THE DRAVIDIANS IN CHINA
Black-and-red ware has been discovered on most of the early sites of China. Many of the symbols on this ware are analogous to Harappan and south Indian ware. It is obvious from the archaeological discoveries from Yang-shao and the Miao-ti kow phases that the totems of the people were the fish and bird respectively. This is interesting because the- totem of the earliest Dravidians in India, was the phallic-fish, or fish e.g., the Pandyans or Maravar group.
The Dravidian people originated in Middle Africa. We call this ancient homeland the Proto-Sahara.(see:
The original southern Chinese were of Yueh origin that were recognized by the Chinese as being 'Black', and the Siva worshippers of India both had the bird as their symbol or totem. In addition, the. fish was a symbol of membership in the Maa Clan.
The Yang-shao, people cultivated millet and rice. They had domesticated the horse, goat and sheep. They made fine black-and-red pottery, such as that found in Kansu, dating to the period between 3000-1800 B.C. The skeletal remains of the people o Yang-shao, show they resembled the Polynesians and Melanesians rather than modern mongoloids.
Figure1: Map of the Dravidian Migrations from the Indus Valley into China.
The earliest civilizations in China, the Shang and the Hsia/Xia dynasty were found by Proto-Dravidians and Manding Kushites. The founder of the Xia dynasty was King Yu, he was a member of the Yueh tribe. Yu was the regulator of the waters and the builder of canals. The totem of the Yueh people was a bird. His son Pa, was the founder of China's megalithic culture. Yu seems to have been a Vellalar 'lord of the flood', since the title is expressive of Yu's skill in controlling the floods and in storing water for agricultural purposes. In India the Yueh people were called Yakshas.
The Annamite were a Mongoloid people. They lived in Southeast Asia. These mongoloids were much darker than the people who lived in China. They resemble the Mongoloid Dravidians of lndia. and Vedda of Ceylon and the Males, Santals or Oraons.
After the Yi tribes founders of Shang, were defeated by. the modern Chinese or Hua tribes. The Kushite tribes migrated to the Pacific seaboard and thence to the Pacific Islands. These Kushites are called Oceanians or Melanesians by anthropologist.
In Chinese literature these Blacks were called Yi and Yueh, according to Shun-sheng Ling, A study of the raft, outrigger, double and deck canoes of ancient China the Pacific and the Indian Ocean.
There were many different Hua tribes. Therefore they had different names for the Proto-Dravidians who formerly lived in ancient China and Southeast Asia.
The ancient Chinese referred to these Proto-Dravidians as Li min 'Black heads', especially those inhabitants of the Hwang-Ho valley . According to T. de Lacouperie "The Black heads of Babylonia and ancient China" (see: The Babylonian and Oriental Record 5, no. 11 (1891) pp.233-246), the term Li min means 'the black people'.
These Blacks were important to the development and stability of Chinese civilization. In the Ode Sang-yu , the Earl of Jay, mourned because "every state is being ruined, there are no Black-heads among the people". This quote indicates the important role the Blacks made in the rise of the Zhou dynasty in China. The Zhou was the first Hua dynasty in China.
Later Chinese referred to the Proto-Dravidians as Man or K'un-lun. This became the general Chinese term for Asiatic and African Blacks. Up to the T'ang dynasty, the south sea area. was called K'un-lun. References in these documents speak of' K'un-lun slaves, K'un-lun people, and K'un-lun language and ships. Triptaka, a Chinese traveler of southern China and S.E. Asia observed that "the Cambodians remind me of the Man, our southern Chinese barbarians; they are coarse-featured and very dark".
Ma Huan a famous Chinese sailor, who traveled to countries in the Indian Ocean in the 15th century A.D, noted that the Chola people of Calicut: In appearance all the people are black, with but an occasional white person". At Champa, in S. E Asia which he said was also Chola territory he described the people as follows: their bodies are quite black'.
There were many Dravidian Kingdoms in S.E. Asia. Many scholars believe that these cultures were begun by non Dravidian speaking people. Although this is their opinion, the founders of the cultures of Southeast Asia were founded by the Yueh people of south China The base of the Yueh people were the Tamil speaking Dravidians.
Sir Braddell, used historical and archaeological evidence to show that Indian colonization of S. E. Asia, began in the north and moved southward. This hypothesis would have the Dravidians migrating from Yunnan into Southeast Asia, rather than migrating from South India in Southeast Asia.
