The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c41.s7.6

v2.c41.s7.6

It must be noted that the Dravidians are not allowed the credit of originality by such writers as Elliot Smith,¹ and Fleure, who insist instead on oversea and overland influences from Mesopotamia and Egypt as settling the course of Dravidian culture, though the evidence for this influence in the third millennium B.C. and much later is entirely speculative, depending on the existence of megaliths alleged to be connected with metallic deposits, and on the certainly unproved theory of the dissemination of this mode of building by a particular race, moved by peculiar religious views, who sought life-giving substances. The structures raised on this basis by Elliot Smith and Perry seems to me entirely unfounded and in every respect implausible, nor is there much probability of their receiving general endorsement by competent critics. It is, however, needless here to discuss their views, and Slater,² quite justly, lays more stress than his authorities on the independent power of the Dravidians to develop their culture. Moreover he rejects,³ very plausibly, the doctrine that the Dravidians represent the admixture of Mediterranean bearers of heliolithic culture with pre-Dravidians to form the Dravidian race, and his position treats the Dravidians as immigrants from the north-west who passed through Babylonia before the Sumerians were practising agriculture there.