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Why do linguists think Brahui speakers may have migrated westward from mainland India?

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Thematic map of South Asia showing the distribution of Dravidian languages, with different regions shaded or marked to indicate where specific Dravidian languages and subgroups are spoken. Most languages are concentrated in southern and central India, with some northern outliers in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and eastern India. A key identifies the languages by number and subgroup, and striped areas indicate regions where several subgroups overlap. — Dravidian languages Distribution of Dravidian languages.

Linguists suggest that Brahui speakers migrated westward from mainland India primarily because the language lacks the archaic features characteristic of Proto-Dravidian.1

Furthermore, evidence for this migration is found in shared sound changes between Brahui and other North Dravidian languages, specifically Kurukh and Malto. These linguistic commonalities indicate that the three languages likely shared an undivided stage in their history before the Brahui speakers moved to their current location in Balochistan, Pakistan. While Brahui is now geographically isolated from other Dravidian languages—which are primarily concentrated in central, eastern, and southern India—this historical connection to the North Dravidian group supports the theory of a westward migration from the Indian mainland.123