History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c16.s5.6

v1.c16.s5.6

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.