South Indians
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| approx. 217 million speakers | |
| Languages | |
| Dravidian languages | |
| Religion | |
| predominantly Hinduism, and other Jainism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Judaism |
Dravidians are native speakers of any of the Dravidian languages. There are around 200 million native speakers of Dravidian languages. They form the majority of the population of South India. Dravidian-speaking people are natively found in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan,Nepal, Maldives (Giraavaru People), Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Historically the word "drāviḍa" is used to denote the geographical region of South India, and was devoid of any ethnic or linguistic identity. In Prakrit, words such as "Damela", "Dameda", "Dhamila" and "Damila" evolved from "Tamila" could have been used to denote an ethnic identity.
The third century BCE onwards saw the development of large Dravidian political states: Chola dynasty, Pandyan dynasty, Rashtrakuta dynasty, Vijayanagara Empire, Chera Dynasty, Chalukya dynasty and a number of smaller states. The Ganga dynasty, Kadamba dynasty, Hoysala Empire, Pallava dynasty, Hoysala Empire Satavahana dynasty, Western Chalukya Empire, Kakatiya dynasty, Hoysala Empire and the Mysore kingdom were established by the Dravidian people.
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