Note: Varies by jurisdiction
136-567: Toda people are a Dravidian ethnic group who live in the State of Tamil Nadu in southern India . Before the 18th century and British colonisation, the Toda coexisted locally with other ethnic communities, including the Kota , Badaga and Kurumba . During the 20th century, the Toda population has hovered in the range 700 to 900. Although an insignificant fraction of the large population of India, since
272-541: A Dravidian substratum . There are also hundreds of Dravidian loanwords in Indo-Aryan languages, and vice versa. According to David McAlpin and his Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis , the Dravidian languages were brought to India by immigration into India from Elam (not to be confused with Eelam ), located in present-day southwestern Iran . In the 1990s, Renfrew and Cavalli-Sforza have also argued that Proto-Dravidian
408-540: A baby to death was a wicked act. In 318, Constantine I considered infanticide a crime, and in 374, Valentinian I mandated the rearing of all children (exposing babies, especially girls, was still common). The Council of Constantinople declared that infanticide was homicide, and in 589, the Third Council of Toledo took measures against the custom of killing their own children. Some Muslim sources allege that pre-Islamic Arabian society practiced infanticide as
544-633: A boy congratulate one another, but when they produce a girl they put it to death." Among the Hakka people , and in Yunnan , Anhui , Sichuan , Jiangxi and Fujian a method of killing the baby was to put her into a bucket of cold water, which was called "baby water". Infanticide was reported as early as the 3rd century BCE , and, by the Song dynasty (960–1279 CE ), it was widespread in some provinces. Belief in reincarnation allowed poor residents of
680-660: A collection of ethnolinguistic groups native to South Asia who speak Dravidian languages . There are around 250 million native speakers of Dravidian languages. Dravidian speakers form the majority of the population of South India and are natively found in India , Pakistan , Afghanistan , Bangladesh , the Maldives , Nepal , Bhutan and Sri Lanka . Dravidian peoples are also present in Singapore , Mauritius , Malaysia , France , South Africa , Myanmar , East Africa ,
816-469: A family, but no longer do so. All the children of such marriages were deemed to descend from the eldest brother. The ratio of females to males is about three to five. The culture historically practiced female infanticide . In the Toda tribe, families arrange contracted child marriage for couples. The Todas live in small hamlets called mund s . The Toda huts, called dogle s , are of an oval, pent-shaped construction with sliding door. This sliding door
952-514: A few traits of structural (either phonological or grammatical) borrowing from Indo-Aryan, whereas Indo-Aryan shows more structural than lexical borrowings from the Dravidian languages. Many of these features are already present in the oldest known Indo-Aryan language , the language of the Rigveda (c. 1500 BCE), which also includes over a dozen words borrowed from Dravidian. The linguistic evidence for Dravidian impact grows stronger as we move from
1088-450: A figure between 700 and 800 is highly impressionistic, and may for the immediate present and future be pessimistic, since public health efforts applied to the community seem to be resulting in an increased birth rate and consequently, one would expect, in an increased population figure. However, earlier predictions that the community was declining were overly pessimistic and probably never well-founded." The Toda are most closely related to
1224-458: A form of "post-partum birth control". The word waʾd was used to describe the practice. These sources state that infanticide was practiced either out of destitution (thus practiced on males and females alike), or as "disappointment and fear of social disgrace felt by a father upon the birth of a daughter". Some authors believe that there is little evidence that infanticide was prevalent in pre-Islamic Arabia or early Muslim history , except for
1360-506: A girl), so she or he will not have an identity in the government and they can keep on giving birth until they are satisfied, without fines or punishment. In 2017, the government announced that all children without an identity can now have an identity legally, known as family register . Since feudal Edo era Japan the common slang for infanticide was mabiki (間引き), which means to pull plants from an overcrowded garden. A typical method in Japan
1496-462: A god features a stone circle called a pun. It is unknown who created the puns, but it seems that the Todas did not due to their lack of traditions associated with the stone monuments. Toda religious tradition is directly tied to the buffalo herding practices. Every part of the dairy process is ritualized including “the twice daily milking and churning of butter to the great seasonal shifting of pastures,
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#17327721444611632-510: A king was considered to be divine by nature and possessed religious significance. The king was 'the representative of God on earth' and lived in a "koyil", which means the "residence of a god". The Modern Tamil word for temple is koil ( Tamil : கோயில் ). Ritual worship was also given to kings. Modern words for god like "kō" ( Tamil : கோ "king"), "iṟai" ( இறை "emperor") and "āṇḍavar" ( ஆண்டவன் "conqueror") now primarily refer to gods. These elements were incorporated later into Hinduism like
1768-421: A lungi as their article of clothing. The dhoti is generally white in colour, and occasionally has a border of red, green or gold. Dhotis are usually made out of cotton for more everyday use, but the more expensive silk dhotis are used for special functions like festivals and weddings. Traditional dress of Dravidian women is typical of most Indian women, that of the sari. This sari consists of a cloth wrapped around
1904-428: A pantheon of gods. The heads of this pantheon are the goddess Tökisy and the god of the underworld Ön. These two deities form the basis of many religious practices and rituals, but each Toda clan has their own nòdrochi, a deity seen as that clan’s ruler during the time that the Todas and gods lived together. In total, there are between 1,600 and 1,800 gods. According to the Toda religion, Ön and his wife Pinârkûrs went to
2040-526: A part of the Nilgiri hills, known as the Kundahs, and set up an iron bar from one end to the other. Ön stood at one end and pulled buffalos out from the earth, which became the sacred buffalos. Pinârkûrs stood on the other end, and she pulled out the buffalos that would form the ordinary herd. The first Toda man also came from the earth, holding onto the tail of the last buffalo Ön pulled out. He then pulled out
2176-544: A peculiarity of the Egyptians that every child must be reared. Diodorus indicates infanticide was a punishable offence. Egypt was heavily dependent on the annual flooding of the Nile to irrigate the land and in years of low inundation, severe famine could occur with breakdowns in social order resulting, notably between 930–1070 CE and 1180–1350 CE . Instances of cannibalism are recorded during these periods, but it
2312-489: A practice which has been passed on to generations. The status ensures uniform pricing for Toda embroidery products and provides protection against low-quality duplication of the art. Toda's quaint barrel vaulted houses, which symbolise the Nilgiris, are today hard to spot. These images have been dry transferred on T-shirts and other products as logos. Seven years ago, there were just a couple of traditional houses remaining in
2448-487: A prominent leader, but makes no mention of infanticide. The Primary Chronicle , one of the most important literary sources before the 12th century, indicates that human sacrifice to idols may have been introduced by Vladimir the Great in 980. The same Vladimir the Great formally converted Kiev Rus into Christianity just 8 years later, but pagan cults continued to be practiced clandestinely in remote areas as late as
