Page:An introduction to Dravidian philology.djvu/57

Rh people possess a prominently Iranian character and that the origin of most of the South Indian people can be traced to an Iranian origin, represented by the Paisaci speaking people once living beyond the North West of India These peoples had overspread the whole of India at a very early age, in fact, long before the advent of the Aryans and superimposed themselves on the aboriginal population represented by the earliest Austro-Indo-Erythraen peoples These prevented the Aryan advance at every step and presented a resolute fight inch by inch but they had to give way and allow themselves to be absorbed in or themselves absorb the Aryan element. Thus we find that ethnically the Dravidians present such complex features which are historically demonstrated and ethnologically supported. An endeavour will be made in the next lecture to treat this Dravidian ethnic complex in the light of