These Dravidians or Yueh tribes lived in Yunnan, which up until the Chinese drove the Yueh people into the Yunnan area, was also inhabited by Negritos ( a race of small-sized Blacks called pygmies) . It stands to reason that if most of the Dravidians had come to S.E. Asia from, India, they would have established their colonies in the south of China , not north China.
The Proto- Dravidians in Yunnan built, their empire on the Yangtze and Mekong rivers, in Chinese literature these people were called Yueh. The Proto-Dravidians in Yunnan had terraced fields, irrigation ditches, potter's wheels and both bronze and iron. When iron using people appear in Yunnan we see the appearance of fortifications, to protect their settlements from the Hua (Chinese) tribes and Thai attacks. The people of Yunnan cultivated rice , wheat and millet.
The decline of the Yunnan culture occurred in the southeastern part of the province in the area of lake Tien. not far from North Vietnam where Dong-son culture originated. Dong-son bronzes have been found throughout Yunnan province:, like Shih chai-shan, in Chin-ningi and burial sites in An-ning and Chien-ch 'uan, near lake Tien. The usual symbols on the bronze weapons are serpents and birds resembling the peacock and cocks. symbols of Siva worship. They had domesticated horses and Indian type cattle. Many of the people had traditional feathered plumes worn by the Kushana in Central Asia, and north India, in Yunnan.
The- Yueh people are founders of 'Hindu' civilization in S.E. Asia. They are the Kosars and 'Tamils of Indian literature and traditions. They are called Tamils, because the earliest group of Yueh or Kushanas to enter India. The Kosars entered India via Tamilitti, the great seaport at the mouth of the Ganges, according to V. Kanakasabhai, The Tamils eighteen hundred years ago (Madras,1966) .
The Yunnan sites of Shih-chai-shan, T'ai-chi-shan and Li.chia-shan parallel the classical Dong-son site on the Gulf of Tonkin. Common styles include bronze kettle drums; bronze axes and weapons and cattle and peacocks as common decorative motifs.
Also. the symbols on Heger type drums from Yunnan, e,g. peacocks and headdresses are the same as Kushana artifacts of North India, who were also members of the Yueh tribes. This indicates that the Dravidians founded the Dong-son culture, since they made up some of the ancient Yueh tribes of southern China.
Many Yueh tribesmen worshipped Siva. The abode of Siva, was the snow capped mount Kailas, situated north of the Himalayas near the source of the Ganges river.
In the Indo-Aryan literature we learn that Siva gave the Deva people a long and hard struggle. The Tamilian form of Saivism is known as Agamas; the esoteric and ritualistic parts of Agama are called Tantra. The Agama is non-Vedic, it was also the S.E. Asia form of Hinduism.
Although the Proto-Dravidians of Yueh China were separated over a great expanse of water from India they were in constant communication with South India. Walter A. Fairservis, in The roots of ancient India pointed out that the pointed-butt axes of the Indian variety, especially those of Brahmagiri, have been found as far away as Assam.
Axes of this type are also found in Kashmir. which was also inhabited by Yueh tribesmen. This axe was popular among the Kushana folk who ruled Kashmir and much of China and S E. Asia in ancient times. These axes are associated with megalithic cultures. These axes are found in northern and southern China, in areas formerly occupied by the Kushana.
These same adzes have been discovered in the Philippines and Japan. The South Indian tanged adzes were also used in Polynesia and the Archipelago Islands. The presence of these axes in Japan suggest an early Dravidian colonization of these Islands.
The Proto-Dravidians of Yunnan and S. E. Asia, were the founders of the metal age there. J. P. Mills, found that S .E. Asian burial jars are similar to those of northern India which was settled by the Yakshas, the Indian name for the Yueh people.
These same burial jars were used in the Indo-China metal age, are related to Late Jomon and Yayoi jar burials in Kyushu, Japan and metal ago jars from the Philippines. This suggest an early colonization of Japan and the Philippines by Dravidians.
Inside the burial jars archaeologist found iron fragments, Indian adzes and carnelian beads. It appears that the carnelian beads which were manufactured at Cambay in Gujaret, and the banded agate beads which were used in burials.
The Yueh-chih tribes provided the base of the eastern Dravidians After the fall of the Shang empire, the Chinese and Thai tribes, began to force the Yueh or various Kushana tribes out of the Far East back into India.