2584-465: A proto-Dravidian assumption, they proposed readings of many signs, some agreeing with the suggested readings of Heras and Knorozov (such as equating the "fish" sign with the Dravidian word for fish, "min") but disagreeing on several other readings. A comprehensive description of Parpola's work until 1994 is given in his book Deciphering the Indus Script . Paleoclimatologists believe the fall of
2720-528: A proto-Dravidian origin of the ancient Indus Valley civilisation. The discovery in Tamil Nadu of a late Neolithic (early 2nd millennium BCE, i.e. post-dating Harappan decline) stone celt allegedly marked with Indus signs has been considered by some to be significant for the Dravidian identification. Yuri Knorozov surmised that the symbols represent a logosyllabic script and suggested, based on computer analysis, an agglutinative Dravidian language as
2856-424: A rib from the man and created the first Toda woman. The mountains and hills of their home region are a large part of their religion for two reasons: the importance of grass for buffalo herds and the belief that the hills are the homes of the gods. There is a belief that the gods lived on the hills prior to the creation of the Todas, and that special meetings would take place on a single hill. Each hill associated with
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#17327721444612992-678: A sacrifice of every tenth child during difficult times. Many remains of children have been found in Gezer excavations with signs of sacrifice. Child skeletons with the marks of sacrifice have been found also in Egypt dating 950–720 BCE. In Carthage "[child] sacrifice in the ancient world reached its infamous zenith". Besides the Carthaginians, other Phoenicians , and the Canaanites , Moabites and Sepharvites offered their first-born as
3128-578: A sacrifice to their gods. In Egyptian households, at all social levels, children of both sexes were valued and there is no evidence of infanticide. The religion of the ancient Egyptians forbade infanticide and during the Greco-Roman period they rescued abandoned babies from manure heaps, a common method of infanticide by Greeks or Romans, and were allowed to either adopt them as foundling or raise them as slaves, often giving them names such as "copro -" to memorialize their rescue. Strabo considered it
3264-425: A separate entity from the buffalo centric practices. Diviners work in pairs and explain misfortunes that have occurred in the Toda villages like the burning down of a dairy. The reasons typically would be that the one seeking explanation committed some offense or that a sorcerer caused the misfortune. In the case of one committing an offense, the diviner would offer a ritual or prayer to make amends for their offense. In
3400-524: A similar genetic makeup, but also carry a small portion of Western Steppe Herder ancestry and may also have additional contributions from local hunter-gatherer groups. Although in modern times speakers of various Dravidian languages have mainly occupied the southern portion of India, Dravidian speakers must have been widespread throughout the Indian subcontinent before the Indo-Aryan migration into
3536-813: A small number of people in modern Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to Catholicism, most notably the Paravars. Ancient Dravidian religion constituted of an animistic and non- Vedic form of religion which may have influenced the Āgamas , Vedic and non- Vedic texts which post-date the Vedic texts. The Agamas are Tamil and Sanskrit scriptures chiefly constituting the methods of temple construction and creation of murti , worship means of deities, philosophical doctrines, meditative practices, attainment of sixfold desires and four kinds of yoga. The worship of village deities , as well as sacred flora and fauna in Hinduism
3672-438: A woman had a baby, she would show it to her husband. If the husband accepted it, it would live, but if he refused it, it would die. Babies would often be rejected if they were illegitimate, unhealthy or deformed, the wrong sex, or too great a burden on the family. These babies would not be directly killed, but put in a clay pot or jar and deserted outside the front door or on the roadway. In ancient Greek religion, this practice took
3808-582: Is a member of the Dravidian family. The language is typologically aberrant and phonologically difficult. Linguists have classified Toda (along with its neighbour Kota) as a member of the southern subgroup of the historical family proto-South-Dravidian. It split off from South Dravidian, after Kannada , but before Malayalam . In modern linguistic terms, the aberration of Toda results from a disproportionately high number of syntactic and morphological rules, of both early and recent derivation, which are not found in
3944-433: Is declared UNESCO World Heritage Site . According to M. B. Emeneau in 1984, the successive decennial Census of India figures for the Toda are: 1871 (693), 1881 (675), 1891 (739), 1901 (807), 1911 (676) (corrected from 748), 1951 (879), 1961 (759), 1971 (812). In his judgment, these records "justif[y] [sic] concluding that a figure between 700 and 800 is likely to be near the norm, and that variation in either direction
4080-405: Is due on the one hand to epidemic disaster and slow recovery thereafter (1921 (640), 1931 (597), 1941 (630)) or on the other hand to an excess of double enumeration (suggested already by census officers for 1901 and 1911, and possibly for 1951). Another factor in the uncertainty in the figures is the declared or undeclared inclusion or exclusion of Christian Todas by the various enumerators ... Giving
4216-433: Is due to what are called lying-in houses, which are not registered, or under the supervision of that sort, where the people who act as midwives constantly, as soon as the child is born, either drop it into a pail of water or smother it with a damp cloth. It is a very common thing, also, to find that they bash their heads on the floor and break their skulls. The last British woman to be executed for infanticide of her own child
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4352-469: Is placed inside the hut, and is arranged and fixed on two stout stakes, as to be easily moved back and forth. These huts called dogles are usually 10 feet (3.0 m) high, 18 feet (5.5 m) long and 9 feet (2.7 m) wide. They are built of bamboo fastened with rattan and are thatched. Thicker bamboo canes are arched to give the hut its basic bent shape. Thinner bamboo canes (rattan) are tied close and parallel to each other over this frame. Dried grass
4488-419: Is recognised as a survival of the pre-Vedic Dravidian religion. Hinduism can be regarded as a religious and cultural fusion or synthesis between ancient Dravidians and Indo-Aryans, and other local elements. Ancient Tamil grammatical works Tolkappiyam , the ten anthologies Pattuppāṭṭu , and the eight anthologies Eṭṭuttokai shed light on early ancient Dravidian religion. Murugan (also known as Seyyon)
4624-421: Is stacked over this as thatch. Each hut is enclosed within a wall of loose stones. The front and back of the hut are usually made of dressed stones (mostly granite). The hut has a tiny entrance at the front, about 3 feet (91 cm) wide and 3 feet (91 cm) tall, through which people must crawl to enter the interior. This unusually small entrance is a means of protection from wild animals. The front portion of
4760-488: Is subject to some dispute; however, one commonly quoted estimate is that, by late Qing , between one fifth and one-quarter of all newborn girls, across the entire social spectrum, were victims of infanticide. If one includes excess mortality among female children under 10 (ascribed to gender-differential neglect), the share of victims rises to one third. Scottish physician John Dudgeon , who worked in Peking , China, during
