Dravidian people
Dravidian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Total population | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
approx. 250 million (2006)[citation needed] |
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Regions with significant populations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Language(s) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dravidian languages | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Religion(s) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Jainism, Buddhism | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Related ethnic groups | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brahui people · Gondi people · Kannadigas · Kodava · Malayalis · Tamils · Telugus · Tuluvas |
Dravidian people refers to populations who speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. Populations of speakers are found mostly in Southern India and some minor populations are found in Brahui[1]-speaking parts of Pakistan, Kurukh[2]-speaking parts of Bangladesh, and Tamil-speaking parts of Sri Lanka.
Contents |
Concept of the Dravidian people
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. Robert Caldwell was a Catholic missionary and used the term Dravidian to refer to the people of South India.[3]
However over seventy three languages are presently listed as Dravidian in the study. Further the languages are spread out and cover parts of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as is indicated in the study.
The Vedic legends speak of battle between Asuras and Devas. It is generally assumed that this was a reflection of actual battle for supremacy that took place when Aryans started entering the Indian sub-continent. However the Asuras are actually the Iranians and the Devas are the Indo-Aryans. The Dasarajna war has been completely misunderstood as some racial violence from Aryans to non-Aryans. It was the Indo-Aryans who declared that they are the true Aryans while the Iranians were not. This battles eventually ended with Aryans, led by King Sudas (a Sudra king) establishing supremacy all over India and the Iranians moving onto what today is the Iranian Subcontinent.
Historical evidence does not point to the fact that Dravidians were the race who had created the Indus Valley Civilization. It remained unanswered why there were Aryan symbols that appear on the Indus Valley seals (e.g. swastika.) However, even though the Aryan languages are said to belong to the Indo-European family and not of the Dravidian family, the root words are almost all the same. For example, 'land' is des, 'language' is basa and 'bread' is chapaati.
Legends
According to the Puranas, the Dravida people are descendants of the Vedic people. According to the Matsya Purana, Manu is considered as a south Indian king.[4] Ikshvaku is also the son of Manu in legend and the Andhra Ikshvakus or the Ikshvaku dynasty were a Telugu dynasty. In Hindu tradition the creation of the Tamil language is credited to the Rig Vedic sage Rishi Agastya[5].
The proponents of the now-obsolete theory identifying Kumari Kandam with Lemuria used the term "Dravidian civilization" to describe the civilization of the hypothetical "Lemuria" continent.[6] According to ancient Tamil legends, Kumari Kandam was a landmass that became submerged by the successive floods. Some Tamil writers, such as Devaneya Pavanar and T. R. Sesha Iyengar, identified Kumari Kandam with the hypothetical Lemuria continent, and claimed that in ancient times, there was a highly developed Tamil civilization in Lemuria, which was the cradle of civilization.[7] In When the Sky Fell: In Search of Atlantis[4] by Rand Flem-Ath and Rose Flem-Ath, the authors argue that Kumari Kandam is Lumeria and is at the same time Airyanem Vaejah.
- See also: Dravida#Manu Smriti and Dravida and Kumari Kandam
Linguistic classifications
The best known Dravidian languages are: Tamil (தமிழ்),Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ), Malayalam (മലയാളം), Telugu (తెలుగు), and Tulu (ತುಳು). Notably one Dravidian language, Brahui (بروہی), is spoken in Pakistan and 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, though relatively recent migrations of populations have also been proposed.
Prominent Dravidian linguistic subgroups
There are three subgroups within the Dravidian linguistic family: North Dravidian, Central Dravidian and South Dravidian matching for the most part the corresponding regions in the Indian subcontinent.
- Brahui : Brahuis belong to North-Dravidian subgroup. They are found in Balochistan province of Pakistan.
- Gonds: A prominent group of Dravidian speaking Tribal people the Central region of India.
- Kannadiga : These people belong to South-Dravidian subgroup. Mostly found in Karnataka , Tamil nadu and Maharashtra.
