3. Pirak, Prak and Prakrit

Pirak village in present day Baluchistan province of Pakistan is a place known for relicts of ancient settlements and civilization, estimated to about 1700 BC. Remains of statues of horses are specially reported from this region. The place is geographically proximal to the Sumeria or the southern Iraq (refer, post 2 below).

Some of the early Tulu, Kannada and other Dravidian tribes that migrated from the Sumerian region as a consequence of natural calamities or famine there, possibly settled in the Pirak area. This was an important place where several cultural groups or tribes coexisted. It appears that migrant tribes from Sumeria, Africa and Caucasian regions settled in this flourishing cultural centre.

It can be emphatically proposed that the Tulu tribes were distinctly there. A solid evidence in favour of this argument is that the word Pirak has been retained even today in the Tulu language. In Tulu pirak stands for something of ancient days (For ex: Avu baari pirakdaya! (=It is of very ancient days!), Pirakda kaladavu (=of ancient times).

Secondly, there were other tribes (Vedic Aryans?), who spoke a language known as pirak or prak in other areas. Later Prak language was further refined and adapted for writing and thus Sanskrit came into being. The Prak language, probably after the evolution of Sanskrit, was known as Prakrit.

The influence of Prak language (prakrit) on Tulu language is very strong. Many Tulu and Kannada words have been derived from prakrit. Similarly, it is also possible that words of early Tulu/Kannada language may have influenced formation of many words in prakrit.