Dictionary:

Dravidian

  (drə-vĭd'ē-ən)

1. A large family of languages spoken especially in southern India and northern Sri Lanka that includes Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada.
2. A member of any of the peoples that speak one of the Dravidian languages, especially a member of one of the pre-Indo-European peoples of southern India.

[From Sanskrit drāviḍaḥ, a Dravidian.]

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Dravidians are people who speak non-Indo-European languages, primarily in Southern India and Northern Sri Lanka. These languages include Tamil and Malayalam. When we speak of Dravidian culture, we generally refer to an indigenous pre-Hindu culture such as the one described in the Tamil Tolkāppiyām, written in the first and second centuries CE, Dravidian culture in all likelihood developed from the Indus Valley culture in south India in the Neolithic period and, in terms of religion, was probably earthcentered and possibly dominated by a goddess cult (see Tamil Mythology and Indus Valley Mythology).

Dravidian may refer to the following about southern South Asia:

• Dravidian languages, a language family comprising about 21 languages including the four literary languages Tamil language, Telugu language, Kannada language and Malayalam languages spoken especially in Southern India and Northeastern Sri Lanka
• Dravidian people, a member of any of the peoples that speak one of the Dravidian languages
• Dravidian architecture, a style of Temple construction
• The Self-respect movement, sometimes called the Dravidian movement or the Periyar movement, a Tamil Nadu political movement that appeals to speakers of the Tamil language
• Dravidian martial arts - a style of martial arts
• Dravida, a Sanskrit term denoting a family of related ethnicities and languages in the Southern and Central parts of India, and Northeast of Sri Lanka.
• Rahul Dravid, former Indian cricket captain and middle order batsman

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Common misspelling(s) of Dravidian

• Dravadian