History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.9

v1.c19.9

Although considerable progress has lately been made in the right direction, no satisfactory solution has yet been arrived at of the problem of the origin of the Dravidians. So far as history is concerned, in such glimmerings of tradition as we possess, at the earliest time at which we find any mention of them the most civilised and important of their communities occupied the extreme southern point of the peninsula.¹ North of them all was forest, but between the Christian Era and the Muhammadan invasion we find the jungle gradually disappearing, and the southern races pushing northwards, till, in the 14th century, they were checked and driven back by the Moslim.