MADURA AND TRICHINOPOLY.
Arrive at Madura--Peopling of India--The Dravidian race--Brahmin
colonists in Southern India--Foundation of Madura--Pandyan
dynasty--Tamil literature--Aghastya--Naik dynasty--The Madura
Pagoda--The Sangattar--The Choultry--Tirumalla Naik's palace--Caste
prejudices--Trichinopoly--Coleroon anicut--Rice cultivation--The
palmyra palm--Caroor--Return to the Neilgherries--Shervaroy
hills--Courtallum.
THE road from the foot of the Pulney hills to Madura, a distance of
upwards of forty miles, is very bad, but it passes through avenues of
shady banyan and peepul trees most of the way, and is, therefore, not
so wearisome for the natives on foot, as for a European jolting at the
rate of three miles an hour in a bullock-cart without springs.
Near Madura there are tracts of rice cultivation, plantain groves, and
topes of palm-trees; and at sunrise I came in sight of the _gopurams_
or towers of the great pagoda, rising above thick groves of palmyra
palms, with a foreground of bright green paddy-fields. The city is
very interesting from its remarkable palaces and temples, as the
capital of a once powerful kingdom, and as the ancient centre of Tamil
civilization: and a few words respecting the former history of this
part of India appear necessary before describing the pagoda, and other
architectural remains of the former greatness of Madura.
Tradition relates that in the most ancient times the country from the
mouths of the Godavery to Cape Comorin was one vast forest. Here the
great Aryan hero Rama is said to have resided during his exile, with
his wife Sita, and here he commenced his wars against the Rakshasas
or fiends, who divided with hermits and sages the possession of the
wilderness. The simple truth probably is that these "fiends" were the
original inhabitants of Southern India, which was called Dravida Desa,
and that Rama was the first Hindu invader. Dravida denotes the country
of the Dravidas, who are described in Sanscrit writings as men of an
outcast tribe, descended from degraded Kshatriyas.
The history of the early peopling of India, by its various races,
is involved in much obscurity; and the little light which has been
thrown upon it is chiefly derived from a comparison of languages. The
prevailing opinion is that India was originally inhabited by a people
whose remains are to be found in the Koles, Sontals, Bheels, and other
wild hill tribes; that the Dravidians, a Scythic people, came from the
north, settled in Hindustan, and drove the aborigines into the hills
and fastnesses; that in their turn the Dravidians were driven across
the Vindhya mountains by another Scythic race, and became the ancestors
of the present population of Southern India; and that finally the Aryan
race, with its Vedic civilization, brought this pre-Aryan Scythic race
under subjection, and formed it into the servile Sudra caste.
Thus the Dravidian people of Southern India were of Scythic origin,
and they spoke a language from which the four modern ones of the
Madras Presidency, Tamil, Telugu, Canarese, and Malayalam,[438] are
derived. These are all grouped as Dravidian languages, and their source
is no longer a matter of doubt. It was formerly supposed that they
were Aryan, from the great number of apparently Indo-Germanic roots;
but it is now known, from the structure of their grammar, that they
belong to the great Turanian or Scythic group of tongues. Mr. Caldwell
considers that the Scythian family to which they are most closely
allied is the Finnish or Ugrian;[439] and in this view Professor Max
Müller concurs with him.[440] The ancient Dravidian religion, before
the people were converted to the belief taught in the Puranas, also
favours Mr. Caldwell's view. If we may judge from the creed which still
lingers in Tinnevelly and other districts, it consisted in the worship
of evil spirits by means of bloody sacrifices and frantic dances,
while a Supreme Being was acknowledged but not venerated, and there
was no trace of worship of the elements. In these respects it closely
resembled the Shamanism of the Scythic races of High Asia.
It is tolerably certain that the Dravidian races had attained to some
degree of civilization before the Aryans appeared in their country,
and, with a system of castes, introduced the worship of Vishnu and
Siva. One evidence of the ancient civilization of the Dravidians is
that they possessed a system of numerals up to 1000, essentially the
same in all the four languages; though in counting above 1000 they make
use of Sanscrit numerals. From the existence of these native numerals
among the Dravidian nations, Mr. Crawford draws the inference that
these people must have attained a considerable measure of civilization
before they adopted the Hinduism of the north, and hence stood in no
need of foreign numerals.[441]
From the time of Rama, who appears to have been assisted in his
invasion of Lanka (Ceylon) by a Dravidian chief, now deified as the
monkey God Hanuman, the influence of Hinduism rapidly increased, and
caste prejudices spread over Southern India. But the annals are far too
obscure, and too deeply buried under extravagant fable, to enable us to
form any idea of the time and manner of the complete inoculation of the
Dravidian races with Brahminical legends, caste observances, and Hindu
religious ideas. It is clear, however, that "to the early Brahminical
colonists the Dravidians are indebted for the higher arts of life, and
the first elements of literary culture."[442]
The Brahmins came to Southern India not as conquerors, but as peaceful
settlers and instructors; and their influence was obtained through
their superior civilization and learning. They gave the name of Sudra
to all the upper and middle classes of native Dravidians, while the
servile classes were not, as in Hindustan, called Sudras, but Pariars.
