History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c8.s1.9

v1.c8.s1.9

The Aryans hereafter settled in the Daṇḍakāraṇya or Mahārāṣṭra proper the chief river of which is the Godavari. The original inhabitants being few, the language of the new settlers became the language of the people generally though in a corrupt or Prākrit form. As the country to the south of the Krishna was more populously inhabited by Dravidians, it became the boundary, so to speak, of the Aryan settlement as also of the Aryan language. Bands of settlers no doubt penetrated further south down to Cape Comorin and impressed their Aryan civilization and religion on the people but being few they could not impose their language upon them. On the contrary they adopted the language of the people there and even some of their customs. This in a nutshell is the account of the Aryan advance into the south. The Deccan being originally a forest and being settled principally by people of the Aryan race became Aryan in population and in speech while the portion to the south of the Krishna remained Dravidian in population and speech, a fact which squares in exactly with the ethnological aspect of the two parts of the southern peninsula.