4896-724: Is that the majority of early Old Indo-Aryan speakers had a Dravidian mother tongue which they gradually abandoned. Erdosy (1995 :18) Even though the innovative traits in Indic could be explained by multiple internal explanations, early Dravidian influence is the only explanation that can account for all of the innovations at once. Early Dravidian influence accounts for several of the innovative traits in Indic better than any internal explanation that has been proposed. According to Zvelebil, "several scholars have demonstrated that pre-Indo-Aryan and pre-Dravidian bilingualism in India provided conditions for
5032-615: Is the lungi , or the more formal dhoti , called veshti in Tamil, panche in Kannada and Telugu, and mundu in Malayalam. The lungi consists of a colourful checked cotton cloth. Many times these lungis are tube-shaped and tied around the waist, and can be easily tied above the knees for more strenuous activities. The lungi is usually everyday dress, used for doing labour while dhoti is used for more formal occasions. Many villagers have only
5168-432: Is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose being the prevention of resources being spent on weak or disabled offspring. Unwanted infants were usually abandoned to die of exposure, but in some societies they were deliberately killed. Infanticide is generally illegal, but in some places
5304-722: Is unknown if this happened during the pharaonic era of ancient Egypt. Beatrix Midant-Reynes describes human sacrifice as having occurred at Abydos in the early dynastic period ( c. 3150–2850 BCE ), while Jan Assmann asserts there is no clear evidence of human sacrifice ever happening in ancient Egypt. According to Shelby Brown, Carthaginians , descendants of the Phoenicians , sacrificed infants to their gods. Charred bones of hundreds of infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites. One such area harbored as many as 20,000 burial urns . Skeptics suggest that
5440-475: The 3rd century BC , short of execution, the harshest penalties were imposed on practitioners of infanticide by the legal codes of the Qin dynasty and Han dynasty of ancient China. China's society practiced sex selective infanticide. Philosopher Han Fei Tzu , a member of the ruling aristocracy of the 3rd century BCE , who developed a school of law, wrote: "As to children, a father and mother when they produce
5576-659: The Buddhist Jataka story known as Akiti Jataka there is a mention to Damila-rattha (Tamil dynasty). While the English word Dravidian was first employed by Robert Caldwell in his book of comparative Dravidian grammar based on the usage of the Sanskrit word drāviḍa in the work Tantravārttika by Kumārila Bhaṭṭa , the word drāviḍa in Sanskrit has been historically used to denote geographical regions of southern India as whole. Some theories concern
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5712-418: The Canaanites . Writing in the 3rd century BCE , Kleitarchos , one of the historians of Alexander the Great , described that the infants rolled into the flaming pit. Diodorus Siculus wrote that babies were roasted to death inside the burning pit of the god Baal Hamon , a bronze statue. The historical Greeks considered the practice of adult and child sacrifice barbarous , however, infant exposure
5848-585: The Caribbean , and the United Arab Emirates through recent migration . Proto-Dravidian may have been spoken in the Indus civilization, suggesting a "tentative date of Proto-Dravidian around the early part of the third millennium BCE", after which it branched into various Dravidian languages. South Dravidian I (including pre- Tamil ) and South Dravidian II (including pre- Telugu ) split around
5984-757: The Indian subcontinent , but may have deeper pre-Neolithic roots from Western Asia , specifically from the Iranian plateau . Their origins are often viewed as being connected with the Indus Valley civilisation , hence people and language spread east and southwards after the demise of the Indus Valley Civilisation in the early second millennium BCE, some propose not long before the arrival of Indo-Aryan speakers, with whom they intensively interacted. Though some scholars have argued that
6120-584: The Kaliththokai . Dance forms such as Bharatanatyam are based on older temple dance forms known as Catir Kacceri , as practised by courtesans and a class of women known as Devadasis . Carnatic music originated in the Dravidian region. With the growing influence of Persian and Sufi music on Indian music, a clear distinction in style appeared from the 12th century onwards. Many literary works were composed in Carnatic style and it soon spread wide in
6256-400: The Kota both ethnically and linguistically. The Toda dress consists of a single piece of cloth, which is worn wrap over a dhoti for men and as a skirt for women along with shawlwrap. Their sole occupation is cattle-herding and dairy-work. Holy dairies are built to store the buffalo milk. They once practiced fraternal polyandry , a practice in which a woman marries all the brothers of
6392-605: The Madisar , specific to Tamil Brahmin Community, and the Mundum Neriyathum . In Mahabharata , Bhishma claimed that southerners are skilled with sword-fighting in general and Sahadeva was chosen for the conquest of the southern kingdoms due to his swordsmanship. In South India various types of martial arts are practised like Kalaripayattu and Silambam . In ancient times there were ankams , public duels to
6528-705: The Ming dynasty (1368–1644), whereas infanticide of female babies became more common during the One-Child Policy era (1979–2015). During the period of Company rule in India , the East India Company attempted to eliminate infanticide but were only partially successful, and female infanticide in some parts of India still continues. Infanticide is very rare in industrialised countries but may persist elsewhere. Parental infanticide researchers have found that mothers are more likely to commit infanticide. In
6664-633: The Nayakas . Medieval Tamil guilds and trading organisations like the Ayyavole and Manigramam played an important role in the southeast Asia trade. Traders and religious leaders travelled to southeast Asia and played an important role in the cultural Indianisation of the region. Locally developed scripts such as Grantha and Pallava script induced the development of many native scripts such as Khmer , Javanese Kawi , Baybayin , and Thai . Around this time, Dravidians encountered Muslim traders, and
6800-674: The Near East during the 1st millennium. Christianity forbade infanticide from its earliest times, which led Constantine the Great and Valentinian I to ban infanticide across the Roman Empire in the 4th century. The practice ceased in Arabia in the 7th century after the founding of Islam , since the Quran prohibits infanticide. Infanticide of male babies had become uncommon in China by
6936-587: The Paleolithic era. The anthropologist Raymond Dart has interpreted fractures on the skulls of hominid infants (e.g. the Taung Child ) as due to deliberate killing followed by cannibalism , but such explanations are by now considered uncertain and possibly wrong. Children were not necessarily actively killed, but neglect and intentional malnourishment may also have occurred, as proposed by Vicente Lull as an explanation for an apparent surplus of men and
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#17327721444617072-517: The Tulu people from Karnataka. The Dravidian language family is one of the oldest in the world. Six languages are currently recognized by India as Classical languages and four of them are Dravidian languages Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. The most commonly spoken Dravidian languages are Telugu (తెలుగు), Tamil (தமிழ்), Kannada (ಕನ್ನಡ), Malayalam (മലയാളം), Brahui (براہوئی), Tulu (തുളു), Gondi and Coorg . There are three subgroups within