Thus, while in the north a Sudra is a low-caste man, in the south he
ranks next to a Brahmin.
It is said that, after the avatur of Rama, pilgrims came in great
numbers to visit the scenes of his triumphs, and, settling in the
country, cleared land for cultivation, and laid the foundations of
future principalities. One of these settlers was a man named Pandya,
of the Vellaler or agricultural caste, who established himself in
the south; and his descendant Kula Sekhara, son of Sampanna Pandya,
was the first king of Madura. Some centuries elapsed, probably five,
before the foundation of the city of Madura, during which the settlers
were occupied in clearing the ground, and forming themselves into an
organized state; and it has been conjectured that the building of the
capital was commenced between 500 and 600 B.C. Previously the kings of
the Pandyan dynasty resided at a place called Kurkhi.[443]
Another tradition states that a merchant lost his way in the forests,
and discovered an ancient temple dedicated to Siva and his wife Durga,
which had been erected by the God Indra. The merchant was directed by
the God to announce to the Pandyan king, named Kula Sekhara, that it
was the will of Siva that a city should be erected on the spot. Kula
Sekhara, therefore, cleared the forest, rebuilt the temple, and founded
a city. On the completion of the work a shower of nectareal dew fell
from heaven, spreading a sweet film on the ground, and hence the name
of _Madura_ (sweet).[444]
The wife of Siva became incarnate as the daughter and successor of this
prince, under the name of Minakshi; and Siva himself as Sundara, or the
handsome, was her mortal husband. Thus the Pandyan kings, like many
of the dynasties of ancient Greece, placed their gods at the head of
their genealogical tree. The immigration of a colony of Aryan Brahmins
from Magadha into the Madura country, and the commencement of Tamil
civilization and literature, have been placed, by Mr. Caldwell and
others, in about the seventh century B.C.
At the Christian æra the kings of Madura were very powerful, and had
extended their dominions over the whole of the peninsula. They sent two
embassies to Rome--the first in the eighteenth year after the death of
Julius Cæsar, which found the Emperor Augustus at Tarragona; and the
second six years later, when he was at Samos.[445] Subsequently the
kingdom was reduced in size by the independence of Malabar, the rise
of Chira in the west, of the state of Chola in the east, and of Ramnad
in the south.[446] A long list of kings is mentioned in the native
annals, with numerous wars, first against the Buddhists, and afterwards
with the Rajahs of Chola and Ramnad.
The most flourishing period of Madura history appears to have been
during the reigns of Vamsa Sekhara and his son Vamsa Churamani, in
about 200 A.D. They erected grand temples and palaces, and the more
ancient and massive parts of edifices still in existence probably
date from their reigns. A college, called _Sangattar_, was founded
at Madura, at this time, for the cultivation of the Tamil language
and literature.[447] The first stimulus was given to this movement
by the famous _Rishi_ or sage, Aghastya, the leader of a colony of
Brahmins, whose migration to the south is mentioned in the Ramayana.
He was a chief agent in diffusing the worship of Siva in the Deccan;
and it is supposed that there was a second man of learning of the
same name in the eighth or ninth century. Aghastya is said to have
been the offspring of two gods, Mithra and Varuna, and he received
the Brahminical string from seven holy prophets. He became a most
wonderful and enlightened personage, and composed works on medicine,
moral and natural philosophy, and botany, in high Tamil verse, called
_Yellacanum_, greatly improving and refining his adopted language.
Aghastya's memory is deeply venerated by the Tamil people, and his
healing spirit is still believed to hover amongst the mountains
of Courtallum, in Tinnevelly;[448] where he is worshipped as
_Agast-isvara_, or the star Canopus.
From the ninth to the tenth centuries the Jain religion predominated
in Madura. The Jains were animated by a national and anti-Brahminical
feeling, and it is chiefly to them that Tamil is indebted for its high
culture and independence of Sanscrit. They were expelled in the reign
of Sundara Pandya, at about the time when Marco Polo visited India.
