Two Indological questions.

[Joydeep Mitra]

1. In school, we were mostly taught about the Indus Valley civilization and
   absolutely nothing about the state of affairs in the then south India. I
   presume that since the sophisticated 'Thirukural'could have been written
   in Tamil by Thiruvalluvar in 0 B.C/A.D implies that there must have been
   an advanced society in place by then. Would you happen to  be  aware  of 
   the of state of affairs in south India at the time when the Rig Veda was
   probably written (~1500 B.C.) in northwestern India?

2. When and how did Sanskrit as a language develop?   I have also been told
   by my Tamil friends that the Tamil language developed independently  (at
   least initially) and is older than Sanskrit.  Over the years, some words
   (of Sanskrit origin) have indeed infiltrated Tamil. In  addition,  Tamil
   grammar is different from that of Sanskrit (I'm told).  When and how did 
   Tamil develop? This is probably related to Q.1 because, the  development
   of a language possibly coincides with the advancement of its mother society.

With regards,
A mUrkhA Joydeep Mitra.