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History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c16.s5: III—Aryan Advance into South India.

History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c16.s5

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III—Aryan Advance into South India.

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India to the south of the Nerbudda divides itself into two natural portions the first consisting of Berar, the Nizam State and the Bombay Deccan; and the second consisting of what is practically the present Madras Presidency. The former is usually called the Deccan while the latter is called south India. The language in the first is generally Marathi with the exception of Āndhra in the south-east and of the Southern Maratha country in the south-west. The Deccan, as we have shown, was originally sparsely populated by aboriginies and hence the Aryan invaders who settled the country gave their language to it. Did the Aryans advance into Āndhra and the Kanarese portions and into the country southwards of both? Did they advance in sufficient numbers so as to impress their language upon the people? If so, does not their language now prevail there? We will try to answer these questions in this note as there seems to be a great deal of haziness on this subject.

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The Pāndyas are the southern-most Indian people throughout ancient Indian literature. They were known to Megasthenes whose account of them shows that they were believed to be mixed Aryans and Dravidians. We may, therefore, believe that the Aryans in small numbers did go right upto Cape Comorin sometime before Buddha and impressed their religious thought, not their language, upon the people. The Pāndyas are frequently mentioned in the Mahābhārata, but their name does not, strangely enough, occur in the Bhishmaparva list of Indian peoples. Probably their name is given as Dravida which heads the list of the southern mlechhas and the Pāndyas were unquestionably Dravidas par excellence.

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The Aryan settlement of the Deccan took place after this and in sufficient numbers so as to impress not only the Aryan religion but also the Aryan language upon the few people who were there. And this advance torn place probably after Buddha but before Megasthenes. For the Mahābhārata which we place about 250 B. C. includes all the people in the Deccan in the list of northern peoples described as Aryans and mixed Aryans. Even Āndhra and Kuntala are in this list besides Mahārāshtra proper which is covered by Vidharbha, Aśmaka, Pāndurāshtra, Goparāshtra and Mallarāshtra. We believe that the people in Āndhra and in Kuntala who at present speak the Telagu and the Kanarese spoke then the Prakrit Aryan language as we shall presently show. We take it that this advance took place after Buddha because we find many persons, specially the common people, professing the Buddhistic faith.

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In the days of Bindusāra son of Chandragupta the Aryans made conquests further south and established principalities as far as the Pennar in the east and the northern boundary of the present Mysore state in the west. Mr. Krishnasvami Aiyangar following and agreeing with Sir Vincent Smith says in his ‘Beginnings of South Indian History’

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recently published “The southern frontier of Aśoka’s empire may be described as a line drawn from the Pennar river near Nellore on the east coast to the river Kalyānapuri on the west coast (about N. Lat. 14) which forms the northern boundary of the Tuluva country probably representing the old country of the Satiyaputra. This boundary is substantially correct on the information furnished by epigraphy.” This correctness is confirmed, adds Mr. Krishnasvami, “by what we are able to glean from Tamil literary sources, except on the eastern point. The Tamils marked out the limit of the Tamil land at Pulikat” which is further south than Nellore. Thus from about 250 B. C. to the first century A. D. the age of Tamil poets, South India upto Pulikat a little above Madras on the east and to about Bhatkal on the west was under Aryan domination. A fresh attempt was made to push the Aryan settlement further south in the days of the Tamil poets themselves. It was defeated in the eastern portion near the Podyar Hill by the Pāṇḍyas but it was successful in the west where in Konkānam the territory of the chief Nannan, “in the first century of the Christian era was broken into by a new people called Kośar and Nannan was obviously defeated.” (S. Krishnasvami’s beginnings of South India p. 85). Thus Konkanam above and below the ghats came also under Aryan influence in the first century A. D.

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Now what will be a great surprise to many is that this part of South India not only came under the sway of the Aryan people but also under the influence of the Aryan language. It seems clear from the old Tamil poets that the language of this part of South India was Aryan The Tamil poets of the first century A. D. not only describe this part as Vadukarmana, end of the Northerners’ territory, but also call it Moli-peyartam, that is, the country where the spoken language changes to another. Ditto page 84. At page 95 ditto, we read that the new invaders were called in Tamil poems Vada Vadukar (the northern northerners) and Vamba Vadukars (or the new northerners). Further it is stated that the Malayaman chief of Muller defeated single-handed the Aryans that had laid siege to his fort. Finally in summing this chapter on Aryan invasion of South India, Mr. Krishnasvami Aiyangar says: “The Aryan invasion went along the western ghats avoiding Dandāraṇya as it is called by the Tamils. This inference is supported by the fact (1) that the Tamils regarded the land north of Pulikat as foreign in language and (2) their regarding the Dandāraṇya as the land of the Aryans. Again in the chapter on the Dawn of the Christian era he observes at page 128. “The northern frontier of the Tamil lands was held by Nannan of the Tullu country in the west and Pulli of Vengadam (Tirupati) in the east, further north being the land of the Aryas (Vadukars) and Dandāraṇya.” Thus it is clear from ancient Tamil literature that from about 250 B. C. to the first century A. D. South India as far as Pulikat in the east and Bhatkal in the west was under Aryan sway and spoke the Aryan language.