The Mohammedans first made an inroad into the Deccan in the reign of
Alla-ud-deen of Delhi in 1293, they crossed the Kistna in 1310, and
advanced as far as Rameswara in 1374.
After reigning for many centuries the Pandyan dynasty became tributary
to the powerful Brahminical kingdom of Bijayanuggur in Mysore,
in about 1380 A.D. A list of more than seventy kings is given in
the annals.[449] But in the fifteenth century an officer of the
Bijayanuggur Rajah, named Nagama Naik, was installed as feudatory
King of Madura, and founded the Naik dynasty. He procured the cession
of Trichinopoly from the Chola Rajah, and his son Viswanath Naik
distributed the district of Tinnevelly amongst his adherents of
the Totia caste, the ancestors of the Poligars of Tinnevelly. His
descendant Tirumalla Naik, who succeeded in 1623 A.D., had a long
and flourishing reign, and public edifices still furnish splendid
proofs of his wealth and magnificence. He died in 1657 A.D.; and the
Naik dynasty, which came to an end in 1730 A.D.,[450] was followed by
obscure feudatories of the Nawabs of the Carnatic, who eventually made
way for British rule.
I went early one morning, with Mr. Levinge the Collector, to visit the
great pagoda of Madura, some of the oldest parts of which date from
the reigns of Pandyan kings in the eighth century. It covers twenty
acres of ground, and is surrounded by a high stone wall painted in red
and white stripes, the Hindoo holy colours. The walls form a perfect
square, and in the centre of each side there is a lofty _gopuram_ or
tower. These towers are broad, solid, and very lofty masses of brick,
in the form of a truncated pyramid. From the base to the summit they
are one mass of sculptured figures, representing all the gods in Hindu
mythology, rising tier above tier to the summit, and decreasing in size
with the height. Each end of the top of the _gopuram_ is ornamented
by a fan-shaped structure of brick-work, representing the hood of a
cobra. We entered the pagoda by a gateway in the left corner of the
wall facing the great _choultry_ built by Tirumalla Naik. Here the
warden of the pagoda was waiting for us, who had arrived just before in
his palkee. He is of Sudra caste, a man advanced in years, and of much
reputed holiness; and he received us in a state of nudity, with the
exception of a yellow gauze scarf, his belly, chest, and forehead being
smeared with holy ashes. A crowd of Brahmins accompanied us.
A long corridor leads from the entrance to the cloister, with a roof
supported by stone pillars, between which elephants were stationed,
gaudily painted and caparisoned. The cloister is the finest part of
the interior of the pagoda. The walls are covered with paintings
representing the marvellous adventures of Krishna, and the pillars
supporting the roof of the galleries are roughly carved. The central
space is occupied by "the tank of the golden lotus," with very dirty
green water, and stone steps leading down from the cloister. The view
from one corner of this tank is very striking; with green stagnant
water as a foreground, rows of fantastically-carved pillars supporting
the gallery on the opposite side, with the lofty _gopurams_ in the
rear, rising as it were from the graceful fronds of cocoanut-trees
which waved over the roof of the cloisters. Sacred monkeys were running
about in all directions over the roofs.
The _Sangattar_ or literary college of Madura held its sittings in
this cloister; and Siva is said to have presented it with a diamond
bench which extended itself readily for such persons as were worthy to
be on a level with the sages of the _Sangattar_, and excluded all who
tried to sit on it without possessing the necessary qualifications.
In other words, the learned corporation of Madura maintained a strict
and exclusive monopoly. One day a man of the Pariar or lowest caste,
named Tiruvallavar, appeared as a candidate for a seat on the bench of
_Sangattar_ professors. The sages were indignant at his presumption,
but, as he was patronized by the Rajah, they were obliged to give his
book a trial. It was to find a place on the bench, which the professors
took care to occupy fully. But the miraculous bench extended itself
to receive the book, which expanded and thrust all the sages off into
"the tank of the golden lotus," and the _Sangattar_ was abolished. This
took place in about the ninth century, and the work of Tiruvallavar,
called _kural_, and consisting of 1330 aphorisms, still exists, and
is the oldest extant work in Tamil literature. Though rejected by the
_Sangattar_, on account of the low caste of its author, it was received
by the Rajah and people; and the college was abolished, or perhaps
dissolved itself from mortification at this defeat.
In a corner of the cloister is the entrance to one of the _gopurams_,
and we went up to the top. Holding on by the cobra's hood which crowns
the tower, there was an extensive view of the town of Madura and
surrounding country, with its bright green rice cultivation, groves of
palmyra-palms, broad expanses of water, isolated masses of rock, and
the Pulney hills in the far distance.
