Elements of South-Indian Palæography, from the Fourth to the Seventeenth Century A.D. c5.s2.t2.4

c5.s2.t2.4

1.1 S. Gordon, "Researches in South-India 1823-8" (London 1834), says (p. 54): "The natives are grateful for this favor (permission for a procession) to Mr. Ellis, then Collector of Madras, who was poisoned at Ramnad, on his way to Ramiseram; he assumed the native dress, and adopted their modes." (?!) him to his own countrymen among whom he was distinguished no less by his capacity as a public servant than by a mind fraught with intelligence and alive to every object of interest or utility. The College of Fort St. George which owes its existence to him is a lasting memorial of his reputation[^1] as an Oriental Scholar, and this stone has been erected as a tribute of the affectionate regard of his European and Native friends.” So little interest in science is there in S. India, that this eminent man is chiefly recollected among the Native Roman Catholics by some quasi-devotional poems in Tamiḷ which are attributed to him. [^1): 1) Al-Bīrūnī (11th century) mentions Draviḍa but as distinct from Kańśi, though a Cōḷa province (Reinaud, “Fragments”, p. 104). I see there is a paper by E. Burnouf on Draviḍa in the *J. As.* for Oct. 1828, pp. 241, ffg., but it is not accessible to me. [^2): 2) The genealogy of two inscriptions was first given by Profr. Eggeling (*I. A.* ii., p. 272; iii., p. 152) and has been finally extended and settled by Mr. Fleet (do: v., p. 154). The dates are not known, but it is safe to attribute these sovereigns to the 5th and 6th centuries.