Announcing the classical status of Kannada and Telugu, a Times of India report says, "Govind Pai proved that Kannada phrases like 'Mindeya?' ('Have you had bath?') were used in a Greek play of 2nd century BC."
'Proved', eh? The Wikipedia article on Kannada does not seem to've heard of this Greek connection.
However, Kamat's Potpourri - that fascinating "hodge-podge of Indian history, arts and culture" - does mention that the remarkable Pai identified "Kannada names from ancient Greek classics including Ptolemy".
Languages in India.
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Later, writing an Esperanto post on the same subject, I googled to find a 2005 story in The Hindu on the Greek connection. But this report says, "Kannada words are found in Greek comedies of first and second century A.D.".
2nd cent. AD not BC: a small matter of 400 years! :-)
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