We passed from the cloister, and walked round the corridors which
surround the holy of holies containing the _Sokalinga_, the sacred
emblem of the God Siva, which no one but a Brahmin can enter; and the
temple of Minakshi, his fish-eyed wife. The pillars in these corridors
are curiously carved in the form of dancing-girls, elephant-headed
Gods, Sivas, and bulls. Here I was decorated with garlands of flowers
by the warden of the temple, and I saw that there was a flower-garden
in a small enclosure near the cloister, to supply offerings of flowers
for the ceremonial worship in the temple. In the Hindu religion
bright-coloured or fragrant flowers take a prominent place as offerings
to the gods. The arrows of Kama, the God of Love, were tipped with
five flowers:[451] the _asoka_ (_Jonesia pinnata_), a beautiful
flower diversified with orange, scarlet, and bright-yellow tints, is
consecrated to Siva; the lotus-flower, called _kamata_ or _padma_,
to Vishnu and his wife Lakshmi; a sweet-scented jasmine (_Jasminum
undulatum_) to Vishnu, and Mariama the Goddess of Pariars; the superb
crimson _Ixora Bandhuca_ is offered at the shrines of Vishnu and Siva;
and the _Nauclea Cadumba_, a stately tree, yields the holiest flower in
India.[452] In an angle of one of the corridors all the jewels of the
temple were spread out on a table for our inspection, and we sat down
before them, by the side of the old warden. It was a truly magnificent
display of wealth; and it was impossible not to feel that there must
be deep faith and conviction in a religion which induces men to go
about naked and in ashes, and to devote tens of thousands of rupees
to ornament the mystic emblems of their Gods. I particularly noticed
some sapphires of extraordinary size and brilliancy; the cover of the
_lingam_, a cylinder of pure gold, four feet high, encrusted with
pearls and rubies; the golden sceptre of Siva, three feet long, and one
mass of rubies; the golden shoes and gauntlets of Siva and Minakshi,
inlaid with rubies, emeralds, and pearls; the head-dress of Minakshi of
gold Trichinopoly-work, adorned with pearls and rubies, with enormous
emeralds hanging from it; her playthings, consisting of golden birds
overlaid with rubies and emeralds; and necklaces and bracelets covered
with jewels of priceless value. There was also a costly gold chain
presented by Mr. Peters, a former Collector, and another which had
lately arrived from Agra, in an anonymous letter addressed to the
pagoda.
From this corridor I was able to peep down a dark passage at the end of
which there were some dim lights surrounding the sacred _Soka-linga_,
but I could not distinguish anything. The warden told us that it was
a piece of solid rock cropping out of the ground, and cut into the
shape of a cylinder, with a rounded top, as the mysterious emblem of
Siva, the God of reproduction. Its roots are said to be in the centre
of the earth, and to have been there since the creation. The Pandyan
kings, when they were dying, were taken into the innermost sanctuary
of Siva's temple, to expire and be united with their God. Parallel with
this holy of holies dedicated to the worship of Siva, in the form of
his mystic emblem, is the temple of his wife Parvati, here better known
as Minakshi, or the fish-eyed.
We then went into the hall of the thousand pillars, which are carved
into the shape of gods or dancing-girls, and support a flat stone
roof. Here some nautch-girls came dancing before us in silk trousers,
long tunics, golden headdresses, and rings on their ears, noses, and
toes; as we walked down the long vistas of pillars. Their motions are
stiff and without grace, like the contortions of galvanized corpses,
and they are generally very ugly, with black teeth. I was glad when
they relieved us of their disgusting presence, as we were shown into
a chamber near the outer door, where the horses and bulls used in the
great processions are kept. These are made of solid silver, ornamented
with precious stones, and on festivals the God and Goddess are mounted
on them, and carried round the town.
This great pagoda is very richly endowed, and is one of the most famous
in Southern India. It was originally, and for several centuries,
the centre of Tamil civilization, and it is a very characteristic
specimen of Hindu architecture. All originality and intellectual
vigour has disappeared from amongst the Tamil people, under the
blighting influence of foreign domination, but their devotional feeling
appears to have survived; together with respect and veneration for
the doctrines and aphorisms of their classic sages, among the more
educated. Aghastya stands at the head of the Tamil authors, and the
following confession of faith, in the _Njana-nuru_ is attributed to
him:--
"Worship thou the light of the Universe, who is One:
Who made the world in a moment, and placed good men in it;
Who afterwards himself dawned upon the earth as a Guru;
Who, without wife or family, as a hermit performed austerities;
Who, appointing loving sages to succeed him,
Departed again into Heaven:--worship Him."[453]
We left the pagoda by a corridor leading through one of the _gopurams_
into the street, immediately in front of the great choultry erected
by Tirumalla Naik. It consists of an immense hall of granite, 300
feet long by 80, supported by upwards of a hundred pillars of the
same stone, elaborately carved, and about thirty feet high. One of
them is formed of a single block of granite. Figures of the Madura
kings of the Naik dynasty are carved on these pillars, amongst whom is
Tirumalla Naik, the founder of the edifice. One curious group of carved
figures represents a tradition of the old Pandyan times. It is related
that a rich farmer, living near Madura, had twelve sons, who passed
their time in the chace. A wild hog once attacked them, killed some,
and chased the rest to the vicinity of a sage engaged in meditation.
