Meluhha: language and writing
Sarasvati Hieroglyphs as Mlecchita Vikalpa
Mlecchita vikalpa is one of the 64 arts listed by Vatsyayana in the vidya_samuddes’a shloka (Purpose of learning). This term is interpreted as cryptography.
Sarasvati civilization has yielded about 4000 epigraphs inscribed or painted on a variety of material including copper plates and bronze weapons/tools.
Over 45 sites where objects with epigraphs have been discovered – dated circa 3300 BCE to 1500 BCE. The sites extend from Tepe Gawra on Tigris river on the west to Alamgirpur on Yamuna river on the east; from Altin Tepe in the north -- east of Caspian Sea (south of Turkmenistan) to Maski on Krishna river on the south.
Mlecchita Vikalpa (Cryptography: Vatsyayana, Mahabharata); Meluhha – Baloch
Every Baloch knows that his ancestors were of Hindu, Bauddha, Jaina or Zoroastrian traditions and even earlier maritime traditions which extended from Tigris-Euphrates to the Mekong delta in South-east Asia during the days of Mesopotamian Civilization and what cuneiform texts refer to as the region of Meluhha. The language of Baloch is cognate with Mleccha (Meluhha) which was the ancient spoken dialect of the region. The maritime contacts extended from Gandhara (Kandahar) to Bangkok, during the days of Mahabharata.
Meluhha lay to the east of Magan and linked wit carnelian and ivory. Carnelian! Gujarat was a carnelian source in the ancient world.
What was the language the sea-faring traders with Mesopotamia spoke? Mleccha, meluhhan. [quote] "Baloch" is the corrupted form of Melukhkha, Meluccha or Mleccha, which was the designation of the modern eastern Makkoran during the third and the second millennia B.C., according to the Mesopotamian texts.6 Dr. Munir Ahmad Gechki, a history professor in Balochistan University, however, relates it to "Gedrosia" or "Bedrozia" the name of the Baloch country in the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC)".7 Muhammad Sardar Khan theorised that the term Baloch is a derivative of Belus, the title of Babylonian or Chaldian Kings. Nimrud, the son of Kush or Cush or Kooth, was called Nimrud the Belus.8 The followers of Nimrud were known as Belusis. Among the Arabs Belusis were pronounced Balos.9 Thus the word Baloch has come from Belusis or Balos, Sardar Khan and Marri argue. According to G. P. Tate10, however, the name has historically meant "nomads". It would therefore be a synonym for "bedouin".
The burden of this note is to establish that the underlying language of the epigraphs was mleccha and the writing system used the rebus (lexemes evoked by glyphs which denote similar sounding words). The smiths/miners/artisans of the civilization who were sea-faring merchants and who created the riverine, maritime Sarasvati civilization wrote these epigraphs to record their property possessions and the repertoire related to smithy, minerals, metals, alloys, metal artifacts, varieties of furnaces, smelters and the nature of their professions/skills as karmaara.
The glyphs of the civilization are abiding records of such metaphors, glyphs such as the svastika_, the dotted-circle, the endless knot, the branches of a tree or twigs from a branch, the horns. The glyphs are an artisan’s way of representing meaning, representing life-activities unraveling the nature of material phenomena – of the minerals which could be moulded into metals and artifacts of a civilization.
Cracking the code
This metaphor as the communication medium is succinctly expressed by a great grammarian, Tolka_ppiyan in Tamil: ella_ccollum porul. kur-ittan-ave (all words are semantic indicators). (Tol. Col. Peya. 1)
For each morpheme conveyed by a pictorial motif, a similar sounding ‘substantive’ morpheme (homonym) will be identified. The formula in this rebus methodology is:
Image = Sound = Meaning
Rebus (Latin: ‘by means of things’) is a graphemic expression of the phonetic shape of a word or syllable. Rebus uses words pronounced alike (homophones) but with different meanings. Sumerian script was phonetized using the rebus principle. So were the Egyptian heiroglyphs based on the rebus principle. The rebus system of writing, thus, is governed by the organizing principle: all glyphs are phonetic indicators or phonetic determinants.
Thus over 1,0000 glyphs represented on epigraphs of the civilization are semantic indicators. These are heiroglyphs governed by a concordance: image = sound = meaning. A glyph evokes an associated sound; the sound evokes a meaning. This can be illustrated by the splendid glyph of the Bra_hman.i or Zebu bull.
In Santali, the glyph of the Zebu bull evokes a sound: adar, adar d.an:gra In Kashmiri d.an:gur = bullock.
In Sanskrit, a tree evokes a sound: dru Cognate words in the linguistic area of Bharat, the dialectial continuum are: ad.aru = twig (Kannada. Tulu). Such a glyph can be ligatured, as a headdress, to a glyph of a standing or seated person ligatured to the back of a bull (adar), as a phonetic determinant. d.hagara_m = n.pl. the buttocks; the hips (G.) Or, as a person carrying a club: d.an:gorum, d.an:go, d.an:goro = a thick club; a cudgel (G.lex.)
Even a mere splinter can, as a glyph-- “--represent this sound: at.ar = a splinter (Ma.); ad.aruni = to crack (Tu.) which is rebus (sounds like) aduru 'native metal' (Ka.) aduru = gan.iyinda tegadu karagade iruva aduru = ore taken from the mine and not subjected to melting in a furnace (Ka. Siddha_nti Subrahman.ya’ S’astri’s new interpretation of the Amarakos’a, Bangalore, Vicaradarpana Press, 1872, p. 330); adar = fine sand (Ta.); adaru = a sparkle (Te.); ayir – iron dust, any ore (Ma.)
A zebu bull tied to a post; a bird above. Large painted storage jar discovered in burned rooms at Nausharo, ca. 2600 to 2500 BCE. Cf. Fig. 2.18, J.M. Kenoyer, 1998, Cat. No. 8.
The zebu is: ad.ar d.an:gra (Santali)
This brahman.i bull or zebu is orthographically distinguished from other bulls: one, a hypher, the other an ox.
Tell Suleimeh (level IV), Iraq; IM 87798; (al-Gailani Werr, 1983, p. 49 No. 7). A fish over a short-horned bull and a bird over a one-horned bull; cylinder seal impression, (Akkadian to early Old Babylonian). Gypsum. 2.6 cm. Long 1.6 cm. Dia. [Drawing by Larnia Al-Gailani Werr. Cf. Dominique Collon 1987, First impressions: cylinder seals in the ancient Near East, London: 143, no. 609]
bat.a = a quail, or snipe, coturuix coturnix cot; bon.d.e bat.a = a large quail; dak bat.a = the painted stripe, rostraluta benghalensis bengh; gun.d.ri bat.a = a small type, coloured like a gun.d.ri (quail); ku~k bat.a = a medium-sized type; khed.ra bat.a = the smallest of all; lan.d.ha bat.a = a small type (Santali.lex.) bat.ai, (Nag.); bat.er (Has.); [H. bat.ai or bat.er perdix olivacea; Sad. bat.ai] coturnix coromandelica, the black-breasted or rain-quail; two other kinds of quail are called respectigely: hur.in bat.ai and gerea bat.ai (Mundari.lex.) vartaka = a duck (Skt.) batak = a duck (G.lex.) vartika_ = quail (RV.); wuwrc partridge (Ash.); barti = quail, partridge (Kho.); vat.t.aka_ quail (Pali); vat.t.aya (Pkt.); bat.t.ai (N.)(CDIAL 11361). varta = *circular object; *turning round (Skt.); vat.u = twist (S.)(CDIAL 11346) bat.er = quail (Ku.B.); bat.ara, batara = the grey quail (Or.)(CDIAL 11350).
bat.a; rebus, bat.a ‘iron’
h452a 4124 (bird + rimmed jar) Is it an egret?
bat.a = a quail or snipe, coturnis colurnix (Santali)
bat.ai = to divide, share (Santali) [Note the glyphs of nine rectangles divided.]
Furnace or kiln, native metal, zebu bull
bat.a = quail (Santali) Rebus: bhat.a = furnace, kiln (Santali).
In Kannada, another language in a dialectical continuum of Bharatiya language spectrum of over 5000 years ago, the sound associated with the Zebu bull glyph evokes a meaning from a cognate sound: aduru = native metal, i.e. a metal which is not subjected to smelting or melting in fire. In almost all languages of Bharat, the sound d.han:gar evokes a meaning, d.han:gar ‘blacksmith’ (WPah.); d.a_n:ro = term of contempt for a blacksmith (N.); t.ha_kur ‘blacksmith’ (Mth.) dha~_gar = a professional group whose business it is to dig wells, tanks etc. (H.)
Glyph: field symbol: kulai = hare (Santali)
When a phoneme evokes more than one image, the artist who creates the glyptic representations uses ligatures. Thus, ko_la = woman (Nahali) kol = tiger (Santali). The representation in glyptic are yields a ligature of a woman and a tiger.
