Dravidian studies

Dravidian studies (also Dravidology) 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.

History

16th to 18th century missionaries who wrote Tamil grammars or lexica include Henriques Henrique, Roberto de Nobili, Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg and Constantino Giuseppe Beschi.

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.

Pioneers of the field were Robert Caldwell, Johan van Manen, U. V. Swaminatha Iyer, T. R. Sesha Iyengar, V. Kanakasabhai, P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar, S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar, K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, V. R. Ramachandra Dikshitar, C. P. Brown, Ferdinand Kittel, Constantine Beschi, T. Burrow, M. B. Emeneau, B. L. Rice, Hermann Gundert, Kamil Zvelebil and Bhadriraju Krishnamurti.

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: Bishop Caldwell's Chair for Dravidian Studies, C. P. Brown's Chair for Telugu Studies, Kittel Chair for Kannada Studies, Constantine Beschi Chair for Tamil Studies and Gundert Chair for Malayalam Studies.^[1]

See also

• Indology
• Proto-Dravidian
• Elamo-Dravidian

References

1. ^ Dravidian University fellowships, The Hindu, Saturday, Aug 26, 2006

Literature

• Robert Caldwell, Comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages (1856; revised edition 1875).
• Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (2003). The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521771110. http://books.google.com/books?output=html&ie=ISO-8859-1&id=T7Wv4ncys88C&vid=ISBN0521771110&dq=%22Dravidian+studies%22+tamil&ots=qD_A1RM1T-&pg=RA2-PA17&lpg=RA2-PA17&sig=ptnU0JQTQRpCR44_1aZUzfkiTD0&q=%22Dravidian+studies%22+tamil. 
• Thomas R. Trautmann, Languages and nations: the Dravidian proof in colonial Madras, University of California Press, 2006, ISBN University of California Press, 2006.
• Murray Barnson Emeneau (1994). Dravidian Studies: Selected Papers. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 8120808584. 

External links

• Dravidian studies in the Netherlands, IIAS newsletter (2005) [1][2]
• Extracts from T.R.Sesha Iyengar's "Dravidian India" by Dr. Samar Abbas, Bhubaneshwar, 4/8/2003
• Literary Contributions of select list of Tamil Scholars from Overseas