The angry ascetic cursed them, declaring that, in their future life,
they should be hogs themselves. They were born again as porkers, but
Minakshi took pity on them, officiated as their nurse, and they became
men with pig's heads, in which capacity they are sculptured on one of
the pillars of the choultry. The pig-headed brethren were taught the
arts and sciences, and were eventually advanced to the ministerial
administration of the affairs of the Pandyan kingdom. The choultry
was originally built as a magnificent approach to the temple, and to
receive the image of the God Siva for ten days every year. It was
crowded with people, and the spaces between the pillars were occupied
by traders selling silks and cotton-cloths, turbans, bags for betel,
and trinkets.
Next to the great pagoda and the choultry, the most interesting
architectural remains of the former grandeur of Madura are the ruins
of the palace of Tirumalla Naik. They consist of a large quadrangular
court, now roofless,[454] but apparently once covered over, with side
aisles supported by massive stone pillars, rendered almost double their
original size by a thick coating of _chunam_, or lime made with pounded
sea-shells, which takes a very fine polish, like marble. These columns
are exceedingly handsome, and their capitals bear evidence of Italian
design.[455] They are in double rows, and the roof of the aisles is
most elaborately carved with mythological figures, originally painted
in bright colours. Numerous green paroquets were screaming and flying
about near the roof. At the end of this splendid court, opposite the
street entrance, there is a broad flight of steps leading up to an
inner hall, where columns of the same massive character support a
richly carved roof. The whole building has an exceedingly imposing
effect, and in the sombre melancholy of its decay it gives a grand idea
of the former civilization of the Tamil people; but as the English
Judge now holds his court in a portion of the ruins, we must not say,
with the Persian poet,--
"The spider now weaves its web in the palace of Cæsar,
The owl stands sentinel on the watch-tower of Afrasiab."
Tirumalla Naik also constructed a great tank, about a mile outside the
town, said to be the finest in Southern India. It is an exact square,
with sides 300 yards long faced with granite, and flights of steps down
to the water, at intervals. In the centre there is a square island,
rising in broad flights of steps from the water, and covered with a
grove of trees, above which rises the tall tower of a pagoda.
The town of Madura, situated on the banks of the river Vaigay, contains
about 50,000 inhabitants. It is by far the cleanest and best built city
that I saw in India, with fine broad streets, and houses with tiled
roofs extending far beyond the walls, so as to form verandahs supported
by poles. Here and there a house with an upper story, belonging to some
wealthy citizen, rose above the rest; and in the bazars there was a
strong sickly smell of spices. Madura is indebted, for its superiority
over other Indian towns, to Mr. Blackburn, a former Collector, and the
inhabitants have erected a lamp on a tall pedestal to his memory.
On the day of my visit to the pagoda, the streets were densely crowded,
the women were decked out in all their finery, and those of the
Brahmin caste had their faces hideously stained with saffron. It was
a festival in honour of some cow or other, who had been turned into a
rock, through the excess of her love for _Nandi_, the bull on which
the God Siva rides. The religious feelings of the people are displayed
in these festivals, and whether they worship and venerate the stone
or wooden image, or the attributes of God-like virtue and wisdom
which the emblems connected with the image are intended to represent,
my observations led me to believe that, in all classes, there was a
display of most undoubted sincerity. In connection with their religious
observances, the people of Southern India feel very strongly on the
subject of caste distinctions. The Brahmins are fair skinned, of Aryan
descent, and comparatively strangers, having been barely a thousand
years in the country.[456] Next come the _Sudras_, who represent the
upper classes of the Tamil race. The _Vellaler_ or agricultural caste
comes next, and then the _Maravar_ and _Kallar_, or robber castes. The
Prince of Ramnad, who is hereditary guardian of Rama's bridge, belongs
to the Maravars, and the Rajah of Tondiman to the Kallars. Below the
robber castes are the _Shanars_ or toddy-drawers, who are free and
proprietors of land; then the _Pariars_[457] and chucklers or slaves;
then the _Korawars_ or vagrant basket-makers, and last of all the
shoemakers and low-caste washermen.
