REMNANTS OF DRAVIDIAN NAME HERITAGE IN INDUS VALLEY AND BEYOND
Balakrishnan, R.
The “Dravidian hypothesis” is considered the most plausible of all the prevailing theories on the language of Indus Valley Civilization (IVC). Again, in the context of tracing the origins of Dravidians there are suggestions that connect the Dravidian speakers of Southern India to the geographical regions west and North West of India. However, the ‘vast gap in space and time’ has been the inhibiting factor in suggesting any direct linkage. Scholars in the past have used the place names as ‘one more potential sources of clues’ to identifying the language of the IVC.
Against this backdrop, this paper furnishes an extensive Onomastics evidence to suggest a ‘Dravidian connection’ to the areas where the IVC once flourished and the regions much beyond that, covering the modern Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. The paper lists numerous instances of identical place names found in the above countries and in Southern States of India. With a view to bridge the ‘gap in space and time’ the paper further makes a comparative study of toponymic , anthroponymic designations attested in the Cankam texts and the toponymic corpuses of the above countries. The study reveals that the toponymic corpuses of the countries under reference contain place names that show remarkable oneness with the place names, geographical feature names, tribe names, clan names and names of kings and chieftains attested in Cankam texts. The study also identifies some of the unique and crucial names attested in Cankam texts but not in vogue in Tamilnadu and locates those names in the place name corpus of the above countries under reference.
The paper seeks to suggest that the Onomastic corpus of Cankam texts contain inputs that reflect some remote ‘tribal memory’ of Indus or even pre-Indus vintage and that the place name corpuses of the above countries have still preserved some of the Dravidian remnants as a ‘fossilized representation of an immemorial past.’
For this study, this researcher has used GIS (Geographical Information System) tools to analyze a data base of 1.26 million place names of India and the other countries under reference. The paper offers supportive evidence in the form of Tables of place names with geo-coordinates and Maps.
Source: http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/00151/WCTC_Souvenir_-_Par_151107a.pdf | Read or download this article in the backup file (PDF, 1,2 MB)
Date Visited: 16 April 2012
[Bold typeface added above for emphasis]
Abstracts for scholarly papers on a wide range of topics by experts on Tamil/Dravidian studies and its influence within and beyond India including music, folklore, linguistics, literature, ethnomusicology, intercultural and modern traits, archaeology, geography, ecology, botany, medicine, sociology, zoology, law, politics, and technology. | Find published papers by these and other scholars here >>
Contributors
Source: “WCTC Souvenir” (PDF 1,2 MB), courtesy The Hindu (Date Visited: 16 April 2012)
Aaron J. Paige, Ajmal Khan, P.M., Alexander M. Dubyanskiy, Amutha Pandian, Anaivaari R. Anandan, Andreas L. Katonis, Armstrong, S., Arogyaswami J. Paulraj, Arokianathan, S., Aruldoss Kanthiah, Aruna Devi, P., Arunachalam, A., Arunachalam, R., Arunan Sriskandarajah, Arunan, E., Asko Parpola, Ayothi, V., Bagavandas, M., Balaji, P.D., Balakrishnan, M., Balakrishnan, R., Balasubramanian, G., Beulah Jeyaseeli, S., Bhageerathi, M.A., Buck, David C., Chandrasekaran, A., Chelladurai Albert, Chelva Kanaganayakam, Chevillard, Jean-Luc, Chinnammai, S., Christhu Doss, M., Cristina Muru, Daniel Jeyaraj, Daniel, D., Dayalan, D., Deivanayagam, G., Devaraj Vijayakumar, Durga, S.A.K., Eva Wilden, Ganesan, N., Ganeshram, S., Ganga Ramachandran (Bageerathi), Geetha, N., George Joseph, S. V., Gnanam, M., Gnanasundaram, V., Gopalakrishnan Naduvattom, Govind Raj, Govindarajan, N., Gowri Diwaker, Gregory James, Gurumurthy, S., Hazeena Begum, V., Irai Anbu, Jacob Vetha Raj Y. Mohamed Sathik M. and Senthamarai Kannan, K., Jakka Parthasarathy, Jaya Venkatesh J., Jayabalan M., Jayanthasri Balakrishnan, Jayasitalakshmi, B.R., Jaroslav Vacek, Kalai Selvi, S., Kameswaran, S., Kannan, P.P., Kandaswamy, S.N., Kanthasamy Nallusamy, Karthikesu Sivathambi, Karthikeyan, S., Kasirajan, R., Kavitha Nakulan, Keeni Gita, A., Kiran Kesavamurthy, Komala Varadan, Kothandaraman, D., Kothandaraman, R., Krishnammal, S., Krishnamurthy, R., Krishanamurthi, R., Krishnaswami, P., Lakshman Singh, M., Lakshmi Ramaswamy, Logamanian, T., Maari