Dravida
Dravida is a term that represented various identities throughout the history of
India. The ambiguity of the term has continued even today as sometimes it denotes people of South India, sometimes speakers of
Dravidian languages.
This
Sanskrit word is believed to be an equivalent of
Prakrit form of the word
Tamil.
* Tamil to Prakrit
* Thamizha(r)->Damila->Damida
* Prakrit to Sanskrit
* Damida ->Dramida->Dravida
In South India,
Tamils were the first
Dravidian speakers to build native great empires before other Dravidian speakers. As a result, Dravida came to represent South among North Indian population.
Brahmins in old days were classified as Northern and Southern Brahmins. Northern Brahmins were called
Panch Gauda Brahmana and Southern Brahmins were known as
Pancha Dravida Brahmana. The Dravida(Southern) regions included,
Gujarat,
Maharashtra,
Karnataka, Dravida(
Tamil Nadu and
Kerala) and
Andhra Pradesh.
Manu Smriti declares all Dravidas are Shudras degraded from their
Kshatriya position for not following Vedic rituals. Dravidas share this position along with
Sakas,
Yavanas,
Pahlavas.
This probably has to be viewed from endogamous nature of various communities in North India by that time. Just like Greek, Scythian and Persian societies any able bodied person in South Indian society would fight in those days. During
Manu's period
South Indian society did not have endogamous warrior communities engaged in ruling and fighting. Also, South India was not part of Vedic society which was plausibly spread from
Punjab to
Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar.
The Dravidian speaking tribes in South India specialized in the fields autochthonous to South Indian landscape. The major communities being landed/farming communities,
toddy tapping communities and fishermen. In the later caste South Indian society, landed castes occupied the highest position and toddy tapping communities the lowest( A situation similar to Indo-Aryan speaking Buddhist Sri Lanka). One gets a clear understanding of Manu's words when we observe that many
fishermen,
toddy tapping communities in Sri Lanka have the history of being part of mercenaries from Kerala/Tamil Nadu region.(See
Caste in Sri Lanka)
The association of South Indian identity with Tamils continued even to modern times. During initial decades of 20th century and may be initial decades of Indian independence there was a conspicuous presence
Tamil Brahmins in North Indian society who generally migrated from
Madras province. This resulted in labelling of South Indians as Madrasis. However, this is viewed by all South Indians as derogatory. Also, Kannadigas and Telugus find the identity completely alien.
Simple:Dravida