The higher castes had recently been outraged by the Shanars having
been allowed to go in procession along the road, on the occasion of
a marriage at Arpucaté, a populous mercantile town in the Madura
district. This was done in defiance of all ancient customs and usages
connected with caste, which are clearly defined and acknowledged by
all classes of Hindus. The high-caste people defend their feeling of
exclusiveness by urging that the Shanars and Pariars are guilty of
one or other of the five great sins, namely, killing the sacred cow,
theft, drunkenness, adultery, and lying: for that the Shanars draw
toddy, and the Pariars eat meat. They claim for immemorial custom the
same authority that is given in England to common law, and declare
that the Shanars never had the right of parading the streets in
procession, with music and flags. In considering this question it
should not be forgotten that the Shanars and other low castes will no
more allow a man of still lower caste to overstep his privileges by one
hair's breadth than will a Sudra or a Brahmin. Even the Pariars are a
well-defined, distinct, and ancient caste, jealous of the encroachments
of the castes both above and below them: they have strong caste
feelings, and treat the caste of shoemakers with contempt.[458] Thus,
if the Shanars and Pariars insist upon their own caste privileges, it
is difficult to see why they should be permitted to infringe upon those
of the castes above them; and it would seem that a feeling of content
and satisfaction with our rule would be best promoted by ensuring to
all classes of the community the exclusive enjoyment of their own
peculiar usages and privileges.
Caste is one among many instances of the peculiar exaggerations
in which the Hindu mind loves to indulge. The social distinctions
which prevail in other countries are represented in India by this
institution, in which those distinctions are, not altogether
illogically, carried to an extreme point. Caste may be modified
and rendered less harsh in its general outline; but it will never
cease to exist. The Protestant missionaries, of course, declare war
to the knife against it, as a system of falsehood and deceit, and
an absurdity contrary both to reason and revelation. This may be
true, as well as that Brahmins get drunk, and eat asafœtida-cakes in
which buffalo flesh forms an ingredient, without losing their caste;
but missionary denunciations of caste absurdity, and exposures of
Brahminical irregularities, are not likely to make the slightest
impression on the minds of a people with whom caste distinctions are
hallowed by immemorial usage, and bound up in every act of their lives.
The favourite missionary receipt is, therefore, to deprive Brahmins
of their _Enam_ or rent-free lands, to induce Government entirely to
disavow caste, to put an end to all caste distinctions in jails, and
to raise the Pariars and Chucklers from their degradation.[459] A very
summary plan no doubt, but as impracticable as it would be impolitic
and unjust.
After a most delightful visit at Madura, I started for Trichinopoly
late one night, and found the road so execrable in some places, that it
was necessary to go off into the fields, and make a long circuit. The
country between Madura and Trichinopoly is chiefly cultivated with dry
grain, but there are occasional patches of rice. Ranges of rocky hills
intersect the plain, covered with underwood and low trees, which the
natives are allowed to use for firewood, but, when they carry it off
for sale, in cart-loads, there is a small duty. I walked most of the
distance under the shade of the peepul and banyan-trees which line the
road, and reached Trichinopoly after a journey of a day and two nights.
Trichinopoly is a large military station, and the European houses,
therefore, are very numerous, and occupy a considerable space, as they
are generally surrounded by large parks or compounds. A bridge over a
small tributary of the Cauvery leads to the bazar and native town; and
the view from the bridge is very pretty, with cocoanut-trees and bushes
coming down to the water's edge, and houses embosomed in trees, whence
flights of steps lead down into the water. Beyond the bridge there is a
picturesque mosque of white stone, and the bazar, a long street leading
to the principal part of the town, in the centre of which the famous
rock of Trichinopoly rises up abruptly. Brahmins and other traders
were sitting in their shops, before piles of earthenware and copper
chatties, cotton cloths, and numerous kinds of grains and pulses in
baskets. The rock is a mass of granite, 400 feet high, crowned by a
small Hindu temple; the ascent is cut in steps out of the solid rock,
and from the summit there is a most extensive view, including the city,
the fine bridges over the Coleroon and Cauvery, the _gopurams_ of the
great pagoda of Seringam on an island in the river, and a vast expanse
of rice cultivation and palm-groves, with Tanjore on the distant
horizon. The native town contains several large handsome houses
belonging to Mohammedans, and the ruins of the palace of the Nawabs of
the Carnatic.
