Dravidian studies


Dravidian studies is the academic field devoted to the Dravidian languages, literature and culture. It is a superset of Tamil studies and a subset of South Asian studies.

Early missionaries

The 16th to 18th century missionaries who wrote Tamil grammars or lexica include Henrique Henriques, Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg and Constantino Giuseppe Beschi.
DravidologistPhotoPeriodWork
Henrique Henriques1520–1600Portuguese Jesuit priest and missionary. After his initial days in Goa he moved to Tuticorin. As a missionary he strongly believed that books of religious doctrines should be in local languages. He is considered to be the first European Tamil scholar. He set up the first Tamil press and got books printed in Tamil script. The first book printed in Tamil script was "Thambiran Vanakkam" , a 16-page translation of the Portuguese "Doctrina Christam". Thereby, Tamil became the first non-European language to be printed on a printing press.
Constantine Beschi also called Vīramāmunivar
1680 –1742Italian Jesuit priest and renowned poet in Tamil language. Authored several Tamil dictionaries: including the "Chaturakarati", a Tamil-Latin and Latin-Tamil-Portuguese dictionary. He translated the famous Thirukkural epic poem of Thiruvalluvar in Latin. His greatest poetical work is the "Thembavani" , a poem on the life of Saint Joseph.
Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg
1682–1719Lutheran clergy member and the first Pietist missionary to India. He was among the first Protestant missionaries to arrive in India at the Danish colony of Tranquebar in 1706. He translated the Old and the New Testament into Tamil. In 1708 he compiled "Bibliothece Malabarke", listing the 161 Tamil books he had read and described their content.

Dravidian language hypothesis

The recognition that the Dravidian languages were a phylogenetic unit separate from Indo-European dates to 1816, and was presented by F. W. Ellis, Collector of Madras, at the College of Fort St. George.

Nineteenth-century experts

The 19th century contributors to the field of Dravidology were:
DravidologistPhotoPeriodWork
Francis Whyte Ellis1777-1819Civil servant. First to propose a Dravidian family of languages
Charles Phillip Brown1798–1884Collected 2,106 hand written books in South Indian Languages. He provided three services for the Telugu language: he produced his own works in Telugu; he recovered and discovered old Telugu works; and he printed books in Telugu. He authored numerous translations of Telugu works into English.
Robert Caldwell
1814-1891Research into the languages and the history of the Dravidian region.
Hermann Gundert
1814 – 1893Authored Malayalam grammar book, "Malayalabhaasha Vyakaranam" and a Malayalam-English dictionary. Published thirteen Malayalam books including Bible translations.
Ferdinand Kittel
1832–1903Kannada language and the first Kannada-English dictionary of about 70,000 words in 1894.
Benjamin Lewis Rice1837-1927Renowned for his work Epigraphia Carnatica which contains his study of about 9000 inscriptions found in the Old Mysore area. He published twelve volumes over ten years between 1894 and 1905. He authored "The History of Mysore and Coorg" from inscriptions included in the Epigraphia Carnatica.
U. V. Swaminatha Iyer1855–194291 books related to classical Tamil literature. Collected 3,067 paper and palm-leaf manuscripts.
T. R. Sesha Iyengar1887-1939Dravidologist renowned for his book "Dravidian India".
K. A. Nilakanta Sastri
1892–1975Renowned Dravidologist and prolific historian. Authored 25 historical works mostly on the history of South India.
P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar1863–1931Noted Dravidologist of the 20th century. Authored numerous works on Tamil and Indian history.
Sakkottai Krishnaswami Aiyangar1871–1946Noted for his work in turning around and running the "Journal of Indian History" in the 1920s. He authored many historical works on South Indian and Indian history.
V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar1896–1953Known for authoring numerous works on Tamil and Indian history.

Twentieth-century experts

The noted Dravidologists from the twentieth century are:
DravidologistPhotoPeriodWork
Murray Barnson Emeneau1904-2005Renowned for his work the "Dravidian Etymological Dictionary", written with Thomas Burrow. Emeneau studies lesser known languages of the Dravidian family - Toda, Badaga, Kolami and Kota. Emeneau is also credited with the study of areal phenomena in linguistics, with his seminal article, "India as a Linguistic Area".
T. Burrow1909-1986Renowned for his work the "Dravidian Etymological Dictionary", written with Murray Barnson Emeneau. Also known for his work in Sanskrit.
Kamil Zvelebil1927–2009Czech scholar in Indian literature and Dravidian linguistics. Author of numerous books on Dravidian linguistics and Tamil literature.
Bhadriraju Krishnamurti
1928–2012Eminent Dravidianist and one of the most respected Indian linguists of his generation. His work "The Dravidian Languages" is considered a landmark volume in the study of Dravidian linguistics. His work "Telugu Verbal Bases" is the first comprehensive account of comparative Dravidian phonology. He is also author of numerous works in Telugu and English on the subject.
Iravatham Mahadevan1930–2018Renowned for his work on the decipherment of the Tamil-Brahmi script. He also published a corpus of the Indus script and stood by the Dravidian hypothesis.

Contemporary programs

The Dravidian University at Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh
has created Chairs in the names of Western and Dravidian scholars to encourage research in individual Dravidian languages as well as comparative Dravidian studies: