Dravidians: On The Original Inhabitants of Bharatvarsha or India

PREFACE TO PART I.

THE work, of which this treatise is the first part, has been written to prove, mainly on philological grounds, the anti- quity and expansion of the Gauda-Dravidian race in India. This first part is devoted to its Dravidian branch.

The second part will treat of the Gaudians, and in the third will be considered the conclusions which may be deduced from the two preceding.

An appendix will contain the numerous geographical names scattered over India, which indicate the presence of the Gauda-Dravidian race.

In pursuing the ramifications of the Dravidian popula- tion throughout the peninsula, I hope I have been able to point out the connection existing between several tribes, apparently widely different from each other. I have tried thus to identify the so-called Pariahs of Southern India with the old Dravidian mountaineers and to establish their rela- tionship to the Bhars, Bmbuis, Mham, Mabars, Paharias, Paravari, Paradas and others; all these tribes forming, as it were, the first layer of the ancient Dravidian stratum. In addition to this I trust I have shown that all such different tribes as the Mallas, Pallas, Pallavas, Ballas, Bhillas and others are one and all offshoots of the Dravidian race, the derivation of whose name from Tirumala, as proposed by me, must, if established, also add some strength to my theory. Moreover I have endeavoured to demonstrate how much that is now considered Aryan in name and in origin must be regarded as originally Dravidian.

The various principal Dravidian tribes who live scattered over the length and breadth of the vast Indian continent are, in order to establish their mutual kind.edship, separately introduced into this discussion. This method may create in the minds of some readers an impression that the several topics are somewhat disconnected, but the necessity for this arrangement will become manifest in the continuation of this treatise.

Where there is so much room for conjecture, it is easy enough, of course, to fall into error, and I shall be prepared to be told that many of my conclusions are erroneous and the hypotheses on which they are built fanciful. But though much of what I have written may be shown to be untenable, I shall yet be satisfied if, in the main, I establish shall deem myself amply repaid for my contention, and my labour if I succeed in any degree in restoring the Dravidian to those rights and honours of which he has so long been deprived.

My errors, too, may not be without use, if, like stranded vessels, they serve to direct the explorer, warning him away from those shoals and rocks that beset the enquirer in his search after truth.