Maurya, Madhavan, A.D., Madhivanan, R., Mahadevan Iravatham, Mahadevan Kathir, Mahalingam, K., Manavalan, A.A., Manickavasagam, M.E., Manikumar, K. A., Manju Nair, Manoharan, S., Manonmani Rathnavel, M., Marudanayagam, P., Maruthamalai Murugan, Matthew H. Baxter, Menon, A.G., Mikiko Kondo, Murthy, Y.Y.S.S.N., Murugaiyan, A., Murugaiyan Punal, K., Murugarathanam, T., Muthu Francis, S., Muthukumara Swamy, R., Muthupandian Ashokkumar, Nadaraja Pillai, N., Nagaswamy, R., Nageswara Rao, P., Naidu Pushpalatha, Narainsamy Tiroumalechetty, Narayanan Kannan, Natanasabapathy, S., Natarajan, S., Palaniappan Thiagarajan, Palanisamy Iyyana Devan, Pandian, P., Pandiyaraja, P., Pandurangan, Parthasarathi, K., Parthasarathy, G., Parthiban, M., Perialwar, R. & Gnanasundaram, V., Poongundran, R., Prabhakaran, B., Purushothaman, V.P., Rajendran, N., Ramachandran, G., Ramanathan, P., Ramanujam, Kallapiran, T., Ramasamy, A., Ramasamy, V., Ramaswami, N., Rangan, K., Ravi Subramaniam, Ravindranathan, S., Rose Mary, A., Sabarinathan, S., Sabharathnam, S.P., Sadasivam, M., Sampath Kumar, M., Sampath, M.D., Sanmugadas, A., Santhalingam, C., Saraspedee Tiroumalechetty, Saraswathi Venugopal, Saravanan Raja, Raghunatha Rao, B. Rajavel, S., Selvakumar, P., Selva Shunmugam, P. & Deiva Nayagam, C.N., Semmal Manavai Mustafa, Senarath Wikramasinghe, E.A., Seshadri, N., Sethuraman, M. & Rajan, S., Shan Shanmugam, P.E., Shunmugam, P., Shanmugam, S.V., Shanmugayogini Ravindran, Sherfraz, Simon Schmidt, Singaravelu Sachithanantham, Siva Pillai, Sivagowri Sivagurunathan, Sivathanu Pillai A., Smriti Haricharan, Soibam Rebika Devi, Solomon Raj, D., Solomon Selvam, Sridhar, T.S., Srinivasa Varma, G., Srinivasan, S., Sriskandarajah Sellathamby, Subrahmanyam, C., Subramani Kannupelli, Subramani Kannupelli, Subramanian, K.S., Subramanian, S.V., Sujatha Vijayaraghavan, Sukumar Rajagopal, Sunder Ganesan, G., Sundaresh, Gaur A. S, Vora K.H, and Sila Tripati, Suresh, V. & Nakkeeran, K.S., Swarna Sirisena, N. R., Tamil Selvi, Thajudeen, A.S., Thayyalnayaki, Thilakavathy, M., Thillainayagam, Thirumoorthy, G., Thiruvalluvan, V., Thomas Lehmann, Ulrike Niklas, Vanangamudi, P., Vasanthakumari, T., Veena Mushrif & Rajan, K., Veerapandian, S.A., Velmurugan, R., Velusamy, N., Venkatesan, P., Venkatesan, R., Vijaya Ramaswamy, Vijayalakshmi, V., Vijayaraghavan, R., Vijayaraghavan, R., Vijayavenugopal, G., Vinesh Yogindranathsingh Hookoomsing, Vridhachalem Subramaniam, Waradet Mesangrutdharakul, Will Sweetman
Up-to-date reports by Indian journalists and commentators
To search Indian periodicals, magazines, web portals and other sources safely, click here. To find an Indian PhD thesis on a particular tribal community, region and related issues, click here >>
Search tips
Combine the name of any particular state, language or region with that of any tribal (Adivasi) community.
Add keywords of special interest (music, poetry, dance just as health, sacred grove and biodiversity); learn about the rights of Scheduled Tribes such as the “Forest Rights Act” (FRA); and the United Nations “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, “women’s rights”, or “children’s right to education”.
Specify any other issue or news item you want to learn more about (biodiversity, bonded labour and human trafficking, climate change, ecology, economic development, ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, global warming, hunter-gatherers in a particular region or state, prevention of rural poverty, water access).
For official figures include “scheduled tribe ST” along with a union state or region: e.g. “Chhattisgarh ST community”, “Himalayan tribe”, “Scheduled tribe Tamil Nadu census”, “ST Kerala census”, “Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group Jharkhand”, “PVTG Rajasthan”, “Adivasi ST Kerala”, “Adibasi ST West Bengal” etc.
In case the Google Custom Search window is not displayed here try the following: (1) toggle between “Reader” and regular viewing; (2) in your browser’s Security settings select “Enable JavaScript” | More tips >>
Note: hyperlinks and quotes are meant for fact-checking and information purposes only | Disclaimer >>
Learn more
Crafts and visual arts | Fashion and design | Masks
eBooks, eJournals & reports | eLearning
eBook | Background guide for education
Forest dwellers in early India – myths and ecology in historical perspective
Himalayan region: Biodiversity & Water
History | Hunter-gatherers | Indus Valley | Megalithic culture | Rock art
Languages and linguistic heritage
Modernity | Revival of traditions
Tribal Research and Training Institutes with Ethnographic museums