7208-780: The ancient world . A frequent method of infanticide in ancient Europe and Asia was simply to abandon the infant , leaving it to die by exposure (i.e., hypothermia , hunger, thirst, or animal attack). On at least one island in Oceania , infanticide was carried out until the 20th century by suffocating the infant, while in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and in the Inca Empire it was carried out by sacrifice (see below). Many Neolithic groups routinely resorted to infanticide in order to control their numbers so that their lands could support them. Joseph Birdsell believed that infanticide rates in prehistoric times were between 15% and 50% of
7344-486: The one child policy (which has since changed to a two-child policy ), contribute to infanticide. The sex gap between males and females aged 0–19 years old was estimated to be 25 million in 2010 by the United Nations Population Fund . But in some cases, in order to avoid mainland China's family planning programs, parents will not report to government when a child is born (in most cases
7480-694: The "background noise" of the crises during the Republic . Infanticide became a capital offense in Roman law in 374, but offenders were rarely if ever prosecuted. According to mythology, Romulus and Remus , twin infant sons of the war god Mars , survived near-infanticide after being tossed into the Tiber River. According to the myth, they were raised by wolves, and later founded the city of Rome. Whereas theologians and clerics preached sparing their lives, newborn abandonment continued as registered in both
7616-484: The 'Brixton Baby Farmer', a professional baby-farmer who was found guilty of infanticide in 1870; Jessie King, who was hanged in 1889; Amelia Dyer , the 'Angel Maker', who murdered over 400 babies in her care; and Ada Chard-Williams , a baby farmer who was later hanged at Newgate prison. The Times reported that 67 infants were murdered in London in 1861 and 150 more recorded as "found dead", many of which were found on
7752-599: The 13th century. American explorer George Kennan noted that among the Koryaks , a people of north-eastern Siberia , infanticide was still common in the nineteenth century. One of a pair of twins was always sacrificed. Infanticide (as a crime) gained both popular and bureaucratic significance in Victorian Britain. By the mid-19th century, in the context of criminal lunacy and the insanity defence , killing one's own child(ren) attracted ferocious debate, as
7888-475: The 3rd century BCE. Ancient literary works, such as the Cilappatikaram , describe a system of music . The theatrical culture flourished during the early Sangam age. Theatre-dance traditions have a long and varied history whose origins can be traced back almost two millennia to dance-theatre forms like Kotukotti , Kaapaalam and Pandarangam , which are mentioned in an ancient anthology of poems entitled
8024-403: The 5th to 7th century AD, are guidebooks on the Dravidian style of Vastu Shastra design, construction, sculpture and joinery technique. Isanasivagurudeva paddhati is another text from the 9th century describing the art of building in India in south and central India. In north India, Brihat-samhita by Varāhamihira is the widely cited ancient Sanskrit manual from the 6th century describing
8160-433: The Dravidian language family: North Dravidian, Central Dravidian, and South Dravidian, matching for the most part the corresponding regions in the Indian subcontinent. Dravidian grammatical impact on the structure and syntax of Indo-Aryan languages is considered far greater than the Indo-Aryan grammatical impact on Dravidian. Some linguists explain this anomaly by arguing that Middle Indo-Aryan and New Indo-Aryan were built on
8296-533: The Dravidian languages may have been brought to India by migrations from the Iranian plateau in the fourth or third millennium BCE or even earlier, reconstructed proto-Dravidian vocabulary suggests that the family is indigenous to India. Genetically, the ancient Indus Valley people were composed of a primarily Iranian hunter-gatherers (or farmers) ancestry, with varying degrees of ancestry from local hunter-gatherer groups. The modern-day Dravidian-speakers display
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#17327721444618432-911: The Dravidian regions. The most notable Carnatic musician is Purandara Dasa who lived in the court of Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara empire. He formulated the basic structure of Carnatic music and is regarded as the Pitamaha ( lit , "father" or the "grandfather") of Carnatic Music. Kanakadasa is another notable Carnatic musician who was Purandaradasa's contemporary. Each of the major Dravidian languages has its own film industry like Kollywood (Tamil), Tollywood (Telugu), Sandalwood (Kannada), Mollywood (Malayalam). Kollywood and Tollywood produce most films in India. Dravidian speakers in southern India wear varied traditional costumes depending on their region, largely influenced by local customs and traditions. The most traditional dress for Dravidian men
8568-575: The IVC-scripts. The Brahui population of Balochistan in Pakistan has been taken by some as the linguistic equivalent of a relict population, perhaps indicating that Dravidian languages were formerly much more widespread and were supplanted by the incoming Indo-Aryan languages. Asko Parpola, who regards the Harappans to have been Dravidian, notes that Mehrgarh (7000–2500 BCE), to
8704-491: The Indian subcontinent. The process of post-Harappan/Dravidian influences on southern India has tentatively been called "Dravidianization", and is reflected in the post-Harappan mixture of IVC and Ancient Ancestral South Indian people. Yet, according to Krishnamurti, Dravidian languages may have reached south India before Indo-Aryan migrations. The Dravidian language influenced the Indo-Aryan languages. Dravidian languages show extensive lexical (vocabulary) borrowing, but only
8840-613: The Indo-Aryans moved into an already Dravidian-speaking area after the oldest parts of the Rig Veda were already composed. According to Thomason and Kaufman, there is strong evidence that Dravidian influenced Indic through "shift", that is, native Dravidian speakers learning and adopting Indic languages. According to Erdosy, the most plausible explanation for the presence of Dravidian structural features in Old Indo-Aryan
8976-399: The Indus Valley Civilisation and eastward migration during the late Harappan period was due to climate change in the region, with a 200-year long drought being the major factor. The Indus Valley Civilisation seemed to slowly lose their urban cohesion, and their cities were gradually abandoned during the late Harappan period, followed by eastward migrations before the Indo-Aryan migration into
9112-528: The Indus civilisation, suggesting a "tentative date of Proto-Dravidian around the early part of the third millennium." Krishnamurti further states that South Dravidian I (including pre-Tamil) and South Dravidian II (including pre-Telugu) split around the eleventh century BCE, with the other major branches splitting off at around the same time. The origins of the Dravidians are a "very complex subject of research and debate". They are regarded as indigenous to
9248-640: The Samhitas down through the later Vedic works and into the classical post-Vedic literature. This represents an early religious and cultural fusion or synthesis between ancient Dravidians and Indo-Aryans. According to Mallory there are an estimated thirty to forty Dravidian loanwords in Rig Veda . Some of those for which Dravidian etymologies are certain include ಕುಲಾಯ kulāya "nest", ಕುಲ್ಫ kulpha "ankle", ದಂಡ daṇḍa "stick", ಕುಲ kūla "slope", ಬಿಲ bila "hollow", ಖಲ khala "threshing floor". While J. Bloch and M. Witzel believe that
