As one researches Indian history , one finds innumerable references to Yavanas(Greeks),Sakas, Nagas,Hunas….

While we dig deep we find these groups listed as Tribes of Bharatavarsha.

These references are found from the Rig Veda , the earliest  text of the world and these are repeatedly mentioned in the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Eighteen Puranas, Tamil Sangam Classics, Kalidasa’s Harivamsa and in Kalhana’s Raja Tharangini, among other texts belonging to other Regional languages of India.

I am providing a sample list and a link to my article on the Vedic Tribes of India.

https://ramanan50.wordpress.com/2015/06/19/tamils-vedic-tribes-yadus-turvasas-rig-veda/

I have found some curious facts.

1. Sage Vasshista though listed as the Royal Priest of the Ikshvaku, the Solar Dynasty to which Lord Rama belongs to i mentioned prominently during the period of Dasaratha and Rama and briefly during the period of Ikshvaku when he founded the Dynasty’ Vashista does not find a detailed mention from the period of Ikshvaku and Dasaratha.

The reference to Vashista along with Ikshvaku is found in the Bhagavatha Purana where it is mentioned that Ikshvaku left the Dravida Desa, South of Vindhya mountains for Ayodhya from where he founded his dynasty.

He left for Ayodhya because of a Tsunami referred to in detail by the Puranas and Tamil classics.

The great Flood is mentioned in all ancient texts both religious and non religious.

Other than these  references  Vashista is missing in the texts.

Next we hear of him as having accompanied Shiva  to compose the Rig Veda in the Arctic.

2.We find Sage Agastya moving over to South on two occasions, one at the time of Shiva Uma wedding and again to lead 71 Families out of Dwaraka when Tsunami struck after the Mahabharata War to the south of Vindhyas,

Please check my articles on this and Agastya’s date has been validated by Star Canopus.

3.Parashurama settled families in the south from the north.

Manu left for the north from the South, which means that there has been a civilization before he left.

There are references  in the Sumerian Kings List to Dasaratha, Rama and Bharatha s Kings of Sumeria.

Sumerian texts also mention that Rama aligned with  Horus, son of Osiris.

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Rama Atlantis War Kavatam periplus Port Window of Lemuria

As explained in these articles, there seems to have been Four major civilizations then.

Rama’s Empire,

Atlantis Empire,

Uighur Empire and

Lemurian Empire.

Of these Uighur was not very advanced and Lemuria which had been on the wane was trying to recoup.

They were suppressed by the Atlantis people.

In the Atlantis, Osiris’ son Horus entered into an alliance with Rama to defeat Seth who was trying to become independent in the Sumerian valley.’

Ramas war against Atlantis

So there was a civilization in south before Manu left for Ayodhya from the Dravida Desa.

Then Viswamitra reference is found in the Ramayana and other Indian texts and also the life of Nala and Damayanti and these three ante date Rama.

Rama’s ancestor Sibi fought against the Dravida tribes and built a temple for Vishnu  at Thiruvellarai, near SriRangam in Tamil Nadu and this temple is older than Srirangam.

Then there is a detailed  description of the battle between Viswamitra and Vasishta when the former tried to take away the Cow Nandini from Vashista.

The concept of taking away the Cattle is a common to both the Tamil  and Vedic Culture.

In Virata parva of Mahabharata, Duryodhana tries to take away the cattle from Virata and the Pandavas fought against him along with Virata.

The tribes that aligned with Vashista against Viswamitra are,

‘Mahabharata links the origin of Dravidas with sage Vasistha. Viswamitra, a king in the Ikshwaku clan, attacked the cow of Vasistha. Then many armies emerged for the protection of that cow and they attacked the armies of Viswamitra. Cow symbolizes land, in ancient Indian scriptures. Thus this war was fought with the tribes allied with Vasista for their own land. Other tribes that were mentioned along with the Dravidas in this incident were Sakas, Yavanas, Savaras, Kanchis, Paundras and Kiratas, Yavanas and Sinhalas, and the barbarous tribes of Khasas, Chivukas, Pulindas, Chinas and Hunas with Keralas, and numerous other Mlechchhas. (1,177)…

‘

The Indus Valley civilisation (2,600-1,900 BCE) located both in Pakistan and India is often identified as having been Dravidian. Cultural and linguistic similarities have been cited by researchers Henry Heras, Kamil Zvelebil, Asko Parpola and Iravatham Mahadevan as being strong evidence for a proto-Dravidian origin of the ancient Indus Valley civilisation.^[The discovery in Tamil Nadu of a late Neolithic (early 2nd millennium BCE, i.e. post-dating Harappan decline) stone celt allegedly marked with Indus signs has been considered by some to be significant for the Dravidian identification.

Yuri Knorozov surmised that the symbols represent a logosyllabic script and suggested, based on computer analysis, an underlying agglutinative Dravidian language as the most likely candidate for the underlying language. Knorozov’s suggestion was preceded by the work of Henry Heras, who suggested several readings of signs based on a proto-Dravidian assumption.

Linguist Asko Parpola writes that the Indus script and Harappan language are “most likely to have belonged to the Dravidian family”.Parpola led a Finnish team in investigating the inscriptions using computer analysis. Based on a proto-Dravidian assumption, they proposed readings of many signs, some agreeing with the suggested readings of Heras and Knorozov (such as equating the “fish” sign with the Dravidian word for fish, “min”) but disagreeing on several other readings. A comprehensive description of Parpola’s work until 1994 is given in his book Deciphering the Indus Script’

I Postulate that,

There was a Dravida Civilization in the South before or started with Manu in the south of Vindhyas,

The tribes of Dravidas were left behind by Manu when he left for Ayodhya,

Sage Vasista stayed in the South,

Later when Viswamitra banished his sons to the south, Dravida civilization was in existence during the Ramayana period,

Dravidians were called as Dasyus because of their way of Life was different from Sanatana Dharam though they followed the Sanatana Dharma.

These Dravidian tribes included the ancestors of Greeks, other European tribes, Chinese and Huns.

I have written on the presence of  lord Shiva in the south much earlier to vedic period.

I shall explore further and write on the location and dispersal and seeming acrimony with the vedic people, the reasons and Shiva’s Travels throughout the world,

References and citations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravida_Kingdom#Dravida_listed_in_the_ancient_Indian_.28Bharata_Varsha.29_Kingdoms

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidian_people#Ancestral_components

Manu Dravida

Pasupathy Seal Image credit.

By unknown Indus Valley Civilization sealmaker from Mohenjodaro archaeological site – http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/bce_500back/indusvalley/protoshiva/protoshiva.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9325528

Filed under: Hinduism Tagged: Dravida, Dravidian tribes, greeks indian tribe, Indian History, Mahabharata, Ramayana, Tribes of India, Vasista, Vedic period, vedic tribes, Viswamitra