This volume is the result of two years of concentrated reading, reflection and writing, from September 1999 to October 2001, with many years of research and study prior to it. This work differs somewhat in focus and scope from the other volumes in the Cambridge Language Surveys series. My focus is on historical and comparative aspects of the Dravidian languages, although I have not altogether neglected descriptive and typological ones. There have been several descriptive studies of the Dravidian languages, though they are not comprehensive, for instance, Andronov's Dravidian Languages (1970) and, more recently, The Dravidian Languages (1998) edited by Sanford B. Steever. The second book is more substantial, although it covers only ten out of twenty-six or so known Dravidian languages; it has two chapters each devoted to Tamil and Telugu, representing old and modern varieties. Caldwell's pioneering work of 1856 (revised in 1875 and 1919, reprinted 1956, 1961) has remained the solitary model in the field for nearly a century. Jules Bloch's Structure grammaticale des langues dravidiennes (1946; English translation by R. G. Harshe 1954) has a descriptive title, but a comparative focus; it deals with specific problems of morphology based on data of newly studied languages like Gondi, Kui, Kuṛux, Malto, Brahui etc. Zvelebil's survey monograph of 1990 is a broad sketch (156 pages) of major issues in phonology and morphology up to that period.