Chilukuri Narayana Rao

“ This does not, of course, mean that South India alone is the land of this play of cultures, for, in many places besides are evidences forthcoming in India to show that it had been the meeting ground of the cultures of Primitive Man Now, it has become a matter for speculation whether all these cultures are indegenous to India and radiated in different directions to all quarters of the globe, or India is only the central meeting ground and is halting place for the various cultures which had found their origin in various parts of the world. ”

“ It has become a fashion for some time past and especially among writers in South India to attribute everything to a Tamilian origin. The investigations into the Tamil language by early Missionaries like Pope, Winslow, Rottler and others, and the one-sided conclusions of Caldwell with regard to the antiquity of the Dravidian languages and culture have emboldened others to pursue the theme to the entire exclusion of other and more important factors that ought to enter into any impartial account of the development of any culture. ”

“ A rapid survey of the movements of culture in South India has been given above just to show that the advocates of Tamilikkam being the original home of Man, to the exclusion of every other, are claiming too much for their point of view. ”

“ The wide distribution of these languages throughout India and the general concensus of opinion that the language of Kekaya represents the standard Paisaci points to the fact that there must have been at a very remote time, long before the Sanskritic Aryans entered India, an extensive eruption of the Paisaci speaking people overrunning the whole of India in gradual stages and mixing themselves with the aboriginal peoples. While these advanced in civilization in certain places, they succumbed to the aboriginal influences in certain others, and continued to live in a low state of culture. ”

“ The people, though they still adhered to the primitive forms of life, offered stubborn resistance to the invading races from the North with higher cultures. The cinder mounds in the contiguous districts retain unmistakable traces of big encampments and huge conflagrations and there was most probably a tussle between some bringer of Northern culture with equatorial tribes flourishing with their older type of civilization. Thus on the road from Bellary to Dharwar Rocks a remarkable mound consisting of slaggy cinders full 50 feet high and 400 ft. ”

“ Thus, while the scholars of a former generation postulated the migration of peoples into India from the North beyond the Himalayas and would not think of any other, five cycles of migration from the East and the West have been soughr to be established by later researches. ”

“ Dravida, Karnata, Gurjjara, Maharashtra and Tailinga are alluded to as constituting the five Dravidian tribes and are brought in juxtaposition with the five Gauda tribes Kannoja, Gauda, Maithila, Utkala and Saraswata. If the Gurjjars and the Maharashtras have racial affinities with the five Gauda tribes, the connection between the Gaudas and the Dravidas also is established. Thus, racially and lingustically alike, ancient writers seem to have thought there were affinities with the modern Aryans of North India and the Dravidians of the South. ”

“ In the first place, the rudest Paleolithic culture of Tasmania represented by the rudely chipped stones, implements of wood and stone, a lance-like staff, primitive rafts and simple leaf-shelters, finds its counterpart among the Andamanese nearer home Secondly, the rude Neo-lithic culture represented by the Boomerang and shelters with roof and wells of Australia is echoed among the pre-Dravidian or Negroid tribes in the Deccan. ”

“ We shall consider the Paisaci languages first. The Aryan family of languages is well known to belong to the Indo-European languages. This Aryan family, according to the latest researches is sub-divided into (1) Iranian (Eranian or Erano-Aryan) languages (2) Indo Aryan or Sanskritic Indo-Aryan languages, Iranian being also grouped into persian and non-Persian. Of these the Paisaci languages include Pashai, spoken in Laghman in Afghanistan ; a number of Kafir dialects of which the principal are Bashgai, Wai, and Kalasha ”

“ Thus, samples of culture of India are found at various plaees and a tentative chronological classification is advanced:—
So, through the labours of research workers, the history of man is getting more and more interesting and especially to us in the South where many of the evidences of this evolution of culture have been un earthed. ”

“ He thinks that 'bra' is a contraction for 'bara' and says, "Thus in Brahui, is a name whose resemblance to that of the Paratas and Paravar and their kindred the Marathi Paravari and Dravidian Parheyas of Palaman is striking' If this identification of the Brahuis with the Paratas or Paradas is correct, as most probably it is, it gives us a clue to the history of this race and takes us back to Rigvedic times. The Baratas or Bharatas are, we know, a Rigvedic race. ”

“ Between these three, there is a perpetual struggle for mastery. There is a contest also among the dialects of each family. Thus Pashto ind Baluchi on the one hand, and Jadgali and Sindhi on the other are at close grips. Brahui is alone in its heroic struggle and friendless and solitary, it is gradually losing ground. ”

“ It is not necessary here to enter into the merits of this controversy, but we may be satisfied with the generally received opinion of Lord Avebury that "it is in the warmer regions of the Earth that we may reasonably find the earliest traces of the human race," and of Dr Haddon that "there can be little doubt that man evolved somewhere in Southern Asia, possibly during Pliocene and Miocene times." ”

“ Others again are not wanting who would restrict the original home of Man to a particular corner of the Tamil country. Thus we find a large number of Southern writers who are harping on this theme, which, if not by the soundness of argument, at least by a process of repetition, may come to be accepted by the general historian who has not the leisure or the inclination to examine the validity of this contention. ”

“ The abundant varieties of mealing-stones, corn-crushers and pounding-stones indicate that they had passed the hunting stage aud were settling down to agricultural pursuits, Their peaceful instruments are more abundant than weapons of war, and they were more vegetarian than carnivorous. ”

“ In fact these evidences are ubiquitous throughout the whole of India and no one portion can definitely be said to represent the original home of Man. We are yet in the beginning of studies in this direction and it is too soon to hazard any theory on the existing facts. ”

“ That at least the Telugu language had its origin in a variety of Paisaci seems to be the opinion of some of the Telugu Grammarians The term Dravidi as the name of a Prakrit has been consistently used by scholars till the time of Caldwell'. Babu Rajendralal Mitra speaks of the Dravidi as one of the recognized Prakrits equally with the ‘Sauraseni' and as being, like it, the parent cf some of the present verna. culars of India
Even if we take 'Dravida' as the name of a set of people, we come to the same conclusion. ”

“ This work is in the public domain in India because it originates from India and its term of copyright has expired. According to The Indian Copyright Act, 1957, all documents enter the public domain after 60 years counted from the beginning of the following calendar year after the death of the author (i.e. as of 2024, prior to January 1, 1964) . Film, sound recordings, government works, anonymous works, and works first published over 60 years after the death of the author are protected for 60 years after publication. ”