410 THE DllAVIDIAN RACK Chap. XXV. 



longer a matter of doubt. It was formerly supposed that 

 they were Aryan, from the great number of aj^parently Indo- 

 Germanic roots ; but it is now known, from the structure of 

 their grammar, tliat tliey belong to the great Turanian or 

 8cythic group of tongues. Mr. Caldwell considers that the 

 Scythian family to which they are most closely allied is the 

 Finnish or Ugrian ; ^ and in this view Professor Max Miiller 

 concm's with him.^ The ancient Dra vidian religion, before the 

 people were converted to the belief taught in the Puranas, 

 also favours Mr. Caldwell's view. If we may judge from the 

 creed which still lingers in Tinnevelly and other districts, it 

 consisted in the worship of e"\al spirits by means of bloody 

 sacrifices and frantic dances, while a Supreme Being was 

 acknowledged but not venerated, and there was no trace of 

 worship of the elements. In these respects it closely re- 

 sembled the Shamanism of the Scythic races of High Asia. 



It is tolerably certain that the Dravidian races had attained 

 to some degree of civilization before the Aryans appeared in 

 their couutiy, and, with a system of castes, introduced the 

 worship of Vishnu and Siva. One evidence of the ancient 

 civilization of the Dravidian s is that they possessed a system 

 of numerals up to 1000, essentially the same in all the fom* 

 languages ; though in counting above 1000 tliey make use 

 of Sanscrit numerals. From the existence of these native 

 numerals among the Dravidian nations, Mr. Crawford draws 

 the inference that these people must have attained a con- 

 siderable measure of civilization before they adopted tlie 

 Hinduism of the north, and hence stood in no need of foreign 

 numerals.* 



- Caldwell's Comparative Dravidian which tlie human mind is capable of 

 Grammar. Preface, p. v. ! forming. See a paper read before tlie 



•' Lectures on the Science of Lim- Ethnological Society in Feb. 18ti2, 

 ijiuuje, p. 341. On the vuiiieraJs as eridenee of the 



■• Adam Smith says that numerals iiroijres)^ of civilization, by Mr. Craw- 

 are among the most abstract ideas ford. 



