into the Andhra and the Kalinga countries to the northward
and southward o f . the Godavery; and the whole
comprehended the Fire Northern Sircars, a great portion
of the Nizam’s dominions, all Cuddapah and Bellary, and
the northern part of the i%ower Carnatie^f At'ttte period
of the Mohammedan conquest the greater part of this
region was known by the general designation of Telingana,
and Warangol was the capital of the whole. After the
dissolution of the empire of the Dekhan, Telingana became
an independent state under the designation of Golconda'.'
3. Of the Tami£ Race and LA-NGtrAGE.-^— Dralviradesa^
as we hare seen, comprehends the region through which
the Dravira or. Tamil language and its dialects are spoken,
that is a great part of thé maritime countryïóf -®fefsoutheT-n:
part of the Peninsula.* The Timil, the MalayMam, and
the Tulava, are pröxiiHatè dialëct'S of a langiihge whicMris
often called by Europeans Malabar.J Tamilleft Taniul, or
Tamla, is said to „bé the appellation' of the Sudras ofvthh»
eastern side of Southern India. The proper Tamil «sfspoken
from the southern limits of Telingana-to ^Gape Comorin,
on the coast; and in the "interior the Tamil cóuiitry reachés;
from the shores of Coromandel to the great range of hills,
including the greaterpart" of t ie Barramahal,ffelëm ?IÉfcd
Coimbatorê^<where it is bounded to the west bydhe province
of Malabar. The Tamil; Brahmans 'are' desighkted as Dra-
vida Brahmans.
The ancient Dravira was long divided by^three rival
dynasties famous , in the early history of the Dekhan,
namely, Pandya, Chola, and Chera. The Pandya ruled
over Madura and the southern parts; Chera in the west
united Kanjiam and Salem to the territory of Kerala, on
the coast of Malabar. Chola governed Tanjore and Com-
broconum and the north of Dravira. This includes the
region of the Malayhlma language as well as that of the
proper Tamil. The coast of Malabar is denominated in
the Hindd geographical systems Ker&la. But Kerala
* The Malabar or Malay dim a and the Tulava languages are properly dialects
of the Tamil. The Karnata the Telinga and the Tamil are to be considered as
sister lan guages.
comprehends not only Malabar, which is properly, or in
t^e^.ethnographical sense, .that part of the western coast
of the Dekhan through which ..the Malabar or Malay alarm
language -prevails, „ extending as far northward from Cape
Comorin as .^^piisgram?/but also theK’ succeeding tract
further northward/ called Tulava, throughout which the
Tulava language prevails.* ^Tkei Tulava language is that
err on eo u slyjJ: er m e d Ganara ■ -fiy. the British. - The ancient
region Kerala .extended from Gaukarna round Cape
Comorin-.Jf,.the* riyen..Tambrapame; in Tinneveli. The
p-resejaf English- j^ipyine’e: ef Malabar is but a part of
Kerala, - extending one hundred miles along the coast,
but iGinclud.ea sexnae districts not comprehended in Kerala.
The, countryl^pmsMb?. chiefly of forests, lying along the
skirts^pf the Western Ghauts; it is'excessively hot, contains
an. exuberant vegetation, the, atmosphere being filled
vpth exhalations. The inhabitants Jive scattered in separate
dwellings the, .woods; t there, are but few villages along
the coast.
* The conh'tFy' of the Malay alamos, according to an ancient Sanskrit history
of tfecountny, styled the Kerdl’6tpati,>tM^ig, the;Emerging of Kerala, divided
into four provinces. , The most northern* commencing at Gokarnam and ess
.fending, southward nearly, to Mangalore, is too, Tulu-r&jyam or kingdom of
Tulu: ’ thence nearly1 to dSfilfewaram, i s ' CupaVrajyam’:^|hence to Cannetti,
near CoHam (Qailon) , is Kerala-r&jyam y and thence to Canyacumafi or Cape
Comorin, is Mushica. Malayalma is the language of the two last .provinces.
In Cupum and in Tuhi, which constitute the district ,of late named Canara, the
Tulava, a distinct dialect though cognate with the Malay&lma, prevails among
the Aborigines. Mr. Ellis observes, that the Malay&lma is, like the Codan-
Tamizh, an immediate dialect- of the Shen-Taniizh, or pure Tamil.; j The peculiar
character of the Malayalma which -distinguishes it from all other Tamil
dialects is, that though it is derived from a language superfluously abounding in
verbal fofms, its verbs are entirely devoid ofterminations, the persbn being
marked merely by the pronoun. On the question,—Which of the Tamil dialeets
was the original one ?—Mr. Ellis observes, that the Shen Tamil, abounding in
inflections, is the earliest form of the language. The Shen Tamil probably constitutes
no exception to the remark, that older languages are more complex in
structure and more copious in inflexions than reebnt ones. The Shen Tamil,
from which the Godun Tamil as well as the Malaydlma is derived*.is greatly
superior in .richness of inflections, as of tenses in verbs, and in the artifice of
language, to the other forms of the language. The pure Tamil has a most artificial
and elaborate system of verbal inflections. The Cjodun Tamil wants many
of these, and the Malaydlma rejects altogether the personal terminations.—See
Ellis’s Dissertatidn oh the Malayalma Language, published at Madras.