Dravidian languages, family of some 70 languages spoken primarily in south asia. The term dravidian is used to refer to all of the nonaryan population in the peninsula of india. Fully revised with forty thousand new words that take the reader up to presentday india, john keays india. The dravidians are believed to have constituted the ancient prearyan population of india. This is an exploration of the dravidian peoples of india and their origins. The dravidians descend mostly from the first wave of people who left east africa ethiopia, somalia around 65,000 to 70,000 years ago.
And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there exists countless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts that have yet to be discovered and explained. The dravidians were the majority population across the indian subcontinent before the second millennium. Dravidian people or dravidians are the present and past speakers of any of the dravidian languages. The dravidians originated in africa, and were associated with the cgroup culture of nubia. In the more habitable regions the two elements have fused while representatives of. Nilakanta sastridevelopment of religion in south india. Rc this paper examines the contributioil of the dravidiall peoples to the development of indian civilization and, more particularly, 11 indulsm. Dravidian peoples simple english wikipedia, the free.
Dravidian people article about dravidian people by the free. Dravidians have contributed in various fields of science, medicine and arts. Tamil literature has a classical tradition of its own, while the literatures of the other languages have been influenced by sanskrit models. It is possible that the residents of the lost indus valley civilisation may have been dravidians. Kankanala does that in his latest book, the dravidian. They prevail in the southern and eastern parts of india.
In 103 bc valagamba was overthrown by these five conquerors from south india, who ruled until 89 bc when they were defeated by valagamba, who was then able to rule is kingdom once more. According to geneticist luigi luca cavallisforza in the book the history and geography of human genes, the dravidians were preceded in the subcontinent by austroasiatic speakers, and were followed by indoeuropean. The standard version of this history tells us that a people called the aryans invaded india around 1500 bc, conquered the indigenous dravidians and. The dravidian languages with the most speakers are in descending order of number of speakers telugu, tamil, kannada and malayalam, all of which have long literary traditions. Sastri not only revaluates recent studies on the origins of the aryans and dravidians but also throws light on the formation of the indoaryan society. Origins of dravidian people are informed by various theories proposed by linguists, anthropologists, geneticist and historians. Their religion was earth centric and was based on the worship of lifegiving forces in nature. The earliest, the south india welfare association, was founded in the year 1916, by zamindars and maharajas to counter the growing power of brahmans in society and politics. Dravidian language has stayed comparatively intact despite a considerable amount of contact.
Pdf the main objective of the study is to brought out the dravidians culture and aryans settlement in tamilnadu. According to tamil legend, the dravidians came to india from the lost island of kumari khandam. See more ideas about people of the world, people and african diaspora. Ancient origins articles related to dravidian in the sections of history, archaeology, human origins, unexplained, artifacts, ancient places and myths and legends. Dravidians came to india much before the aryans did. This civilization gave the world the language with letters known as tamil. Dravidians had an advanced city culture more ancient than the aryans, who, as indian legends tell and some dispute, invaded india from central asia in several waves around 1500 bce.
The dravidian languages are spoken by more than 200 million people, living chiefly in s and central india and n sri lanka. This article is brought to you for free and open access by the all journals at. The rig veda, an ancient hindu scripture, records the destruction of harappa, then called hariyopiyah 5. The protosaharans were the ancestors of the dravidian, elamite and sumerian people. Other dravidians remained in a tribal state in central and southern india. The indus valley writing was in tamil a dravidian language. I must confess that there is little to add to what i said on that occasion thirteen years ago.
Dravidian people or dravidians are the present and past speakers of any of the dravidian. Dravidian movement had its origin in various successive political and social formations. Dravidians are supposed to be the primary unique settlers of ancient india. Even today many scientific intelectuals from india trace thier roots to ancient dravidians. Of the four literary dravidian languages, tamil has been recorded earliest, followed by kannada, telugu, and malayalam. Dravidian definition of dravidian by the free dictionary. Other articles where dravidian literature is discussed. The dravidian languages are spoken by more than 215 million people in india, pakistan, and sri lanka. Dravidian synonyms, dravidian pronunciation, dravidian translation, english dictionary definition of dravidian. The rigveda is the most ancient form of hindu religious literature, dating in written form to around 800 b. Their original ydna would have been c or d, but these lineages were later replaced by h and l. See more ideas about history, people of the world and black history. Dravidian people ebooks read ebooks online free ebooks.
Mar 15, 20 i believe that we have a relation to dravidians. The evidence of early dravidians comes from studying the indoaryan culture, languages, and findings at many mounds, the preeminent of which are mohenjodaro in punjab and harappa in larkana district in sind. Similarities between their complexion, forehead structure and bone structure support this claim. The dravidian contribution to the development of indian civilization. The dravidians or original peoples sometimes referred to as dalits are ethiopiansafricans. The origins of the dravidians are a very complex subject of research and debate. The dravidian languages are first attested in the 2nd century bce as tamilbrahmi script inscribed on the cave walls in the madurai and tirunelveli districts of tamil nadu. Dravidian languages are spoken throughout southern india, and in some areas of other asian countries like pakistan and nepal.