It appears that the person holding back the two rearing jackals on the tablet is a woman: ko_l ‘woman’ (Nahali); dual. ko_lhilt.el (Sudhibhushan Bhattacharya, Field-notes on Nahali, Ind. Ling. 17, 1957, p. 247); kola = bride, son’s (younger brother’s) wife (Kui) ko_l is a phonetic determinative of the two jackals, kol ‘tiger’; rebus: kol ‘metal’ (Ta.)
The decoding of ‘woman’ glyph on the tablet as a phonetic determinative of kol ‘tiger’ gains surprising validation from a ligatured terracotta image of a feline tiger with a woman’s face and headdress..
Feline figurine terracotta. A woman’s face and headdress are shown. The base has a hole to display it on a stick. (After JM Kenoyer/Courtesy Dept. of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of Pakistan).
The phonemes and the associated glyph evoke a meaning: kol ‘metal’ (Ta.) kola = blacksmith (Ma.); kol, kollan- (Ta.); kolime, kulime, kolume = a fire-pit or furnace (Ka.); kolime id., a pit (Te.); kulume kanda_ya = a tax on blacksmiths (Ka.) kolimi titti = bellows used for a furnace (Te.)
There is a lexeme which connotes pan~caloha, an alloy containing five metals:: kol This word is represented rebus (lit. sounds like) by a tiger, kolhu-o (G.)
kol = pan~calo_kam (five metals); kol metal (Ta.lex.) pan~caloha = a metallic alloy containing five metals: copper, brass, tin, lead and iron (Skt.); an alternative list of five metals: gold, silver, copper, tin (lead), and iron (dha_tu; Na_na_rtharatna_kara. 82; Man:gara_ja’s Nighan.t.u. 498)(Ka.) kol, kolhe, ‘the koles, an aboriginal tribe if iron smelters speaking a language akin to that of Santals’ (Santali) kol = kollan-, kamma_l.an- (blacksmith or smith in general)(Ta.lex.) kollar = those who guard the treasure (Ta.lex.) cf. golla (Telugu) khol, kholi_ = a metal covering; a loose covering of metal or cloth (G.) [The semant. expansions to kolla_puri or kolha_pur and also to 'kolla_ppan.t.i' a type of cart have to be investigated further].
kol ‘working in iron, blacksmith (Ta.); kollan- blacksmith (Ta.); kollan blacksmith, artificer (Ma.)(DEDR 2133)
kolime, kolume, kulame, kulime, kulume, kulme fire-pit, furnace (Ka.); kolimi furnace (Te.); pit (Te.); kolame a very deep pit (Tu.); kulume kanda_ya a tax on blacksmiths (Ka.); kol, kolla a furnace (Ta.) kole.l smithy, temple in Kota village (Ko.); kwala.l Kota smithy (To.); konimi blacksmith; kola id. (Ka.); kolle blacksmith (Kod.); kollusa_na_ to mend implements; kolsta_na, kulsa_na_ to forge; ko_lsta_na_ to repair (of plough-shares); kolmi smithy (Go.); kolhali to forge (Go.)(DEDR 2133).] kolimi-titti = bellows used for a furnace (Te.lex.) kollu- to neutralize metallic properties by oxidation (Ta.lex.) kol brass or iron bar nailed across a door or gate; kollu-t-tat.i-y-a_n.i large nail for studding doors or gates to add to their strength (Ta.lex.) kollan--kamma_lai < + karmas'a_la_, kollan--pat.t.arai, kollan-ulai-k-ku_t.am blacksmith's workshop, smithy (Ta.lex.) cf. ulai smith's forge or furnace (Na_lat.i, 298); ulai-k-kal.am smith's forge; ulai-k-kur-at.u smith's tongs; ulai-t-turutti smith's bellows; ulai-y-a_n.i-k-ko_l smith's poker, beak-iron (Ta.lex.) [kollulaive_r-kan.alla_r: nait.ata. na_t.t.up.); mitiyulaikkollan- mur-iot.ir.r.an-n-a: perumpa_)(Ta.lex.) Temple; smithy: kol-l-ulai blacksmith's forge (kollulaik ku_t.attin-a_l : Kumara. Pira. Ni_tiner-i. 14)(Ta.lex.) cf. kolhua_r sugarcane milkl and boiling house (Bi.); kolha_r oil factory (P.)(CDIAL 3537). kulhu ‘a hindu caste, mostly oilmen’ (Santali) kolsa_r = sugarcane mill and boiling house (Bi.)(CDIAL 3538).
kola_ burning charcoal (L.P.); ko_ila_ burning charcoal (L.P.N.); id. (Or.H.Mth.), kolla burning charcoal (Pkt.); koilo dead coal (S.); kwelo charcoal (Ku.); kayala_ charcoal (B.); koela_ id. (Bi.); koilo (Marw.); koyalo (G.)(CDIAL 3484). < Proto-Munda. ko(y)ila = kuila black (Santali): all NIA forms may rest on ko_illa.] koela, kuila charcoal; khaura to become charcoal; ker.e to prepare charcoal (Santali.lex.)
Grapheme: ko_lemu = the backbone (Te.)
kolma = a paddy plant (Santali) Rebus: kolime= furnace (Ka.)
2949 Dotted circles 2950 Rojdi
kolom = cutting, graft; to graft, engraft, prune; kolom dare kana = it is a grafted tree; kolom ul = grafted mango; kolom gocena = the cutting has died; kolom kat.hi hor.o = a certain variety of the paddy plant (Santali); kolom (B.); kolom mit = to engraft; kolom porena = the cutting has struck root; kolom kat.hi = a reed pen (Santali.lex.) cf. kolom = a reed, a reed-pen (B.); qalam (Assamese.Hindi); kolma hor.o = a variety of the paddy plant (Desi)(Santali.lex.Bodding) kolom baba = the threshed or unthreshed paddy on the threshing floor; kolom-ba_rum = the weight a man carries in taking the paddy from the threshing floor to his house; kolom = a threshing floor (Mundari); cf. kal.am (Tamil) [Note the twig adoring the head-dress of a horned, standing person]
ku_l.e stump (Ka.) [ku_li = paddy (Pe.)] xo_l = rice-sheaf (Kur.) ko_li = stubble of jo_l.a (Ka.); ko_r.a = sprout (Kui.) ko_le = a stub or stump of corn (Te.)(DEDR 2242). kol.ake, kol.ke, the third crop of rice (Ka.); kolake, kol.ake (Tu.)(DEDR 2154) [kural = corn-ear (Ta.)] V267 Sign 261 kan- copper work, copper (Ta.)
kana kona = corner (Santali) [Glyphs of corner + splinter shown on the first line of the epigraph on the gold pendant, may thus connote: worker in copper.]
cu_d.a = tiger’s mane (Pkt.) cu_r.a_ = bracelet (Go.); cu_d.a = bracelet (Skt.Pkt.) These sounds result in the construction of an image by the artist. He creates a person adorned with bracelets with the face composed of tiger’s mane. These glyphs and associated phonemes evoke a meaning: cul.l.ai = potter’s kiln, furnace (Ta.); culli_ = fireplace (Skt.); culli_, ulli_ id. (Pkt.)
The meaning conveyed by penance itself can be composed as a glyph: a person seated in a yogic posture. kamad.ha, kamat.ha = a type of penance (Pkt.). This word can also be imaged like a ficus leaf,: kamat.ha (Skt.) or a bat, kabat.a (Ka.)
This sound of this word evokes meanings related to tools of trade of a professional artisan : kamat.a = a portable furnace for melting precious metals (Te.) kamat.ha_yo = a learned carpenter or mason, working on scientific principles (G.) kammat.i_d.u = a goldsmith, a silversmith (Te.) kampat.t.am = mint (Ta.)
Sign 28 Ligature on sign 28: dhanus ‘bow’ (Skt.) dhan.i_ = the owner, the possessor (G.)
kamat.amu, kammat.amu = a portable furnace for melting precious metals; kammat.i_d.u = a goldsmith, a silversmith (Te.lex.) ka~pr.aut., kapr.aut. jeweller's crucible made of rags and clay (Bi.); kapr.aut.i_ wrapping in cloth with wet clay for firing chemicals or drugs, mud cement (H.)[cf. modern compounds: kapar.mit.t.i_ wrapping in cloth and clay (H.); kapad.lep id. (H.)](CDIAL 2874). kapar-mat.t.i clay and cowdung smeared on a crucible (N.)(CDIAL 2871).
kampat.t.tam coinage, coin (Ta.); kammat.t.am, kammit.t.am coinage, mint (Ma.); kammat.i a coiner (Ka.)(DEDR 1236) kammat.a = coinage, mint (Ka.M.) kampat.t.a-k-ku_t.am mint; kampat.t.a-k-ka_ran- coiner; kampat.t.a- mul.ai die, coining stamp (Ta.lex.)
