The Dravidian languages are spoken by over 200 million people in South Asia and in Diaspora communities around the world, and constitute the world's fifth largest language family. It consists of about 26 languages in total including Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu, as well as over 20 non-literary languages. In this book, Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, one of the most eminent Dravidianists of our time, provides a comprehensive study of the phonological and grammatical structure of the whole Dravidian family from different aspects. He describes its history and writing systems, discusses its structure and typology, and considers its lexicon. Distant and more recent contacts between Dravidian and other language groups are also discussed. With its comprehensive coverage this book will be welcomed by all students of Dravidian languages and will be of interest to linguists in various branches of the discipline as well as Indologists.

'… handled with great lucidity … DL is of interest to a wide range of scholars and students of language … Because of the thorough and meticulous nature of the analysis, it is an important contribution to the theory of comparative reconstruction … a timely work of great importance. The merits of the book can perhaps best be summarized by stating that, after almost a century and a half, Caldwell's great work has at last been superseded.' School of Oriental & African Studies

Bh. Krishnamurti is a leading linguist in India and one of the world's renowned historical and comparative linguists, specialising in the Dravidian family of languages. He has published over 20 books in English and Telugu and over 100 research papers. His books include Telugu Verbal Bases: A Comparative and Descriptive Study (1961), Konda or Kubi, a Dravidian Language (1969), A Grammar of Modern Telugu (with J. P. L. Gwynn, 1985), Language, Education and Society (1998), and Comparative Dravidian Linguistics: Current Perspectives (2001).