Dravidian people

For other uses, see Dravidian (disambiguation).

<th style="background-color:#fee8ab;">Related ethnic groups</th><td style="background-color:#fff6d9;">Dravidian peoples:

Dravidian people, Dravidian race or Dravidians are terms that are some times given to people of India (mainly Southern India), Northern Sri Lanka, and parts of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal who currently speak Dravidian languages or are historically assumed to have spoken Dravidian languages but no longer are.

Concept of the Dravidian race

The identification of the Dravidian people as a separate race arose from the realization by 19th-century Western scholars that there existed a group of languages spoken by people in the south of India, which were completely unrelated to the Indo-Aryan languages prevalent in the north of the country. Because of this, it was supposed that the generally darker-skinned Dravidian speakers constituted a genetically distinct race. Accordingly, Dravidians were envisaged as early inhabitants of India who had been partially displaced and assimilated by Aryan language speaking populations.

The term Dravidian is taken from the Sanskrit term Dravida. It was adopted following the publication of Robert Caldwell's Comparative grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian family of languages (1856); a publication which established the language grouping as one of the major language groups of the world.

Racial classifications

Main article: Racial groups in India (historical definitions)

Classical anthropologists have long debated the racial classification of Indians, in particular Dravidians. One scheme labeled Dravidians as the Australoid or Veddoid race in about the 40 human races in that system.

Since skin color is subject to strong selective pressure, similar skin colors can result from convergent adaptation rather than from genetic relatedness. Sub-Saharan Africans, tribal populations from southern India, and Indigenous Australians have similar skin pigmentation, but genetically they are no more similar than are other widely separated groups.^[1] Furthermore, in some parts of the world in which people from different regions have mixed extensively, the connection between skin color and ancestry has been substantially weakened (Parra et al. 2004).

Genetic classifications

Main article: Indian genetic studies

The genetic views on race differ in their classification of Dravidians. Most modern anthropologists, however, reject the genetic existence of race^[2], like Richard Lewontin who states that "every human genome differs from every other", showing the impossibility of using genetics to define races. (Biology as Ideology, page 68).^[3] According to population geneticist L.L. Cavalli-Sforza of Stanford, almost all Indians are genetically Caucasian,^[4] but Lewontin rejects the label Caucasian.^[5] Cavalli-Sforza found that Indians are about three times closer to West Europeans than to East Asians. Although genetic anthropologist Stanley Marion Garn considers the entirety of the Indian Subcontinent to be a "race" genetically distinct from other populations.^[6][7] Others such as Lynn B Jorde & Stephen P Wooding claim South Indians are genetic intermediaries between Europeans and East Asians.^[8][9][10]Recent studies of the distribution of alleles on the Y chromosome[2][3], microsatellite DNA[4], and mitochondrial DNA[5] in India have cast overwhelmingly strong doubt upon any biological Dravidian "race" as distinct from non-Dravidians in the Indian subcontinent. This doubtfulness applies to both paternal and maternal descent, however it does preclude the possibility of distinctive south Indian ancestries associated with Dravidian languages.^[11]

Linguistic classifications

Main article: Dravidian languages

The best known of which are Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ), Malayalam (മലയാളം), Tamil (தமிழ்), Telugu (తెలుగు), and Tulu (ತುಳು). Notably one Dravidian language, Brahui, is spoken in Pakistan as well minor tribal languages are used in Nepal and Bangladesh, perhaps hinting at the language family's wider distribution prior to the spread of the Indo-Aryan languages.

Spread of the language group

Some believe that Dravidian-speaking people were spread throughout the Indian subcontinent before the Aryans settled there. In this view the early Indus Valley civilization (Harappa and Mohenjo Daro) is often identified as having been Dravidian[6].

However it is now considered more likely that the collapse was caused by environmental change (drought). It was then this collapse that encouraged the migration of the nomadic Indo-Aryans into the area; a situation comparable with the decline of the Roman Empire and the incursions of North European tribes that followed during the Migrations Period. It is therefore more likely that the Dravidian speakers of South India were already living in the region, and were merely one of the groups little affected by the initial Indo-Aryan migration.

Late arrival theory

Some scholars like J. Bloch and M. Witzel believe that the Dravidians moved into an already Indo-Aryan speaking area after the oldest parts of the Rig Veda were already composed (see Bryant 2001: chapter 5)Others think that the Dravidians were already settled into this area and that Aryans could have therefore come afterward the Dravidians.

This theory might be supported if a higher antiquity of the Indo-Aryan languages could be established. However, since this theory is mainly a linguistic hypothesis, the Dravidian influence on Aryan languages must not necessarily be equated to a movement of populations. A small number of individuals such as traveling merchants, rather than populations, could have influenced the Sanskrit language. This version could be compared to the way that Phoenician traders subtly influenced the Mediterranean world.

