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xii
INTRODUCTION

I can cordially recommend this book as being a readable and generally sound introduction to the study in detail of the history of the South.

The first chapter, 'A Historical Survey up to A.D. 700' is a well-written summary. The hypothesis (p. 17) that the Sakas of Seistan were disturbed and set in motion towards India by pressure from the Sassanian dynasty of Persia established in A.D. 226 may yet be verified. The next three chapters give an excellent general review of the salient facts of early South Indian history so far as known. If the author (p. 67) is correct in saying that the Gurjjaras are mentioned in the Tamil epic poem called Maṇimēkhalai, the composition of that work cannot be much anterior to A.D. 500, inasmuch as the Gurjjaras do not seem to have entered India before the middle of the fifth century. He holds (p. 75) that the epic is earlier than the time of Varahamihira (A.D. 533), because the poet uses a reckoning of the asterisms which was superseded by the improved system of the Hellenizing astronomer.

Many of the essays now collected, I may observe, make valuable contributions to the history and chronology of Indian, and especially of Tamil literature. The older histories of Indian literature were restricted to the discussion of works written in Sanskrit and Prakrit. The ideal history of the vast literature of India should give almost equal attention to the noble works in the Southern languages, among which Tamil is pre-eminent. The translations published by Mr. Gover, Dr. Pope, and a few other scholars suffice to prove the high ethical and artistic value of the Tamil

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