Through the kindness of Mr. McDonnell, the Collector, I was enabled to
pass a very interesting day at the Upper Coleroon _anicut_. Passing
the base of the rock of Trichinopoly, and following the main street
of the native town, the banks of the river Cauvery are reached, where
there are rows of stone temples and houses with open corridors, whence
flights of steps lead down into the water. Near the river there is a
tank filled with red and white lotus-flowers. A handsome stone bridge
spans the Cauvery, and another of equal length crosses the Coleroon,
about a mile further on. The two rivers form an island, and unite a few
miles lower down; and the upper _anicut_ is about fourteen miles up the
river, where Mr. McDonnell had a comfortable bungalow on the banks,
shaded by lofty trees.
The Upper Coleroon _anicut_ or weir is constructed at the west end
of the island of Seringam, which is formed by the separation of the
Cauvery into two branches, namely the Coleroon on the north, and the
Cauvery on the south. Formerly the bed of the Coleroon was continually
deepening, while that of the Cauvery was rising, so that there was much
difficulty in obtaining a sufficient supply of water for the irrigation
of the rice-fields of Tanjore. The upper _anicut_, commenced by Colonel
Cotton in 1836, and finished in 1850, completely answered the purpose
of deepening the bed of the Cauvery, so much so that another weir was
made across that river, sixty miles lower down; and by means of the
second weir, made in 1845, and the under sluices in the upper one, the
water is now effectually kept under command.[460] The upper _anicut_,
which I visited, is broken into three parts by two small islands. The
south part is 282 yards long, the centre 350, and the north 122, the
whole length, including the islands, being 874, and without them 754
yards. The weir is a plain brick wall, plastered with _chunam_, six
feet thick, and seven feet high, the top being lined with masonry. It
is defended from the overfall by masses of rough stone; and there are
twenty-four sluices, which prevent accumulations of sand from forming
above the _anicut_. The sluices are connected by a narrow bridge of
sixty-two arches, to secure access to them during floods, and it
also serves as a means of communication between the banks for foot
passengers. The cost of the work, and of repairs between 1836 and 1850,
was two lacs of rupees, and it assists the irrigation of 600,000 acres,
yielding a revenue of 400,000_l._, or equal to two-thirds of that of
the whole island of Ceylon.
By means of these _anicuts_ the fertile province of Tanjore is
converted into one vast rice-field,[461] and the portion of
Trichinopoly below the upper weir is equally rich. The country to the
north of the road between the _anicut_ and the town of Trichinopoly
was a wide expanse of bright green rice cultivation, stretching to the
horizon. In Southern India there are two annual crops of rice, called
the _caar_ and the _soombah_ or _peshanum_ crops. The former is reaped
in October and is reckoned inferior, and the latter in February and
March. Two crops in the year from the same land do not yield much more
than a single crop, but, owing to the liability of the seasons to fail,
the cultivators rear as much as possible for the first crop. This is
reaped in the rainy season, when the straw cannot be preserved, so that
the second crop must necessarily be sown, for fodder for cattle. Rice
requires rain to ensure the full development of the grain, as well
as irrigation. The seed is sown thick, and then transplanted to the
fields about forty days afterwards; and the fields must be constantly
supplied with water. The stalks when cut are stacked for a few days,
and the grain is then thrashed out by manual labour or cattle, the husk
being separated from the grain with a rice-stamper, generally beaten by
women. In the interval of sowing, the natives often sow the land with
pulse or sesame, the stubble of which is used as manure for the next
rice-crop.
At intervals scattered over the plain, there are groves of cocoanut
and palmyra-palms, like islands in the vast sea of rice-fields, with
small villages built under their shade. As the betel-nut palm is the
most graceful in India, so the palmyra (_Borassus flabelliformis_) is
undoubtedly the ugliest, with its black stem the same size all the way
up, and coarse fan-shaped leaves. It is chiefly from this tree that the
Shanars draw the toddy. The spadix or young flowering branch is cut off
near the top, and an earthenware _chatty_ is tied on the stump, into
which the juice flows. Every morning it is emptied and replaced, the
stump being cut afresh, and so on until the whole is exhausted. Sugar
is also extracted by the same process, the inside of the _chatty_ being
powdered with lime to prevent fermentation, and the juice being boiled
down and dried. The sugar thus obtained is called _jaggery_. The timber
of the palmyra-palm is extensively used for building.
