Dravidian studies (also Dravidology) is the academic field devoted to the Dravidian languages, literature and culture. It is a superset of Tamil studies, and a subset of South Asian studies. 16th to 18th century missionaries who wrote Tamil grammars or lexica include Henriques Henrique, Roberto de Nobili, Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg and Constantino Giuseppe Beschi. Pioneers of the field were Robert Caldwell, Johan van Manen, T. R. Sesha Iyengar, V. Kanakasabhai, P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar, C. P. Brown, Ferdinand Kittel, Constantine Beschi, T. Burrow, M. B. Emeneau, Hermann Gundert, Kamil Zvelebil and Bhadriraju Krishnamurti. The Dravidian University at Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh has created Chairs in the names of Western and Dravidian scholars to encourage research in individual Dravidian languages as well as comparative Dravidian studies: Bishop Caldwell's Chair for Dravidian Studies, C. P. Brown's Chair for Telugu Studies, Kittel Chair for Kannada Studies, Constantine Beschi Chair for Tamil Studies and Gundert Chair for Malayalam Studies.[1]
References
- ^ Dravidian University fellowships, The Hindu, Saturday, Aug 26, 2006
Literature
- Robert Caldwell, Comparative Grammar of Dravidian Languages (1856; revised edition 1875).
- Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (2003). The Dravidian Languages. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521771110.
- Murray Barnson Emeneau (1994). Dravidian Studies: Selected Papers. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 8120808584.
- Dravidian studies in the Netherlands, IIAS newsletter (2005) [1][2]
- Extracts from T.R.Sesha Iyengar's "Dravidian India" by Dr. Samar Abbas, Bhubaneshwar, 4/8/2003