Glyph: kamad.ha, kamat.ha, kamad.haka, kamad.haga, kamad.haya = a type of penance (Pkt.lex.)
Buffalo's horns. Gumla, NW Frontier province. After Sankalia 1974: 354, fig. 88: b (=b), c (=c)
Buffaloes sitting with legs bent in yogic a_sana. Susa Cc-Da, ca. 3000-2750 BC, proto-Elamite seals: (a-c) After Amiet 1972: pl. 25, no. 1017 (=a); and Amiet 1980a: pl. 38, nos. 581-2 (b-c)
m0305AC 2235 Pict-80: Three-faced, horned person (with a three-leaved pipal branch on the crown with two stars on either side), wearing bangles and armlets. Two stars adorn the curved buffalo horns of the seated person with a plaited pigtail. The pigtail connotes a pit furnace:
Substantive: sund ‘pit (furnace)’; sum, sumbh a mine, a pit, the opening into a mine, the shaft of a mine; sum bhugak the entrance to a mine, pit’s mouth (Santali). sun.d.i a semi-hinduised aboriginal caste; this caste are the distillers and liquor sellers; sun.d.i gadi a liquor shop (Santali) cun.d. to boil away (Ko.); sun.d.u to evaporate (Ka.); cun.d.u to be evaporated or dried up (Te.); s’un.t.hi to become dry (Skt.)(DED 2662).
Glyph: su_nd gat. knot of hair at back (Go.); cundi_ the hairtail as worn by men (Kur.)(DEDR 2670).
V051 Sign 51 might have been normalised from an early variant which depicts a mouse or rat seen from the back. There could be two glyphs involved: one, that of kaca 'scorpion'; rebus: kacc 'iron' and the second, that of rat sun.d.a; rebus: sun.d. 'pit furnace'. sun.d.a musk-rat (Ka.)(DEDR 2661)]. s'un.d.i-mu_s.ika_, s'un.d.a-mu_s.ika_ musk-rat (Skt.)(CDIAL 12517).
V205 Sign 205 and variants: son.d.a = a tusk, as of wild boar, elephant (Santali.lex.) sonda = a billhook, for cutting fire wood (Santali.lex.)
Glyph: kama_t.hiyo = archer; ka_mat.hum = a bow; ka_mad.i_, ka_mad.um = a chip of bamboo (G.) ka_mat.hiyo a bowman; an archer (Skt.lex.) Copper tablets (15) Field Symbol 52
kamar.kom = fig leaf (Santali.lex.) kamarmar.a_ (Has.), kamar.kom (Nag.); the petiole or stalk of a leaf (Mundari.lex.)
There is a lexeme which connotes pan~caloha, an alloy containing five metals:: kol This word is represented rebus (lit. sounds like) by a tiger, kolhu-o (G.)
kol = pan~calo_kam (five metals); kol metal (Ta.lex.) pan~caloha = a metallic alloy containing five metals: copper, brass, tin, lead and iron (Skt.); an alternative list of five metals: gold, silver, copper, tin (lead), and iron (dha_tu; Na_na_rtharatna_kara. 82; Man:gara_ja’s Nighan.t.u. 498)(Ka.) kol, kolhe, ‘the koles, an aboriginal tribe if iron smelters speaking a language akin to that of Santals’ (Santali) kol = kollan-, kamma_l.an- (blacksmith or smith in general)(Ta.lex.) kollar = those who guard the treasure (Ta.lex.) cf. golla (Telugu) khol, kholi_ = a metal covering; a loose covering of metal or cloth (G.) [The semant. expansions to kolla_puri or kolha_pur and also to 'kolla_ppan.t.i' a type of cart have to be investigated further].
kol ‘working in iron, blacksmith (Ta.); kollan- blacksmith (Ta.); kollan blacksmith, artificer (Ma.)(DEDR 2133)
Daimabad The glyph is the rim of a short-necked jar can be explained in the context of a metalsmith’s repertoire.
Sign342 (1395) kan.d.a kanka = rim of pot (Santali) kanka = rim of pot (Santali) [cf. cognate, karn.aka Skt.]
kankha, kan.d.a kankha = brim, rim of a vessel (Santali); ka~kh; kanna_ (H.)(Santali.lex.Bodding) kan.t.u = the rim of a vessel (Ka.lex.) kan.d.a = an earthenware pot (having a neck a little longer than that of a t.hili, but otherwise of about the same shape as this, only somewhat larger; ghar.a kan.d.a = a waterpot of brass (Santali.lex.Bodding)
m0304AC 2420
kundavum = a manger, a hay-rick (G.lex.) kundhavum = a heap of hay or sticks (G.lex.) kuntam = haystack (Ta.); kuttar-i = a stack, a rick (Ka.)(DEDR 1724). [Note the haystack on the stool on which a person sits].
ku~d. = basin (G.)
kunda = a pillar of bricks (Ka.); pillar, post (Tu.Te.); block, log (Malt.); kantu = pillar, post (Ta.)(DEDR 1723). kunda = a post or pillar (Te.)
kun.d. = a pit (Santali) kun.d.amu = a pit for receiving and preserving consecrated fire; a hole in the ground (Te.) kun.d.am, kun.d.a sacrificial fire
pit (Skt.) kun.d.a an altar on which sacrifices are made (G.)[i] gun.d.amu fire-pit; (Inscr.)
kun.d.i_ = chief of village. kun.d.i-a = village headman; leader of a village (Pkt.lex.)
Ancient language and ancient writing system
The validity of the semantic contours of archaic chandas will be proved by the mlecchita vikalpa, hieroglyphs used to record inscriptions of Sarasvati civilization. The underlying spoken tongue is mleccha, the dialect used by Vidura, Yudhishthira and Kanaka (the miner) in the Mahabharata. Mlecchita vikalpa means ‘alternative representation in writing system by mleccha speakers’.
The meluhhan is shown on the Akkadian cylinder seal carrying an antelope ; this is an artistic style of depicting a phonetic determinant for the word read rebus : meluhha :
mr..eka ‘antelope, goat’ (Te.) Meluhha-speaker, merchant.
He is a copper merchant/smith.
m229 (sealing), m1186a seal
\Furnace, ingot
m229 (sealing), m1186a seal
m304A seal – Face shows a tiger’s mane: cu_l.a; rebus: cu_lha furnace (Pkt.)
mleccha-mukha (Skt.) = copper; milakkha (Pali) mu~hu~ = face (S.); rebus: mu_ha ‘smelted ingot’ [mũh opening or hole (in a stove for stoking, in a handmill for filling, in a grainstore for withdrawing)(Bi.)]
Signboard on the North Gate leading to the walled citadel. Dholavira. Courtesy ASI.
There is a glyph common to the Dholavira sign board, to the epigraph on the horned-tiger seal and the glyph on the button seal of Harappa. The glyph is a ‘lid, cover’ for a pot: ^ Lexemes: ad.aren, d.aren lid, cover (Santali) Rebus: aduru ‘native metal’ (Ka.). It is possible to unravel many substratum lexemes of Mleccha (Meluhhan) and at the same time, decode the epigraphs; the key is to unravel the dialectical continuum of the linguistic area circa 5500 years Before Present. Since the cultural traits of the civilization which evolved about 5500 years Before Present are present even today in Bharat, the languages of Bharat constitute the data set for decoding lexemes of such a dialectical continuum. A remarkable cultural trait which continues into the historical periods of Bharat is the use of copper plates to record epigraphs as property transactions. The epigraphs are the artifacts created by artisans of the Sarasvati civilization, the metal workers who recorded the ownership of the furnaces and trade in a civilizational resource: stones, metals and minerals. This hypothesis on language, writing system and function served by the epigraphs, will be tested further in a separate volume of the Saptathi Sarasvati, the septet of 7 volumes on Sarasvati.
The signboard glyphs can be divided into three segments:
erako san:gad.a ‘molten cast furnace’; d.ato ‘claws’; dhatu ‘ore’
erako khu~t. ad.aren kod. ‘copper, furnace (smelter pit), native metal, workshop.
Glyph: kod.a, ‘one’; rebus: kod., ‘artisan’s workshop’. Glyph: khu~t., ‘corner’; rebus: kun.d.amu = a pit for receiving and preserving consecrated fire; a hole in the ground (Te.) Glyph: ad.aren, d.aren ‘lid’; rebus: aduru ‘native metal’
erako khut.i kamar. ‘copper, furnace, mint [portable furnace for precious metals – kamat.amu] kamar ‘blacksmith’ (Santali).
