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For other uses of Dravidian see Dravidian (disambiguation) Dravidian people, Dravidian race or Dravidians are terms that are some times given to people of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka 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 Classical anthropologists have long debated the racial classification of Indians, in particular Dravidians. One scheme labeled Dravidians as the Australoid or Weddoid 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. 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 The genetic views on race differ in their classification of Dravidians. Most modern anthropologists, however, reject the genetic existence of race, 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). According to population geneticist L.L. Cavalli-Sforza of Stanford, almost all Indians are genetically Caucasian,• but Lewontin rejects the label Caucasian. 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. Others such as Lynn B Jorde & Stephen P Wooding claim South Indians are genetic intermediaries between Europeans and East Asians. Recent studies of the distribution of alleles on the Y chromosome**, microsatellite DNA*, and mitochondrial DNA* 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. Linguistic classifications 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*. 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. 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, 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. Tamil legends 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 Vedic legends 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. In Hindu tradition the creation of the Tamil language is credited to the Rig Vedic sage Rishi Agastya. Greek legends 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. It is usually assumed that by 'Aethiopian' Herodotus simply means 'black person', so that the term really only functions to characterise southern Indians as Eastern black people. 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): This theory is not widely accepted and known by a lot of people. It has been stated that the Dravidians were a seperate 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 throughly 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. Political ramifications The concept of a Dravidian race has affected thinking in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh about racial and regional differences. India It has informed aspects of 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 ? 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* as well as by the government of Pakistan** 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 langauge families. However the two are racially completely the same. Sinhalese (like Dhivehi) is an Indo-Aryan langauge that exists in the southern part of South Asia. Prominent Dravidian linguistic groups Brahuis belong to North-Dravidian linguistic family. They are found in Balochistan province of Pakistan. These people belong to South-Dravidian language family. Mostly found in Karnataka also in Maharashtra. These people belong to South-Dravidian linguistic family. Mostly found in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia. These people belong to Central-Dravidian linguistic family. Mostly found in Andhra Pradesh also in Orissa and Tamil Nadu. See also | |||||||
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