They are considered to be the aboriginal inhabitants of the land. Behind this aryandravidian divide idea is the historical debate whether the socalled aryans invaded or migrated into india from the north and pushed the dravidians to the south as western historians have proposed supposed to have happened around 1500 bc. There are various theories that have been brought out regarding the origin of dravidians. Even the ancient puranas point to the dravidians as being descended from the earliest vedic peoples. Apr 23, 2015 dravidians have contributed in various fields of science, medicine and arts.
Dravidians form 88% of the indian population the so called sudras and panchamas, and even though many people come and settle in india. After their settlement in india, they established a very sophisticated culture. The aryandravidian divide is a political myth american. Justice party the call for the promotion of the interests of dravidians was given first by the thenindeya nala urumai sangam south indian welfare society or party which was founded in 1916. This article is brought to you for free and open access by the all journals at byu scholarsarchive. The culture of south india has been intimately woven with sanskrit, vedic philosophies, vedic culture and yoga as long as we can. Dravidian article about dravidian by the free dictionary. According to scientists and historians, the dravidian people are descendants of neolithic west asian farmers from iran which conquered and largely displaced the outnumbered native hunter gatherers of india.
Dravidian speakers form the majority of the population of south india and are natively found in india, pakistan, afghanistan, bangladesh, the maldives and sri lanka. Introduction to describe and interpret the linguistic situation in northern india1 in the second and the early first millennium b. Early settlers of the indus valley, although it should be noted that this group constituted a large number of peoplewith the dravidian langue being spoken by millions of people. He appointed bahiya as his chief minister and reigned for three years until he was murdered in 100 bc by bahiya. Before the five dravidians invaded the island, the anuradhapura kingdom was ruled by valagamba 104103 bc, 8976 bc also known as vatthagamani abhaya. Archaeological and genetic data are consulted to discover the beautiful, indigenous population of south asia. Dravidians in general were gradually hinduized, but retained their languages. According to many scholars, the harappa civilization was created by the ancestors of the dravidians between 3000 and 2000 b. The dravidian contribution to the development of indian.
Dravidians are linked to the neolithic zagros mountain farmers, and this west asian population forms the main ancestor of modern south asians. H might have evolved directly from cr in south asia. The term dalits means bound and the name may have been given to them by those who enslaved them and put them in a racist caste system at the lowest levels. At ancient origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings.
The origin of dravidians, one of the most important components of south asian ancestry, is generally linked to the neolithic zagros farmer population from modern day iran but not modern iranians, although modern ira. The dravidians were probably subjected by the indoaryans and are the dasus of vedic scriptures. He was a tamil chief from the pandyan dynasty, in south india, who defeated the reigning monarch valagamba, who had only come to the throne five months before. A large family of languages spoken especially in southern india and northern sri lanka that includes tamil, telugu, malayalam, and kannada. The division between dravidians and adi dravidians is purely artificial and the result of aryan invasions, with the former choosing to adopting aryan culture and submit as slaves to the aryans and the latter battling the savage aryans, retaining their freedom in the jungles. They are divided into south, southcentral, central, and north groups. Dravidians form 88% of the indian population the so called sudras and panchamas, and even though many people come and settle in india for a long time they can not be indians. Jan 09, 2020 this is an exploration of the dravidian peoples of india and their origins. Every historian knows that the term sindhu was metamorphosed into hindu, and history reveals that the indus valley civilization is of the dravidians. Origin and spread of dravidian speakers article pdf available in international journal of human genetics 84. There are around 245 million native speakers of dravidian languages. Dravidian language has stayed comparatively intact despite a considerable amount of. Indian history congress held at dharwar in 1988, i presided over section v on archaeology, epigraphy and numismatics and read a paper with the title. Nilakanta sastriculturalcontactsbetweenaryansanddravidians.
In this lesson, learn about the different dravidian languages and the. I have said this so many times on my blog, few indian authors write about the ancient cultural knowledge that this diverse nation possess. Dravidian culture was especially diverse, with a number of groups continuing extra traditional customs. They have longer hair and longer nose, for it i believe they ancestors are white people. I think the dravidians ancestry is the semiticarab people because they can moved to india and adaptation the climate. The aryandravidian divide is largely a modern political construct. The tamil language is the first of the dravidian languages to reflect the influence of hinduism. Pdf origin and spread of dravidian speakers researchgate.
According to the study, these proto dravidians migrated into india around 8,000 years. A history spans five millennia in a sweeping narrative that tells the story of the peoples of the subcontinent, from their. Given the grand scope ofthis subject, i can only sketch. Dravidian people article about dravidian people by the. Dravidians are linked to the neolithic zagros mountain farmers, and this west asian population forms the main ancestor of modern south.
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