* தமிழர் மதம்
23
From this state of sexual diversions it is that adultery and its evil consequences spring up and eat away the health, strength, and moral fibre of humanity. But the forefathers of the Tamils seem to have early recognized these evils towards which the strong sexual appetite of their sons tended and sought to remedy it by marrying two or more wives to their sons either at the time of their first love - marriage or subsequent to it. In this way the parents themselves stood foremost in creating facilities for their sons so that they might not go astray when their first wife was confined but might have recourse to their second wife until she too was in child-bed, when he might go to the third and return again to his first when the last was lying in. By this natural means they succeeded not only in keeping up the health and strength of their females and their progeny but also in saving their male descendants from committing criminal and sinful deeds and contracting dreadful venereal diseases.
Prophet Muhammed too seems to have perceived in the strong sexual passion of the males a serious hindrance to a healthy moral life and peace of society and therefore had permitted them to marry from one to four wives as an effective check to their evil tendencies. European travellers who visited Muslim countries were struck with wonder at the absence of adultery among their people and have attributed its absence to the polygamous custom of the Muslims. They have also observed even in countries where monongamy prevails each male having in secret a number of females as concubines. These facts must clearly disclose what a high and wholesome object the Tamilian forefathers must have had in setting up the polygamous custom among their descendants and how nobly they stand as fearless benefactors of their race inspired only by strong and undaunted moral courage.
Then, the section sixteen proceeds to show how far the Tamil parents of old held themselves responsible for the up-bringing of their children and at what limit they supposed that responsibility had ceased. It is expressly stated in the old Tamil classics that the duty of the parents lies in bringing up their children healthily and in righteous ways, in educating them in arts, crafts and sciences, in
