Editing Dravidian languages (section)

==Name==
[[Robert Caldwell]] coined the term "Dravidian" for this family of languages, based on the usage of the [[Sanskrit]] word {{IAST|Draviḍa}} in the work ''Tantravārttika'' by {{IAST|[[Kumārila Bhaṭṭa]]}}:{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=xx}}
{{blockquote|text=The word I have chosen is 'Dravidian', from {{IAST|Drāviḍa}}, the adjectival form of {{IAST|Draviḍa}}. This term, it is true, has sometimes been used, and is still sometimes used, in almost as restricted a sense as that of Tamil itself, so that though on the whole it is the best term I can find, I admit it is not perfectly free from ambiguity. It is a term which has already been used more or less distinctively by Sanskrit philologists, as a generic appellation for the South Indian people and their languages, and it is the only single term they ever seem to have used in this manner. I have, therefore, no doubt of the propriety of adopting it.
|author=Robert Caldwell{{sfnp|Caldwell|1856|p=4}}}}

The origin of the [[Sanskrit]] word ''{{IAST|drāviḍa}}'' is the Tamil word ''{{IAST|[[Tamils|Tamiḻ]]}}''.{{sfnp|Shulman|2016|p=5}} [[Kamil Zvelebil]] cites the forms such as ''dramila'' (in {{IAST|[[Daṇḍin]]}}'s Sanskrit work ''Avantisundarīkathā'') and ''{{IAST|damiḷa}}'' (found in the Sri Lankan (Ceylonese) chronicle ''[[Mahavamsa]]'') and then goes on to say, "The forms ''damiḷa''/''damila'' almost certainly provide a connection of ''{{IAST |dr(a/ā)viḍa}}''" with the indigenous name of the Tamil language, the likely derivation being "*''{{IAST|tamiḻ}}'' > *''{{IAST |damiḷ}}'' > ''{{IAST|damiḷa}}''- / ''damila''- and further, with the intrusive, 'hypercorrect' (or perhaps analogical) -''r''-, into ''{{IAST|dr(a/ā)viḍa}}''. The -''m''-/-''v''- alternation is a common enough phenomenon in Dravidian phonology".{{sfnp|Zvelebil|1990|p=xxi}}

[[Bhadriraju Krishnamurti]] states in his reference book ''The Dravidian languages'':{{sfnp|Krishnamurti|2003|loc=p. 2, footnote 2}} {{blockquote|Joseph (1989: IJDL 18.2:134–42) gives extensive references to the use of the term ''{{IAST|draviḍa}}'', ''dramila'' first as the name of a people, then of a country. Sinhala BCE inscriptions cite ''{{IAST|dameḍa}}''-, ''damela''- denoting Tamil merchants. Early Buddhist and Jaina sources used ''{{IAST|damiḷa}}''- to refer to a people of south India (presumably Tamil); ''{{IAST|damilaraṭṭha}}''- was a southern non-Aryan country; ''{{IAST|dramiḷa}}''-, ''{{IAST|dramiḍa}}'', and ''{{IAST|draviḍa}}''- were used as variants to designate a country in the south (''{{IAST|Bṛhatsamhita-}}'', ''Kādambarī'', ''Daśakumāracarita-'', fourth to seventh centuries CE) (1989: 134–138). It appears that ''{{IAST|damiḷa}}''- was older than ''{{IAST|draviḍa}}''- which could be its Sanskritization.}}

Based on what Krishnamurti states (referring to a scholarly paper published in the ''International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics''), the Sanskrit word ''{{IAST|draviḍa}}'' itself appeared later than ''{{IAST|damiḷa}}'', since the dates for the forms with -r- are centuries later than the dates for the forms without -r- (''{{IAST|damiḷa}}'', ''{{IAST|dameḍa}}''-, ''damela''- etc.).