A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c8.30

c8.30

In South India the Armenoid type is found especially among the Tamil-speaking people. But this type could not have arisen in South India. The present home of this type—the wide tract of Asia stretching from the Pamirs to the Levant—must also have been its original home, that is to say the area of its characterization. According to Keith, the Armenoid in India is the result of an early trade migration from Persia (Iran) or an adjacent country along the Persian Gulf. Round-headedness among the Tamils can be traced through the Deccan, Gujarat and Sind into the eastern portions of the Iranian plateau where there is a striking group of round-heads. In Iran they are more numerous in the uplands than in the plains. Some writers postulate a connexion between these round-heads of the Iranian plateau and uplands and the Dravidian-speakers of India, a connexion borne out by resemblances between the culture of the Caspians, the earliest inhabitants of the highlands of Iran, and the Dravidian-speakers.