tribes,[1] forming an advanced section of, or closely allied to, the Eyivas of the Tamil country.
(1) The Dharma Sastras, a social code common to all Hindus, assign no place to the Kammalas in the Hindu caste system, purely because they stood out of the Aryan pale ; and this fact has been clearly brought out by the author of the Ramayana. Further, it is said that the artisans were supplied by the mixed classes—a theory strongly confirmed by the ancient decision already quoted.
(2) It is generally supposed, even in Upper India, that all the artisan castes and weavers were begotten of a Sudra woman by the celestial architect Visvakarma, from whom also the Kolis of the United-Provinces, a weaver caste allied to the Koliya Paraiyans of Madras, trace their descent. ‘They worship Sakti and village deities and are, as a rule, considered undesirable neighbours in a village.'
(3) Tamil inscriptions prove that as late as A. D. 1013 the Kammalas were regarded as a polluting caste like the Izhuvans and Paraivans and were not allowed to live within the villages, or to blow conches and beat drums on the marriage and funeral occasions, or to plaster their houses with mud or chunam, or even to wear shoes. And it appears that
- ↑ With this compare what Mr. Charles Johnston, I. C. S. says on the subject: 'It is probable that among them [black Dravidians] first grew up the system of trade guilds which gradually developed into hereditary caste of artisans and craftsmen, the chief of which are the workers in gold, brass, iron, stone and wood', The black Dravidians' are our Nagas.
