they don’t have bonus towards early castles. Even Dravidian light cav can do this job and they are better at it than long swords while being able to counter monks too. If ‘woots steel’ is available in castle age as @AbuzzJam4677680 recomends, then no infantry play will be required till imp. If militia don’t get speed, their usability is poor for dravidians.
Are you serious, Hindustanis have mobile cavalry that have a bonus against buildings. They don’t even need Armoured elephants. Dravidians are better off having Battering Ram line which can garrison infantry to get a death ball comp.
If you want to make elephants playable for dravidians, then a straight discount is needed. you can consolidate the wood discount and introduce a discount on elephants.
When regeneration for all cavalry is a civ bonus for Georgians, a civ like Dravidians paying for the effect is a backhanded slap. Once georgians got that bonus, it shoud have been removed for dravidians when the bonus was implemented for Georgians or the least all cavalry including light cav should have been included.
Cholas and tamil peninsular country were never a navy reliant power. So the arguement for keeping them lackluster on land does not hold. Their threats were from north. They dealt with them in a more defensive manner. the gameplay should reflect that.