Cultural Unity of the Dravidian and African Peoples

There is anthropological and linguistic data which indicate an African origin of the Dravidian speaking people of India. In this Web Page we review the facts connecting the Dravidian and African peoples.

by

Clyde A. Winters

The Dravidians have maintained their ancient African Heritage. There are numerous affinities between Dravidian and Black African culture and languages. As in Africa the Dravidians built there both small and large vessels from a single log or planks tied together. This method of boat construction has been common in Africa since the rise of ancient Egypt, and continues today in East Africa, Chad and along the Niger River. In both Africa and Dravidian India the people were organized into various "caste" or corporations. Many of the corporations such as that of the blacksmiths in Africa and India have corresponding names e.g., Wolof Kamara and Telugu Kamara. The are similarities in agricultural technique in Africa and India. For example both groups used the hoe for tilling the ground, manuring the ground to fertilize crops, terracing
irrigation and canal building. There are also affinities in animal husbandry, and even the names of animals. For example, sheep: Wolof xar, Brahui (Dravidian) xar 'ram'; and cow: Wolof nag , Serere nak, Tamil naku 'a female buffalo' and Tulu naku 'heifer'. There are also similarities between the Dravidian and African religions. For example, both groups held a common interest in the cult of the Serpent and believed in a Supreme God, who lived in a place of peace and tranquility. There are also affinities between the names of many gods including Amun/Amma and Murugan. Murugan the Dravidian god of the mountains parallels a common god in East Africa worshipped by 25 ethnic groups called Murungu, the god who resides in the mountains.
In addition among the ali tiravitar, the system of inheritance passes from the uncle to his nephews, instead of to his sons (maru makkal Tayam) as in Africa. And in both South India and the Western Sudan of Africa, the dead were buried in terra cotta jars.

LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE FOR INDO-AFRICAN
LINGUISTIC UNITY

1.1 Many scholars have recognized the linguistic unity of Black African (BA) and Dravidian (Dr.) languages. These affinities are found not only in the modern African languages but also that of ancient Egypt. These scholars have made it clear that lexical, morphological and phonetic unity exist between African languages in West and North Africa as well as the Bantu group. Dravidian languages are predominately spoken in southern India and Sri Lanka. There are around 125 million Dravidian speakers. These languages are genetically related to African languages. The
Dravidians are remnants of the ancient Black population who occupied most of ancient Asia and Europe.
1.2 K.P. Arvaanan (1976) has noted that there are ten common elements shared by BA languages and the Dr. group. They are (1) simple set of five basic vowels with short-long consonants;(2) vowel harmony; (3) absence of initial clusters of consonants; (4) abundance of geminated consonants; (5) distinction of inclusive and exclusive pronouns in first person plural; (6) absence of degrees of comparison for adjectives and adverbs as distinct morphological categories; (7) consonant alternation on nominal increments noticed by different classes; (8)distinction of completed action among verbal paradigms as against specific tense distinction;(9) two separate sets of paradigms for declarative and negative forms of verbs; and (l0) use of reduplication for emphasis.
1.3 There has been a long development in the recognition of the linguistic unity of African and Dravidian languages. The first scholar to document this fact was the French linguist L.Homburger (1950,1951,1957,1964). Prof. Homburger who is best known for her research into African languages was convinced that the Dravidian languages explained the morphology of the
Senegalese group particularly the Serere, Fulani group. She was also convinced that the kinship existed between Kannanda and the Bantu languages, and Telugu and the Mande group. Dr. L. Homburger is credited with the discovery for the first time of phonetic, morphological and lexical parallels between Bantu and Dravidians. For example, she noted that the Bantu infinitive with a final -a, the subjunctive in -e, the preterit in -i or -idi,and the doer's name in -i, are all found with identical values in Kannanda and other Dravidian languages. Dr. Homburger also found that both the Bantu languages and Kannanda there was the causal suffix -is.
1.4 Prof. Tuttle (1932) also contributed to the investigation of links between African and Dravidian languages. In a short paper he wrote in the 1930"s he presents numerous lexical and
grammatical parallels for Dravidian and the Nubian.
1.5 One of the most interesting studies done to date on the links between African and Dravidian languages was the work of N.Lahovary (1963). Professor Lahovary in his review of the possible
link between the languages spoken by the founders of the major ancient civilizations, gives a stimulating discussion of cognates among various African languages and Dravidian (Dr.). He gives numerous lexical examples for the ancient kinship of the Dravidian group and BA languages, including ancient Egyptian, Hausa, Bantu ,Nubian and Somali, to name a few.
1.6 By the 1970's numerous scholars had moved their investigation into links between Dr. and BA languages on into the Senegambia region. Such scholars as Cheikh T. N'Diaye (1972) a Senegalese linguist, and U.P. Upadhyaya (1973) of India , have proved conclusively Dr. Homburger's theory of unity between the Dravidian and the Senegalese languages.
1.7 C.T. N'Diaye, who studied Tamil in India, has identified nearly 500 cognates of Dravidian and the Senegalese languages. Upadhyaya (1973) after field work in Senegal discovered around 509 Dravidian and Senegambian words that show full or slight correspondence.
1.8 As a result of the linguistic evidence the Congolese linguist Th. Obenga suggested that there was an Indo-African group of related languages. To prove this point we will discuss the numerous examples of phonetic, morphological and lexical parallels between the Dravidian group: Tamil (Ta.), Malayalam (Mal.), Kannanda/Kanarese (Ka.), Tulu (Tu.), Kui-Gondi, Telugu
(Tel.) and Brahui; and Black African languages: Manding(Man.),Egyptian (E.), and Senegalese (Sn.)
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_ COMMON INDO-AFRICAN TERMS