9384-636: The Song dynasty note that, in Hubei and Fujian provinces, residents would only keep three sons and two daughters (among poor farmers, two sons, and one daughter), and kill all babies beyond that number at birth. Initially the sex of the child was only one factor to consider. By the time of the Ming dynasty, however (1368–1644), male infanticide was becoming increasingly uncommon. The prevalence of female infanticide remained high much longer. The magnitude of this practice
9520-525: The Southeast Asia trade, and the cultural Indianisation of the region. Dravidian visual art is dominated by stylised temple architecture in major centres, and the production of images on stone and bronze sculptures. The sculpture dating from the Chola period has become notable as a symbol of Hinduism . The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple located in Indian state of Tamil Nadu is often considered as
9656-486: The State Government of Tamil Nadu . This has threatened to undermine Toda culture by greatly diminishing the buffalo herds. Since the early 21st century, Toda society and culture have been the focus of an international effort at culturally sensitive environmental restoration. The Toda lands are now a part of The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve , a UNESCO -designated International Biosphere Reserve ; their territory
9792-480: The Todas practice ritual calf sacrifice. The practice is derived from a story where the god Kwoto tricked the gods into eating the flesh of a slain buffalo calf. Since then, this ceremony has taken place every year. Funerals in the Toda religion are far more celebratory compared to western funerals. The dead are prepared with slaughtered buffalo to accompany them to the afterworld. The buffalos for this process are chased and captured before slaughter as an opportunity for
9928-550: The ancient Germanic tribes enforced a similar prohibition. He found such mores remarkable and commented: "To restrain generation and the increase of children, is esteemed [by the Germans] an abominable sin, as also to kill infants newly born." It has become clear over the millennia, though, that Tacitus' description was inaccurate; the consensus of modern scholarship significantly differs. John Boswell believed that in ancient Germanic tribes unwanted children were exposed, usually in
10064-591: The article, "Massacre of the Innocents", highlighting the dangers of baby-farming, the recording of stillbirths, and quoting Athelstan Braxton Hicks , the London coroner, on lying-in houses: I have not the slightest doubt that a large amount of crime is covered by the expression 'still-birth'. There are a large number of cases of what are called newly-born children, which are found all over England, more especially in London and large towns, abandoned in streets, rivers, on commons, and so on... [A] great deal of that crime
10200-546: The below average height of women in prehistoric Menorca . Archaeologists have uncovered physical evidence of child sacrifice at several locations. Some of the best attested examples are the diverse rites which were part of the religious practices in Mesoamerica and the Inca Empire . Three thousand bones of young children, with evidence of sacrificial rituals, have been found in Sardinia . Pelasgians offered
10336-520: The bodies of children found in Carthaginian and Phoenician cemeteries were merely the cremated remains of children who died naturally. Plutarch ( c. 46–120 CE ) mentions the practice, as do Tertullian , Orosius , Diodorus Siculus and Philo . The Hebrew Bible also mentions what appears to be child sacrifice practiced at a place called the Tophet (from the Hebrew taph or toph , to burn) by
10472-434: The burning over of the dry pastures, and the giving of salt to the herd.” Dairies take up the role of temples in Toda religion. At the dairies, the milk of the buffalos is separated into two qualities: low grade milk, called tarvali, and high grade milk, called kudrpali. There is not a distinction between what buffalos can produce tarvali or kudrpali other than a sacred bell worn by buffalos used to make kudrpali. Additionally,
10608-553: The case of a sorcerer, the diviner would identify which sorcerer cast the spell that caused the misfortune. Information about sorcery and sorcerers is limited as it seems to be a taboo practice in Toda culture. However, sorcery is believed to be a familial practice that is passed down from father to son. Toda sorcery is feared by the Todas themselves as well as other tribes like the Badagas . The Toda religion exalted high-class men as holy milkmen, giving them sacred status as priests of
10744-520: The case of the Tamim tribe , who practiced it during severe famine according to Islamic sources. Others state that "female infanticide was common all over Arabia during this period of time" (pre-Islamic Arabia), especially by burying alive a female newborn. A tablet discovered in Yemen , forbidding the people of a certain town from engaging in the practice, is the only written reference to infanticide within
10880-659: The chalcolithic population did not descend from the neolithic population of Mehrgarh, which "suggests moderate levels of gene flow". They further noted that "the direct lineal descendants of the Neolithic inhabitants of Mehrgarh are to be found to the south and the east of Mehrgarh, in northwestern India and the western edge of the Deccan plateau", with neolithic Mehrgarh showing greater affinity with chalocolithic Inamgaon , south of Mehrgarh, than with chalcolithic Mehrgarh. The Indus Valley civilisation (2,600–1,900 BCE) located in
11016-580: The country to kill their newborn children if they felt unable to care for them, hoping that they would be reborn in better circumstances. Furthermore, 18th and 19th century Qing reports of villagers in Liaoning show that they did not consider newborn children fully human, instead regarding life as beginning at some point after the sixth month after birth. The Venetian explorer Marco Polo claimed to have seen newborns exposed in Manzi . Contemporary writers from
11152-507: The data, and that "the linguistic jury is still very much out." As a proto-language , the Proto-Dravidian language is not itself attested in the historical record. Its modern conception is based solely on reconstruction. It is suggested that the language was spoken in the 4th millennium BCE, and started disintegrating into various branches around 3rd millennium BCE. According to Krishnamurti, Proto-Dravidian may have been spoken in
11288-519: The death, to solve disputes between opposing rulers. Among some communities, young girls received preliminary training up until the onset of puberty. In vadakkan pattukal ballads, at least a few women warriors continued to practice and achieved a high degree of expertise. Sports like kambala , jallikattu , kabaddi , vallam kali , lambs and tigers , and maramadi remain strong among Dravidian ethnic groups. Infanticide Note: Varies by jurisdiction Infanticide (or infant homicide )
11424-584: The design and construction of Nagara -style Hindu temples. Traditional Dravidian architecture and symbolism are also based on Agamas. The Agamas are non- Vedic in origin and have been dated either as post-Vedic texts or as pre-Vedic compositions. The Agamas are a collection of Tamil and Sanskrit scriptures chiefly constituting the methods of temple construction and creation of murti , worship means of deities, philosophical doctrines, meditative practices, attainment of sixfold desires and four kinds of yoga. Chola-style temples consist almost invariably of
11560-620: The direction of derivation between tamiḻ and drāviḍa ; such linguists as Zvelebil assert that the direction is from tamiḻ to drāviḍa . The largest Dravidian ethnic groups are the Telugus from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana , the Tamils from Tamil Nadu , Sri Lanka , Malaysia and Singapore , the Kannadigas from Karnataka , the Malayalis from Kerala , and
