avenues in the civilization of mankind. But this is ton ambi- tlous a project for the present writer who bas to remain contented with the study of the costumes of Tamils, an illustrions race which is at once complex and unsophisticated, highly cultured and primitive, extraordinarily valorous and yet incredibly gentle and soft. An attempt to gain some insight of the cultural pattern of this people has had to be made only on the basis of the evidences we find in their literature, sculpture and palating since there is no concrete historical evidence. This is especially so with the Cagkam Tamils, a people who lived, as their lite- ratures passionately illustrate, an exemplary life at the dawn of the Casuan era and even before. But art is not a figment of imagination nor is it the offspring of a neurotic' mind. It is the product of the living experiences of a member of the society, its unique spokesman, its "unacknowledged legislator. He is different from the historian in the sense that he is an inseparable blend of a historian, a bard (a creator), and a prophet. The sense of history in poetry is masked by prophecy and creation". no doubt, but it is only masked, never destroyed. A learned and skilful critic can unearth it and reconstructure the cultural facets of the people represented in the given work of art.