Glyphs: erako (nave) + khut.i (pin) + lo kamat.ha (ficus leaf) = Rebus: erako ‘molten cast’ + khut.i ‘furnace’ + lo kamat.ha ‘metal mint: kammat.a’ [khut.i Nag. (Or. khut.i_) diminutive of khun.t.a, a peg driven into the ground, as for tying a goat (Mundari.lex.) khu~t.i_ wooden pin (M.)(CDIAL 3893)]
Alternative: tamire = the pin in the middle of a yoke (Te.)
Rebus: tavara = tin (Te.Ka.)
Sign 12 kut.i ‘water carrier’; rebus: kut.hi ‘furnace’
Seal impression, Ur (Upenn; U.16747); dia. 2.6, ht. 0.9 cm.; Gadd, PBA 18 (1932), pp. 11-12, pl. II, no. 12; Porada 1971: pl.9, fig.5; Parpola, 1994, p. 183; water carrier with a skin (or pot?) hung on each end of the yoke across his shoulders and another one below the crook of his left arm; the vessel on the right end of his yoke is over a receptacle for the water; a star on either side of the head (denoting supernatural?). The whole object is enclosed by 'parenthesis' marks. The parenthesis is perhaps a way of splitting of the ellipse (Hunter, G.R., JRAS, 1932, 476). An unmistakable example of an 'heiroglyphic' seal.
The history and formation of jaati bhaasha or Bharatiya Language Community is a history of a Linguistic Area (from circa 6500 BCE to the present day) recording interactions among Tamil, Prakrits, Samskr.tam, and Austric languages/dialects. A Linguistic Area is defined as a region where language-speakers absorb features of languages from one another and make them their own. Thus a family of languages enlarges into a Language Community. The area extended from Takshas’ila/Gandhara in the West along the Indian Ocean Rim and Himalayan ranges into Srilanka, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand.
The importance of Gujarat (and hence, the Indian Ocean Rim as also Hemachandra’s Des’inaamamaala) in unravelling the linguistic area of Bha_rata is stated in the following terms by Colin P. Masica: "...the entire Indo-Aryan realm (except for Sinhalese) constitutes one enormous dialectical continuum...The speech of each village differs slightly from the next, without loss of mutual intelligibility, all the way from Assam to Afghanistan....Mitanni kingdom... Indo-Iranians appear in northern Syria a full half millennium before their appearance in western Iran. How did they get there?...To call these Mitanni kings 'Indo-Iranians', however, is to beg an important question...Some have held that these linguistic fragments are specifically Indo-Aryan. Others including Burrow (1955) held they represent undifferentiated Indo-Iranian, before the split between Iranian and Indo Aryan...An Indo-Aryan identification would demand an earlier dating of the Iranian/Indo-Aryan split; with it have also been associated speculations regarding the route taken by the Aryans to India (e.g., the Asia Minor route...), or, possibly a back migration of Aryans from India. (If the latter, the date of the Aryan settlement of India would have to be moved back far enough to allow not only for them to reach Syria by 1500 BC, but also for their language to have died out by then, leaving only the terminological residue noted...)...the philological evidence alone does not allow an Indian origin of the Aryans...there is the matter of the nature of the common vocabulary shared by Sanskrit with the rest of Indo-European, which points to a more northerly ultimate home...The native Dravidian vocabulary has not been reconstructed. Burrow and Emeneau's Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (1960) only assembles materials for it... The civilization seems to have continued peacefully in Gujarat until a comparatively late period, i.e. 800 BC (Fairservis 1975: 307), after which it dissolved into the subsequent culture, which makes that area one of prime importance in detecting any Harappan influence on Aryan language and culture." (Colin P. Masica, The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991).
From an autochthonous perspective, the examples of 8000+ semantic clusters of the Indian Lexicon, point to an indigenous evolution of the Prakrits, later refined into Sanskrit.
There is no basis to assume that the Bhils of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh originally spoke a non-IE language, probably Nahali, yet: "No group of Bhils speak any but an Aryan tongue. (...) it is unlikely that traces of a common non-Aryan substratum will ever be uncovered in present-day Bhili dialects." (von Fürer-Haimendorf 1956:x, quoted in Kuiper 1962:50).
Braziers
The search for minerals and metals and for inventions of new alloys took Bharatiya from the banks of River Sarasvati, far and wide, establishing contacts with contemporary civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Europe and perhaps also Thailand (where evidence for early bronze age has been discovered).
It is no mere coincidence that (1) the lexeme bharatiya means 'caster of metals' in Gujarati and (2) the name of a script which diffused out of Bharat was called Brahmi, another name for Sarasvati, divinity va_k, lingua franca.
Bha_rati_ is a name of Sarasvati_, the godess of Speech, word, eloquence, literary composition, dramatic art; bha_rati_ means relating to Bha_rata, that is, India. In R.gveda (1.188.8), Bha_rati_, the godess of Speech is invoked with Il.a_ and Sarasvati_: bha_rati_l.e sarasvati. Bha_rati_ is also the name of a bird, a quail (Telugu). Thus, when a bull is depicted with a bird, the reference could be to bha_rati_ the bird with a rebus representation for the following substantive etyma:
bharatiyo = a caster of metals; a brazier; bharatar, bharatal, bharatal. = moulded; an article made in a mould; bharata = casting metals in moulds; bharavum = to fill in; to put in; to pour into (G.lex.) bhart = a mixed metal of copper and lead; bhart-i_ya_ = a brazier, worker in metal; bhat., bhra_s.t.ra = oven, furnace.
The context for decoding inscribed objects is thus apparent. Tools of trade of metal-workers! The language is des’i or bha_s.a_ or Meluhhan! Yes, the Meluhhan which was understood by both Vidura and Yudhis.t.ira in the Maha_bha_rata. The people from Milakku are copper-workers, since milakku means ‘copper’ in Pali language. Meluhhans are referred to in the texts of Mesopotamian civilization. Sumerian had words of a substrate language, for example, tibira, ‘merchant’ may relate to ta_m(b)ra, ‘copper’; san:gi, ‘priest’ could relate to sa_n:ghvi_, ‘pilgrim’s companion’ (Gujara_ti_). The key to decoding is, thus, provided by the ancient lexemes of the present-day languages of the region, with intense interactions, for example, Gujara_ti_, Punja_bi_, Kon:kan.i, Kannad.a, Telugu, Tamil, Brahui, Mundari, Santali. Substrate and ad-strate words of these languages of Bha_rata hold the key to unraveling the linguistic area of the civilization, ca. 3300 to 1500 BCE.
There are some indications of close contacts between Sumerian and Dravidian as seen from a few agricultural vocabulary:
ur 'millstone' (Sumerian); ur-al 'mortar' (Ta.); ulu_khala (Skt.)
ili 'sesame' (Sumerian), ellu/u_lu 'sesame oil' (Akkadian); el., el.l.u 'Sesamum indicum' (Ta.); tila, jar-tila 'sesame' (Vedic)(Blazek, V. and C. Boisson, The Diffusion of Agricultural Terms from Mesopotamia. Archiv Orientalni 60, 1992, 16-37)
It is possible that IE *kwe-kw-lo- ‘wheel’ may be related to Sumerian gilgul 'wheel'; (GIS-); gigir 'wagon'. a_n.i which occurs in the R.gveda as ‘lynch pin’ is considered foreign to both Dravidian and Vedic. IE rota ‘rotate’ may also relate to urut.t.u ‘roll’; urul. ‘roll’ (Ta.)
The semantic expansion of the Bharatiya Language Community was concordant with the expansion of the Metals Age (Bronze and Iron) emerging out of the Lithic (Stone) Age along the basins of great Himalayan rivers: Sarasvati, Sindhu, Ganga, Brahmaputra and Mekong (Maa Ganga). The need for writing system is correlated to the evolution of the Metals Age involving trade exchanges of metal artifacts and lapidary/mineral products.
Neolithic and Harappan period settlements in the cradle of the Sarasvati Civilization. The delta area is now called Rann of Kutch. [After KS Valdiya, 2002, Fig. 1.3]
The premise for using the spectrum of attested, ancient lexemes of the Bharatiya Language Community is that there is a remarkable cultural continuum evidenced by many facets such as: the cire perdue technique for making bronze statues, women wearing sindhur at the parting of the hair, s’ankha industry (since 6500 BCE), veneration of s’ivalinga as a metaphor of the summit of Mt. Kailas (Manasarovar), acharya wearing uttariyam leaving the right-shoulder bare, yoga and forms of salutation using namaste and arya/ayya as a respectful form of address.
