Origins of Tamils?[Where are Tamil people from?] PART :80

[Compiled by: Kandiah Thillaivinayagalingam]
 conclusion
There are many theories and studies that explain the origin of Dravidians,their link to Africa,Aryan invasion and Dravidian’s migration to South India and try to answer whether the Dravidians are the originators of the Indus Valley Civilization?whether Dravidians are autochthonous to the subcontinent? Or should their origins be sought in the Proto-Elamite,the Sumerian,the Proto-Saharan?,But all the theories & answers state the fact that Dravidians were a very classy and skilled race of people.

The issue of the linkage between Africans and Dravidians is not something that can be dismissed as something that has no substance in it at all.In Godfrey Higgins' seminal work Anaclypsis[is a lengthy two-volume treatise written by religious historian Godfrey Higgins, and published after his death in 1833,he relates a story of Herodotus giving an account of his travels to the lands of the Blacks: "And upon his return to Greece they gathered around and asked,"Tell us about this great Land of the blacks called Ethiopia." And Herodotus said,"There are two great Ethiopian nations,one in Sind (India) and the other in Egypt".Herodotus' account of the great African civilizations that spanned both the African continent and much of South East Asia,was not the first nor would it be the last observation by travelers and historians alike,of the black civilizations in South East Asia.Dravidian people have dark complexion,dark black hair and eyes and large foreheads.Because of structural similarities,it is also believed that Dravidians has an African origin.However,Physical trait similarities does not always equal closer relation.Modern geneticists suggest that the color of skin may have had more to do with adapting to sunnier
conditions in the southern part of India than actual racial differences.Everyone came from Africa our skin adapted to different climates overtime.The african similarity may be due to the same climatic conditions that prevailed in these countries.Further,Southern India is in the same latitude as Senegal, Mali, Niger,Chad,Sudan,Ethiopia and Somalia.More than this,only the Indian Ocean separates the eastern coast of Africa from the south of India.As a matter of fact,geologists maintain that the Indian sub continent was formerly attached to East Africa.Many scholars have recognized the linguistic unity of Black African and Dravidian languages.These affinities are found not only in the modern African languages but also that of ancient Egypt.For example,Eminent Tamil scholar Dr Aravaanan,Dr Clyde Winters,Dr. U. P. Upadhyaya have written extensively on the African and Dravidian relations.All of them wrote in the 70's and none of them are geneticists. Also the Afro-Dravidian hypothesis argues that the Dravidian language is a derivative of an African language from the Niger-Congo family of languages,and that much of the cultural and technological packet associated with Dravidian culture has African origins.Even some researchers due to the genetic relationship between the Dravidians and Niger-Congo speaking groups they call the Indians the Sudroid (Indo-African) Race.Leopold Sedar Sengkor (President of Senegal),while delivered a lecture in Madras[Chennai] under the auspices of the International Institute of Tamil Studies on the 23rd May,1974,asked archeologists and pre-
historians to have a chance to explore the depths of the seas,to discover old lithic industries or human skeleton fossils,in the area stretching from East Africa to Southern India. Unless,of course,the Indian Ocean existed long before the human race appeared.This is perhaps a reference to that stretch of land which was supposed to have linked India and Africa and was presumably engulfed by the ocean during the Neolithic revolution,called Lemuria or Kumari Kandam.The story of humanity is written in our genes,and thanks to modern science and technology,we are finally able to read it.so If we able to Piecing Together with all archaeological and linguistic studies we have made so far with this new scientific studies of DNA,and proposed or write a Historical Narrative,then that Makes Sense.Typical Racial Characteristics of Dravidians are 1]They are short people with stature usually 5 ft 4 inches[1.626 m] .2] Their skin ranges from brown to almost black.3]Eyes are Black or dark brown,4] Dravidians generally possess a dolichocephalic head with a long, narrow face and well-developed forehead.5]Hair is black or dark brown, straight or wavy, long. 6]The nose is straight, long and narrow. and 7] The most prevalent blood types among Dravidians are O (37 per cent), A (22 per cent), B (33 per cent).and AB (7 per cent)

The Tamils have legends that their ancient history extends up to about
ten thousand years,sea swallowing up their lands twice and kings establishing new capitals and fostering Tamil in three successive academies.This legend is one of the reasons- one of the excuses- for connecting up the Tamil civilization with some prehistoric ancient civilizations,such as Indus Valley Civilization and Sumerian Civilization. Father Heras argued for the Dravidian identity of the Indus Valley people.In the 1960s,the Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies issued many announcements,trying to establish this identity.This hypothesis is defended seriously by Japanese Professor Noboru Karashima, President of the International Association for Tamil Research in 1994.Also Many modern studies of the ancient Indus Valley civilization presumed that the inhabitants who occupied a wide range of ancient city-states all along the Indus (including the very large urban centers at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro) were all Dravidian.Many Tamils trace their origins to the people of Mohenjodaro in the Indus Valley around 6000 years before the birth of Christ.There is, however, a need  further systematic study With today's DNA technology to further ascertain their belief.

Four human skeletons dating back to the 5000-year-old Harappan era have been recovered from a cemetery located at Rakhigarhi village in Hisar, Haryana disctrict, in northwestern India, where archaeologists have been carrying out excavation at the site since January 23,2015.Archaeologists hope forensic scientists will reconstruct the DNA extracted from bones to help decipher the history and origin of the human settlement,which is part of the Indus Valley civilisation as the soil at Rakhigarhi is sandy so the skeletons are better preserved.Hence the results could shed light on the identity of the Harappan people soon.

The Dravidian Identity of the Sumerians is also strongly advocated by certain scholars.such as the late ProfessorA.Sathasivam from Sri Lanka and Dr. Loganathan Muttarayan from Malaysia.Also,Eminent historians of the caliber of K.A. Nilakantta Sastri, have pointed out similarities in temple worship. A hypothesis,connecting the ancestors of the Dravidians,if not the Tamils.to the Mediterranean area,is still advocated by certain scholars,such as,Dr. N. Lahovary.Eminent historian K.A. Nilakanta Sastri,demonstrate that the Dravidian Languages of South India are more or less closely related to a near Eastern and Mediterranean agglutinative group of languages of Pre Indo-European Times.There are two further lines of investigation one may adopt to confirm this hypothesis.The first is to explore for other groups in India with a similar language and the second is to carry out a physical examination of the Sumerian skeletons as available at the present time to detect racial similarities.

PART :81 WILL FOLLOW

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