Includes bibliographical references and index.

Journey of a Civilization: Indus toVaigai” seeks to establish commongrounds and connecting threads thatlink the riddles of Indology, namely theauthorship and language of the IndusValley Civilization and the origins ofDravidian language speaking people ingeneral and Old Tamil traditions inparticular. Balakrishnan considers theseissues to be not only interconnectedbut two sides of the same coin. This book aims to place new evidenceabout the Dravidian affiliation with thelanguage of the Indus people andpositions the ancient Sangam Tamilcorpus as a proto- document that isrelevant for understanding Tamilpre-history which had probableconnections to the Indus Civilization.The spatial and temporal distancesbetween the Indus Valley Civilizationand ancient Tamilakamcannot be arestricting factor to tracing remnantsof the Dravidian in the northwesterngeographies and its legacy markers inthe Sangam texts. Using technological tools such asGeographic Information System (GIS),the author has analyzed what he calls the‘Journey of a Civilization’ and argues thatplace-names are reliable markers to trackancient migrations.The book celebrates the plural foundationsof Indian culture and prefers a narrativeof the ‘Rain Forest’ instead of the popular‘melting pot’ metaphor. As P. J. Cherianobserves, Balakrishnan has provided aroad map for future research withfar-reaching consequences.