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20 Dravidians are not the aborigines, but that they were preceded by a Negrito race akin to the people of the Malay Peninsula and the Australians, the remnants of whom may be found among the jungle and mountain tribes of Southern India. And this is the view accepted by scholars intimately acquainted with the South Indian people, notably by Mr.R. Sewell, who says that 'at some very remote period the aborigines of Southern India were overcome by hordes of Dravidian invaders and driven to the mountains and desert tracts where their descendants are to be found.'

If the Dravidians are not the aborigines, then what was their original home and by what route did they come into Southern India ? According to one theory, they were the earliest or the first Aryan settlers. Another theory places their home somewhere in the “submerged Continent” in the Indian Ocean whence they are supposed to have migrated northward to India. According to some, their original home was somewhere in Central Asia and they entered India (a) by the north-east through Assam and Burma, or (b) by both the north-eastern and north-western gates. Yet another makes them immigrants from Western-Asia either by (a) the northwestern mountain passes, or direct by (b) the sea route. Each of these may be considered at some length.

The Early Aryan Theory : Like the Celts and Cymri in Ireland, the Tamils were supposed by some to be the representatives of the earliest band of