Page:An introduction to Dravidian philology.djvu/31
times. Ruggeiri, the great anthropologist says, "Every thing induces us to hold that the Dravidians have really been a small number of invaders who have introduced their languages, and even that not everywhere, since in the Munda-Kol Zone languages more ancient have been preserved. It is logical to hold that, if those languages have remained in spite of the Dravidian influences, those who speak them should also have been little contaminated. There is, therefore, no reason to consider them as Platyrrhine Dravidians, but certainly as Veddaic or Australoid, and from the fact that between the Munda-Kols of the North and the Veddas of the South, there intervene other Platyrrhines (Paniyans etc.,) these latter also represent the same ancient pre-Dravidan formation which, at one time, extended over the whole of India and has always been much less affected by the