ABSTRACT
Bishop Robert Caldwell’s classic A comparative grammar of the Dravidian or South Indian family of languages was published in 1856. Achyuta C. Menon gave an excellent analysis of the crucial role performed by the College of Fort St George in shaping the concept of Dravidian languages. P. S. Subramanyam is a renowned scholar in the field of Dravidian linguistics. Kamil V. Zvelebil referred to the Dissertation of Francis Whyte Ellis and stated that Ellis was founder of Dravidian philology. Thomas R. Trautmann presented a full-fledged and authoritative account of the emergence of the Dravidian language family in the second decade of the nineteenth century. His book Languages and Nations: The Dravidian Proof in Colonial Madras, is an authoritative and full-scale study of the construction of the Dravidian language family in Madras in 1816 by the British and native scholars under the leadership of Ellis.
