Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/69

 or Chiefs of the Vanavas. One of the Chera Kings called Chenkudduvan, who was contemporary with Gajabahu of Ceylon (113 to 105 A. D.) is said to have been on intimate terms of friendship with the Karnas, Emperors of Magadha, and with their assistance he attacked the Aryas near the Himalayas. The Karnas, who belonged to the great Andhra tribe ruled Magadha during the first and second centuries of the Christian era. They were lords of the Three Kalingas, and their dominion extended from the modern Telugu country on the one side, to Arakan on the other side of the Bay of Bengal.

Mr. Fergusson, the great writer on Architecture, having observed the striking similarity of the style of Architecture prevailing in South Canara and Malabar to that of Nepal, wrote as follows :— “The feature, however, which presents the greatest resemblance to the Northern styles is the reverse slope of the eaves above the verandah. I am not aware of its existence anywhere else South of Nepal, and it is so peculiar that it is much more likely to have been copied than reinvented. I cannot offer even a plausible, conjecture, how or at what time, a connection existed between Nepal and Thibet and Canara, but I cannot doubt that such was the case.” “In fact there are no two tribes in India, except the Nayars (of Malabar) and Newars (of Nepal) who have the same strange notions as to female chastity, and that