From: gopals@astro.umd.edu (N. Gopalswamy)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.tamil
Subject: Re: Burrows on Dravidian Origins (setting the cat among the pigeons)
Keywords: Aryan, Dravidian arrival.
Date: 16 Nov 92 19:11:26 GMT
Organization: U. of Maryland @ College Park, Astronomy

This is a comment on Dr. Rao's postings on the origin of dravidians.

I have been reading a number of books on this subject and am getting the
picture which I will describe shortly. It is worth noting the cognation of
the word 'ivuli' not only with Brahui in Pakistan/Afganistan, but also
with the Elamite language that survived until 10 century AD. This word
means wild (undomesticated horse). I read this in a book published 
by the American Philosophical Society: Proto-Elamo-Dravidian:Its Evidence
and Implications by david W. McAlpin, Philadelphia, 1981.

In this book, McAlpin has proved from various different angles that 
Elamite and Dravidian are off-springs of a common ancester. In the whole
chain of languages this is one step further from Pakistan/Afganistan to
Elam, a region in Southern Iran called Susiana in ancient times. 

Luckily, there is extensive record of the Elamite Language from 3000 BC
to about 1000 AD in the form of writing on clay-tablets. This writing is known as 
'Cueniform'. I talked to some Iranian students and they are aware of 
the Elamite tribes who apparently have lost their language. Unlike Indus
Script, Elamite is readable and is extensively researched. So it became
easy for McAlpin to compare Dravidian and Elamite to construct the 
Proto-Elamo-Dravidian grammar. 

He follows evolution of words among various subgroups of the Dravidian
family. (North Dravidian: Brahui, Central Dravidian: Telugu, Gond andabout a 
dozen tribal languages in MP, East Dravidian: Krux and malto in Bihar/Bengal
and South Dravidian: Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Tulu etc). 

There are enormous number of words in Animal Husbandry that are common in
Dravidian and Elamite. Examples: Aay (cattle: note Tamil Aayar)
yaadu (goat/sheep), kanRu, Paarppu (young cattle), peN, Mootu (female cattle)
YeRu (male), paal (milk) etc. However, there are not many in Agriculture. 
This is taken to imply that the period the Dravidians separated from the
Elamites in Southern Iran can be effectively compared with the stages of
developments of civilization in western Asia which is well documented.
He comes up with a period of not before 5500 BC. 

Lack of agricultural terminology is probably due to change of crops
as they moved to India and south. names of grains are common only within 
Dravidian Sub-groups indicating that the while they kept the agricultural
techniques, they could not grow the same crops in new places. Recent
Indus-Valley researchers in Pune have discovered that the earlier Indus
valley sites show extensive use of Wheat and Barley while later sites in
Gurjarat and Maharaashtra show the extensive use of millets. 

The only word that is common between Dravidian and Elamite in the agricultural
terminology is 'um'. This means 'processing grain'. This is found 
in Dravidian as umi (husk). But we do not know whether the grain was
gathered or cultivated from this cognation. 

Another word of importance is 'upat' meaning brick. This is related
to the Dravidian word 'uppara' for masons. This also points to the 
stage of civilization when the Dravidians separated from Elamites.

Finally, a lower limit to the separation is set by the fact that dravidians
did not have writing until 300 BC. However, Elamites are known to have used
writing since 3000 BC. It is interesting to note that the word for 'write'
in Elamite is 'tallu' (to push). This is appropriate for writing on clay
tablets because one has to push the clay with a sharp stick. In Dravidian
the word for write is ezhutu or varai which stems from drawing or painting.
Thus one may conclude that ther Dravidians separated in the pre-literate
period (ie, before the advent of writing in Elam). Thus McAlpin estimates a 
time period of 4000 BC for the separation of Elamite and Dravidian Languages.

This nicely fits in the Indus Valley civilization which existed in the period
2500-1500 BC. Some people think that the Elamite record might ultimately
help to decipher Indus script. I must emphasize that this is only a 
circumstantial evidence and does not prove that Indus valley people 
were Dravidian. 

For those who need more details, I recommend reading McAlpin's book.

Fianal comment: Migration is a never ending process and is going on still.
If two communities come together there will be tendencies to fight as well 
as co-exist. When Dravidians arrived, there wer some people before - the
kohls (proto-australoids) with whom they prbably mingled. Similarly when
Aryans arrived later in 1500 BC similar thing would have happened. Knowing
historical facts  should not be mixed with one's emotion which result
in hindrance to seeking truth. 

N. Gopalswamy



Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian