Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/255

 CHAPTER XVI.

From the foregoing account of the Tamils eighteen hundred years ago, it will be seen that they were a civilised and prosperous nation settled in the extreme south of the peninsula of India. Their country was bounded on three sides by the sea and on the north by the territories of less civilised races, such as the Konkanas, Kalingas and Rattas. These races must be regarded as less civilised than the Tamils, as they had no literature of their own at this early period: and the Tamils proudly spoke of their language as “the Southern tongue” and of the Aryan as “the Northern tongue.” They were known as the Tamils most probably because they had emigrated from Tamilitti (Tâmralipti) the great seaport at the mouth of the Ganges. Their kings and chieftains still remembered the original Mongolian stock from which they had sprung, and called themselves Vânavar o “Celestials.” They had conquered the country from the ancient Nâgas, and driving them into barren and desert tracts, occupied all the fairest and most fertile portions of the sunny land. Being the conquerors of the land, and ruled by princes of their own race, they had a high opinion of themselves, and were proud of their nationality. They had grown wealthy by their agriculture, manufactures and commerce; and they enjoyed so much security of life and property in the fortified cities, that the higher classes were not afraid of displaying their wealth by their rich dress and costly jewelry. They were a gay and polite people, passionately fond of music and flowers and poetry. Their bards sang of the thrilling achievements, by field and flood, of their gallant ancestors who had won Tamilakam for them: and stimulated in them noble desire to be loyal to their kings, to labour for the good of the poor and the helpless, and above all to love truth and righteousness and to adore their gods.