The Dravidians

In the southern peninsula of India a different race, the Dravidian, was developing its own traditions. They were short, dark-skinned people who spoke languages unrelated to Sanskrit. Some say they were descendants of the Indus Valley people, pushed south by the invaders. The Dravidians composed fine hymns and religious treatises of their own in the Tamil language and raised great temples out of stone. They flourished in several kingdoms which were never completely conquered by the northerners. The travels of wandering monks and minstrels wove these various strands into a common religious heritage, and the Hindu today is a blend of them all, just as Hindu society has absorbed many immigrants of other faiths, such as Parsis, Jews, Christians and Muslims.