The Mediterranean Peoples - Dravidians (Write-up by Dr A Desai)

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The Mediterranean Peoples (Dravidians)

(Extracts from ‘The Original Indians â€" An Enquiry’ by Dr. A. Desai)

How the Mediterranean people came to be called Dravidians makes interesting story. The Pre-Hellenistic Lycians of Asi Minor, who where probably the Mediterranean stock called themselves Trimmili. Another tribe of this branch in the island of Crete was known by the name Dr(a)mil or Dr(a)miz. In ancient Sanskrit writings we find the terms Dramili and Dravidi, and then Dravida which referred to the southern portion of India.

South India was known to the ancient Greek and Roman geographers as Damirica or Limurike. Periplus Maris Erithroei (Periplus of the Eritrean Sea) in the second or third century AD described the maritime route followed by Greek ships sailing to the South Indian ports: “Then follow Naoura and Tundis, the first marts of Limurike and after these Mouziris and Nelkunda, the seats of government.â€

Dramila, Dravida and Damirica indicated the territory. Then it was applied to the people living in the territory and the language they spoke, in the local parlance Tamil and Tamil Nadu or Tamilakam.

 

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The Mediterraneans or Dravidians were associated with the ancient Sumerian civilizations of Mesopotamia and of Elam (southern Iran). Authors have pointed out ethnic, linguistic and cultural affinities between the Sumerians (Mesopotamians) and the Dravidians of South India, and concluded that both probably belonged to the same ethnic stock. HR Hall writes: “The ethnic type of the Sumerians, so strongly marked in their statues and relofs was as different from those of the races which surrounded them as was their language from those of the Semites, Aryans and others; they were decidedly Indian in type. The face-type of the average Indian today is no doubt much the same as that of the Dravidian race ancestors thousands of years ago...And it is to this Dravidian ethnic type of India that the ancient Sumerian bears most resemblance, so far as we can judge from his monuments. He was very like a Southern Hindu of the Deccan (who still speaks Dravidian languages). And it is by no means improbable that the Sumerians were an Indian tribe which passed, certainly by land, perhaps also by sea, through Persia to the valley of the Two Rivers.â€

Hall is of the opinion that Dravidian people must have migrated to Mesopotamia from India, whereas others think Dravidians came from Mediterranean regions, which was their earlier home. KP Padmanabha Menon writes about their close relationship: “Orientalists, many of them, are prepared to concede that the Sumerians, the Mediterranean race, are branches of the early Dravidians.â€

The Dravidians settled down the coastal regions of Tamil Nadu in large numbers and they developed the art of navigation which enabled them to carry on trade with Sumer, Babylon and Egypt. Ur was the sea post of Babylon and the capital of the Sumerian kings. South Indian teak wood was found in the ruins of Ur of IV millennium BC.

The word “Ur†itself is the Tamil-Malayalam equivalent signifying a town or village, which is often affixed to names of places in the South, like, Tanjavur, Perumanur, Ollur, Kadungallur etc.

We shall quote, in this regard Will Durant, the author of “The Story of Civilizationâ€. He writes: “Farther South of the land was occupied by the dark-skinned, broad-nosed people whom, without knowing the origin of the word, we call Dravidians. They were already a civilized people when the Aryans broke down upon them; their adventurous merchants sailed the sea even to Sumeria and Babylon, and their cities know many refinements and luxuries.’

Seals, beads and other objects of Harappan pattern dating back to 2500 BC have been discovered in Ur, and other parts of Sumer and Mesopotamia which establish the close contact and affinity between these peoples.

There was commercial intercourse between South India and Egypt from IV or III millennium BC. Spices and perhaps grains and were exported to Egypt. Greek physician Dioscorides (40-90 AD) in his materia medica mentions cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, turmeric etc. as possessing medicinal effects. It is interesting to note that the Greek word for ginger “Zinciberâ€, is similar to the Tamil-Malayalam ‘inchiveru’ (root of ‘inchi’ = ginger); Greek word for rice is likewise, Oryzi, derived from Tamil ‘Arisi’.

According to one view, the Dravidians were of Semitic origin. Several common cultural and anthropological features are pointed out in support of this opinion. Whether they were of the same original stock or not, it is clear from their linguistic affinity that they were closely related for a long period of time. Aramaic was once the international language of diplomacy used by the Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian kings. Edicts of Asoka in Aramaic have been excavated from Taxila and Afghanistan which indicate that Aramaic-speaking people lived in that part of the empire.

A few examples may be cited to show the striking similarity of some words in Tamil and Aramaic used in every day life:

 

 

 

 

English

 

Aramaic

 

Tamil

 

Malayalam

 

 

Mother

 

aemma

 

amma

 

amma

 

 

Father

 

Aba

 

appa

 

appan

 

 

I

 

aenna

 

nan

 

njan

 

 

Much, great

 

rabba

 

rampa

 

rampam

 

 

Big

 

pres

 

peria

 

peria

 

 

No

 

la

 

illai, allai

 

illa, alla

 

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