Sunday, October 30, 2011

Clans of Tamilakam (Tamil Nadu)

The limits of Tamilakam were from Venkata Hill in the North, to Cape Comorin in the South, and from the Bay of Bengal in the East, to the Arabian Sea in the West. Malayalam had not formed into a separate dialect at this period, and only one language, Tamil, was spoken from the Eastern to the Western Sea.

Villavar - Bowmen (Dravidian word vil meaning a bow)
Minavar - Fishermen (from the Dravidian meen, a fish)
Vadukar tribe - Lived north of Venkatam
Karaiyar (Parathavar, Naga tribe) - Eastern coast extending from Cape Cumari who subsisted by fishing
Veduvar (Vedar) - Capital of this province was Nagai or Naga-paddinam
Aruvalar (Kurumbar) - A nomadic tribe
Vellala tribe - Chola king Karikalan, who first settle the aruvalar wandering tribes
Nagas - Very numerous and civilized race (Arjuna married first Ulipi, the daughter of a Naga king)
Maravar (Naga tribe) - Most powerful and warlike tribe
Kallar (Einar Naga tribe) - Descendants of Eyinar, most lawless of Naga tribes
Maarar - Chief of this tribe was ever afterwards knows as Palayan or 'the ancient' being the most ancient, of the Tamil settlers in the southern part of India
Maranmar tribe (Pandiya Kingdom) - Conquered Burmah before the first century A.D (known as Maramma-desa)
Thirayar tribe (Chola Kingdom) - Sea Kings
Vanavar (Celestials, Chera Kingdom) - Natives of mountainous region in the North of Bengal. The Chera kings belonged to this tribe and called themselves Vanavar
Kosar (Koshans) - Leaders of the four tribes of Yuh-chi (Asioi, Pasianoi, Tocharoi and Sakarauloi)

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 known as Tamil.

The peculiar letter Rzha found in the Tamil alphabet which does not occur in the other Dravidian or Sanskrit languages, was doubtless brought in by the Tamil immigrants. This letter occurs only in some of the Thibetian languages. It indicates most clearly that the primitive home of the Tamil immigrants must have been in the Thibetian pleatu.

Citation

The Tamils eighteen hundred (1800) years ago

By V. Kanakasabhai
Harvard College Library - Published by Higginbotham & Co