PREFACE. vii
been written, and more Sanscrit spoken there, than in
some other places, and that this has been mistaken for
cultivated Malayalim.
But not to mention that in the South, as at തിരുനകര,
Sanscrit places of learning exist, as well as in the North ;
a very slight acquaintance with the causes of the growth
and decay of language would, if theory did not inter-
vene, lead to a different and opposite conclusion. It
is a well known fact that while North Malayala, or what
now constitutes the Collectorates of Canara and Ma-
labar, has long ceased to be governed by native rulers,
and for a much longer time has had constant intercourse
with foreigners of different European and Asiatic Nati-
ons; South Malayala, or Travancore has escaped foreign
controul, together with all the attendant vicissitudes such
changes never fail to produce, and in nothing more emi-
nently than in a language. This is so obviously the case
in all parts of this coast, whether North or South; that
a Traveller either at Calicut or Quilon, which has long
been occupied by Europeans and Native Regiments,
will find a knowledge of Hindostanee, or Tamul to be
quite as useful as that of the vernacular language.
With regard to the question as to where the language is
spoken in its greatest purity, if reliance may be placed
upon the opinions of those who have resided for some
years in the country, and have long studied the subject;
it would appear that the best Malayalim is spoken in
the interior, all along the country adjoining the Ghauts
both North and South: but it is also found that almost
every place has a set of words and phrases peculiar to
itself, nearly the whole of which are equally corrupt: in
many instances Malayalim words appear to have under-
