[By:Kandiah Thillaivinayagalingam]
What is Dravidian? Is it a culture,linguistic family or a race?Where did it originate? In Fertile Crescent [the region in the Middle East which curves,like a quarter-moon shape,especially in Mesopotamia and the Nile valley],or in South India?When did it originate? 30,000 years ago,10,000 years ago or 4,000 years ago?Still the origion of the dravidians presents a baffling problem to the historians.Until the recently emerging evidences,It is believed that the history of the Tamils is begin in the pre-historic or more acceptably in the proto-historic period of about 1000- 500 BC.Tamil / Dravidian culture associated with the megalithic sites in places such as Adichanallur (more correctly Adityanallur) in the
Tinnevely District of Tamilnadu and across the Palk Straits in Pomparippu on the west coast and in Kathiraveli on the east coast of the Ilankai/ Sri Lanka are regarded by historians/archaeologists as belonging to the Dravidian peoples of whom the Tamils at that time were their first and foremost representatives.Also excavated ceramic
sequences similar to that of Arikamedu,Puducherry were found in Kadiramalai (Kandarodai) in the Chunnakam, Jaffna District,Sri Lanka on the north coast,dated to 2000 BC.These Archaeological evidence points to these area being one of the longest continuous habitations in India & srilanka. In Adichanallur,24 km (15 mi) from Tirunelveli,archaeologists from the Archaeological Survey of India unearthed 169 clay urns containing human skulls, skeletons and bones,plus husks and grains of rice,charred rice and Neolithic celts,giving evidence confirming them to be of the Neolithic period.The archaeologists,studying the inscriptions on stones and artefacts,reported recently on that basis that Tamil civilisation existed atleast more than 4,000 years ago.Hence the above historical evidence shows that the Tamil Dravidians were living atleast for about 4000 years in Tamil Nadu orSouth India & Srilanka.But this is not correct.Tamils were living more than this period.So we
should find out where these people lived before this time.Although in modern times speakers of the various Dravidian languages have mainly occupied the southern portion of India,nothing definite is known about the ancient domain of the Dravidian parent speech.In this context,researchers have proposed various kinds of comments.Some say they came from outside India,may be through mediterranean region.Some say from kumari kandam,known as continent ofLemuria. It is,however,a well-established and well-supported hypothesis that Dravidian speakers must have been widespread throughout India,including the northwest region,before aryans invaded india.From the Journey of Man of Spencer Wells,We find that the a race,higher in culture ,ancestors of the Indian clan,M20 the marker of the speakers of Dravidian languages in India,who belong to Haplogroup L,gradually made its way from the north or north-west,probably
through Baluchistan into the plain of the Indus,and thence ultimately passed down into the regions south of the Vindhya,where the four southern states lie.This race may be called the proto-dravidian.This first major wave of migration into India/southern India from the Middle East and southwestern Asia, around 30,000 years ago,would have encountered the earlier coastal migrants,bearers of the M130 genetic marker,saw Blacks with straight hair,low in culture,more or less by the physical features now known as dravidian,still living there.This early people,however,should more properly be termed pre-dravidian.This proto-dravidians mixed its blood to greater or less degree with that of the earlier inhabitants,pre-dravidian.From these combinations have arisen the dravidians history.The M 20 is found at highest frequency in the populations of south,In some southern populations,even M20
reaches a frequency of over 50 per cent,while it is found only sporadically outside India.Today, the frequency of the Coastal marker is only around 5 per cent in southern India,and it falls in frequency as we move northward,while More than half of the Australian aborigines carry this M130 gene.This pattern suggests that the contribution from the coastal populations was minimal,at least on the male side.Hence we can safely assume that the M20 invaders took wives from the coastal population M130,but the coastal men were largely driven away,killed,or simply not given the chance to reproduce.The Himalayan Mountains separate the Indian subcontinent from north central Asia,so migration to and from the north was limited.The Indus River and the Sind desert present natural obstacles to the west,and the Arakan Mountains impede travel between the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia.This relative isolation led,over time,to the emergence of distinct Dravidian racial characteristics.Each time a group of humans move,recorded history indicates that there is intermarriage as well as conflict.So a conquering people may become dominant by war,but will settle and over time in most cases,the original inhabitants and the newcomers will gradually become one.This is the way M20 and M130 become one and present Dravidians born.Available literature and evidences now suggest that the Dravidian culture and Proto-Dravidian language originated in the Eastern part of Fertile Crescent[ Sumeria],as the original home of Dravidian speakers and first spoken here some 10,000 years ago.Hence Tamil religion must have some connection with Sumeria,Indus valley as well as Sangam period and it is worth to discuss them ,while analysing the tamil religion.
Part/ 06 Will follow in next week...
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