Tradition and a dialectical continuum
Such a metaphor of a Zebu bull or other thousand heiroglyphs can be expressed on any medium: copper plate inscription, glyphs assembled on a sign-board or incised on a weapon itself. The glyptic tradition of writing endures in Bharatiya tradition. The svastika_, the tree, the range of mountains, the dotted circle, the leaf, the tiger looking back, the antelope looking back, hooded serpent, are all heiroglyphic metaphors representing meaning, the material phenomena which provide for life-sustaining activities organized in a community which lives together, in an inter-dependent economy. The glyphs on the epigraphs are semantic indicators of a bharatiya language substratum called mleccha or bha_s.a_, the parole (va_k) a dialectical continuum traceable in all languages of Bharat: vedic mantra or Sanskrit lexemes (s’abda or dha_tu) or va_kyapadi_ya (lit. steps of va_k) elaborated by Bhartr.hari.
The dialectical continuum evidenced by languages of Bharat (of all linguistic families) is matched by the cultural continuum in all parts of Bharat with the over-5000-year-old roots found on the banks of River Sarasvati.
The texts of contiguous civilizations provide evidences of speakers of Bharatiya languages moving into new lands west of River Sindhu. The evidences relate to Bogazkoi inscriptions, Mitanni treaties and the glyphs of Mesopotamia and Elam, apart from Avestan texts which can be demonstrated as a direct evolution from Vedic. When availability of soma, electrum, diminishes, substitutes – plants -- are used both in the Avestan and the Bra_hman.a periods, succeeding the Vedic periods. Juxtaposed to this evidence cluster, there is no evidence whatsoever, either textual or archaeological, supporting movements of people into Bharat during the lithic or chalcolithic or bronze or iron ages.
urseal6 Cylinder seal; BM 122947; U. 16220 (cut down into Ur III mausolea from Larsa level; U. 16220), enstatite; Legrain, 1951, No. 632; Collon, 1987, Fig. 611.Humped bull stands before a plant, feeding from a round manger or a bundle of fodder (or, probably, a cactus); behind the bull is a scorpion and two snakes; above the whole a human figure, placed horizontally, with fantastically long arms and legs, and rays about his head.
takaram tin, white lead, metal sheet, coated with tin (Ta.); tin, tinned iron plate (Ma.); tagarm tin (Ko.); tagara, tamara, tavara id. (Ka.) tamaru, tamara, tavara id. (Ta.): tagaramu, tamaramu, tavaramu id. (Te.); t.agromi tin metal, alloy (Kuwi); tamara id. (Skt.)(DEDR 3001). trapu tin (AV.); tipu (Pali); tau, taua lead (Pkt.); tu~_ tin (P.); t.au zinc, pewter (Or.); taru_aum lead (OG.); tarvu~ (G.); tumba lead (Si.)(CDIAL 5992).
takar sheep, ram, goat (Ta.); tagar ram (Ka.); tagaru (Tu.); tagaramu, tagaru (Te.); tagar (M.)(DEDR 3000).
t.agara = taberna montana (Skt.)
ran:ga, ran: pewter is an alloy of tin lead and antimony (an~jana) (Santali).
ran:ga ron:ga, ran:ga con:ga = thorny, spikey, armed with thorns; edel dare ran:ga con:ga dareka = this cotton tree grows with spikes on it (Santali) [Note the thorns on the round object in front of the bull on the Ur cylinder seal impression – U 16220]
Talking through the footsteps of time
The principle used for cracking the code of the heiroglyphs is simple: the glyphs can be read in bharatiya languages with corresponding homonyms denoting metal workers’ repertoire.
What would Jamshedji Tata do when asked to inscribe his calling card stating his profession or in general, what he does for a living ? [Tata is a Parsi who set up the Tata Iron and Steel Works in Jamshedpur using the iron ore of Bengal-Bihar Jharia mines. Hence, the city is named after him.]
He will take a steel plate and inscribe thereon: Artisan of steel blast furnace.
The hypothesis of this inquiry is that artisans of Sarasvati civilization inscribed on copper plates and other media their versions of blast furnaces, an astonishing array of them, working with an array of mineral ores and rare-earths, rare of those times, ca. 8500 years Before Present.
Bronze foot and bronze anklet: Mohenjo-daro [After fig. 5.11 in: DP Agrawal, 2000].
Surely, the furnaces of circa 5000 years Before Present brought about a veritable technological revolution in Bharatiya society, exemplified by the bronze anklet shown a bronze foot made by a vis’vakarma mleccha. The s’ankha industry dates back to circa 8500 years Before Present.
Our hypothesis is that the traders with their seals, and people who travelled in Swat and Seistan, in search of minerals, were the bronze-age smiths and lapidaries of Meluhha.
Meluhhan
There is evidence of a substrate language of anient Sumer; this language could be located in Bha_rata in the contemporaneous Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization ca. 3500 -2500 BCE. Like the influence of Celtic on ancient Gaul, Sumerian shows signs of a substrate language in the use of professional names such as sanga 'priest', simug 'blacksmith' and tibira 'copper smith', 'metal-manufacturer'; craftsman like nangar 'carpenter', a:gab 'leather worker'; agricultural terms, like engar 'farmer', apin 'plow' and absin 'furrow'.
tambira = copper (Pkt.) tibira = merchant (Akkadian)
Sumerian or (written LU2 URUDU-NAGAR, i.e. "[person] copper.carpenter") means "metal worker, coppersmith".[ii]
tibhi = to prop by means of a post with a V-shaped head, a prop with a V-shaped head (Santali).
tabar = a broad axe (P.lex.)
taber = face downwards, upper side down; taber akanae he is lying on his face, or stomach (Santali) [Note the glyph of a woman lying upside down.]
Rebus: t.ibri, t.ebra = small, short of stature with large stomach (Santali)
Rebus: tebr.a, tebor. ‘three times, thrice’; tebr.age emok hoyoktama you will have to give thee times that (Santali) The glyptic representation is three long linear strokes:
Recording property items
Any number of reasonable speculations may be made given the object types such as tablets which may have had many duplicates and objects such as seals and bangles which could have been carried on the person possessing the object perhaps worn on the wrist. If the script was intended to serve a personal marker in a disciplined cultural group there is a possibility that the script was used not to record personal names but to record personal items of property or OTHER items of value entrusted to the person by the collective cultural group. The script could thus be hypothesized to have served the purpose of recording the name of a commodity or product and the quantities or VALUE of such products.
"The amount of copper involved in this trade was quite considerable. One text from Ur (UET 5 796), dated to the reign of Rim-Sin of Larsa (1822-1763 BCE), records the receipt in Dilmun of 611 talents, 6 2/3 minas of copper (presumably from Magan). This shipment, according to the text, was weighed according to the standard of Ur, giving a modern equivalent of 18,333 kilograms (40,330 pounds) of copper. One-third of this copper was earmarked for delivery to Ea-na_s.ir of Ur, a merchant who had close connections with Magan and the Dilmun copper trade...This contact beween Metopotamia and the Indus Valley, the land of Melukkha, was clearly by sea and must have brought products across the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. These products included the copper of Magan. Did they also include the tin of Afghanistan and Central Asia, perhaps the tin designated by Gudea, king of Lagash (now known to be a contemporary of Ur-Nammu, king of Ur, circa 2100 BCE), as the tin of Melukkha?" (James D. Muhly, 1995, Mining and Metalwork in Ancient Western Asia, in: Jack M. Sasson, ed. 1995, Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Vol. III, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 1501-1521).
Two tin ingots with Sarasvati epigraphs
Two other rosetta stones are the two late bronze age tin ingots from the harbor of Haifa, Israel contain glyphs used in epigraphs of Sarasvati civilization!
The picture of these two ingots was published by J.D. Muhly [New evidence for sources of and trade in bronze age tin, in: Alan D. Franklin, Jacqueline S. Olin, and Theodore A. Wertime, The Search for Ancient Tin, 1977, Seminar organized by Theodore A. Wertime and held at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C., March 14-15, 1977]. Muhly notes:"A long-distance tin trade is not only feasible and possible, it was an absolute necessity. Sources of tin stone or cassiterite were few and far between, and a common source must have served many widely scattered matallurgical centers. This means that the tin would have been brought to a metallurgical center utilizing a nearby source of copper. That is, copper is likely to be a local product; the tin was almost always an import...The circumstances surrounding the discovery of these ingots are still rather confused, and our dating is based entirely upon the presence of engraves signs which seem to be in the Cypro-Minoan script, used on Cyprus and at Ugarit over the period 1500-1100 BCE. The ingots are made of a very pure tin, but what could they have to do with Cyprus? There is certainly no tin on Cyprus, so at best the ingots could have been transhipped from that island. How did they then find their way to Haifa? Are we dealing with a ship en route from Cyprus, perhaps to Egypt, which ran into trouble and sank off the coast of Haifa? If so, that certainly rules out Egypt as a source of tin. Ingots of tin are rare before Roman times and, in the eastern Mediterranean, unknown from any period. What the ingots do demonstrate is that metallic tin was in use during the Late Bronze Age...rather extensive use of metallic tin in the ancient eastern Mediterranean, which will probably come as a surprise to many people." (p.47)
We will demonstrate that the symbols incised on the ingots are not Cypro-Minoan symbols but Harappan pictographs.
m-1336a 2515 (Mahadevan)
m-1097 (On this seal, the antelope appears in the middle of the inscription; it is apparently this pictograph that gets normalised as a 'sign', Sign 184 and variants].
m1341 2092 m0516At
m0516Bt 3398 m0522At m0522Bt 3378
The sign pictographs are:
Sign 137 and variants Sign 142 and variants
kulhi ‘the village street’ (Santali) Rebus: kol metal (Ta.)
