The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c5.s1.24

c5.s1.24

But here a warning is necessary. The passage just quoted from the epigraphical report furnishes a comparatively harmless instance of a tendency to combine information from diverse sources, separated widely in time and space, and so to form a general picture of the social or political life of the country. This tendency has particularly unfortunate results in the study of institutions as it is likely to produce an appearance of flat uniformity and absence of change; it will also increase the difficulty of detecting the presence or otherwise of any signs of change or growth. It is only by carefully limiting our observations to the time and place indicated by the sources of our information that truth can be served in the present, and perhaps future work rendered easier.¹