This volume is a contribution both to comparative Dravidian studies and to the theory of language change and linguistic reconstruction. It makes available the author's most important published articles on Dravidian over the last forty years and includes a new and substantial introduction to the field. The book concludes with a survey of Dravidian language studies over the last thousand years and a critical account of work since 1950. Those articles reprinted in the work appear substantially unchanged, with individual comments.