Sign 249 Sign 252 and variants
This pictograph clearly refers to an antelope as depicted on the Mohenjodaro copper plate inscription: (m-516b shown).
Sign 182 is a stylized glyph denoting a ram or antelope: tagar (Skt.); rebus: takaram ‘tin’ (Ta.)
On each ingot, there are two signs as shown below:
[Let us refer to these signs as, 'antelope' and X]
[Let us refer to these signs as, X and 'mould' or ‘liquid measure’].
Liquid measure: ran:ku; rebus: ran:ku = tin; rebus: ran:ku = antelope. Thus both liquid measure glyph and antelope glyphs are graphonyms (graphically denoting the same rebus substantive: ran:ku, ‘tin’.
X glyph which is common to epigraphs on both the tin ingots may refer to an ‘ingot’ or a dha_tu ‘mineral’. upadha_tu an inferior metal, a semi-metal: svarn.am ma_ks.ikam ta_rama_ks.ikam tustham ka_syam rati sindu_ram s'ila_jatu (Skt.)(Skt.lex.) siddha-rasa quick-silver (Ka.lex.) siddha-dha_tu quick-silver (Skt.); ore (as gold) (Ka.lex.) cittam < kit.t.a iron dross (Ta.lex.) siddha-patra hemp-leaves for smoking etc. (Ka.lex.) dha_tu strength, courage (Ka.); dha_tu-ged.u strength to be impaired or be gone; to become deprived of strength or courage (Ka.); dha_tunas.t.a loss of strength (Ka.)(Ka.lex.) The semant. ‘strength’ points to the dha_tu being tin since the addition of tin as an alloy strengthened copper. sapta-dha_tu, tridha_tu ‘seven/three elements’ are recurrently occurring compound lexemes in R.gveda.
In RV 6.044.23 the term used is: tridha_tu divi rocanes.u = ‘three-fold amr.tam hidden in heaven’ is the metaphor; and in RV 8.044.12 the term is: tridha_tuna_ s’arman.a_.
6.044.23 This Soma made the dawns happily wedded to the sun; this Soma placed the light within the solar orb; this (Soma) has found the threefold ambrosia hidden in heaven in the three bright regions. [ayam tridha_tu divi rocanes.u, trites.u, trites.u vindat amr.tam nigu_l.ham = Soma becomes as it were ambrosia when received or concealed in the vessels at the three diurnal ceremonies, which ambrosia is properly deposited with the gods abiding in the third bright sphere, or in heaven].
8.040.12 Thus has a new hymn been addressed to Indra and Agni, as was done by my father, by Mandha_ta_, by An:girasa; cherish us with a triply defended dwelling; may we be the lords of riches. [Triply defended dwelling: tridha_tuna_ s'arman.a_ = triparvan.a_ gr.hen.a, with a house of three joints; in RV. 1.34.6, tridha_tu s'arma = va_tapitta s'les.ma dha_tutrayas'amana vis.ayam sukham; in RVV 1.85.12 s'arma tridha_tu_ni = pr.thivya_dis.u tris.u stha_nes.u avasthita_ni sukha_ni gr.ha_ni va_; Note: it is possible that the term may simply mean, three elements, copper, silver, gold].
Rebus (for the glyptic of crossing over):
da~_t.u = cross over; da.t.- (da.t.-t-) to cross (Kol.); da_t.isu – to cause to pass over (Ka.); da.t.- (da.t.y-) to cross (mark, stream, mountain, road)(Ko.); ta_t.t.uka to get over or through (Ma.); ta_n.t.u = to cross, surpass (Ta.)(DEDR 3158).
Rebus: ta_t.u = to strike against, come in contact with (Ka.); ta_d.uni = to gore, butt; ta_d.u = goring (Tu.); ha-n.t.u to collide (Tu.); ta_n.t.i = to hit (Kor.)(DEDR 3156).
ta_tu = powder, dust, pollen (Ta.); to.0 = powdery, soft (of flour or powdered chillies)(To.). There is a possibility that the early semant. Of ‘dha_tu’ was cassiterite, powdery tin mineral.
The three signs used have parallels in the inscriptions of the civilization; in m-1336 the 'antelope' pictograph appears together with the 'mould' pictograph; X sign occurs on many inscriptions with many variants elaborating it as a junction of four roads:
The Sign 249 which is shown on the second tin ingot of Haifa, Israel is a representation of an ingot, assuming that this shows an ingot is shaped like the one taken out of a mould. The X sign (with a ligatured perpendicular short linear stroke) is common on both the tin ingots.
ran:ku a species of deer; ran:kuka (Skt.)(CDIAL 10559). ra_n:kava made from the hair of the ran:ku deer (Ka.lex.) ra~_kat. big and boorish (M.)(CDIAL 10538). cf. ran:ka slow, dull (Skt.)(CDIAL 10538). cf. ro_hi a kind of deer (R.)(CDIAL 10870). rauhis.a, ro_his.a a kind of deer (Ka.lex.) ran:ku ‘antelope’ (Santali) ran:ku = a species of deer (Skt.); ran:kuka id. (Skt.)(CDIAL 10559). ra_n:kava belonging to the ran:ku deer (MBh.); made from the hair of the ran:ku deer, woollen (R.); coming from ran:ku (said of animals) (Pa_n. 4.2.100); a woollen cover or blanket (MBh.R.); ra_n:kava ku_t.a s'a_yin lying on a heap of woollen rags (MBh.); ra_n:kavajina a woollen skin; ra_n:kavastaran.a a woollen coverlet (R.); ra_n:kavastr.ta covered with a woollen rug (Skt.); ra_n:kavaka coming from ran:kiu (said of men) (Pa_n. 4.2.134); ra_n:kava_yan.a coming from ran:ku (said of animals) (Pa_n. 4.2.100). ran:ku a species of deer or antelope (Skt.lex.) ran:ku = a species of deer or antelope, the spotted axis (mare)(Ka.lex.)
kurunga = a kind of antelope; kurunga miga = the antelope deer (Pali); kulunga, kulanga (Skt.)(Pali.lex.) kulan:ga (MaitrS.); kulun:ga (TS); kuran:ga, kurun:ga (Pkt.); kuram.ga (Pali); kuran:g (P.); karam.gi_ (OG.); kura~g (G.); kurunga (Si.); kurangu the elk Rusa aristotelis (Si.)(CDIAL 3320). cf. kuran:g light chestnut colour (Kho.)(CDIAL 3321). kuran:ga = a species of antelope, antelope or deer (in general); kulun:ga = an antelope (VS 24; TS 5); kuran:gaka, kulan:ga = antelope; kuran:gama = an antelope; kuran:ga_yate to take the shape of an antelope (Skt.lex.) kurahu antelope (Kuwi), kuran:ga (Ka.) kulanga, kulunga = going in a herd, antelope (VS.); kulmi = a herd (TS. ii.4.5.2)
Mleccha, copper
mlecchamukha = copper (Skt.); what has the copper coloured complexion of the Greek or Mahomedans]. meriya = a rock; merayu = to shine, glitter (Te.lex.) mer = a kind of large copper or brass pot (G.lex.) cf. milakkhu = copper (Pali); mleccha = copper (Skt.)
mer.ed, me~r.ed iron; enga mer.ed soft iron; sand.i mer.ed hard iron; ispa_t mer.ed steel; dul mer.ed cast iron; i mer.ed rusty iron, also the iron of which weights are cast; bicamer.ed iron extracted from stone ore; balimer.ed iron extracted from sand ore; mer.ed-bica = iron stone ore, in contrast to bali-bica, iron sand ore (Mu.lex.)
Substantive: med.o merchant’ clerk (Hem.Dec.); mehto a schoolmaster, an accountant, a clerk, a writer (G.)