The influence of Sanskrit itself on the southern Dravidian languages was the result of individual Sanskrit speakers (and not of whole populations) migrating to South India.

Similar to the North India

The Dravidians or South Indians are not so different from the North Indians as to form a completley different race. The Dravidians too have caucasiod skull structure and like the North Indians are members of the Mediterranean subgroup of the Caucasian race.

Current views

It has been suggested that the proto-Dravidians of the Indian subcontinent arrived from the Middle East, and may have been related to the Elamites^[12], whose language some propose be categorized along with the Dravidian languages as part of a larger Elamo-Dravidian language family. However, many linguists dispute the existence of an Elamo-Dravidian language family.

The Dravidians were preceded in the subcontinent by an Austro-Asiatic people, and followed by Indo-European-speaking migrants sometime later. The original inhabitants may be identified with the speakers of the Munda languages, which are unrelated to either Indo-Aryan or Dravidian languages. This view is put forward in geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza's book The History and Geography of Human Genes.

Mythical views

Tamil legends

Main article: Sangam literature

According to Tamil lore, the ancient Tamils originally came from submerged land Kumari Kandam in the south of India. Kumari Kandam has also been linked to Lemuria. In When the Sky Fell: In Search of Atlantis by Rand Flem-Ath and Rose Flem-Ath, the authors argue that Kumari Kandam is Lumeria, which is also Airyana Vaejo, the homeland of the Aryans giving more evidence that North Indians originated from South India.

Vedic legends

Main article: Dravida#Manu Smriti and Dravida

According to the Puranas, the Dravidians are descendants of the Vedic Turvasha people. According to the Matsya Purana, Manu is considered as a south Indian king.^[13] In Hindu tradition the creation of the Tamil language is credited to the Rig Vedic sage Rishi Agastya^[14].

Furthermore there have also been several ancient Vedic dynasties that have come from the south, such as the Andhra Ikshvaku. Manu himself was probably a refugee of the mythological flood (possibly in Kumari Kandam) that occurred in South India. The Bhagavata mentions a South India king who came to North Indianamed Satyavrata, to whom the Mastya avatar of Vishnu appeared.It is also notable that Ilavarta is an ancient name for India named after Ila, the daughter of Manu. The word Ilam (or Eelam) is believed to have also come from Ila.[7]

Greek legends

Main article: Eastern Ethiopian

Herodotus, Homer and other Greek authors called the Dravidians the Eastern Ethiopians. Greek writers sometimes identified the "Western Aethiopians" of East Africa with the "Eastern Aethiopians" of South India. Also the African and Indian geography were sometimes compared or identified with each other: Arrian (vi. i.) mentions that the Indus River was thought by some ancient Greeks to be the source of the Nile. The word "Aethiopian" meant dark-skinned in which Nubians, Sumerians, Indians and others were classed into.

Herodotus wrote about the Dravidians: They differed in nothing from the other Ethiopians, save in their language, and the character of their hair. For the Eastern Ethiopians have straight hair, while they of Libya are more woolly-haired than any other people in the world. (Herodotus: from The History of the Persian Wars, VII.70., c.430 BCE)

In the following context it is used as a national term:

Herodotus wrote about the Dravidians: "The whole of India is traversed by rivers. . . . As for the people of India, those in the south are like the Aethiopians in colour, although they are like the rest in respect to countenance and hair (for on account of the humidity of the air their hair does not curl), whereas those in the north are like the Egyptians." (Herodotus: The Geography of Strabo - Book XV (excerpts)

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, however, took up this connection between Dravidians and Ethiopians in order to claim a direct racial and cultural link between the two people. She was attempting to show that Indian culture influenced Ancient Egypt via Ethiopia. She described many parallels between Egypt and India in her works.

After the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilisation Gottfried de Purucker remarked (referring to Secret Doctrine, vol.2, p.417): {{cquote|A highly advanced urban civilization of Mohenjo Daro has been discovered on the Indus "between Attock and Sind," exactly the location mentioned in The Secret Doctrine as the abode of the Aethiopians.(Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary)}

This theory is not widely accepted and known by a lot of people. It has been stated that the Dravidians were a separate race of people and have no connection with the Ethopians of Africa or the Egyptians. It and also that Helena Petrovona Blavatsky's theory isn't proven thoroughly by science and could be proven but a minisule amounts of evidence have been submitted.

