SLATER
Gilbert Slater book
GILBERT SLATER
OXFORD
November 1923
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE DRAVIDIANS P ‘ ‘ : 13
NOTE ON THE RACIAL AFFINITIES OF SOUTH
INDIA AND EARLY CULTURAL CONTACTS 35
Il, THE ARYANS ; é ; ‘ ; 42
Ill. THe ANTIQUITY OF DRAVIDIAN CIVILISA-
TION : : ‘ , ’ ‘ 66
IV. THE Evo.tution oF INDIAN RELIGIOUS
IDEAS. : . . . . 82
V. Tot Economic Basis oF DRAVIDIAN
CULTURE , : : : . x8
NOTE ON VILLAGE FACTION . . 47
VI. SoME FEATURES OF DRAVIDIAN CULTURE 150
VII. THE DRAVIDIAN PROBLEM TO-DAY . 166
NOTE ON THE WORD “ARYAN” AND
INDO-GERMANIC LANGUAGES ; . 183
BIBLIOGRAPHY . ; ‘ ; . 186
INDEX j ; : ; ‘ - 188
...
Chapter.1
When one considers the subsequent enormous development of culture in the lower Euphrates and Tigris regions it becomes permissible to suggest that
from time immemorial Mesopotamian influences have probably had their effect upon Dravidian civilisation
evolving in India.
Until recently it was the general view that prior to about 800 B.c. communication by sea was very limited.
The discoveries in connection with Minoan culture
showing links of Crete with pre-dynastic Egypt and the
Sumer of the third millennium B.c., as well as the more intensive study of west European archeology, have
shown that maritime communications were developed far earlier than had been supposed, and were fairly
considerable even during the third millennium B.c.
Sumerian legends locate Paradise, where the gods first blessed mankind with the manners of civilised life, in Dilmun, on the shore of the Persian Gulf. In the Island Bushire M. Pezard found traces of neolithic culture and thin monochrome pottery decorated in geometrical style, characteristic of the earliest cultures at Susa, Musyan, Ur, and Eridu.
It was the date-palm that made possible the rapid rise of the Sumerian people once they reached this
THE DRAVIDIANS 39
region from the upper Tigris. Dilmun is mentioned in their records as a land of the date. The origins of the painted pottery in Elam and Sumer date back beyond 4000 B.c., and Susa developed greatly about that date, while information from tablets occurs for
dates from 3200 B.c. onwards. Sargon (c7r. 2800 B.C.) seems to have had relations with Cyprus. Eridu and Lagash in early times were practically sea-board cities, but Eridu sank into insignificance after the age of Ham- murabi (civ. 2100 B.C.) with the retreat of the shore line. These facts suggest the possibility of ancient culture connections between Mesopotamia and India, though there is as yet little direct dateable evidence.
A feature of Indian archeology to which special attention has been drawn by Grafton Elliot Smith
(‘“‘ Migrations of Early Culture”) and W. J. Perry
(‘‘ Children of the Sun ’’) is the occurrence of megaliths on the Deccan said to be related to metallic deposits.”
This group of megaliths seems to be related on the one hand to analogous remains towards the Pacific,
and on the other to monuments south of the Caspian, in Georgia towards the Euxine, in the Crimea, and
in Thrace. Perry thinks this maritime intercourse affected India about the middle of the third millen- nium, but the distribution of the megaliths suggests that land routes have also to be considered, and the evidence of the Brahui supports the idea of land routes
1 See “Cambridge Ancient History,” Vol. I., ch. x. (1923).
® Note also the occurrence of dolmens and kist-vens near Trichur in Cochin, indicating the use of the route of the
Palghat Gap.—G. S.
40 INDIAN CULTURE
as well as sea ones. We thus have the suggestion of rather highly developed culture from the already old- established Mesopotamian civilisations probably affect- ing Dravidian India about 2500 B.c., if not still earlier.
The broad-headed fishing castes of the south-west and south-east coasts of India, pointed out by Hornell,} is a point to be borne in mind for future investigation
in connection with the occurrence of broad-headed men along so many coastal stretches in West and South- west Europe connected with early maritime trade.
Summing up, therefore, we may picture survivors of early man in India influenced from the dawn of Neolithic time by immigrations of long heads, akin to those termed Mediterranean, Hamitic, and Semitic, pressed out of the lands of increasing aridity; and
that these immigrations may well have brought
to India many improvements, lifting men above the merely hunting stage, and even giving the beginnings of agriculture. The growth of long-distance com- munications, which was such a general feature of the life of the third millennium B.c., can scarcely fail to
have left its mark upon India, the three routes with the west to be considered being—
(1) the sea route
from Mesopotamia following the coast of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea;
(2) the land routes from
Mesopotamia to India, and (
3) the sea route from
the Egyptian ports on the Red Sea and the Land
of Punt following the southern coast of Arabia as described in the “ Periplus of the Erythrzan Sea.”
It seems justifiable to use the hypothesis that the
1 At British Association, Liverpool, 1923. ‘
LOdWIONIHY ‘HOPINOND) ‘I ALVIg
THE DRAVIDIANS 41
culture elements which thus reached India, probably not less than a thousand years before the coming of the Aryans, interwove themselves with the earlier achievements of the higher races among the popula- tions already settled in India, and that the Dravidian culture is the result.
H., J. F.
[Prof. Fleure adds :—‘‘ These notes were originally supplied to the author for his consideration. The materials on which they are based may be traced through reference to Giuffrida Ruggeri, ‘Outlines of
a Systematic Anthropology of Asia’ (Calcutta, 1921),
to the ‘Cambridge Ancient History’ (Vol. I., 1923),
and to H. J. Fleure’s papers in the Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute (1916, 1918, 1921),
and in ‘ Man.’ ’’]
CHAPTER II
THE ARYANS
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