Glyph: med.ho a ram, a sheep (G.); mid.hia_o (Dh.Des.); men.d.h, men.d. a ram (Skt.); medhya a goat; fr. medh a sacrifice (Skt.) mr..eka = goat (Te.); mlekh (Br.) mer.h, mer.ha_, me~d.ha_ ram (H.), med.hia_o (Dh.Des.) ram, goat, sheep (G) mid.iyo = having horns bent over forehead (G.)(CDIAL 10120). me~r.a_, me~d.a_ = ram with curling horns (H.)(CDIAL 10120). me_t.am = goat (Ta.lex.) [cf. the pictorial motif of antelope with head turned backwards]. merom me~t = the goat’s eye (Santali.lex.) mes.a = ram (RV 8.2.40) mer.om = a goat; mer.om jel = the hind of the ravine deer, gazella bennettii; mer.om (Santali)
mer.go = with horns twisted back; mer.ha, m., mir.hi f.= twisted, crumpled, as a horn (Santali.lex.)
mer.hao = to entwine itself, wind round, wrap around, roll up (Santali.lex.) [Note the endless knot motif].
h702At h702Bt 4601 m0271 Goat-antelope with horns turned backwards and a short tail
Three caprids. Tepe Yahya. Cylinder seal reconstructed from seven fragments. To the left of this pair is a third caprid rampant with head turned back whose horns are viewed frontally rather than in profile. Beneath the belly of each animal is a four-sided cross. There are 9 fragments of clay slab wall sealings. Wall plaster is preserved on the reverse of most fragments. Seal is carefully roled along horizontal axis of sealing. Lamberg-Karlovsky 1971: pls. 4, 5; cf. Fig. 10.27 in Pittman, 2001, opcit.
Two caprids with heads turned back rampant against a stepped platform (mountain) surmounted by a tree.
‘Fish’ glyph on gold pendant
A fish sign, preceded by seven short numeral strokes, also appears on a gold pendant: Golden pendant with inscription from jewelry hoard at Mohenjo-daro. Drawing of inscription that encircles the gold ornament. Needle-like pendant with cylindrical body. Two other examples, one with a different series of incised signs were found together. The pendant is made from a hollow cylinder with soldered ends and perforated point. Museum No. MM 1374.50.271; Marshall 1931: 521, pl. CLI, B3. [After Fig. 4.17a, b in: JM Kenoyer, 1998, p. 196].
kanac konoc, kana kona, kana kuni ‘the corners, in the corners’ (Santali)
Glyphs: gan.d.a ‘four’; pene ‘three’;
Rebus: kan.d. ‘furnace’; pen.e ‘griddle’
Glyph: bhed.a hako ‘fish’; bed.a ‘hearth’
kanac ‘corner’; rebus: kan~cu ‘bronze’
Alternatives:
bat.hi = a furnace for melting iron-ore (Santali.lex.)
bhati = the unripe kernel of certain fruits (especially of the Palmyra palm, the Ebony tree, and makar.kenda). The kernel is taken out and eaten, the palm kernel as it is, the Ebony kernel after cleaning with water rubbing it on a stone. (Desi. Bhati).
Bharatiya tradition continues in copper plate inscriptions
Some glyphs on line 1: kut.hi = tree; rebus: kut.hi = smelting furnace; kos.t.ha_ga_ra = storehouse; s'u_la = spear; cu_l.a = kiln; kan.d.kanka = rim of jar; rebus: copper furnace; bat.a = quail; rebus: kiln.
The Sohgaura copper plate refers to a pair of kos.t.ha_ga_ra (dva_ra kot.t.haka); the two storehouses described as tri-garbha (i.e. having three rooms) are illustrated on line 1. (Fleet, JRAS, 1907). The illustrations indicate that the three rooms are in three storeys, with supporting pillars clearly seen. The inscription refers to the junction of three highways named Manavati, in two villages called Dasilimita and Usagama. The storehouses were made at this junction for the goods of people using the highways, which are indicated in line 3 by mentioning the three places to and from which they led. One of the names give is reognized by Fleet as Chanchu. (Fleet, JRAS, 63, 1894 proceedings, 86, plate, IA 25. 262; cf. Sohgaura copper plate/B.M. Barua. The Indian Historical Quarterly, ed. Narendra Nath Law. Reprint. 41)
Punch-marked coins from 5th cent. BCE, from many parts of Bharat, depict many glyphs, many of which are comparable to the glyphs depicted on inscribed objects of the Sarasvati Sindhu Civilization.
As the heiroglyphic code unravels, the meaning of the glyphs and their importance in the context of the lives of braziers is reinforced. Many glyphs are property possessions of lapidaries and metallurgists and evoke the tools of trade – furnaces, minerals and metals -- used in the smithy.
It is hypothesised that the inscriptions on copper plates and the symbols on punch-marked coins are the work of inheritors of the Sarasvati brazier-tradition.
This cultural tradition explains why copper plates are used for property transactions during the historical periods and also explains why many symbols on punch-marked coins are directly comparable with the Sarasvati heiroglyphs.
This is the most emphatic evidence for discerning the cultural continuity into historical periods of the tradition whose roots are to be found on the banks of River Sarasvati, dating back to 5,500 years Before Present.
[Pl.8, Local Tribal coin symbols: Ujjayini, Tripuri, Ayodhya, Almore, Pa_n~ca_la, Arjuna_yana (1-3), Ra_janya (3,6,8), Uddehika, Audumbara, Kun.inda, Kuluta, Vr.s.n.i, Yaudheya, Ks.atrapa, S’a_tava_hana]
[After Pl. 10 to 13 in: Savita Sharma, 1990, Early Indian Symbols: Numismatic evidence, Delhi, Agam Kala Prakashan]
Tha pattern of punch-marked coin hoard sites is comparable to the pattern of black and red ware/rice cultivation sites of proto-historic periods.
(This note is based on: S. Kalyanaraman, 1982, Indian Lexicon, available on the internet at http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati; S. Kalyanaraman, 2004, Sarasvati, an encyclopaedic work in 7 volumes: Sarasvati: Civilization; Sarasvati: R.gveda; Sarasvati: River; Sarasvati: Bharati; Sarasvati: Technology; Sarasvati: Language ; Sarasvati: Epigraphs, Bangalore, Babasaheb (Umakanta Keshav) Apte Smarak Samiti; S. Kalyanaraman, 2006, Bharatiya Languages -- History and Formation of Jaati-bhaasha -- Mlecchita Vikalpa – Sarasvati hieroglyphs (Decipherment of Indus Script, Banga;pre. Babasaheb (Umakanta Keshav) Apte Smaraka Samiti which includes Protovedic Continuity Theory of Bharatiya Languages http://protovedic.blogspot.com and a comprehensive corpus of inscriptions of Sarasvati civilization – Indus Script). Cf. S. Kalyanaraman, 2006, Bronze age trade and writing system of Meluhha (Mleccha) evidenced by tin ingots from the near vicinity of Haifa, presented in: Bronze Age Trade Workshop in Fifth International Conference on Archaeology of Ancient Near East, April 2006 http://jitnasa.india-forum.com/Docs/icaane_workshop.pdf)
[ii] tibira, ‘coppersmith, metal-manufacturer’ and similar-sounding lexemes
Image: gimlet: tamar hole made by a gimlet; a borer, gimlet, drill (Ma.); tamar boring instrument; gimlet, spring awl (Ta.); tamiru gimlet (Tu.); tamire, tagire the pin in the middle of a yoke (Te.); tavar (-v-, -nt-) to bore a hole; n. hole in a board (Ta.)(DEDR 3078). tau~ri giddiness, dizziness (Ku.); tavar id. (M.)(CDIAL 5688). ta~v, tav, tava_ giddiness (M.)(CDIAL 5689). tavar to bore a hole (Tiv. Tiruva_y. 9,9,1); tamar hole, as in a plank, commonly bored or cut (Tiruvil.ai. Ma_n.ikka. 61) Image: groove or mortise: tavan.ai-p-poruttu a groove or mortise on the top of a gate or door-post (Ta.lex.) tamire = the pin the middle of a yoke (Te.lex.) tavan.ai joint, in carpentry (Ta.lex.) tavar = hole (Ta.lex.) tamar = hole, commonly bored or cut (Ta.Ma.)(Ta.lex.) tava_l.i-ttal = to make flutings or grooves, as in carpentry; to dig a channel; tala_l.ippu cavity in a moulding, groove (Ta.lex.) tavar-aiva_ri = handspike, a tool used on a ship; tavar-ai mu_t.t.a_n- = anchor chain; tavar-ai < dabara (Te.) capstan, machine for winding up a cable in small craft (Ka.lex.) tavan. = circle drawn with lime, or string tied around a limb, above the site of a poisonous bite with incantations to stop the spread of poison; tavan.ai = joint, as in carpentry (Ta.lex.) cf. ta_mare = ringworm (Ka.); ta_mara id. (Te.); ta_mra = a kind of leprosy with large red spots (Skt.)(DEDR 3164).
Mlecchita vikalpa is one of the 64 arts listed by Vatsyayana in the vidya_samuddes’a shloka (Purpose of learning). This term is interpreted as cryptography.