11696-610: The door of church or abbey, and the clergy was assumed to take care of their upbringing. This practice also gave rise to the first orphanages . However, very high sex ratios were common in even late medieval Europe, which may indicate sex-selective infanticide. The Waldensians , a pre-Reformation medieval Christian sect deemed heretical by the Catholic Church , were accused of participating in infanticide. Judaism prohibits infanticide, and has for some time, dating back to at least early Common Era . Roman historians wrote about
11832-536: The early 19th century the Toda have attracted "a most disproportionate amount of attention from anthropologists and other scholars because of their ethnological aberrancy" and "their unlikeness to their neighbours in appearance, manners, and customs". The study of their culture by anthropologists and linguists proved significant in developing the fields of social anthropology and ethnomusicology . The Toda traditionally live in settlements called mund , consisting of three to seven small thatched houses, constructed in
11968-548: The early 20th century said that, "Infanticide does not prevail to the extent so generally believed among us, and in the north, it does not exist at all." Gender-selected abortion or sex identification (without medical uses ), abandonment, and infanticide are illegal in present-day mainland China. Nevertheless, the US State Department , and the human rights organization Amnesty International have all declared that mainland China's family planning programs, called
12104-443: The early 21st century, a movement developed to build the traditional barrel-vaulted huts. From 1995 to 2005, forty new huts were built in this style, and many Toda sacred dairies were renovated. Each has a narrow stone pit around it and the tiny door is held shut with a heavy stone. Only the priest may enter it. It is used for storage of sacred buffalo milk. Registrar of Geographical Indication gave GI status for this unique embroidery,
12240-475: The eleventh century BCE, with the other major branches splitting off at around the same time. The third century BCE onwards saw the development of many great empires in South India like Pandya , Chola , Chera , Pallava , Satavahana , Chalukya , Kakatiya and Rashtrakuta . Medieval South Indian guilds and trading organisations like the "Ayyavole of Karnataka and Manigramam" played an important role in
12376-869: The far-reaching influence of Dravidian on the Indo-Aryan tongues in the spheres of phonology, syntax and vocabulary." With the rise of the Kuru Kingdom a process of Sanskritization started which influenced all of India, with the populations of the north of the Indian subcontinent predominantly speaking the Indo-Aryan languages. The third century BCE onwards saw the development of large Dravidian empires like Chola , Pandya , Rashtrakuta , Vijayanagara , Chalukyas Western Chalukya , and kingdoms like Chera , Chutu , Ay , Alupa , Pallava , Hoysala , Western Ganga , Eastern Ganga , Kadamba , Kalabhra , Andhra Ikshvaku , Vishnukundina , Eastern Chalukya , Sena , Kakatiya , Reddy , Mysore , Jaffna , Mysore , Travancore , Venad , Cochin , Cannanore , Calicut and
12512-418: The first Tamil Muslims and Sri Lankan Moors appeared. Portuguese explorers like Vasco de Gama were motivated to expand mainly for the spice markets of Calicut (today called Kozhikode) in modern-day Kerala. This led to the establishment of a series of Portuguese colonies along the western coasts of Karnataka and Kerala, including Mangalore. During this time Portuguese Jesuit priests also arrived and converted
12648-525: The forest. "It was the custom of the [Teutonic] pagans, that if they wanted to kill a son or daughter, they would be killed before they had been given any food." Usually children born out of wedlock were disposed of that way. In his highly influential Pre-historic Times , John Lubbock described burnt bones indicating the practice of child sacrifice in pagan Britain. The last canto, Marjatan poika (Son of Marjatta), of Finnish national epic Kalevala describes assumed infanticide. Väinämöinen orders
12784-770: The high number of infanticides and out-of-wedlock births. The Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Rome was founded by Pope Innocent III because women were throwing their infants into the Tiber river . Unlike other European regions, in the Middle Ages the German mother had the right to expose the newborn. In the High Middle Ages, abandoning unwanted children finally eclipsed infanticide. Unwanted children were left at
12920-567: The holy dairy. According to Sir James Frazer in 1922 (see quote below from Golden Bough ), the holy milkman was prohibited from walking across bridges while in office. He had to ford rivers by foot, or by swimming. The people are prohibited from wearing shoes or any type of foot covering. Toda temples are distinct from Hindu temples and are constructed in a circular pit lined with stones. They are similar in appearance and construction to Toda huts. Women are not allowed to enter or go close to these huts that are designated as temples. The Toda language
13056-452: The hut is decorated with the Toda art forms, a kind of rock mural painting. The Todas are vegetarians and do not eat meat, eggs that can hatch, or fish. The buffalo were milked in a holy dairy, where the priest/milkman also processed their gifts. Buffalo milk is used in a variety of forms: butter, butter milk, yogurt, cheese and drunk plain. Rice is a staple, eaten with dairy products and curries . Toda religious life and practices stem from
13192-505: The ideas and customs of other peoples, which often diverged from their own. Tacitus recorded that the Jews "take thought to increase their numbers, for they regard it as a crime to kill any late-born children". Josephus , whose works give an important insight into 1st-century Judaism, wrote that God "forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward". In his book Germania , Tacitus wrote in 98 CE that
13328-483: The infant bastard son of Marjatta to be drowned in a marsh . The Íslendingabók , the main source for the early history of Iceland , recounts that on the Conversion of Iceland to Christianity in 1000 it was provided – in order to make the transition more palatable to Pagans – that "the old laws allowing exposure of newborn children will remain in force". However, this provision – among other concessions made at
13464-407: The largest functioning Hindu temple in the world. The temple is built in Dravidian style and occupies an area of 156 acres (631,000 m ). The origin of the Sanskrit word drāviḍa is Tamil . In Prakrit , words such as "Damela", "Dameda", "Dhamila" and "Damila", which later evolved from "Tamila", could have been used to denote an ethnic identity. In the Sanskrit tradition, the word drāviḍa
13600-541: The league of Tamil kingdoms had been in existence for 113 years by that time. In Amaravati in present-day Andhra Pradesh there is an inscription referring to a Dhamila-vaniya (Tamil trader) datable to the 3rd century CE. Another inscription of about the same time in Nagarjunakonda seems to refer to a Damila . A third inscription in Kanheri Caves refers to a Dhamila-gharini (Tamil house-holder). In
13736-475: The legendary marriage of Shiva to Queen Mīnātchi who ruled Madurai or Wanji-ko , a god who later merged into Indra . Tolkappiyar refers to the Three Crowned Kings as the "Three Glorified by Heaven", ( Tamil : வாண்புகழ் மூவர் , Vāṉpukaḻ Mūvar ). In Dravidian-speaking South India, the concept of divine kingship led to the assumption of major roles by state and temple. The cult of