- Kurukh : These people belong to North-Dravidian subgroup. Found in India and Bangladesh. It is the only Dravidian language indigenous in Bangladesh.
- Malayali : The people of Kerala belong to South-Dravidian linguistic subgroup.
- Tamil : These people belong to South-Dravidian linguistic subgroup. Mostly found in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia.
- Telugu : These people belong to South Dravidian subgroup (formerly classified with the Central Dravidian but now more specifically in the South Dravidian II or South Central Dravidian inner branch of the South Dravidian (Krishnamurti 2003:p19)). Mostly found in Andhra Pradesh also in Orissa and Tamil Nadu.
Geographic distribution
Political ramifications
The concept of a Dravidian race has affected thinking in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh about racial and regional differences.
India
Some Indians believe that the British Raj exaggerated 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. It is now widely believed that the British only used this as their 'Divide and rule' blueprint for taking over the region.[8]The British also used this "theory" of perceived differences between so-called "Aryans" and "Dravidians" to propagate racist beliefs concerning the inherent "inferiority" of the Dravidians when compared to the "Aryans", thus justifying their colonization of South Asia (since the British identified themselves as "Aryans")[9]
It has also informed aspects of radical politics (e.g. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, DK, VC,etc.) in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu atheistic 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 atheistic Dravidianist ideas since it implied that the Indo-Aryans were uncivilised barbarians rather than a superior race.
Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka, the current ethnic conflict and the civil war are further complicated by the view that the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils belong to two different ethnic and linguistic families. Sinhalese (like Dhivehi) is an Indo-Aryan language that exists in the southern part of South Asia.
"Enthusiastic supporters of the LTTE like Tamil Nadu political leader Vaiko was quoted in the Indian media as having told Home Minister LK Advani 'the second Hindu Rashtra is emerging in the region'."[10] Also, "Since the Sinhala Buddhist Government in Sri Lanka took control of the island after Britain left, said the statement, it has systematically destroyed Hinduism and its culture in the island," the LTTE release stated.[11]
Early arrival theory
has 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, S.A. Starostin has disputed the existence of an Elamo-Dravidian language family.
According to a view put forward by geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza in the book The History and Geography of Human Genes, 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. However, the Munda languages, as a subgroup of the larger Austro-Asiatic language family, are known to have arrived in the Indian subcontinent from the east, possibly from the area that is now southwestern China, so any genetic similarity between the present-day speakers of the Munda languages and the "original inhabitants" of India is likely to be due to assimilation of the natives by Southeast Asian immigrants speaking a proto-Munda language.
Some linguists 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[5]. According to them it is now considered likely that the collapse of Indus Valley civilization was caused by environmental change (drought) which then encouraged the migration of the nomadic Indo-Aryans into the area. In that perspective 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[citation needed][original research?].
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)
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.
Genetic classifications
The genetic views on race differ in their classification of Dravidians. Most modern anthropologists, however, reject the genetic existence of race,[13] 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).[14] According to population geneticist L.L. Cavalli-Sforza of Stanford, whose work was done in the 1980s 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.[15] Dr. Eduardas Valaitis, in 2006, found that India is genetically closest to East and Southeast Asians with little genetic similarity to Europeans; that said he also found that India could be considered very distinct from other regions.[16] Genetic anthropologist Stanley Marion Garn considered in the 1960s that the entirety of the Indian Subcontinent to be a "race" genetically distinct from other populations.[17][18] Others, such as Lynn B. Jorde and Stephen P. Wooding, claim South Indians are genetic intermediaries between Europeans and East Asians.[19][20][21]
Recent studies of the distribution of alleles on the Y chromosome,[22] microsatellite DNA,[23] and mitochondrial DNA[24] in India have cast overwhelmingly strong doubt for a biological Dravidian "race" distinct from non-Dravidians in the Indian subcontinent.
This doubtfulness applies to both paternal and maternal descent; however, it does not preclude the possibility of distinctive South Indian ancestries associated with Dravidian languages.[25]
Historical racial classifications
Race is now generally agreed to by the scientific community as a social construct. Often citing the Aryan Invasion Theory, historical anthropologists have largely regarded Dravidians to be formed by one or more of the Caucasoid, Veddoid, Malay, Negroid, Negrito or Australoid races with the addition of Mongoloid and later Aryan admixture.
