the Sanskrit. Another Dialect is that of the Rodiyas in the Kandyan Hills, one thousand in number, in a still lower social status and civilisation than the Veddahs. Their Language is formed of corrupt Sinhalese mixed up with unintelligible words. Vocabularies are supplied.

A more important Dialect is that which is spoken in the Maldive group of islands, dependent upon Ceylon. It is said to contain a population of twenty thousand, with a limited amount of civilisation, converted forcibly to Mahomedanism by the Arabs. But little is known of the people or the Language, and the fullest Vocabulary is that supplied by Pyrard de Laval, an unwilling resident, as a shipwrecked captive, for several years in the commencement of the seventeenth century. Christopher visited them in 1834, and reported, that the Language is substantially the same throughout the island, but there was a dialectal variation in the Southern Islands, where there was less intercourse with foreign navigators and settlers. Different Characters are found on tombstones in the islands. A knowledge of the most ancient, called Dewehi Hakura, is nearly lost in still used in the Southern Atolls. left to right, and were syllabic. ary Arabic Character are also found. The modern Character, written from right to left, is known as Gabali Tana, and was introduced, when the islands were recovered by the Mahomedans from the Portuguese. The last nine of the old letters have been abandoned in favour of the first nine Arabic numerals. A Grammar is said to be in process of compilation.

the Northern, though They were written from Inscriptions in the ordin

CHAPTER III.

DRAVIDIAN FAMILY.

GENERAL.

THE second Family is the Dravidian, a name assigned to it by Caldwell, as more suitable than the old name. Tamulic. Although the four great members of this Family lie compactly together in the Peninsula, yet some of the outlying members are at a very great distance to the North in the midst of Aryan populations, and one race of mountaineers approaches the banks of the River Ganges. The number of Languages of this Family amount to fourteen :

Although the Dravidians held their own, yet in process of time some of them accepted the Brahmanical civilisation of their Aryan neighbours; but the four Northern races, and two mountaineer tribes of the South, have to this day maintained their savage ways and Pagan religion. There has been and exists still a difference of opinion as to the relation' of this Family to the Aryan Family. Pope in the introduction to his Tamil Handbook in 1868, states

E

that the more the Dravidian Languages are studied, the closer their affinity to Sanskrit will appear, and the more evident will it appear, that they have a primitive and original relationship to Aryan. He has repeated this opinion in 1876 in the "Indian Antiquary," and his opinion deserves great weight. Gover agreed with Pope. On the other hand, Caldwell, following Rask the Dane, and Norris of the Royal Asiatic Society, and supported by Friederich Müller of Vienna and Max Müller, asserts a distinct individuality to the Family, quite opposed to Sanskrit, from which, however, it has borrowed much, and to which, according to Gundert and Kittel of Madras and Stevenson of Bombay, it has lent much. Caldwell has shown, that this Family once extended over nearly all India, and Burnell adds, that geographical names in all parts of India, in spite of Sanskritised forms and false derivations, attest this fact to this day. To this day it is spoken by forty-six millions in India and Ceylon; therefore it is a Language-Family of first-rate magnitude. Caldwell admits, that of all Scythian Language-Families the Dravidian presents the most numerous, ancient, and interesting analogies to Aryan. While Pope finds Keltic affinities, Caldwell finds analogies in Semitic, Australian, and African Languages. There are three Characters, in addition to Archaic forms, employed in this Family by the six Languages, which are cultivated. Burnell, in his "South Indian Palæography," has discussed the origin of these Characters, and the relation which they bear through the Asoka alphabets, or the Archaic Vattelutto, to the Phoenician Alphabet; but on this subject there is a division of opinion.

The distinctive features of this Family are, that in its gender it distinguishes between rational and irrational objects it has an oblique form for many of its nouns : it specialises the meaning of a root by the use of formatives: it modifies the root itself to convey different meanings and relations: it has a negative voice.

TAMIL.

The Tamil, called sometimes the Malabar, is the most Southern of the Family, and employs a peculiar Character, derived from the well-known Indian. A distinct Character, the Grantham, is used for Sanskrit manuscripts. The limits of this Language-Field are well defined. In the Madras Census Report of 1871 there is a Language-Map of that Province. Tamil is spoken from a few miles North of the city of Madras to the extreme South of the Eastern side of the Peninsula, throughout the plains of the Karnatic or country below the Ghats, from Pulicat to Cape Comorin, and from the Ghats to the Bay of Bengal. It is also spoken in the Southern portion of the independent kingdom of Travancore on the Western side of the Ghats, from Cape Comorin to the neighbourhood of Trivandrum, and in the Northern parts of the island of Ceylon as far as a line drawn across the island from Ghilaw to Batticaloa. The extension is even beyond this line, as the labourers in the coffee plantations in the Candy Hills, who are immigrants rather than settlers, speak Tamil. It is also the Language of the domestic servants of Europeans throughout the Province of Madras. Add to this, that the majority of the immigrants from the Peninsula into British Burma and the Straits Settlements, known as Klings or Kalingahs, are Tamil-speakers, and so also are a large proportion of the emigrant coolies to the Mauritius and West Indies. Caldwell estimates the total number at fourteen and a half millions, chiefly Hindu. It is the oldest, richest, and most highly organised of the Dravidian Languages, exceedingly rich in Vocabulary, and cultivated from a very remote period. Shen Tamil is the literary Dialect, and used for poetry. Kodun Tamil is the standard used for ordinary purposes. They are sufficiently distinct to require separate study. A very considerable Literature

exists in this Language, among which are native gram

matical works. The study of Sanskrit, and the Hindu culture, have left their mark on the Language. Its earliest Literature dates back to the eighth or ninth century of our era. The whole Bible has been translated in the Tamil Character. The famous Grammar of the Jesuit Beschi led the way, and the Comparative Grammar of Caldwell leaves little to be desired for the study of this Language, which is a strong Vernacular, not likely to be supplanted. Three less important Dialects are recorded, two spoken by a scant population of Pagan hill-men in the Neilgherries, the Irular and Kurubar, and one by the Malearasas, wild Pagan hill-men on the Northern slopes of the Anamulli range. Burnell, in his "Dialects of South India," notices the Dialect of Tanjore, and the Dialect of the Brahmins of Tanjore. There is also a Dialect spoken by the Vellulers of the Shervarog Hills.

TELUGU.

Next on the list of Dravidian Languages is the Telugu or Telinga. It ranks next to Tamil in respect of culture and glossarial copiousness, and surpasses it in euphonic sweetness. It used to be called the Gentoo, but this term has disappeared. It is spoken by the people of the Northern Circars, Kurnool, Cuddapah, part of North Arcot, Nellore, and some parts of Bellary in the Madras Province, and in a portion of the Nizam's territory, and the Central Provinces. It ranges from Pulicat, where it meets Tamil, to Chicacole, where it yields to Uriya. Inland it extends as far as the Eastern boundary of the Maráthi country and Mysore. A large portion of Telugu-speakers have intruded themselves within the Tamil Language-Field, and there are some in the independent territory of Mysore. Caldwell reckons the whole number at fifteen millions and a half, but all calculations respecting the Nizam's territory are uncertain. No Dialects are recorded by grammarians, but the Language-Field impinges on the Uriya and Marathi of the Aryan Family, and the Gond and Khond,