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LDM MLDMWWILD – 31 மறைமலையம்
Conference" held in Madras on the 19th and 20th October, 1940. For the benefit of the English-knowing people I give below a succinct account of the contents of this book as far as the limit of this short preface permits.
The first section is devoted to showing who the real Tamilians were and are, since different peoples belonging to different races mingle together in modern times and almost all of them in the South speak Tamil as the common tongue. This state of things could not have existed in the remote past when the mixture of races was rare, except when one raided into the other for food and comfort and settled amongst them. But, as time went on, the Aryans the Scythians, the Monogolians, the Turks and others entered Northern India through passes in the north-west and the north-east and after hard and continuous struggles with the indigenous Tamils, setteld themselves all over the north rather peacefully. This state of different racial inrush into the north led in course of time to a large intermixture of the foreign blood with the Tamil. Still, in every ethnical type the Dravidian, properly speaking the Tamilian element alone, predominates markedly all over the north. Though the Tamilian stock has thus underwent considerable change in northern India, the stock in the south has remained pure and intact, as has been shown by Prof. Rapson in his 'Ancient India.' So we may safely affirm that the people, living at present from Madras to Cape Comorin except those who speak at home tongues different from Tamil, can be no other than the lineal descendants of the original and highly civilized Tamils of pre-Aryan times. Dr. G.A. Grierson justly observes: "With this we may dismiss the theory which assigns a trans-Himalayan origin to the Dravidians. Taking them as we find them now, it may safely be said that their present geographical distribution, the marked uniformity of physical characters among the more primitive members of the group, their animistic religion, their distinctive languages, their stone monuments, and their retention of a primitive system of totemism justify us in regarding them as the earliest inhabitants of India of whom we have any knowledge." 1
