Page:Origin and spread of the Tamils.djvu/21



10 ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF THE TAMILS show influence further south. This can be decided upon only by a proper linguistic survey. Another argument in favour of the theory that Dravidians came to India through the North-western passes is the existence of the Brahuis in Baluchistan, whose dialect is recognized and supported to belong to the group of Dravidian languages. Although the Khanate of Kalat is regarded as the Brahui home, still they are found in all parts of Baluchistan. Their tradition is that they were immigrants from Aleppo. Ethnically they look different from Pathans or Baluchi proper. They are essentially a pastoral people. The Brahui language, if properly analysed, reveals no kinship to the Aryan languages which have enriched, however, its vocabulary. One sees in it a resemblance with the Dravidian languages of South India. It is first and foremost agglutinative. The noun, pronoun, the reflexive, and the other likenesses are marked to the Dravidian language. (Intro. to Part 1-The Brahui Language by Sir D. Bray)." This has been pressed into service as indicating the fact of the Dravidian incursion to India through Baluchistan. Ethnologists of the present day while accepting a Dravidian element in the language hold the view that these Brahuis are Turko-Iranian rather than Dravidian. Granting that it points to an early Dravidian settlement, I ask what is the objection to state that a branch of Dravidians from South went to the North and North-west and settled there ? Diffusion of Dravidians in Rajaputana and Central India in prehistoric times is seen from the