The Pandyan Kingdom from the Earliest Times to the Sixteenth Century c6.s1.1

c6.s1.1

‘THE oldest Dravidian word found in any written record in the world appears to be the word for “peacock” in the Hebrew text of the Book of Kings and Chronicles, in the list of the articles of merchandise brought from Tarshish or Ophir in Solomon’s ships’¹ (Caldwell). ‘In the ruins of Mugheir . . . not less than 3,000 years B.C., was found a piece of Indian teak.’² These references are calculated to give some idea of the antiquity of civilization in the Tamil land.