However, modern genetic studies that show any connection between Dravidian and African can only be attributed to common journey of Homo Sapiens. Even the darkest Dravidian with curly hair shared a common ancestor with Africans around 50,000 to 70,000 years ago just like his light skinned, straight haired compatriot. The male lineages, defined by Y-chromosome Haplogroups are exclusive between Indian and African populations^[1]. So there is some connection between the two ethnic groups but it is incorrect to say they belong to the same race family as the Dravidians further have caucasoid skulls and race is based on the basis on skull-structure.

Capoids

The Capoid race is a subgroup of the African race and are racially very close to the Caucasoid race (e.g. Egyptian, Arab, Dravidian) but still have a few features which labels them Negroid. They are very close to the Caucasiod race as a result of the invasion and migration from northern tribes such as the ancient Egyptians and Arabs. Many anthropologists condier them Caucasian as their skull and facial features are very similar to most other Caucasoid members. The historical Berbers are an example of a Capoid group.

Dravidian claims

Dravidians argue that it was they who influenced the Ethiopians. Ethiopia was colonized by the Hindus. Sir William Jones says: "Ethiopia and Hindustan were possessed or colonized by the same extraordinary race."^[15] Dravidians claim that scriptures show that Indian tribes migrated to all other nations of the world. Dravidians point to historical phrases like Krunvanto Viswam Aryan (Let us make all people civilized). India traded with Egypt and so could have as easily traded with adjacent regions. The cow and the bull are sacred animals in this part of Africa. In this part of Africa there are the cities Aryanah in Tunisia, Aryane in Chad, Aryawo in Uganda, and Aryat in Ethiopia.

Political ramifications

The concept of a Dravidian race has affected thinking in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh about racial and regional differences.

India

Main articles: Tamil Nadu#Politics, Dravidian movement, and Dravidians and Hinduism

It has informed aspects of militant atheists (e.g. DMK) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu nationalistic politics, which has at times appropriated the claim that Dravidians are the earliest inhabitants of India in order to argue that other populations such as the locally ritually dominant were oppressive interlopers from which Dravidians should liberate themselves. The discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization in the 1920s, which is sometimes attributed to displaced or assimilated Dravidians of the north, further fuelled such Dravidianist ideas since it implied that the Indo-Aryans were uncivilised barbarians rather than a superior race as made to believe in Hindu myths.

British colonial ploy ?

Main article: Aryan Invasion Theory (history and controversies)

Into the 21st century, some Indians continue to accuse the British Raj of exaggerating differences between northern and southern Indians beyond linguistic differences to help sustain their control of India. The British Raj ended in 1947, yet all discussion of Aryan or Dravidian "races" remains highly controversial in India. Afterall, there are very dark-skinned Brahmins and evidence shows that in North India, members of all castes are the same in the geographic area. Even the Hindu gods that came from Aryan families were of dark skin such as Rama and Krishna (and Vishnu.) Even in Iranian legends, Saam the great warrior had dark skin. It is only some parts of South India that members of higher castes are closely related to the North Indians and that is because South India has had many migrations from North India.

Pakistan & Bangladesh

Dravidian as a racial term is also used extensively by the government of Bangladesh to indicate a founding people of the country[8] as well as by the government of Pakistan[9][10]

Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, the current ethnic problem and the civil war are further complicated by the view that the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils belong to two different language families. However the two are racially completely the same. Sinhalese (like Dhivehi) is an Indo-Aryan language that exists in the southern part of South Asia.

Prominent Dravidian linguistic groups

• Brahuis : Brahuis belong to North-Dravidian linguistic family. They are found in Balochistan province of Pakistan.

• Gonds: A prominent group of Dravidian speaking Tribal people of Central and North India.

• Kannadigas : These people belong to South-Dravidian language family. Mostly found in Karnataka also in Maharashtra.

• Malayalis : The people of Kerala belong to South-Dravidian linguistic family.

• Tamils : These people belong to South-Dravidian linguistic family. Mostly found in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia.

• Telugus : These people belong to Central-Dravidian linguistic family. Mostly found in Andhra Pradesh also in Orissa and Tamil Nadu.

See also

• Vedic culture in South India The prevalence of Vedic cultural influence in South India
• Burusho: Burushos are a prominent non Dravidian and non Aryan speaking group found in Northern Areas of Kashmir.
• Dravida - The Sanskrit term for South Indians specifically Tamils
• Aryan - For self description of Proto-Indo-Iranian people
• Aryan race - Discussion about the concept of Aryan race
• Race - Discussion about the concept of race

External links

• Dolmens, Hero Stones and the Dravidian People
• Harappa.com Glimpses of South Asia before 1947
• Peoples and Languages in pre-Islamic Indus valley
• India and Egypt

References

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