ENGLISH DRAVIDIAN SENEGALESE MANDING

MOTHER AMMA AMA,MEEN MA

FATHER APPAN,ABBA AMPA,BAABA BA

PREGNANCY BASARU BIIR BARA

SKIN URI NGURU,GURI GURU

BLOOD NETTARU DERET DYERI

KING MANNAN MAANSA,OMAAD MANSA

GRAND BIIRA BUUR BA

SALIVA TUPPAL TUUDDE TU

CULTIVATE BEY ,MBEY BE

BOAT KULAM GAAL KULU

FEATHER SOOGE SIIGE SI, SIGI

MOUNTAIN KUNRU TUUD KURU

ROCK KALLU XEER KULU

STREAM KOLLI KAL KOLI

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. . . . . . . . . . .PRONOMINAL PARALLELS IN BA AND

Dr. LANGUAGES

LANGUAGES / 1ST PER. SING. /2ND /3RD 1ST PL/ 2ND PL./ 3RD PL.

Dravidian an, naa, ne i a an,anu a,ar aru

Somali ani adigu isagu innagu annagu

Nubian anni ir tar u ur tar

Bantu ni u a tu m wa

Manding na, n' i a,e alu

Hausa na ka,kin ya mun kun un

Wolof maa ya na ne,pu ngen na

Egyptian 'ink ntk,ntt ntf inn nttn ntsn

Elamite u un nun r,ir

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1.10 In African languages and Dravidian there is a system of

five basic vowels and three-fold distinction of lip-rounded and

unrounded, and a two-fold distinction of duration (short, long).

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VOWEL SYSTEM OF DRAVIDIAN

BLACK AFRICAN

i u ii uu

e o ee oo

a aa

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1.11 There is also phonetic correspondence. Similarity exist between the dull sonorous consonants, the nasal and labial series. This is especially true in the pronunciation of the
sonorous consonants, e.g., clay: Malinke banko, Bambara bogo, and Telugu banko-mannu; Telugu varu, vallu, vandru, vandlu, (they,them), equal Mande/Manding alu or aralu.
1.12 In Dravidian and Black African the -f, and -b are derived from -p, and therefore are also letters are inter-changeable . The letters -r, -l, -d, and -c, -s, -z, are also interchangeable.

