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26 Further on, the same writer observes as follows: 'As the Tamil immigrants came into Southern India at distant intervals of time and in separate tribes and were fewer in number than the aboriginal Nagas and Dravidians, they had to adopt the ancient Dravidian language and in course of time they modified and refined it into the language now known as Tamil. The peculiar letter zh (4) which does not exist in the other Dravidian languages was doubtless brought in by the Tamil immigrants. This letter occurs in the Tibetan languages. It indicates most clearly that the primitive home of the Tamil immigrants must have been in the Tibetan plateau'. And in support of his theory that all the Tamils are of Mongolian origin he goes on to say that the existence of very inany words in gn (ங), jn (ஞ) and n (ண) in Tamil, Burmese and Chinese, and the similarity between Malayalam and the Mongolian languages, clearly confirm the North-eastern or the Mongolian origin of the Tamil people.

In attribuțing a Mongolian origin to the Tamils Mr. Kanakasabhai relies partly on literary evidence and partly on the similarity of sound in certain words. He seems to misinterpret some passages in Tamil works and distorts current traditions so as to support his preconceived theories, and it would be fallacious and unwarrantable to draw any inference from words like Tamra-litti and Tamil, Mrânmar and Maran, Kôshan or Kushan and Kosar &c., which are similar only in sound. He has entirely ignored the testimony