in the following pages. So much for the Rakshasa ancestors of our non-Aryan friends.
We shall now enquire who the Vanara or monkey allies of Rama were. Even the early Tamils of the second or third century believed that they were actually monkeys. A poet of that period has said,—
(c) கடுந்தேரி ராமனுடன் புணர்சீதையை
வலித்தகை யரக்கன் வெளவியஞான்றை
நிலஞ்சேர்ம தாணிகண்ட குரங்கின்
செம்முகப் பெருங்கிளை.—Pur.
In reality they were not monkeys, but only an aboriginal race, dark complexioned, short statured, but strong and of monkey-like appearance like the Negritos. They lived upon roots and fruits; and they used only stones and clubs in their fights with the Rakshasas whom they always disliked. This description of the Vanaras leads us to infer that they should have been the ancestors of the modern hill and forest tribes like the Malasars, Soligas, Paliyas, Kadars and the Irulas. We have said before that these hill and forest tribes had their own kings like Vali and Sugriva, the monkey chieftains of the Ramayana.
All that we have discussed in the preceding pages may be summarized thus. The present population of the Tamil districts is composed of four distinct races, namely (1) the Negritos, (2) a mixed leiotrichi race allied to the Veddahs of Ceylon and the aborigines of Australasia, whom, for the sake of brevity, we may call the Nagas, (3) the Dravidian race, and (4) the Aryans. The first two-the Vanaras and the Rakshasas
