The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c31.s3.3

v1.c31.s3.3

The races within these bounds were various. To the oldest stratum of pre-Dravidian blood probably belonged the savages termed by the ancient poets *Villavar* ('bowmen') and *Mīnavar* ('fishers'), of whom the former may possibly be identical with the modern Bhīls, while the latter may have descendants in the Mīnās. Another group is that termed by the poets *Nāgas*, a word which in Hindu literature commonly denotes a class of semi-divine beings, half men and half snakes, but is often applied by Tamil writers to a warlike race armed with bows and nooses and famous as freebooters. Several tribes mentioned in early literature are known with more or less certainty to have belonged to the Nāgas, among them being the Aruvāḷar (in the Aruvā-nāḍu and Aruvā-vaḍatalai around Conjeeveram), Eyinar, Maṟavar, Oḷiyar, and Paradavar (a fisher tribe). A race of uncertain affinity was that of the Āyar, who in many respects resembled the Abhīras of Northern India, and seem to have brought into the south the worship of the herdsman-god Kṛishṇa.