The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c35.s1.6

c35.s1.6

The Greek geographer Ptolemy, who wrote his treatise about A. D. 140, was well acquainted with Southern India, which he called Damirikē, a good transliteration of Tamil-akam, *r* and *l* being interchangeable, but unfortunately corrupted in the manuscripts into the unmeaning form Limyrikē, owing to the frequent confusion between Λ and Δ.¹ In his time one language only, the Tamil, was spoken over the whole area; Malayālam, now the speech of Malabar, not having been developed as a separate tongue until some centuries later. The population comprised various elements, of which the Villavar, or bowmen (Bhils), and Mīnavar, or fishermen (Mīnas), are supposed to have been the most ancient. The Tamils seem to be later immigrants.