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_ DEMONSTRATIVE BASES

LANGUAGES /PROXIMATE /DISTANT /FINITE

Dravidian i a u

Mande i a u

Fulani o a

Serere e a

Wolof i a u

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2. Ancient Egyptian and Dravidian. There are numerous corresponding lexical items in Egyptian and Dravidian languages, below are a few:
Language abscess abyss to go with build

Egyptian bnw.t kiki hp hr qd

Dravidian pun kedu po -nnu kattu

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Language chief great/noble young house

Egyptian neb bw hrd l

Dravidian nab'grand' bal kura il,ll

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Language speak small to be

Egyptian mdw sr,srr wnn

Dravidian matu siru unn-

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3. Dravidian and Mande languages. The Dravidian and Mande group of languages are very close. In fact in Dravidian Mande means "people". It would appear that the speakers of these languages lived in close proximity of each other during the neolithic in the Fezzan region of Libya. (Winters 1985b) Winters has proved that the Dravidian and Mande languages are genetically related and that speakers of these languages jointly colonized parts of Africa, Asia Minor and the Far East.
3.1 The Manding group of languages and Dravidian are very close. They share many grammatical and lexical similarities. In both these languages -ka, is used to represent 'to be', as well as a subjunctive. For example, in the Mande languages ka, is particle of different values, which corresponds to kaa, the infinitive in Telugu, of the verb ag-uta 'to become'(Ta. aga), e.g., Man. a ka-nye 'its good', Tel. ka valenu 'it is necessary'. The same radical ka, represents the optative form in Telugu, e.g., aapani mundara kani 'how is labor given first place' ; and in Manding a k'a a barka d'i ma 'it is god who gives blessings'.
3.2 In Dravidian the suffixes -ke, -ge, -ka are used as the primitive verb 'to be' or 'to do'. They are usually used with abstract nouns, e.g., ol 'to reign', ol-ka 'domination'; ose 'to be content', ose-ge 'delight'; nammu 'to believe', nammu-ka 'confidence'. The Dravidian -ke, corresponds to the Mande verb ke 'to do', which is often used with the suffix -la ,to form derived nouns. For example in Manding, sene 'cultivation', sene-li ke-la 'cultivator'; and tobi 'to cook', tobi-li ke-la 'the cook'.
3.3 In Telugu the suffix -tu, is used as the present partciple while in the Mande group there is -to fulfilling the same function e.g., Tel. chestu 'made', Man. tege 'to cut', tege-to 'cutting'.
3.4 Moreover Telugu kani 'not to be', corresponds to Mande kana the prohibitive negative participle and subjunctive, e.g., Man a kana bugo 'do not hit him'.
3.5 The past participle suffix in Tamil is -tu,-du or -i, in Telugu we have -i and -ti. The -tu or -ti suffix of the Dravidian languages, corresponds to the Mande -ti or -te , suffix used to form the negative sense, e.g., Man. a ya 'he is here', a ti ya 'he is not here'; a be ta 'he is coming', a te ta 'he is not coming'.
3.6 In the Dravidian languages the plural is formed by the -lu suffix, especially in Telugu. In the northern Mande group - lu, -ru, -u, are used for the construction of the plural. We thus see analogy in the formation of the plural tense in Dravidian and Mande e.g., Tel. magadu ' husband,man', magalu 'men'; Man. mogo 'husband', mogolu 'husbands'.
3.7 Analogy exist between Manding and Dravidian terms.

I.Consonantal Correspondence

English Tamil Manding

s=/=s

woman asa musa

t=/=t

fire ti ta

l=/=l

house lon lu 'family habitation

d=/=t

law di tili

camp dagha otagh

forest kaadu tuu

m=/=m

mother amma ma

land man ma 'surface,area'