13872-548: The literature record and in legal documents. According to William Lecky , exposure in the early Middle Ages , as distinct from other forms of infanticide, "was practiced on a gigantic scale with absolute impunity, noticed by writers with most frigid indifference and, at least in the case of destitute parents, considered a very venial offence". However the first foundling house in Europe was established in Milan in 787 on account of
14008-404: The male children of Israelites (see 2:49 ; 7:127 ; 7:141 ; 14:6 ; 28:4 ; 40:25 ). Infanticide may have been practiced as human sacrifice, as part of the pagan cult of Perun . Ibn Fadlan describes sacrificial practices at the time of his trip to Kiev Rus (present-day Ukraine) in 921–922, and describes an incident of a woman voluntarily sacrificing her life as part of a funeral rite for
14144-408: The men to demonstrate their prowess. People also gather in their best clothes for festivities and dancing. There are specific areas dedicated to funeral ceremonies separated for men and women. A hut is made in these areas where the body is prepared. Due to the celebratory nature of Toda funerals, outsiders are typically invited to participate in the festivities. In Toda religion, divination exists as
14280-429: The most likely candidate for the underlying language. Knorozov's suggestion was preceded by the work of Henry Heras, who suggested several readings of signs based on a proto-Dravidian assumption. Linguist Asko Parpola writes that the Indus script and Harappan language are "most likely to have belonged to the Dravidian family". Parpola led a Finnish team in investigating the inscriptions using computer analysis. Based on
14416-480: The mother goddess is treated as an indication of a society which venerated femininity. This mother goddess was conceived as a virgin, one who has given birth to all and one, and were typically associated with Shaktism . The temples of the Sangam days, mainly of Madurai, seem to have had priestesses to the deity, which also appears predominantly as a goddess. In the Sangam literature, there is an elaborate description of
14552-451: The northwest of the Indian subcontinent is sometimes identified as having been Dravidian. Already in 1924, when announcing the discovery of the IVC, John Marshall stated that (one of) the language(s) may have been Dravidic. Cultural and linguistic similarities have been cited by researchers Henry Heras , Kamil Zvelebil , Asko Parpola and Iravatham Mahadevan as being strong evidence for
14688-475: The other South Dravidian languages (save Kota, to a small extent.) The forced interaction with other peoples with technology has caused a lot of changes in the lifestyle of the Todas. They used to be primarily a pastoral people but now, they are increasingly venturing into agriculture and other occupations. They used to be strict vegetarians but now, some people eat meat. Although many Toda abandoned their traditional distinctive huts for houses made of concrete, in
14824-480: The pallu except in areas of North Karnataka. Due to the complexity of draping the sari, younger girls start with a skirt called a pavada . When they get older, around the age when puberty begins, they transition to a langa voni or half-sari, which is composed of a skirt tied at the waist along with a cloth draped over a blouse. After adulthood girls begin using the sari. There are many different styles of sari draping varying across regions and communities. Examples are
14960-468: The peninsula in pre-Islamic times. Infanticide is explicitly prohibited by the Qur'an . "And do not kill your children for fear of poverty; We give them sustenance and yourselves too; surely to kill them is a great wrong." Together with polytheism and homicide , infanticide is regarded as a grave sin (see 6:151 and 60:12 ). Infanticide is also implicitly denounced in the story of Pharaoh's slaughter of
15096-761: The permanent hamlets. One day, a Toda wanted to build a traditional house for his ailing father. The administration agreed to provide the funds. Quite soon, it was ready and one Sunday morning, the Collector, additional Collector and the Superintendent of police inaugurated the house. The construction was so impressive that advances were paid on the spot for two more houses. Nine houses came up that year. Today, over 35 traditional houses have been constructed. [REDACTED] Media related to Toda people at Wikimedia Commons Dravidian people The Dravidian peoples , Dravidian-speakers or Dravidians , are
15232-471: The poor were left with the option of either entering the workhouse , turning to prostitution, resorting to infanticide, or choosing abortion. By the middle of the century infanticide was common for social reasons, such as illegitimacy, and the introduction of child life insurance additionally encouraged some women to kill their children for gain. Examples include Mary Ann Cotton , who murdered many of her 15 children as well as three husbands; Margaret Waters ,
15368-684: The practice is tolerated, or the prohibition is not strictly enforced. Most Stone Age human societies routinely practiced infanticide, and estimates of children killed by infanticide in the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras vary from 15 to 50 percent. Infanticide continued to be common in most societies after the historical era began, including ancient Greece , ancient Rome , the Phoenicians , ancient China , ancient Japan , Pre-Islamic Arabia , Aboriginal Australia , Native Americans , and Native Alaskans . Infanticide became forbidden in Europe and
15504-438: The responsibility away from the parents because the child would die of natural causes, for example, hunger, asphyxiation or exposure to the elements. The practice was prevalent in ancient Rome , as well. Philo was the first known philosopher to speak out against it. A letter from a Roman citizen to his sister, or a pregnant wife from her husband, dating from 1 BCE , demonstrates the casual nature with which infanticide
15640-522: The rites performed by the Kurava priestess in the shrine Palamutircholai. Among the early Dravidians, the practice of erecting memorial stones, Natukal and Viragal , had appeared, and it continued for quite a long time after the Sangam age, down to about the 16th century. It was customary for people who sought victory in war to worship these hero stones to bless them with victory . Mayamata and Manasara shilpa texts estimated to be in circulation by
15776-675: The role of women in society was defined by motherhood, and it was thought that any woman who murdered her own child was by definition insane and could not be held responsible for her actions. Several cases were subsequently highlighted during the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment 1864–66 , as a particular felony where an effective avoidance of the death penalty had informally begun. The New Poor Law Act of 1834 ended parish relief for unmarried mothers and allowed fathers of illegitimate children to avoid paying for "child support". Unmarried mothers then received little assistance, and
15912-912: The season and the land. Tolkappiyam mentions that each of these thinai had an associated deity such as Seyyon in Kurinji (hills), Thirumaal in Mullai (forests), and Kotravai in Marutham (plains), and Wanji-ko in the Neithal (coasts and seas). Other gods mentioned were Mayyon and Vaali , now identified with Krishna and Balarama, who are all major deities in Hinduism today. This represents an early religious and cultural fusion or synthesis between ancient Dravidians and Indo-Aryans, which became more evident over time with sacred iconography, traditions, philosophy, flora and fauna that went on to influence and shape Indian civilisation. Throughout Tamilakam ,
16048-507: The shape of half-barrels and located across the slopes of the pasture , on which they keep domestic buffalo. Their economy was pastoral, based on the buffalo, whose dairy products they traded with neighbouring peoples of the Nilgiri Hills . Toda religion features the sacred buffalo ; consequently, rituals are performed for all dairy activities as well as for the ordination of dairymen-priests. The religious and funerary rites provide
