Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/181

L68 THE INDIAN A^TIQUAET. IJvsl. modes described went the * l peculiar distinguish- nuirks impeded upon the vanquished race*.' 1 Tt was regarded as intolerable that the outward and risible sign of Aryan civilization find Hi n i i horn" respectability t-hmild 1» assumed hy vau- 'luidhnJ natumn, mnch less by aboriginal bar- barians. Each of those races, therefore, was inquired to sraume, or to retain, a fashion peeo- j itself, axhihitini,' (a the eye the dJ tivtmess nf it* nationality. The progressiva extension of tin? Aryan uiodu of wearing the 'hair in Southern Indin, in direct opposition both lo the letter and to the spirit of Sftgn rn ' s injunctions, will he- found to confirm and illustrate in a remarkable manner the easrm- tially national, social, or secular character of its origin, Irs history in Southern India is tbo spread of a fashion, uot of a creed* When Pro- fessor Wilson says. " What Oriental people wore their hair long excepi back uf tin* head i* queatioaahk," ho appears not to have* Irnnvrn rhut the -wearing of (he hair long* tied op in H knot at the bock of the haul, nearly after the manner in which women usually wear their hair, was the ancient natural usage of the Dr«. vjiJas, or Tftinilians, and other non. Aryan rncos of Southern India, as well aa of all the <* inhabit in g Ceylon, irrespochVe of their religion* whether orthodox Hindus, Buddhists, I uppers, and that this usage, though i" n great degree Boperaedod by the kud um 1, ka* not jot disappeared. The Brshmniis, and other Aryns who settled in Southern India, brought with them from Che North tho motk- of wearing tho hair, bat tho lamij generally continued, notwithstanding 1 heir ad op- of the religion &£ the Brahmuns, to wear their hair long,, aa appears from old statui-* and pictures and universal tradition, and have only in recent times taken to wearing the k u d tim . If long hair had been a sign of the prc-Brah. manieal faith, and the kudu ml, as it* oppo- nents assort, u sign ofBmdnvcm, ibu progress li in the Tumi] country ought to- run in a purallel line with the progmss of Hm- tin orthodoxy, 1 1 cannot he supposed, hov, that 1 hr> Tamijians of modern times are mom sscatouif or more orthodox Hindus than Lhe people by whom tho great temples in the Karni- taka were erected, 1 1 is impossible, therefore, to e that the grndiuil ahanUiHiimr,; I '.yen tribes of the Tlimil country of tbftf I it mode of wearing the hair, and their tiduption of the k a d u m 3 instead, coo have originated in motive* of religion. It is evident that it is to be connected rather with the iibau- uonmsnt. during tho same period, by tho men of tho higher castes, of the old Tamilian fashion, apparent in all tho old statues, of dragging down the ear* and w curing long pondont earrings, — a fashion which is still retained only in Tinm-v and only by those castes that still retain also thr fashion of wearing their Imir long. Tho V e |j A 1 u s of the present day alme- variably wear the k u d u m I , bat they admit t hut their forcfatheiK, onrtainly not less *eolous Hindus thou themselves, wore Utetrfc The use of the kutlumi has now reached the nttdjU* •werdaosos, but it has not yet by any means EDI ■universal among at least h «»v*lL So ile of each of the n lower castes wear it, and Some do not ; and it is - thai it is amongst snob classes that tho light in which the wciirn | rvgard- Camaj besl ^'ascertained. Ifil k certain, as it is obvious to every one (hat it is, that no dif- ferenoe is made between peopfa « hair and pwplv of tho same caste with kutjumis as regards admission to tho temples and rdigioas priviloge*, and that thoso who bare not jtf. adopted the k u d ti m 1 am as Kcalons for Hinduism as those who hove, it is difficult to ■•iv "id coming to t lie conclusion that the argu- incut is at an end. The condition of thing* in theMnruvfir caste, the eaate to whirl, the mndail Pilndya. kings of AladurA are said tr> hnvo belonged, supplies us with n good OhistrHton. Sonto of m wear the k tt^nm i t and othem, J think a majority, do not; bat the difference between the two classes is not one of religion, or even of cask. It make* merely a differon boo- on. The kudu m , which wm ori- ginally a sign of Aryan nationality and then of Aryan respectability, has rome l«  m regarded as a sign of respeHnliiJi ry b genomf, and banns, whihrt the poorer Milruv&rs gfluWIy wmr their hair long, the wealthier members ot oast* generally wear I he kn da ml I am soually aoi|nainted with mmUks of Ehig cast*, some panwiis belonging to which wear tho k u «lu m i , and Others reUiin the more an, nhibri r,H f tliem oonUnnu hcathemi alike. I inquired of the ZamindAr of Um-