Excerpt from Christian Missions in the Telugu Country The chief Dravidian languages are four in number, Tamil, Telugu, Canarese, and Malayalam. Of these Telugu is the most widely spoken. The number that speak it, out of a total of fifty-six millions that speak the Dravidian languages, is, roughly, twenty millions. It should be noted here that in India language is only to a limited degree an indication of race. The great majority of the mixed Dravidian races speak an Aryan language. It is curious that, on being conquered, these races have easily yielded up their own language and adopted that of their conquerors.