Caste and Race in India c9.98

c9.98

(c) The Dravida type: This type is characterized by a long head, the cephalic index being below 75, and by a medium nose, the nasal index being less than 77. It is restricted to the Tamil and Malayalam countries.⁴ Matrilineal descent seems to have been the chief characteristic of the social organization of the peoples of this type. A statement of Megasthenes is construed to refer to this peculiarity of the social organization of Malabar.⁵ A physical trait which we have not so far taken into consideration is the hair. It is of special importance in connection with the inquiry of the affinities of this type. Most castes of Malabar excepting the Nambudiri have little or no hair on the cheeks and the chest. They are clean-shaven, and the Nambudiri imitating them shaves all his body excepting the top-knot. " Amongst the people of good caste in Malabar, to speak of one as a hairy man is to speak of him reproachfully."⁶ This lack of hair on the cheeks definitely connects the Dravidas with the Brown Race as it is characterized by Elliot Smith.¹ When they came to India from Mesopotamia or Arabia, cannot be ascertained. They might have brought with them the matrilineal type of social organization from these countries; for there is some evidence for thinking that both the Arabs and the Babylonians practised mother-right.²