Dravidian and Atlantis

[Samar Abbas]

 The Atlantis website you have given sets forth what at first sight are
highly unconventional linguistic theories. Basically, it seeks to
establish a connection between the Guanches and Dravidians. This is
however, not so far-fetched because:

- A Mediterranean element is established for some Dravidian langauges and
  the Indus Valley in particular [ cf. N.Lahovery, `Dravidian Origins and
  the West' ]. So the connection may have been due to the common
  Mediterranean influence that stretched from the Maghrib through
  Mesopotamia into the Indus. Alost half of the Indus Valley consisted of
  Mediterraneans.

- A strong affinity between Dravidian and Bantu, Sudanic, Chadic and
  Manding African languages has also been established [ cf. Lahovery,
  op cit., Mlle. Homburger's works, Clyde A. Winters' papers, and
  K. Aravanan's works ]. The common features thus may be due to the
  African influence on Guanche from across the Sahara. More than
  half of the Indus Valley consisted of peoples with
  Negroid or Australoid affinities.

At the present state of linguistic knowledge, it is not possible to state
whether the influence was African or Mediterranean, but only that it was
due to either of the two (or both). Even if the features occur in
Mediterranean, they may have been adopted from an African substratum.
Much more work needs to be done.

 Needless to say, the Atlantis theory does not derive any support from
these connections. I think the creators of the website are confusing
Atlantis with the Lemuria theory, which says that the `bedrock Dravidians'
(ie. non-Mediterranean Dravidians who did not come from Mesopotamia) came
from Lemuria, a lost continent in the Indian Ocean that formed a bridge to
Africa, and is thought to be the home of the Indo-African peoples. This
idea is perhaps less speculative than Atlantis.

Samar

On Sat, 19 Dec 1998, Stephen wrote:

> I would like the opinion of the esteemed members of this list on the
> following page which talks of a linguistic connection between Dravidian and
> the lost continent of Atlantis.
>
> http://www.atlan.org/articles/dravida/index.html
>
> Sujatha
>