As for the languages spoken in this region Dravidian is the dominant. At present Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Tulu are the major Dravidian languages and of these Malayalam became an independent linguistic entity much later than the rest and Tulu has no script of its own.

There are a number of languages without script spoken in this region. The language of the gypsies, Tulu itself and the Saurashtra language spoken in isolated pockets like the city of Madurai have no scripts of their own but use the most convenient and locally prevailing among the others. The occurrence of Munda languages in the Deccan to any great extent cannot be attested to.

It is said that Bhili language spoken by the Bhils has Munda affinities and speakers of this language live in the northern fringes of Sil. Whether the language of the Kakkalans living in the extreme south of the peninsula possess Munda elements cannot be determined. Dravidian, the language of the round headed majority people, was introduced into the peninsula in pre-Aryan times from the homeland of the Dravidians which in the present state of our knowledge it should be possible for us to determine as West Asia.

Wide occurrence of Dravidian among the cis-Caspian armenoids has been noticed and it is at this point that it is desirable to take up the question of the origin of the Dravidians which has been to some extent indicated roughly in the course of this discussion.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

It is necessary also to remember in this context that being grouped as speakers of a single linguistic group is not the same thing as being grouped as belonging to a single ethic stock. A certain amount of equation of these two complexes is possible because particular ethnic groups tend to bunch together and reside in the same areas thereby maximising the chances of the same ethnic stock speaking the same language.