16184-400: The social context in which complex poetic songs about the cult of the buffalo are composed and chanted. Fraternal polyandry in traditional Toda society was fairly common; however, this practice has now been totally abandoned, as has female infanticide. During the last quarter of the 20th century, some Toda pasture land was lost due to outsiders using it for agriculture or afforestation by
16320-427: The special case of neonaticide (murder in the first 24 hours of life), mothers account for almost all the perpetrators. Fatherly cases of neonaticide are so rare that they are individually recorded. The practice of infanticide has taken many forms over time. Child sacrifice to supernatural figures or forces, such as that believed to have been practiced in ancient Carthage , may be only the most notorious example in
16456-421: The streets. Another 250 were suffocated, half of them not recorded as accidental deaths. The report noted that "infancy in London has to creep into life in the midst of foes." Recording a birth as a still-birth was also another way of concealing infanticide because still-births did not need to be registered until 1926 and they did not need to be buried in public cemeteries. In 1895 The Sun (London) published
16592-508: The subcontinent. According to Horen Tudu, "many academic researchers have attempted to connect the Dravidians with the remnants of the great Indus Valley civilisation , located in Northwestern India... but [i]t is mere speculation that the Dravidians are the ensuing post–Indus Valley settlement of refugees into South and Central India." The most noteworthy scholar making such claims is Asko Parpola , who did extensive research on
16728-554: The three following parts, arranged in differing manners, but differing in themselves only according to the age in which they were executed: Besides these, a south Indian temple usually has a tank called the Kalyani or Pushkarni – to be used for sacred purposes or the convenience of the priests – dwellings for all the grades of the priesthood are attached to it, and other buildings for state or convenience. Literary evidence of traditional form of theatre, dance and music dates back to
16864-633: The time to the Pagans – was abolished some years later. Christianity explicitly rejects infanticide. The Teachings of the Apostles or Didache said "thou shalt not kill a child by abortion , neither shalt thou slay it when born". The Epistle of Barnabas stated an identical command, both thus condemning both abortion and infanticide. Apologists Tertullian , Athenagoras , Minucius Felix , Justin Martyr and Lactantius also maintained that exposing
17000-479: The total number of births, while Laila Williamson estimated a lower rate ranging from 15% to 20%. Both anthropologists believed that these high rates of infanticide persisted until the development of agriculture during the Neolithic Revolution . A book published in 1981 stated that comparative anthropologists estimated that 50% of female newborn babies may have been killed by their parents during
17136-506: The waist and draped over the shoulder. Originally saris were worn bare, but during the Victorian era, women began wearing blouse (called a ravike) along with sari. In fact, until the late 19th century most Kerala women did not wear any upper garments, or were forced to by law, and in many villages, especially in tribal communities, the sari is worn without the blouse. Unlike Indo-Aryan speakers, most Dravidian women do not cover their head with
17272-617: The west of the Indus River valley, is a precursor of the Indus Valley Civilisation, whose inhabitants migrated into the Indus Valley and became the Indus Valley Civilisation. It is one of the earliest sites with evidence of farming and herding in South Asia . According to Lukacs and Hemphill, while there is a strong continuity between the neolithic and chalcolithic (Copper Age) cultures of Mehrgarh, dental evidence shows that
17408-594: Was Rebecca Smith , who was hanged in Wiltshire in 1849. The Infant Life Protection Act of 1897 required local authorities to be notified within 48 hours of changes in custody or the death of children under seven years. Under the Children's Act of 1908 "no infant could be kept in a home that was so unfit and so overcrowded as to endanger its health, and no infant could be kept by an unfit nurse who threatened, by neglect or abuse, its proper care, and maintenance." As of
17544-505: Was also used to denote the geographical region of South India. Epigraphic evidence of an ethnic group termed as such is found in ancient India and Sri Lanka where a number of inscriptions have come to light datable from the 2nd century BCE mentioning Damela or Dameda persons. The Hathigumpha inscription of the Kalinga ruler Kharavela refers to a T(ra)mira samghata (Confederacy of Tamil rulers) dated to 150 BCE. It also mentions that
17680-484: Was brought to India by farmers from the Iranian part of the Fertile Crescent, but more recently Heggerty and Renfrew noted that "McAlpin's analysis of the language data, and thus his claims, remain far from orthodoxy", adding that Fuller finds no relation of Dravidian language with other languages, and thus assumes it to be native to India. Renfrew and Bahn conclude that several scenarios are compatible with
17816-460: Was glorified as the red god seated on the blue peacock, who is ever young and resplendent , as the favoured god of the Tamils . Sivan was also seen as the supreme God. Early iconography of Murugan and Sivan and their association with native flora and fauna goes back to the Indus Valley Civilisation. The Sangam landscape was classified into five categories, thinais , based on the mood,
17952-470: Was not considered to be murder; moreover, the exposed child technically had a chance of being rescued by the gods or any passersby. This very situation was a recurring motif in Greek mythology . To notify the neighbors of a birth of a child, a woolen strip was hung over the front door to indicate a female baby and an olive branch to indicate a boy had been born. Families did not always keep their new child. After
18088-415: Was often viewed: In some periods of Roman history it was traditional for a newborn to be brought to the pater familias , the family patriarch , who would then decide whether the child was to be kept and raised, or left to die by exposure. The Twelve Tables of Roman law obliged him to put to death a child that was visibly deformed. The concurrent practices of slavery and infanticide contributed to
18224-404: Was perceived as barbarous and unlucky and efforts were made to hide or kill one or both twins. Female infanticide of newborn girls was systematic in feudatory Rajputs in South Asia for illegitimate female children during the Middle Ages. According to Firishta , as soon as the illegitimate female child was born she was held "in one hand, and a knife in the other, that any person who wanted
18360-465: Was smothering the baby's mouth and nose with wet paper. It became common as a method of population control. Farmers would often kill their second or third sons. Daughters were usually spared, as they could be married off, sold off as servants or prostitutes, or sent off to become geishas . Mabiki persisted in the 19th century and early 20th century. According to one estimate, at least 97% of homicide victims in Japan in 1900 were newborns. To bear twins
18496-457: Was widely practiced in ancient Greece . It was advocated by Aristotle in the case of congenital deformity: "As to the exposure of children, let there be a law that no deformed child shall live." In Greece, the decision to expose a child was typically the father's, although in Sparta the decision was made by a group of elders. Exposure was the preferred method of disposal, as that act in itself
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