Kannada in an ancient Greek play? In case there are any list members who don't know, Kannada is the state language of Karnataka state, of which Bangalore is the capital city.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charition_mime > The so-called Charition mime is a Greek theatre play, in fact more > properly to be called a farce or burlesque rather than a mime, which > is found in Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 413. The manuscript, which is possibly > incomplete, is untitled, and the play's name comes from the name of > its protagonist. > > The plot of the farce is remotely derived from Euripides' Iφιγένεια ἡ > ἐν Ταύροις (Iphigeneia in Tauris), with the scene of action transposed > to India. > <snip> > > One of the most interesting features of the skit is the appearance of > a number of characters who speak dialogues in an unknown, possibly > Indian, language. Shortly after the papyrus' publication, Dr. E. > Hultzsch, a noted German indologist who had a strong command of the > Dravidian languages, claimed that the words represented an ancient > form of Kannada, and suggested possible readings for the dialogues in > question which made sense in the context in which they were uttered > (Hultzsch 1904). However, his findings were criticised by others at > the time for being speculative. However, even most of Hultzsch's > critics accept that the language must have been a Dravidian tongue > (Salomon 1991). Recently, an Indian scholar P. S. Rai claimed that the > language is Tulu, while some scholars believed that it may be Tamil. > However, well known historian B. A. Saletore's explanation of the > locale of the story and Shastri's analysis of the language of the play > again suggest it is a form of Kannada.[1] The subsequent discovery of > the Halmidi inscription, which contains a form of Kannada much earlier > than the forms known at the time Hultzsch wrote his article, confirms > many of his theories on the evolution of the language and might > therefore add support to his readings. > > shiv
