Dravidians

The origin of the Dravidian people and the foundations of their languages have sparked many debates. Anthropologists also have different theories. Some aver that the Dravidians lived in India before the Indo-Aryans arrived here.

We learnt in school that the Indus Valley civilization was of Dravidian origin. This was the theory of Western scholars during the British Raj, according to which Aryans entered India between 2000 BCE and 1000 BCE,  displacing the population of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Historians have included hunting-gathering tribes of ancient India among the Dravidians as well.

Rural farming communities started forming in India 9000 years ago. As surplus crops were produced, they required to be stored. People needed to stay close to granaries thereby ushering in urbanisation. That’s how the Indus Valley Civilisation may have emerged. Over the centuries, they learned advanced town planning. Their towns had great plumbing with drains. The heydays of this civilisation were between 2500 BCE and 2000 BCE.

This civilisation declined between 2000 BCE and 1600 BCE. There are various theories of the causes. It may be possible that all are valid. The invading Aryan nomadic warring tribes attacked them. The Harrapans of the civilisation had stone-tipped arrows as weapons that were no match to Aryan weapons. Natural forces like droughts, floods and earthquakes may have killed the people.

We were taught in history classes that because of the Aryan Dravidian conflicts, they started living mainly in two different regions of India. The Aryans occupied the North, and the Dravidians were concentrated in the South. I have also read about Dravidian tribes living in the jungles in different regions of India. Indo-Aryan sages chose forests and wilderness to meditate as well. In Classical Sanskrit, an Indo-European language, the words ‘drāviḍa’, ‘drāmiḍa’ denote ‘the name of a country and its people’.

The Pre-Aryan culture of India has left its indelible mark on our spirituality, religion and society. Ahimsa (non-violence and non-injury), reincarnation and its supposed karmic connection, the Third Eye (mind’s eye), Lord Shiva, the Mother Goddess, divinity in nature, deities, ghosts, evil spirits, etc have emanated from it.

I don’t have enough anthropological, historical, linguistic and sociological knowledge to state which theory regarding Dravidians is correct. I’m proud of my Dravidian ancestry though and would love to uphold unity in diversity in India.

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https://pixabay.com/photos/dholavira-archaeological-site-3674198/: Image by Bishnu Sarangi from Pixabay: Picture Courtesy