape Comorin to Vizagapatam and extending as far as Nagpur in the Central Provinces. These were the vanaras and the