Early Afro--South Asian Contacts May Shed Light on the Origins of Dravidian Languages

This paper reopens the Dravidian question from the perspective of early Afro–South Asian exchange. Archaeobotanical evidence, especially the third-millennium BCE movement of African domesticates such as pearl millet into South Asia, points to sustained interaction across the Arabian Sea. Together with selected comparative-linguistic observations, this evidence invites a broader reconstruction of Dravidian prehistory within an Afro–Arabian–South Asian interaction sphere. The paper argues that this transregional setting offers a productive new perspective on the cultural and linguistic background of the early Dravidian world.