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This view of Mr. Krishnasvami Aiyangar is supported by epigraphic evidence. We find inscriptions in this part of the country recorded in Prakrit not only down to the first century A. D., but even to the third and the country was ruled by Kshatriyas who professed the Vedic religion. These kingdoms are given by Mr. Dubreuil in his work "Ancient History of the Deccan" just published. The first inscription on a stupa at Jagayyapetha (Krishna District) gives the name of a king called Mā-dhariputra Śrī Vīra Purushadatta of the Ikshvakus, in an alphabet which points to the 3rd century A. D." (p. 86). The inscription (Ind. Ant. XI p. 256) is in Prakrit. 2. The Dāvaṇagere inscription (Ep. Kar. Vol. XI No. 161) mentions a people called Kekayas who intermarried with the Ikshvākus. 3. The Bṛihatphalāyanas mentioned in an inscription of Jayavarman who ruled in Kudura (Krishna District again) are also Vedic Aryans. This inscription is in archaic Prakrit. "The language and phraseology of the inscription is so similar to the Nasik inscriptions of Gautamiputra Śātakarṇi and of Vashishtiputra Puḷamāyi that Jayavarman's date cannot have been distant from the date of these two Āndhra kings." (Ep. Ind. Vol. VII p. 315). 4. The next people are the Salankāyanas also a gotra name mentioned in an inscription found at Peddaveggi (Vengi). The plates of king Vīra Devavarman are in Prakrit also. (Ep. Ind. Vol. IX page 56). 5. The Viṣṇu Kundims are mentioned in the Ramatirtham grant (Ep. Ind. XI p. 134) and other records. This name is also a gotra name which has now disappeared from the list of gotras. (Gotras it is said in Dharmaśāstra are innumerable and many gotras have disappeared.) 6. The early Pallavas also have left records in Prakrit as we have shown in the body of the book. Lastly 7. the Kadambas of Vanavāsi have also left early records which are in Prakrit. These records prove that Kshatriya Aryans ruled in the frontier of the Tamil land and spoke an Aryan language viz. Prakrit at least in the higher ranks, viz. the Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaiśyas.

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The point we have further to urge is that these Aryan-Brahmins and Kshatriyas were allied to the Deccan Aryans i. e. the ancestors of the Marathas of the modern day. Not only do these Aryans i. e. Brahmins of Āndhra and Kanara intermarry with the Brahmins of the Deccan but we find from an inspection of these Prakrit records that the language therein used is allied to the Mahārāshtrī. Thus the inscription at Jagayyapetha mentions Kamakaraṭhe the Raṭra or Rāshtra of Kamaha. The word Rāshṭra belongs to the Mahārāshtras and points to this king being a Maratha Kshatriya. Again the word Apaṇo instead of Attaṇo (Sans. Ātmano) is the Marathi word Apaṇa. So again the inscription of the Bṛihatphalāyana Jayavarman uses the expression खंडरुजस for Sanskrit स्कंदरुद्रायस्य which is plainly Marathi. Here we have the Marathi word खंडोबा for स्कंद and the word अज for आर्य is not modern Telagu which uses अय्या but is plainly the parent of the Marathi आजा. The inscriptions lastly of the Pallavas and the Kadambas about this time viz. the first to the 3rd century A. D. are in Prakrit and the representatives of these are plainly the modern Maratha families Pālave and Kadam.

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The Prakrit inscription of the Kadambas on the Malavalli pillar especially leaves no doubt that Mahārāshtri must have been spoken so far south as the northern part of the present state of Mysore. On this inscription Mr. Rice at page 6 of his introduction to the Ep. Karna. Vol. VII observes: "From the script, style and situation of this inscription and the relationship of the donee, it is evidently not removed very far in time from the first inscription of Sātakarṇi which precedes it. I have therefore marked its date as 250 A. D. The Prakrit employed is the Mahārāshtarī form, and Dr. Buhler considered the inscription as evidence that this was already at that time a cultivated language in the south." Thus inscriptions indubitably prove that the Mahārāshtri in a cultivated form was spoken in the country now the home of Kanarese. This is not to be wondered at as this part of the country was ruled by Mahārathis in the days of the Sātakarṇis and the Kadambas. Even coins bearing the legend in Prakrit सडकण कळळाय महारठिस have been found in the west of Chitaldurg Mysore State. Not only this, tradition as recorded in the Harivamśa shows that the kingdom of Banavāsi was originally founded by a son of Yadu from a Nāga wife and Banavasi is described in the Harivamśa as situated in a forest with red soil about it Banavasi is plainly the modern Kanarese country. Thus the country was settled by Mahārathis and was ruled by Mahārathis down to the days of Kadambas. It seems probable that after their rule the language changed into Kanarese under the rule of the Gangas.

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All these facts are also admitted and recorded by V. Kanakasabhai in his "Tamils 1800 years ago." At page 29 he observes that the northern limit of Tamilicam was on the east Verkadu or Pulikat and that beyond was the country of the Vadukas. The King of Erami Nadu was also called the chief of the Vadukars. It is evident therefore that at this early period the people north of Tirupati and those who resided in Mysore (north) spoke one and the same language Vaduki. The Kanarese and the Āndhras thus in those ancient days spoke according to our view a northern language which was Mahārāshtri and were also related to the Mahārathis of the Deccan. The Nāyaks and the Reddis are descended from ancestors allied in race and language to the ancestors of the Marathas. The name Vadukar is even now applied to these and though Dr. Caldwell says that Vaduki meant old Telagu, the older language of the Vadukars and the Āndhras must have been an Aryan language. Mr. S. Krishnasvami Aiyangar expresses his opinion in connection with this subject as follows: "I have no doubt that the Āndhras of the Mahāraṭṭa country were spoken of by the Tamils as Aryans. That would only confirm the present day notion that the language Marathi is itself called Aryan."

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