Story of Drāviḍa-bhāṣā

(Dravidian Language). Linguists have classified the languages of the world under certain groups. Important among them are the Indo-European group, the semitic group, the Hamitic group, the Ural Altaic group, the South East Asiatic group, the Dravidian group, Austric group, the Bantu group and the Chinese group.

Almost all the languages in South India belong to the Dravidian group. The languages of this group are Tamil, Telugu, Kannaḍa, Malayālam, Tulu, Kuṭaku, Toṭa, Koṭa, Baḍaka, Kuruk and Brāhūī. Of these Brāhūī alone is used in the mountain regions of Balucisthan. Linguists like Smīmud and others have stated that there is a close relation between the Australian and Dravidian languages. The Āryan language has influenceed the Dravidian languages to a great extent. But Tamil has not been so much influenced as Telugu, Kannaḍa and Malayālam. It is because Tamil had a great wealth of literature of its own from ancient times. The Dravidian group is again divided into four sections: Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern. Brāhūī is the only language in the Northern section. Its Etymology, grammar etc. are like that of the Dravidian group. But it had been influenced to a large extent by the Iranian language. Still it keeps its Dravidian character.

Telugu, Goṇḍi, Kuruk, Kolāmi, Mālṭa etc. come under the Eastern group. Of these only Telugu has grown as a literary language. Telugu is in use from Madras to Mahendragiri. But it has various sub-divisions and local differences. The Telugu used in the Districts of Kṛṣṇā and Godāvarī is considered to be the purest form. Golari, Sālevāri, Kāmāri, Vāsari, Dāsari etc. are its local sub-divisions. Over modern Telugu, Sanskrit has its full sway.

Kannaḍa, Kuṭaku, Toṭa, Koḍa, etc. come under the western group. Kannaḍa is used in Mysore and the vicinity of the Districts of Coimbatore, Salem, Bellary, Anantapore etc. Baḍaka used in the Nilgiris, Kurumpa, used in the vicinity of Nilgiris, Kuṭaku used in Coorg, are the sub divisions of Kannaḍa. In edicts from the 5th century Kannaḍa could be seen in its ancient form. The modern Kannaḍa has been used from 16th century onwards. Tulu is in use in places between the rivers Candragiri in the south of. Southern Canara and Kalyāṇapurī. Only a few ancient songs could be included in Tulu literature. The Malayālam script is used to write Tulu. But now certain books in Tulu have been published using Kannaḍa script.

Tamil and Malayālam are the languages of the Southern section. The oldest literature in the Dravidian group is in Tamil. The most ancient form of Tamil is seen in the edicts and stone tables of the 30th century B.C. The most important among them are the Saṅga works. The grammatical work 'Tolkāppiyam, is the literary grammar of Centamil. Malayālam became an independent language only by the 8th century A.D. The close relation that exists between Tamil and Malayālam is not visible in any other language of the Dravidian group. By examining the inter-relations of the various languages in the Dravidian group, and noting how close or distant the relation is, we can ascertain which languages separated themselves first from the original Dravida language.