MODERN SOUTH INDIA

The South India story attempted here is of a peninsular region influenced
by the oceans, not by the Himalayas. Yet it is more than that.
It is a story of facets of four powerful culturesKannada, Malayalam, Tamil
and Telugu, to name them in alphabetical orderand yet more than that,
for Kodava, Konkani, Marathi, Oriya and Tulu cultures have also influenced
it, as also other older and possibly more indigenous cultures often seen as
tribal, as well as cultures originating in other parts of India and the world.
With South Indias Malayalam region being (in modern times) the most
balanced in terms of religion and also the most literate, its Kannada zone
occupying South Indias geographical centre and containing the sites of the
Vijayanagara kingdom and also the kingdom of Haidar and Tipu, its Telugu
portion the largest in area and holding the most people, and its Tamil
part the most Dravidian and possessing the oldest literature, the four
principal cultures are, unsurprisingly, competitive.
But they are also complementary.
This is a Dravidian story, and also more than that.
It is a story involving four centuries, the seventeenth, eighteenth,
nineteenth and twentieth, yet other periods intrude upon it...