Popular traditions allude to wholesale conversions of non-Brāhmans into Brāhmans. According to such traditions, Rājas used to feed very large numbers of Brāhmans (a lakh of Brāhmans) in expiation of some sin, or to gain religious merit. To make up this large number, non-Brāhmans are said to have been made Brāhmans at the bidding of the Rājas. Here and there are found a few sections of Brāhmans, whom the more orthodox Brāhmans do not recognise as such, though the ordinary members of the community regard them as an inferior class of Brāhmans. As an instance may be cited the Mārakas of the Mysore Province. Though it is difficult to disprove the claim put forward by these people, some demur to their being regarded as Brāhmans.
Between a Brāhman of high culture, with fair complexion, and long, narrow nose on the one hand, and a less highly civilised Brāhman with dark skin and short broad nose on the other, there is a vast difference, which can only be reasonably explained on the assumption of racial admixture; and it is no insult to the higher members of the Brāhman community to trace, in their more lowly brethren, the result of crossing with a dark-skinned, and broad-nosed race of short stature. Whether the jungle tribe are, as I believe, the microscopic remnant of a pre-Dravidian people, or, as some hold, of Dravidians driven by a conquering race to the seclusion of the jungles, it is to the lasting influence of some such broad-nosed ancestor that the high nasal index of many of the inhabitants of Southern India must, it seems to me, be attributed. Viewed in the light of this remark, the connection between the following mixed collection of individuals, all of very dark colour, short of stature, and with nasal index exceeding 90, calls for no explanation:—
| Stature. | Nasal height. | Nasal breadth. | Nasal Index. | |
| cm. | cm. | cm. | ||
| Vakkaliga | 156 | 4.3 | 3.9 | 90.7 |
| Mōger | 160 | 4.3 | 3.9 | 90.7 |
| Saiyad Muhammadan | 160 | 4.4 | 4 | 90.9 |
| Kammalan | 154.4 | 4.4 | 4 | 90.9 |
| Chakkiliyan | 156.8 | 4.4 | 4 | 90.9 |
| Vellāla | 154.8 | 4.7 | 4.3 | 91.6 |
| Malaiyāli | 158.8 | 4 | 3.7 | 92.5 |
| Konga Vellāla | 157 | 4.1 | 3.8 | 92.7 |
| Pattar Brāhman | 157.6 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 92.9 |
| Oddē | 159.6 | 4.3 | 4 | 93 |
| Smarta Brāhman | 159 | 4.1 | 3.9 | 95.1 |
| Palli | 157.8 | 4.1 | 3.9 | 95.1 |
| Pallan | 155.8 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 100 |
| Bestha | 156.8 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 100 |
| Mukkuvan | 150.8 | 4 | 4 | 100 |
| Agasa | 156.4 | 4.3 | 4.3 | 100 |
| Tamil Paraiyan | 160 | 4 | 4.2 | 105 |
I pass on to a brief consideration of the languages of Southern India. According to Mr. G. A. Grierson[36] “the Dravidian family comprises all the principal languages of Southern India. The name Dravidian is a conventional one. It is derived from the Sanskrit Dravida, a word which is again probably derived from an older Dramila, Damila, and is identical with the name of Tamil. The name Dravidian is, accordingly, identical with Tamulian, which name has formerly been used by European writers as a common designation of the languages in question. The word Dravida forms part of the denomination Andhra-Drāvida-bhāshā, the language of the Andhras (i.e., Telugu), and Dravidas (i.e., Tamilians), which Kumārila Bhatta (probably 7th Century A.D.) employed to denote the Dravidian family. In India Dravida has been used in more than one sense. Thus the so-called five Dravidas are Telugu, Kanarese, Marāthi, Gujarāti, and Tamil. In Europe, on the other hand, Dravidian has long been the common denomination of the whole family of languages to which Bishop Caldwell applied it in his Comparative Grammar, and there is no reason for abandoning the name which the founder of Dravidian philology applied to this group of speeches.”
The five principal languages are Tamil, Telugu, Malayālam, Canarese, and Oriya. Of these, Oriya belongs to the eastern group of the Indo-Aryan family, and is spoken in Ganjam, and a portion of the Vizagapatam district. The population speaking each of these languages, as recorded at the census, 1901, was as follows:—
| Tamil | 15,543,383 |
| Telugu | 14,315,304 |
| Malayālam | 2,854,145 |
| Oriya | 1,809,336 |
| Canarese | 1,530,688 |
In the preparation of the following brief summary of the other vernacular languages and dialects, I have indented mainly on the Linguistic Survey of India, and the Madras Census Report, 1901.
Savara.—The language of the Savaras of Ganjam and Vizagapatam. One of the Mundā languages. Concerning the Mundā, linguistic family, Mr. Grierson writes as follows. “The denomination Mundā (adopted by Max Müller) was not long allowed to stand unchallenged. Sir George Campbell in 1866 proposed to call the family Kolarian. He was of opinion that Kol had an older form Kolar, which he thought to be identical with Kanarese Kallar, thieves. There is absolutely no foundation for this supposition. Moreover, the name Kolarian is objectionable, as seeming to suggest a connexion with Aryan which does not exist. The principal home of the Mundā languages at the present day is the Chota Nagpur plateau. The Mundā race is much more widely spread than the Mundā languages. It has already been remarked that it is identical with the Dravidian race, which forms the bulk of the population of Southern India.”
Gadaba.—Spoken by the Gadabas of Vizagapatam and Ganjam. One of the Mundā languages.