Brahui

[Anthony Appleyard]

Brahui is a Dravidian language spoken in a most unexpected place ::
Baluchistan, which is a northwest part of Pakistan. Such an outlier weighs
on the history of the IE-descended and other languages in the area. I have
heard two theories re Brahui:-

(1) It is a valuable relic of a time when Dravidian was spoken over much of
India.
(2) The Brahui-speakers are descended from soldiers that were raised in
Dravidian South India fairly recently and dumped in Baluchistan when no longer
needed. As such, their language is irrelevant here.

Which is true?

How much is Dravidian related to Elamite, as I have heard ideas of?

Where does the word "Dravidian" come from?

As regards the idea that the language of the Indus valley civilization was
Dravidian, I read once that:-
  (1) Two Indus Valley gambling dices were found, and on their faces were
pictures of things whose names resembled the numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6 in Dravidian.
  (2) Over time more and more Dravidian words get into Indian Sanskrit
writings, but no more in the Andhra period and after, as if that is when the
lower castes in the north of India finally forgot their old Dravidian
languages.

What is usual opinion about this?