Page:The Tamils Eighteen Hundred Years Ago.djvu/76

Rh but lived apart in gramums or villages, and in large towns, they resided together in separate streets. At Maduara, Thankal and Vayanankodu in the Pandyan Kingdom, at Vanji, Poraiyur, Erakam and Mankadu in the Chera country and at Kavirippaddinam, Mulloor, Avinankudi and Chenkanam in the territory of the Chola King, they resided in large numbers. They claimed to be of several gotras or clans, all of which traced their descent from two patriarchs reputed to be the sons of no less a personage than Brahma the creator himself. Brahmans of the ancient family of Kapiyas are specially alluded to as residing in the Chera dominions. The Brahmins as a rule never allowed dogs or fowls to enter their houses. They reared cows for the sake of their milk, parrots to amuse their women and children, and mangoose to kill the serpents which might intrude into their houses or gardens. Their chief employment was to keep up the triple sacred fires in their homes, to perform yogas or sacrifices and to chant Vedic hymns. To the other castes they posed as ”heaven compellers.” They engaged as teachers occasionally Some of them were Tamil poets. Frequently they started on pilgrimage, when they went round the Pothia Hill, bathed in the sea at Cape Comorin and at the mouth of the Kaviri, and travelled to the banks of the Ganges. On these occasions, they wore leathern sandals to protect their feet; and carried an umbrella to save themselves from sun and rain, a water-pot suspended by a string and three staves tied together. It is interesting to note that elephant drivers spoke to the animals in Ariyam. The Dravidians used to catch wild elephants in pitfalls dug in the woods: but the Aryas introduced the ingenious method of decoying wild elephants,