ABSTRACT
T HE native state of Cochin exemplifies the economy of the richer, well-watered lowlands of India where an ancient system of plough cultivation and the complex sanctions of the caste system dominate the activities and organization of society. Less than fifteen 1 hundred square miles in area but with a population of about one million, it lies on the Malabar coast land of south-western India only ten degrees north of the equat0r.l Malayalam, the native speech of the Malabar coast, is a Dravidian language akin to Tamil but including in its vocablilary a very large number of Sanscrit words.