k=/=k

kill kal ki

man uku moko

b=/=p

great pal ba

x=/=s

sheep xar 'ram' sara

c=/=s

penis col sol-ma

abundant cal,sal s'ya

II. Full Correspondence

English Dravidian Manding

life zi 'abundance

clay banko-mannu banko

blacksmith inumu numu

lie kalla kalon

cultivation bey be

lord,chief gasa kana,gana

to recite sid, sed siti

great bal ba

to do cey ke

rock kal kulu

road sila

if,what eni ni

to cut teg tege

exalted ma

4.1 Somali-Dravidian. Many affinities exist between the Dravidian and Somali languages. These affinities include similarity in phonetic systems, pronominal concordance, demonstrative and lexical items. In Dravidian the demonstrative are characterized by the opposition of the radical vowels a, i and u. This same type of opposition appears in Somali demonstrative postposition -ka, -ki, and -ku. The pronominal concordance is best typified in Dravidian and Somali (Som.) in
the possessive pronoun 'I or me', e.g., Dr. en 'me'; Som. -ani 'me'. Also in Dravidian and Somali they share similar terms to denote youth, e.g., Dr. ar, aru of the second person used to denote young; and Som. arur 'youth'.
4.3 Analogy between numerous grammatical points occur within Dravidian and Somali. In Dravidian to make the plural form , the suffix -lu is used. This corresponds to the Somali plural element -o, yo , which is joined to nouns to make the plural form e.g., inan-ka 'boy,son' , inammo 'sons'; maga'a 'name', maga'yo 'names'.
4.4 In Dravidian the suffixes -ke, -ge, and -ka are used as the primitive verb 'to be', it is employed with abstract nouns, .e.g, ose 'to be content', osa-ge 'gladness'. This corresponds to the Somali suffix -kar 'can, be able', which is used with the infinitive , e.g., waan sameyn kareuuey 'I was able to do (it)'.
4.5 The past tense in many Dravidian languages is formed by the suffix -i, -ya and -ti, especially in the case of Telugu. The use of the Dravidian -ya suffix corresponds to the Somali particle -yey, used to form the past tense. In Somali -nayya is used as the present continuous, e.g., sameey 'do', waan 'I':waan sameey 'I am doing, making', with the addition of the yey suffix we have waan samayyey 'I made', or waan geeyyey 'I brought'. This use of -yey, agrees with the Telugu use of both -i and -ya.
4.6 Somali -ii, is used to make the past tense of the definite article e.g., ninku faraska buu dilayya 'the man is beating the horse', ninkii baa faraskii dilay 'the man beat the horse'. As you can see from the example given above the -ii element is joined to both the subject ninkii 'the man' and the object faraskii 'the horse'. This use of -ii, parallel to Dravidian -i.
4.7 In Somali the continuous present is ayya, e.g., waan furayya 'I am opening'; and the present imperative for the plural is -a, e.g., fur 'to open', fura 'open'. The Somali -a, is also used with a noun to indicate the present even if the verb has the past tense, e.g., kitaab 'book', safari 'journey: kitaabkanu safarkaygii buu tilmaanayya 'this book describes the journey which I took'. This use of the Somali -a, and ayya , to the Tamil present termination elements aal and aan.
4.8 Also, in both Dravidian and Somali the doers name is suffixed by the elements -i or -ii.
4.9 Dravidian and Somali cognates.

English Dravidian Somali

to take kal gee, qaad

to become aagu garow

full ar dereg

to be ul ol

camp dagha deg

woman mag-wa naag-ta

fire ta-gula dab-ka

with -nnu na

beg ira bari

tree cettu ged

lose ila hallee

yield kay yeelo

sickness allal il-mo

to suck nag-il nug

hunger gasi,kasi gadzo

female sex organ al-ku a'lol

young man al y'il

ear kaatu deg-ta

cheek katuppal,kadapu laab-tab

" ,jaw gandu, kanda g-nd

neck kural,gantalu luqun-ta,

" " " hunguri-gaha

heart karalu,kard wadne-ka

belly basaru,vayiru alool(sha)

mother aay, ayya hooyo-da

father appa, appan aabbe-ha

sneeze ciintu siin,hindis

village uur tuulo-da

cultivate bele, bey beer

eat un

horse pari faras-ka

5.1 Dravidian and Nubian. There is visible correspondence between the Dravidian (Dr.) group and Nubian : Nile Nubian (NN), Kordofan Nubia (KN), Old Nubian (ON) and Modern Nubian (MN). The unity between these languages first recognized by the Tuttle and later elaborated on by Lohovary (1963).
5.2 There is a similarity between Dravidian and Nubian pronouns:

1st Sing./ Plural 2nd Sing./Pl. 3rd Sing./ Pl.

