30 
ON THE ORIGINAI, INHABITAKTS 
Yet, if the study of Indian history has up to now not 
proved interesting to the Hindus themselves — and there exist 
many good reasons why this has been and is still the case — 
this fact need not discourage foreigners, who are interested in 
this subject, from pursuing it. 
It is true no doubt that the results which have been 
obtained from decipherings and arehseological researches in 
India, must appear insignificant when compared with what 
has been achieved elsewhere in the same fields. Still, there is 
no need to despair of final success, for our knowledge and 
material are daily increasing, though Indian history at 
present, becomes interesting only when it throws light on 
the communal, legal and social conditions of the people, or 
on their intercourse and relation with foreigners. 
Owing to the meagreness and often to the untrustworthi- 
ness of the historical material, an Indian historian must be 
continually on the look-out for new tracks in which to pursue 
his researches. The task of a scientific historian is difficult in 
itself, but it is made still more so, if a scholar is anxious to 
make original researches and strike out for himself a new 
path in Indian history, as, in addition to other qualifications, 
he must be a linguist possessing some knowledge of the- 
language of the people into whose past he is inquiring. 
The limited number of Indian historical records, including 
architectural, paljBographieal, numismatic and similar anti- 
quities, compels a student of Indian history to draw within 
his range subjects other than those usually regai-ded as 
strictly historical, e.g., the names of nations and individuals, 
of countries and towTis, of mountains and rivers, and such other 
topics, in which he believes that historical relics lie concealed. 
I have selected as the subject of this inquiry the people 
to whom I assign in default of a better name that of Grauda- 
Dravidian, who by the extensive area they occupied, and over 
