Page:Tamil studies.djvu/86

Rh sympathy and support of scholars if they confine themselves to a rational scientific enquiry.

It has been said in the last essay that there were at least three distinct types of pre-Aryans in the Tamil country, namely, (1) the Hill and Forest tribes, (2) the Nagas and (3) the Velir or the Vellala tribes. For want of a better name these are called collectively Dravidians, though, strictly speaking, ‘Dravidian' should be applied only to the Vellalas, who were the latest of the pre-Aryan immigrants in Southern India. Seme time, the more significant compound 'Naga Dravidians' has also been used.

Before the arrival of the Aryans there was no caste system in the Tamil country. The earliest Brahman settlers tried, however, to introduce their four-fold division of people, and before they could succeed in it they met with much opposition. No Dravidian was considered worthy of being classed as Brahmans. The Tamil kings alone were elevated to the rank of Kshatriyas in spite of their marriage connections with the ancient Velir or Vellala tribes. These Velirs were on that account called Ilangôkkal or the 'minor kings'. The Brahmans got up for them very decent geneologies which traced their ancestry to the sun, the moon or the fire. This rendered the position of the Vellalas who had to oscillate between the Vaisya and the Sudra castes dubious and unsettled. Their greatest difficulty, however, was with the hill and forest tribes and the Nagas, who constitu-