Page:An introduction to Dravidian philology.djvu/20

 received opinion of Lord Avebury that "it is in the warmer regions of the Earth that we may reasonably find the earliest traces of the human race," and of Dr Haddon that "there can be little doubt that man evolved somewhere in Southern Asia, possibly during Pliocene and Miocene times."

Granting, then, that India was the early scene of Man's evolution, where and in what part exactly did Man first appear? This question is as futile as it is unnecessary at the present stage, considering the paucity of materials to build theories upon. As Sir Arthur Keith says, “It: (India) is part of the world from which the student of early Man has expected 80 much and so far has obtained so little". No systematic survey of the pre-historic reroains has been carried on and the little glimpses that we have of early history are based on the chance discoveries of isolated