Speaking Tamil in Baluchistan

by Guest Wed Aug 17, 2016 6:10 pm

As relatively late arrivals in the region, the Baluchis had to battle earlier occupants of the lands such as the Brahui tribes who still abound around Kalat. The Brahui language belongs to the Dravidian family of languages and is close to Tamil. The Brahui’s are the only Dravidian survivors in northern India, after the Aryan invasion.

A restless people, the Baluchis naturally pushed eastwards towards the more fertile regions watered by the Indus River, but were halted by the might of the Mughals. But we still have reminders of the many Baluchi incursions in the names of the towns like Dera Ghazi Khan and Dera Ismail Khan in the Punjab and NWFP. Unlike the Dravidians of Mohen-jo-daro and Harappa who disappeared without a trace, the Brahui’s made one last hurrah when they asserted their power in Kalat. By the 18th century Kalat was the dominant power in Baluchistan and the Khan of Kalat was the ruler of the entire region. But the Brahui’s paid for it by getting assimilated into the majority Baluchis.

Brahui language still survives in small pockets but only by just. My late father who served in British India’s Defence Services Staff College at Quetta in the early 1940’s would often tell me of hearing the local tribesmen serving in the Staff College speaking a language that sounded remarkably like Tamil! A few years ago, I ran into a bunch of school kids from Kalat at the National Museum in Karachi and they were amused that I knew that uru meant village, arisi meant rice and tanni meant water even to me from distant southern India.

https://www.saddahaq.com/lets-talk-about-baluchistan

by Kayalvizhi Wed Aug 17, 2016 8:25 pm

Thanks for the information

Speaking Tamil in Baluchistan

Speaking Tamil in Baluchistan

Re: Speaking Tamil in Baluchistan