Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/83

Rh the earliest time of Aryan activities, cannot be denied. Again, adverting to a list of the races of man, made out either by the ethnologists or by the linguists, we can see that the representatives of all races in greater or smaller number came to live in India, and did not find the country an uncongenial home. How the jetsam and flotsam of the floating races of the world were absorbed in the main body of the Indian population, is impossible now to ascertain. I cannot discuss all these questions here; but one fact relating to the range of influence of the Dravidians during the days of early migrations of peoples will be noticed here to draw the attention of scholars to some hither-to-neglected facts of great importance.

The ethnologists agree to some extent in holding that the old inhabitants of Etruria in Italy proceeded to the latter country from some parts of Asia-Minor. It is also very reasonably supposed that the language of the Etrurians did not belong to the family of speech which is generally known by the name Indo-European. Mr. Stenkonow has shown in his essay on "Etruscans and Dravidian" (J. R. A. S., 1912) that there are many interesting points in which the language of the Etruscan follows the same principles as that of the Draviḍas. It is interesting to note, that the plural-forming suxffixes 'gal' and 'ar' of the Dravidians are in existence in Italy, the Etrurian verbs like those of Malayalam do not change for number, and words in genitive case are freely used in Etrurian as adjectives. We shall see that all these Dravidian and Etruscan characteristics, are distinctly noticeable in Bengali language. If the Dravidians have been autochthonous in India, their migration to western countries indicates a state of their early social condition, which has not been hitherto considered. The influence of this people upon the proud Soma-pressers and their