[CA] Dravidian Language: 4500 years old

The Dravidian language family, consisting of 80 varieties spoken by nearly 220 million people across southern and central India, originates about 4500 years ago: Research team

This estimate is based on new linguistic analysis by an international ream, including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany and the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun

The Dravidian language family’s four largest languages – Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu – have literary traditions spanning centuries, of which Tamil reaches back the furthest

Along with Sanskrit, Tamil is one of the world’s classical languages, but unlike Sanskrit, there is continuity between its classical and modern forms documented in inscriptions, poems, and secular and religious texts and songs

The study of the Dravidian languages is crucial for understanding prehistory in Eurasia, as they played a significant role in influencing other language groups

The consensus of the research community is that the Dravidians are natives of the Indian subcontinent and were present prior to the arrival of the Indo – Aryans (Indo – European speakers) in India around 3, 500 years ago