The Dravidian Element in Indian Culture

This book is a study of the Dravidian elements in Indian culture, seeks to show by a closely reasoned argument that the Dravidian element in fact is of preponderating importance. The book maintains that the culture of the conquered agriculturists permeated every department of life of their culturally less advanced but, in the military sense; more efficient overlords. The bias of the native of India, wherever possible, favours Aryan descent, and this has tended to obscure the facts. Dr. Slater admits there are neither very ancient buildings nor manuscripts of Dravidian origin, and that this militates against his theory. But in the case of two characteristic products of Indian culture, philosophy and the religious system, he argues inter alia, as regards the first, that both mental constitution and material conditions were in favour of its origin among the Dravidians, while in the case of the second he holds that the Brahman is the priest magician who existed originally among the Dravidians only. The position of the Brahman at the head of a hierarchy of caste among a race of warriors is indeed anomalous, but that does not necessarily make it easier to accept an origin from among a subject people.