Dravidian aan,na nam i,ni tan tam

Nubia aani ir, ur tar, ter

5.3 Dravidian and Nubia both use the suffix -ku or -ko for the diminutive. In these languages -ke is often used to denote 'smallness' e.g., ke in Coptic, kenna in Dravidian , kina in Nubian.
5.4 The dative suffix in Dravidian -ke, -ge,, -ki,-gi and -ku corresponds to the Nubian dative-accusative suffixes :ON -ka, MN -gi and KN -gi.
5.5 In both Tamil and Nubian there are similar genitive endings: Ta. -n or -in, NN n-, in, and KN en, nini.
5.6 Nubian and Dravidian cognates.

English Dravidian Nubian

play aad od

sister akka keg

say an,en onul

woman,daughter asa as

elephant ane,enugu onul

bean avari ogod

water er iri

mother ia een

to be ir in

true olle ale

day ulla ul

son maga ga

mountain male mule

fish min anissi

eat tin,ti di

stone,rock kal kulu

tongue na nar,nad

shore kare gaar

6.1 Dravidian and Senegalese. Cheikh T. N'Diaye (1972) and U.P. Upadhyaya (1976) have firmly established the linguistic unity of the Dravidian and Senegalese languages. They present grammatical, morphological, phonetic and lexical parallels to prove their point.
6.2 In the Dravidian and Senegalese languages there is a tendency for the appearance of open syllables and the avoidance of non-identical consonant clusters. Accent is usually found on the initial syllable of a word in both these groups. Upadhyaya (1976) has recognized that there are many medial geminated consonants in Dravidian and Senegalese. Due to their preference for open syllables final consonants are rare in these languages.
6.3 There are numerous parallel participle and abstract noun suffixes in Dravidian and Senegalese. For example, the past participle in Fulani (F) -o, and oowo the agent formative,
corresponds to Dravidian -a, -aya, e.g., F. windudo 'written', windoowo 'writer'.
6.4 The Wolof (W) -aay and Dyolo ay , abstract noun formative corresponds to Dravidian ay, W. baax 'good', baaxaay 'goodness'; Dr. apala 'friend', bapalay 'friendship'; Dr. hiri 'big', hirime 'greatness', and nal 'good', nanmay 'goodness'.
6.5 There is also analogy in the Wolof abstract noun formative suffix -it, -itt, and Dravidian ita, ta, e.g., W. dog 'to cut', dogit 'sharpness'; Dr. hari 'to cut', hanita 'sharpness'.
6.6 The Dravidian and Senegalese languages use reduplication of the bases to emphasize or modify the sense of the word, e.g., D. fan 'more', fanfan 'very much'; Dr. beega 'quick', beega 'very quick'.
6.7 Dravidian and Senegalese cognates.

English Senegalese Dravidian

body W. yaram uru

head D. fuko,xoox kukk

hair W. kawar kavaram 'shoot'

eye D. kil kan, khan

mouth D. butum baayi, vaay

lip W. tun,F. tondu tuti

heart W. xol,S. xoor karalu

pup W. kuti kutti

sheep W. xar 'ram'

cow W. nag naku

hoe W. konki

bronze W. xanjar xancara

blacksmith W. kamara

skin dol tool

mother W. yaay aayi

child D. kunil kunnu, kuuci

ghee o-new ney

Above we provided linguistic examples from many different African Supersets (Families) including the Mande and Niger-Congo groups to prove the analogy between Dravidian and Black African languages. The evidence is clear that the Dravidian and Black African languages should be classed in a family called Indo- African as suggested by Th. Obenga. This data further supports the archaeological evidence accumulated by Dr. B.B Lal (1963) which proved that the Dravidians originated in the Fertile African Crescent. Thundy believes that the Dravidians may have left Nubia after Senefru (c.2613 B.C. conquered Nubia. Senefru's raid caused much destruction and may have encouraged many Kushites to flee Nubia for safe areas of settlement.

[Source: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Bay/7051/dra2.htm]