A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian Family of Languages [Hardcover]

Robert Caldwell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 8120601173 | ISBN-13: 978-8120601178 | Publication Date: June 1998 | Edition: 3rd

(Reprint 1913 edn.), Dimensions: 22x15 cm - Chapters: Introduction; Use of the Common Dravidian; Enumeration of Dradidian Language; Tamil, Malayalam, Malabar, Telugu, Canarese, Tulu, Kudagu or Coorg, Toda, Kota, Gond, Khond or Ku, Maler or Rajmahal, Oraon, Dravidian Idioms, The Dravidian Languages independent of Sanskrit, Is there a Dravidian element in the Vernacular Languages of Northern India?, To What group of Languages are the Dravidian idioms to be affiliated?, dialect, Literary, classical dialect of.., High antiquity of the literary cultivation of Tamil, Earliest Extant Written Relics of the Dravidian Languages, Political and Social Relations.., Term Sudra, Pre-Aryan Civilisation of the Dravidian, Probable date of Aryan civilization of the Dravidian, Comparative Grammar, Souns, Dravidian Alphabets, Dravidian System of Sounds, Roots, Arrangement of Dravidian Roots Into Classes, Verbal Roots, Nouns, Gender and Number, Formation of Cases, Adjectivrs, or Nouns Used Adjectivally, The Numerals, The Pronoun, The Verb, Glossarial Affinities, Appendix, Book List: Books and Papers bearing on Dravidian Comparative Philology, published..

Product Details

• Hardcover: 680 pages
• Publisher: Asian Educational Services; 3rd edition (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8120601173
• ISBN-13: 978-8120601178
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,645,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic work of south Indian languages and history, April 15, 2008

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St John (Berkshire, UK) - See all my reviews

This is a later edition of a classic work first published in 1856, followed by a second edition, much expanded by the author, in 1875. It was republished by Asian Educational Services of New Delhi in 1913, and copies of that book appeared in 1987 and 1998. Other modern editions also exist.

The author, Robert Caldwell 1814-91, was a Christian missionary in South India for more than fifty years, and in 1877 was consecrated Bishop in Tirunelveli. He came to international recognition as an orientalist of the first quality as a result of his ground-breaking research and this book which resulted. In it he shows that the South Indian languages of Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Malayalam etc., are a separate family of languages. He named them `Dravidian', affirming their antiquity, separate literary history, and their independence from Sanskrit and the Indo-Aryan languages.

The implications of this were far-reaching. It meant that these Dravidian languages, their societies and culture had existed prior to the arrival in South India of the Brahmans, and that the intrinsic differences in physical anthropology, religion, and social structures that existed were part of a separate and distinctive Dravidian development. Caldwell, by this book, can therefore be seen as having helped to lay the foundations in South India for the strongly anti-Brahman cultural and political movements which followed in the 20th century.

Thomas Trautmann writes of this book: "Caldwell showed the full extent of the Dravidian family, and demonstrated the relations among the languages in a richness of detail that has made it a classic work, still in print. The real significance of what Caldwell accomplished was not the first conception of the Dravidian family, but the consolidation of the proof". This was reinforced by Caldwell's other monumental work on the history of the region ("A Political & General History of the District of Tinnevelly from earliest times ...", 1881).

References:
Y. Vincent Kumaradoss: "Robert Caldwell: A Scholar-Missionary in Colonial South India". ISPCK 2007, pp.147-149.

Robert Eric Frykenberg: "Robert Caldwell, missionary and orientalist". OUP (Oxford DNB) 2004-07.

Thomas Trautmann: "Inventing the History of South India" in David Ali (ed) "Invoking the Past: The Uses of History in South Asia". New Delhi OUP 2002, p.41.