மாணிக்கவாசகர் வரலாறும் காலமும் - 1
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by the introduction of the Buddhist, the Jain, and the Brahmanical religions into this country.
This defect might have been removed by a later English work called "Tamil studies' in which the treatment of this period though not full, in correct in many respects; by sadly the merit of it has been detracted by the brahmanical bias and haughtiness which drove the author most unjustifably to stigmatize the whole Tamil people as liars and extol the whole of brahmins as the only truth - telles. Further, the author's mind is prepossessed with a strong desire to attribute the civilization of the Tamils solely to the influence of the Aryans that migrated to the south. For a true, impartial, and sympathietic study of an ancient civilized race as the Tamils, I need hardly say that souch a biased state of mind is quite unfit, In the body of this work, I Have gone fully into a discussion of such malicious views and opinions expressed in 'Tamil Studies' and have exposed their fallacy and shallow reasoning, by drawing parallel pictures of the Tamils's and Aryan's ethical and religious lives. This is done either by quoting my authorities from the literatures of the tow languagesor by referring to the chapter and verse of the works in which they occur and in this way the contrase that have existed from early times between the moral and religious life of the one race and that of the other is set forth, I believe, as clearly as possible.
From such unjust and uncharitable estimates of a nation's life and gross racial prejudices against a highly civilized race, Dr.Krishnaswamy Iyengar's Ancient India,' and 'Some Contributions of South India to Indian Culture' may be regarded as free to a large extent, though not in toto. For, in these too is visible the tendency to attribute to Aryan influence whatever is excellent in the ancient and modern Tamil classics. Of couse, the tendency of the author might have been due either to his brahminicals caste-prejudice or simply to inadvertence to take congnizance of the schemes and methods of government and of the social, moral, philosophical and religious ideas that were common in olden times to the ruling powers and thinkers,
