Page:An introduction to Dravidian philology.djvu/84

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
74

the fundamental unity of the races of India. At least, a painstaking investigation in this direction in the spirit with which Caldwell applied himself to bis task was what he expected to see carried out.

And in the carrying out of this investigation, Caldwell hoped that the talent of South Indian native scholars would be forthcoming. He had the highest respect for their intellectual acuteness. He meant his work not so much for the foreign scholar who has but a remote interest in it, as for the natives of South India itself. He says, “It has been my earnest and constant desire to stimulate the natives of the districts in which the Dravidian languages are spoken to take an intelligent interest in the comparative study of their own languages; and I trust it will be found that this object has in some measure been helped forward. Educated Tamilians have studied Tamil-