in the districts of Arcot, Chingleput and Tanjore where the Eyina tribe had formerly lived and where numberless cromlechs and kistvaens abound to this very day. The term Paraiyan as a caste, or more correctly an occupational, name first occurs in a poem of Mangudi Kilar, second century A. D.
துடியன் பாணன் பறையன் கடம்பனென்
றிந்நான் கல்லது குடியுமில்லை.—Pur.
Here 'Tudiyan' means one who plays on the Tudi or a kind of drum peculiar to the hill or jungle tribe; Panan' is a minstrel ; ‘Paraiyan' is a drummer ; and ‘Kadamban’ is a hill man. All these are occupational names and seem to refer to four sections of the Kurinji (hill) or Palai (jungle) tribes. Besides this casual reference, we do not find the name Paraiyan mentioned either in early Tamil literature or in the inscriptions, until we come down to the time of the great Rajaraja Chola (A. D. 1013), from which period it evidently obtained currency as a caste denomination. It is commonly derived from parai, a drum by Dr. Caldwell and native writers. This etymology though plausible and tempting seems unsatisfactory, as it is inconceivable that the beating of drums could be the occupation of nearly two and a half millions of labourers, while the Murasu or the drum-beating section of that comprehensive caste forms only 1120th part of it. The more accurate derivation seems to be that of Col. Cunningham, M. Letourneau and Dr. Oppert from the Sanskrit bahariya, a hill man, or from Tamil Poraian, which
