Story or History of writing'/Part:23

Based on recent scientific studies of DNA, that modern humanity originated in Africa, and Many anthropologists believe that humans may have migrated out of Africa in waves. More than a million years ago, humanity's primitive ancestors, known as Homo erectus,walked out of Africa to colonize Europe, the Middle East and Asia. On that everyone agrees. Then several hundred thousand years later, some theorize, a second wave of more sophisticated tool-using humans, Homo sapiens, migrated out of Africa and overwhelmed those earlier ancestors. According to that theory, modern humans are descended solely from those especially sophisticated tool-users. You may think 'how did they cross oceans to be in different continents?' But the land then was connected and it was only separated after the 'Ice Age'. They may travelled partially by raft/ partially by land, This break from Africa into the wider world occurred around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago.

These early beachcombers, identified as M168 [African clan], the second wave of migration out of Africa,migrated into southern tip of Arabia (Aden), stayed close to the oceans shores, and  moved on through coastal Iran and India with a new mutation called M130 (Haplogroup C (Y-DNA)).This population with genetic marker M130 [Coastal marker] is found in large number in the coastal areas of India, especially South Indian coastal states. Finally this populace with M130 marker reached Australia by 50,000 years ago and settled there. They were the first inhabitants of India , who mainly settled down in South India, But they could not make much head way because of lack of metal tools and lack of knowledge of agriculture. Though Rising sea levels have erased anthropological traces of the former migration route (the so-called “Southern” or “coastal” route) from Africa to Australia, but genetic evidence remains. For example,Mr Virumandi Andithevar  of the Piramalai Kallar community from the Tamil Nadu region of southern India was identified as a direct descendant of the first people to arrive in India from Africa , 60,000 years ago.

Following this, M89 emerged at about 45,000 years ago & M9 [The Eurasian Clan] about 40,000 years ago,on the plains of Iran or southern central Asia.The great mountain ranges of the southern central Asia- the Hindu Kush running west to east, the Himalayas running north-west to south-east and the Tien Shan running south-west to north-east-would have been formidable barriers to movement of this clan. It was because of these mountains that this Eurasian migrants would have been split into two groups. One moving to the north of the Hindu Kush, the other to the south, into Pakistan.This Upper Palaeolithic people who headed south, though,had an unrelated mutation on their Y-chromosome known as M 20. It is not found a appreciable frequencies outside of India - perhaps 1-2 per cent in some Middle Eastern populations. In the subcontinent, though, around 50 per cent or above of the men in southern India have M 20. The group that carries Genetic Marker M 20 (M168-M9-M20) migrated into India in large numbers (the haplogroup L that has this marker is known as the Indian clan).This migration into India happened approximately 30,000 years ago. 

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.Here, Dravidians means; relating to or denoting a family of languages spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka, or the peoples who speak them. 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. Also the most of the pre-dravidian tribes in the countries south of the Vindhya adopted the speech of the proto-dravidians. 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. The history of every human population indicates they came from somewhere else at some point! One ethnic group might start speaking another language of a dominant people they relate to, and gradually lose their original language, but still consider themselves a separate people. Because of all these factors, we have about 10,500 ethnic groups,but only about 6700 languages  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 new comers will gradually become one.

What is Dravidian? Is it a culture, linguistic family or a race? Where did it originate? In Fertile Crescent,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 buffling problem to the historions. It has been held by some scholars that the dravidians were the descendants of the primitive inhabitants of India. Relying on the similarity between Sumerian & Dravidian ethinic type, some scholars argue that the dravidians invaded India from western Asia through Baluchistan. Due importance should be attached to the fact that the speech of a Baluchi tribe,is Brahui,which bears close resemblance to the modern Dravidian language. Long before the beginning of the christian era the dravidian south had developed a cosiderable culture of its own and its inhabitants had developed themselves into powerful kingdoms, some of which carried on a thriving trade with western Asia, Egypt,and later with the Greek and Roman Empires. The chief of these were three Tamil kingdoms,the Andhras, Kalinga and Mahararastra. Also there is good ground for supposing that before the coming of the indo-Aryans, speakers of the dravidian languges predominate both in northern & southern India. Available literature 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. This proposition then also raises a question,whether Dravidian is not South Indian in origin?

[Kandiah Thillaivinayagalingam]

Part:24 will follow