Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t2.3

c5.s2.t2.3

¹ The account of the divisions of this kingdom by F. W. Ellis [in his Paper on Mirasi Right (pp. 51-9) edited by C. P. Brown, Madras, 1852] is still unquestionably the most valuable contribution to S. Indian Ancient Geography that has been written. It is much to be desired that Mr. Ellis's papers be collected and published in an accessible form, so as to be a lasting memorial of a truly great scholar. About the time that Bopp laid the foundations of the comparative philology of the Aryan languages, Ellis did the same for the Dravidian family [preface to Campbell's Telugu Grammar (1816) and "Dissertations"]; he was the first to decipher and explain the grants to the Israelites of Cochin, and he did this in a way that is still a model. (See *Madras Journal*, vol. xiii. part ii., pp. 1-11.) His labours to promote the study of Hindu Law and of Tamiḷ (annotated edition and translation of the Kuṟaḷ left unfinished, etc.) are still of the highest value. He was also the first to collect the S. Indian inscriptions. He died (accidentally poisoned through the carelessness of a native servant) while on an archæological tour in the Madura Province. His monument (at Ramnad) has an inscription in English and Tamiḷ, the former of which runs: "Sacred to the memory of Francis Whyte Ellis Esq. of the Madras Civil Service whose valuable life was suddenly terminated by a fatal accident at this place on the 9th March 1819 in the 41st year of his age. Uniting activity of mind with versatility of genius he displayed the same ardour and happy sufficiency on whatever his varied talents were employed. Conversant with the Hindoo Languages and Literature of the Peninsula, he was loved and esteemed by the Natives of India with whom he associated intimately[^1.1]), and his kind and playful disposition endeared