Education Department Government of Maharastra 1990
This view, that the Tamil and Cognate tongues(having the same ancestral language)
were founded upon the ancient Asura speech, is very strongly confirmed by the fact the
language of the Brahuis, a tribe on the borders of Sind, has been found
to be very closely allied to them. Indeed. Dr. Caldwell says: The Brahui
(Language) enables us to trace the Dravidian race, beyond the Indus,
to the southern confines of Central Asia. This country, I have already
pointed out, was the home of the Asuras or Nagas, to which race
apparently belonged the founders of the Dravidian kingdoms.
Talking in to consideration all the evidence which has been brought
forward the only possible conclusion seems to be, that the Dravidians,
of the south of India, were of the same stock as the Asuras or Nagas of
the North."
The second thing to be borne in mind is that the word 'Dravida‘ is not an
original word. It is the Sanskritized form of the word "Tamil" `
The original word "Tamil" when imported into Sanskrit became Damita
and later on Damilla became Dravida. The word Dravida is the name of
the language of the people and does not denote the race of the people.
The third thing to remember is that Tamil or Dravida was not merely
the language of South India but before the Aryans came it was the
language of the whole of India, and was spoken from Kashmere to Cage
Camorin. In fact, it was the language of the Nagas throucghout India.The
next thing to note is the contact between the Aryan an the Nagas and
the effect it produced on the Nagas and their language. Strange as it
may appear the effect of this contact on the Nagas of North India was
quite different from the effect it produced on the Nagas of South India.
The Nagas in North India gave up Tamil which was their mother tongue
and adopted Sanskrit in its place. The Nagas in south India retained
Tamil as their mother tongue and did not adopt Sanskrit the language
of the Aryans.
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