use of "draavi.da"?

Madhav Deshpande mmdesh at UMICH.EDU
Wed Aug 4 15:55:46 UTC 1999


Hello,
        Monier-Williams says that the Sanskrit word "draavi.da", among
other things, collectively refers to the speakers of Telugu, Kannada,
Tamil, Malayalam, and Tulu.  He does not cite any references for such a
use from any classical source.  I would very much like to find out if
anyone has come across such a use of this word either in Sanskrit or in
Dravidian language sources? Of course, we often use this word in this
sense in modern times, but was there such a collective single reference in
pre-modern times?
        Best,
                                        Madhav Deshpande





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