INTRODUCTION
The Dravidians form the predominant element amongst the population of the Madras Presidency. They also form the bulk of the population of India. Pure Dravidians are to be found from the northern countries of the western half of the Bengal Presidency up to Cape Comorin. The population of the area referred to is 113 millions. Mixed races of Dravidians and others are to be found in various parts of India. This class of mixed Dravidians numbers 104 millions. The majority of Mohammedans are descendants of Turco-Mongolians, and they number 60 millions. Pure Aryans in India comprise only 30 millions.
According to Dr. Grierson, the linguist, Sir Herbert Risley, the leading ethnologist, and several other great Oriental scholars, the Dravidians were the aborigines of India. They are a race quite distinct from the Aryans, and they were in Southern India enjoying a high state of civilisation at the time the Aryans entered India. Professor K. V. Rangaswami , in his History of India, tells us on well-recognised authorities that the early Dravidians were a gifted race; that they occupied Southern India hundreds of years before the Aryans entered India; that they had early advanced in civilisation, and were not behindhand of the Aryans in culture; that they early knew agriculture and the common arts of life, that they were great maritime traders and carried on their trade with Asiatic and European countries long before the time of King Solomon; that they had a polished Tamil literature by the first century A.D., and so on. One of the Pandiyan kings sent an embassy
xi
