The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.204

v1.c15.204

In the same way the Austric languages have been submerged by successive floods of Dravidian and Indo-European from the west and north-west. Dravidian languages, with the exception of Brāhūī, are now confined to the peninsula south of the Vindhyas and to Ceylon; but it is supposed that, at the period of the Āryan invasions, they prevailed also in the north. This inference is derived from the change which Indo-European underwent after its introduction into India, and which can only be explained as the result of some older disturbing element. The oldest form of Indo-Āryan, the language of the Rigveda, is distinguished from the oldest form of Irānian, the language of the Avesta, chiefly by the presence of a second series of dental letters, the so-called cerebrals. These play an increasingly important part in the development of Indo-Āryan in its subsequent phases. They are foreign to Indo-European languages generally, and they are characteristic of Dravidian. We may conclude, then, that the earlier forms of speech, by which Indo-European was modified in the various stages of its progress from the north-west, were predominantly Dravidian.