As we drove towards Trichinopoly, with these rice-fields studded with
palm-groves on our right, the tall towers of Seringam[462] appeared
rising above the trees which border the waters of the Cauvery; and near
the town there are large plantain-groves. In leaving Trichinopoly on
the road to the Neilgherries it is necessary to cross a small affluent
of the Cauvery in ferry-boats. Those for foot-passengers are of wicker
covered with hides, and perfectly round, like those which are described
by Herodotus, and are still used on the Tigris and Euphrates. After
jolting all night through endless groves of banyan and peepul trees,
I reached Caroor,[463] the ancient capital of the Chira Rajahs, the
following morning. The Chira state, in the days of its prosperity,
extended over Coimbatore, and part of Mysore and Malabar. Caroor is
a town of some size, in the middle of a plain, through which flows
the river Amaravati, a tributary of the Cauvery. Mr. Roberts, the
Sub-Collector, was living in a curious upper story, on the top of a
pagoda, the entrance to which leads under a tall brick _gopuram_, 86
feet high, 64 feet long at the base, and 52 feet broad, sculptured with
images exactly on the pattern of those at Madura. The country between
Caroor and the foot of the Neilgherries is flat and uninteresting,
chiefly cultivated with _cholum_, _cumboo_, cotton, and a few pulses,
with rice in some places. The road is execrable, and generally lined
with banyan-trees, which, though affording pleasant shade, are ungainly
and ugly, owing to the numerous bunches of dusty-looking roots, which
hang in all directions from the branches. On arriving at Matepoliem
I found a pony waiting, and, riding up the Coonoor ghaut, returned
to Ootacamund. Half-way up the ghaut, at a place called Burlear, Mr.
Thomas, the Collector of Coimbatore, has a small but interesting
garden, containing all kinds of spices, cacao, coffee and tea plants,
besides oranges, lemons, and citrons.
During my tour through the principal Tamil districts I was chiefly
struck with the evidences, furnished by the pagodas of Madura and
Seringam, and the works of Tirumalla Naik, of the great surplus revenue
which was once derived from the land. By the execution of additional
public works, the improvement of means of communication, and judicious
reductions of the land-tax, which will induce the ryots to bring more
waste land under cultivation, much has been effected, but much still
remains to be done, before the country attains the same degree of
prosperity which it appears to have enjoyed in the best days of the
Pandyan and Naik dynasties. Tanjore has probably already reached the
highest state of profitable rice cultivation, through the irrigation
supplied by the Coleroon _anicuts_. But much may yet be done with
regard to the encouragement of the growth of cotton in Coimbatore,
Madura, and Tinnevelly; and hereafter the coffee and chinchona
plantations of the Neilgherry hills, the Pulneys, and the Anamallays
will supply another important source of wealth and prosperity.
To the north of the Cauvery, in the district of Salem, there is a
range of isolated hills, called the Shervaroys, which rise, a few
miles north-east of the town of Salem, into a mass of densely wooded
flat-topped hills. The mean height of the table-land of the Shervaroys,
on their summits, is 4600 feet, and the highest peak rises to 5260
feet. In the Salem district the south-west monsoon sets in early in
June, and showers continue till September; and in the end of October
the north-east monsoon brings a return of rain from the opposite
quarter, which continues until December, when the rains cease, owing
to the change of wind from north-east to due north. There are several
coffee estates on the Shervaroy hills, but they are considered to
be too dry, and, although the coffee produced is said to be of
excellent quality, yet the yield is small, and I was told that the
Shervaroy plantations were generally losing concerns. The land-tax on
these estates is one rupee an acre. Between December and June it is
exceedingly dry, and I, therefore, did not consider it advisable to try
the experiment of chinchona cultivation on the Shervaroys during the
first or second years. If the plants are hereafter found to be capable
of enduring longer droughts than we at present expect, they may then be
tried on the Shervaroys.
For the same reason I gave up all idea of the hills near Courtallum,
in Tinnevelly. At Courtallum, notwithstanding the perennial humidity,
the rainfall is only 40 inches, though on the surrounding hills it
is probably greater.[464] The elevation of those hills, however, is
not sufficient for the profitable cultivation of most species of
chinchona-plants. Tinnevelly is sheltered from the south-west monsoon
by the Travancore mountains, and from the north-east monsoon by the
Serumullay hills, 3500 feet high, which rise from the Madura plains
near Dindigul, and by the island of Ceylon to the east. This extreme
south part of the peninsula, between latitude 8° and 10° north,
therefore receives little moisture, and has a hot arid climate,
resembling Egypt, and producing senna and Indian cotton of the best
quality.[465] It is possible, however, that localities may hereafter
be found, where the chinchona species suited to comparatively low
elevations might flourish, such as _C. succirubra_ and _C. micrantha_,
on the mountains dividing Tinnevelly from Travancore.