The final word

A map of the Dravidian languages in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal. Languages present in the dataset used in this paper are shown by name; those with longstanding (950+ years) of literary tradition are in bold.

The Dravidian language family is 4,500 years old. 80 variations of it are spoken today by 220 million people across southern and central India, and parts of south Asia.