Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c3.3.1

c3.3.1

[^1): It must be obvious that these traditions are merely attempts at explanations of the unknown through current ideas, which in S. India amount to the merest elements of Hindu mythology as gathered from third-rate sources. Mouhot the illustrious discoverer of the Cambodian temples, though a naturalist and not an archæologist, saw this very plainly. He says ("Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China", vol. ii. pp. 8, 9): "All traditions being lost, the natives invent new ones, according to the measure of their capacity." The Māhātmyas are equally worthless with the oral legends, for they are modern compositions (mostly later than the 10th century A. D.) intended to connect particular places with events entirely mythical and belonging to modern or even foreign religious systems. How worthless tradition is in S. India, a few examples will easily prove. The chain of rocks from India to Ceylon is (as is well known) connected with the myth of Rāma's conquest of Laṅkā, but this localization of the mythical event must be quite recent; for, *firstly*, whatever may be the age of the Rāmāyaṇa, the worship of Rāma is quite modern. *Again*, had there been any such myth current in the place during the early centuries A. D., we might expect something about it in the Periplus or Ptolemy, especially as the former gives the legend then current about Cape Comorin; but there is nothing of the kind to be found. *Lastly*, there is nothing whatever (Mr.