See also
- Vedic culture in South India The prevalence of Vedic cultural influence in South India
- Dravida - The Sanskrit term for South Indians specifically Tamils
- Malaysian Indian - a Malaysian citizen of Indian ancestry.
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
- ^ Brahui language on Encyclopedia Britannica
- ^ Kurukh language on Encylopedia Britannica
- ^ P. 678 Dancing With Siva: Hinduism's Contemporary Catechism, By Himalayan Academy, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Master Subramuniya.
- ^ also e.g. Bhagavata Purana (VIII.24.13)
- ^ [1]
- ^ Ramaswamy, Sumathi [2004] (2005). Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories: The Lost Land of Lemuria. Orient Longman, 120. ISBN 8178241102.
- ^ Iyengar, T. R. Sesha (1995). "The Ancient Dravidians", Dravidian India. Orient Longman, 60. ISBN 978-8120601352. “"Hence we shall not be far wrong if we infer that South India gave a refuge to the survivors of the deluge, that the culture developed in Lemuria was carried to South India after its submergence, and that South India was probably the cradle of the post-diluvian human race."”
- ^ (2003). Antinomies of Modernity: Essays on Race, Orient, Nation (in English). Duke University Press, 37-38. ISBN 0822330466.
- ^ . Conversion to modernities: The Globalization of Christianity (in English). Routledge (UK), 130. ISBN 0415912733.
- ^ Tamil Canadian article
- ^ LTTE gives ethnic strife a saffron tinge, Thursday, March 26, 1998
- ^ Zvelebil, Kamil V. 1974. "Dravidian and Elamite - A Real Break-Through?", Journal of the American Oriental Society 94.3 (July-Sept.): 384-5.
- ^ Bindon, Jim. University of Alabama. Department of Anthropology. August 23, 2006.
- ^ Lewontin, R.C. Biology as Ideology The Doctrine of DNA. Ontario: HarperPerennial, 1991.
- ^ Robert Jurmain, Lynn Kilgore, Wenda Trevathan, and Harry Nelson. Introduction to Physical Anthropology. 9th ed. (Canada: Thompson Learning, 2003)
- ^ Valaitis, E., Martin, L. DNA Tribes. 2006. January 22, 2007. [2]
- ^ Garn SM. Coon. On the Number of Races of Mankind. In Garn S, editor. Readings on race. Springfield C.C. Thomas.
- ^ Robert Jurmain, Lynn Kilgore, Wenda Trevathan, and Harry Nelson. Introduction to Physical Anthropology. 9th ed. (Canada: Thompson Learning, 2003)
- ^ Jorde, Lynn B Wooding, Stephen P. Nature Genetics. Department of Human Genetics. 2004. <http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v36/n11s/full/ng1435.html>.
- ^ Bamshad, M.J. et al. Human population genetic structure and inference of group membership. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 72, 578−589 (2003).
- ^ Rosenberg, N.A. et al. Genetic structure of human populations. Science 298, 2381−2385 (2002).
- ^ [3]Entrex PubMed: A prehistory of Indian Y chromosomes: evaluating demic diffusion scenarios
- ^ Entrez PubMed: Polarity and temporality of high-resolution y-chromosome distributions in India identify both indigenous and exogenous expansions and reveal minor genetic influence of central asian pastoralists
- ^ Entrez PubMed: Human mtDNA hypervariable regions, HVR I and II, hint at deep common maternal founder and subsequent maternal gene flow in Indian population groups
- ^ Sitalaximi, T "Microsatellite Diversity among Three Endogamous Tamil Populations Suggests Their Origin from a Separate Dravidian Genetic Pool" Human Biology - Volume 75, Number 5, October 2003, pp. 673-685
- Krishnamurti, B., The Dravidian Languages, Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-521-77111-0, p19.