The "Elamo-Dravidian" hypothesis, in its
most advanced form, was formulated by David W. McAlpin in a series of papers in
the 1970s and 80s (others, e.g. Stephen A. Tyler, suggest a genetic connection
between Dravidian and Uralic or "Ural-Altaic"). The Elamo-Dravidian family
is taken for granted by Nostraticists of all denominations, but has not been
accepted by most Dravidologists (though some, e.g. Kamil V. Zvelebil, are
cautiously sympathetic to it). It seems likely, at any rate, that the
Proto-Dravida were pastoralists (no native agricultural vocabulary)
who reached the area of Sindh from the west before the appearance of the
Indo-Aryans, early enough to become an ethnic and linguistic component of the
Indus Civilisation. The main linguistic component of the latter (at least in its
northern part) was, according to F.B.J. Kuiper, a heavily prefixing language
typologically close to and apparently related to the Munda languages (Michael
Witzel calls it "Para-Munda"). That hypothetical language accounts for a large
number of substrate loans of the early Rigvedic period. The first contacts of
the Indo-Aryans with post-Indus populations were with Para-Munda speakers, the
earliest Dravidian loans appearing in the middle and late Rigvedic periods
(roughly, the latter half of the second millennium BC), as the Dravida moved
from the deserted areas of Sindh towards the Panjab. From that time on,
Dravidian influence on Indo-Aryan increased.
Zvelebil derives the Dravida from the
highlands of eastern Iran; linguistic palaeontology suggests that they were
semi-nomadic herders. It may be significant that the Dravida had their own
"horse" words (Witzel suggests that they may have been the first horse-users in
the Indus cultural area) but borrowed their wagon and chariot-related vocabulary
from the Indo-Aryans. If they came to Sindh via southeastern Iran and
Baluchistan (a more southerly route than that taken later by the Indo-Aryans),
one can see why there is no linguistic evidence of pre-migration borrowings in
either direction. If the Dravida came from Central Asia or belonged originally
to a chain of related cultures extending into the steppes, they must have left
that area before the arrival of Indo-European peoples there.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2001 4:49 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Dravidian in Persia?
Tepe Yahya is the name you are searching for, it is on the
land rout from Elamite Susa during the Bronze Age to Mohenjo Daro and from there
north to Harappa. There was a northern route direct to Bactria by which
tin and lapis caravans followed an established trade. There is speculation
that Elam ruled much of the Iranian platteau before the arrival of the Indo
European tribes in the first millenium and that they had a land frontier with
the Harappan culture(s).
Has anyone noted any
resemblence between Old Elamite and the Dravidian languages? There were no
Indo Europeans in the area of South Iran until the ninth C. at the earliest,
they would have been nomadic herders like those in Luristan, a niche that was
already taken. The Lurs were not IE and their territories stood between the
north and Elam.