Sarasvati civilization has yielded about 4000 epigraphs inscribed or painted on a variety of material including copper plates and bronze weapons/tools.
Over 45 sites where objects with epigraphs have been discovered – dated circa 3300 BCE to 1500 BCE. The sites extend from Tepe Gawra on Tigris river on the west to Alamgirpur on Yamuna river on the east; from Altin Tepe in the north -- east of Caspian Sea (south of Turkmenistan) to Maski on Krishna river on the south.
Mlecchita Vikalpa (Cryptography: Vatsyayana, Mahabharata); Meluhha – Baloch
Every Baloch knows that his ancestors were of Hindu, Bauddha, Jaina or Zoroastrian traditions and even earlier maritime traditions which extended from Tigris-Euphrates to the Mekong delta in South-east Asia during the days of Mesopotamian Civilization and what cuneiform texts refer to as the region of Meluhha. The language of Baloch is cognate with Mleccha (Meluhha) which was the ancient spoken dialect of the region. The maritime contacts extended from Gandhara (Kandahar) to Bangkok, during the days of Mahabharata.
Meluhha lay to the east of Magan and linked wit carnelian and ivory. Carnelian! Gujarat was a carnelian source in the ancient world.
What was the language the sea-faring traders with Mesopotamia spoke? Mleccha, meluhhan. [quote] "Baloch" is the corrupted form of Melukhkha, Meluccha or Mleccha, which was the designation of the modern eastern Makkoran during the third and the second millennia B.C., according to the Mesopotamian texts.6 Dr. Munir Ahmad Gechki, a history professor in Balochistan University, however, relates it to "Gedrosia" or "Bedrozia" the name of the Baloch country in the time of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC)".7 Muhammad Sardar Khan theorised that the term Baloch is a derivative of Belus, the title of Babylonian or Chaldian Kings. Nimrud, the son of Kush or Cush or Kooth, was called Nimrud the Belus.8 The followers of Nimrud were known as Belusis. Among the Arabs Belusis were pronounced Balos.9 Thus the word Baloch has come from Belusis or Balos, Sardar Khan and Marri argue. According to G. P. Tate10, however, the name has historically meant "nomads". It would therefore be a synonym for "bedouin".
The burden of this note is to establish that the underlying language of the epigraphs was mleccha and the writing system used the rebus (lexemes evoked by glyphs which denote similar sounding words). The smiths/miners/artisans of the civilization who were sea-faring merchants and who created the riverine, maritime Sarasvati civilization wrote these epigraphs to record their property possessions and the repertoire related to smithy, minerals, metals, alloys, metal artifacts, varieties of furnaces, smelters and the nature of their professions/skills as karmaara.
The glyphs of the civilization are abiding records of such metaphors, glyphs such as the svastika_, the dotted-circle, the endless knot, the branches of a tree or twigs from a branch, the horns. The glyphs are an artisan’s way of representing meaning, representing life-activities unraveling the nature of material phenomena – of the minerals which could be moulded into metals and artifacts of a civilization.
Cracking the code
This metaphor as the communication medium is succinctly expressed by a great grammarian, Tolka_ppiyan in Tamil: ella_ccollum porul. kur-ittan-ave (all words are semantic indicators). (Tol. Col. Peya. 1)
For each morpheme conveyed by a pictorial motif, a similar sounding ‘substantive’ morpheme (homonym) will be identified. The formula in this rebus methodology is:
Image = Sound = Meaning
Rebus (Latin: ‘by means of things’) is a graphemic expression of the phonetic shape of a word or syllable. Rebus uses words pronounced alike (homophones) but with different meanings. Sumerian script was phonetized using the rebus principle. So were the Egyptian heiroglyphs based on the rebus principle. The rebus system of writing, thus, is governed by the organizing principle: all glyphs are phonetic indicators or phonetic determinants.
Thus over 1,0000 glyphs represented on epigraphs of the civilization are semantic indicators. These are heiroglyphs governed by a concordance: image = sound = meaning. A glyph evokes an associated sound; the sound evokes a meaning. This can be illustrated by the splendid glyph of the Bra_hman.i or Zebu bull.
In Santali, the glyph of the Zebu bull evokes a sound: adar, adar d.an:gra In Kashmiri d.an:gur = bullock.
In Sanskrit, a tree evokes a sound: dru Cognate words in the linguistic area of Bharat, the dialectial continuum are: ad.aru = twig (Kannada. Tulu). Such a glyph can be ligatured, as a headdress, to a glyph of a standing or seated person ligatured to the back of a bull (adar), as a phonetic determinant. d.hagara_m = n.pl. the buttocks; the hips (G.) Or, as a person carrying a club: d.an:gorum, d.an:go, d.an:goro = a thick club; a cudgel (G.lex.)
Even a mere splinter can, as a glyph-- “--represent this sound: at.ar = a splinter (Ma.); ad.aruni = to crack (Tu.) which is rebus (sounds like) aduru 'native metal' (Ka.) aduru = gan.iyinda tegadu karagade iruva aduru = ore taken from the mine and not subjected to melting in a furnace (Ka. Siddha_nti Subrahman.ya’ S’astri’s new interpretation of the Amarakos’a, Bangalore, Vicaradarpana Press, 1872, p. 330); adar = fine sand (Ta.); adaru = a sparkle (Te.); ayir – iron dust, any ore (Ma.)
A zebu bull tied to a post; a bird above. Large painted storage jar discovered in burned rooms at Nausharo, ca. 2600 to 2500 BCE. Cf. Fig. 2.18, J.M. Kenoyer, 1998, Cat. No. 8.
The zebu is: ad.ar d.an:gra (Santali)
This brahman.i bull or zebu is orthographically distinguished from other bulls: one, a hypher, the other an ox.
Tell Suleimeh (level IV), Iraq; IM 87798; (al-Gailani Werr, 1983, p. 49 No. 7). A fish over a short-horned bull and a bird over a one-horned bull; cylinder seal impression, (Akkadian to early Old Babylonian). Gypsum. 2.6 cm. Long 1.6 cm. Dia. [Drawing by Larnia Al-Gailani Werr. Cf. Dominique Collon 1987, First impressions: cylinder seals in the ancient Near East, London: 143, no. 609]
bat.a = a quail, or snipe, coturuix coturnix cot; bon.d.e bat.a = a large quail; dak bat.a = the painted stripe, rostraluta benghalensis bengh; gun.d.ri bat.a = a small type, coloured like a gun.d.ri (quail); ku~k bat.a = a medium-sized type; khed.ra bat.a = the smallest of all; lan.d.ha bat.a = a small type (Santali.lex.) bat.ai, (Nag.); bat.er (Has.); [H. bat.ai or bat.er perdix olivacea; Sad. bat.ai] coturnix coromandelica, the black-breasted or rain-quail; two other kinds of quail are called respectigely: hur.in bat.ai and gerea bat.ai (Mundari.lex.) vartaka = a duck (Skt.) batak = a duck (G.lex.) vartika_ = quail (RV.); wuwrc partridge (Ash.); barti = quail, partridge (Kho.); vat.t.aka_ quail (Pali); vat.t.aya (Pkt.); bat.t.ai (N.)(CDIAL 11361). varta = *circular object; *turning round (Skt.); vat.u = twist (S.)(CDIAL 11346) bat.er = quail (Ku.B.); bat.ara, batara = the grey quail (Or.)(CDIAL 11350).
bat.a; rebus, bat.a ‘iron’
h452a 4124 (bird + rimmed jar) Is it an egret?
bat.a = a quail or snipe, coturnis colurnix (Santali)
bat.ai = to divide, share (Santali) [Note the glyphs of nine rectangles divided.]
Furnace or kiln, native metal, zebu bull
bat.a = quail (Santali) Rebus: bhat.a = furnace, kiln (Santali).
In Kannada, another language in a dialectical continuum of Bharatiya language spectrum of over 5000 years ago, the sound associated with the Zebu bull glyph evokes a meaning from a cognate sound: aduru = native metal, i.e. a metal which is not subjected to smelting or melting in fire. In almost all languages of Bharat, the sound d.han:gar evokes a meaning, d.han:gar ‘blacksmith’ (WPah.); d.a_n:ro = term of contempt for a blacksmith (N.); t.ha_kur ‘blacksmith’ (Mth.) dha~_gar = a professional group whose business it is to dig wells, tanks etc. (H.)
Glyph: field symbol: kulai = hare (Santali)
When a phoneme evokes more than one image, the artist who creates the glyptic representations uses ligatures. Thus, ko_la = woman (Nahali) kol = tiger (Santali). The representation in glyptic are yields a ligature of a woman and a tiger.
It appears that the person holding back the two rearing jackals on the tablet is a woman: ko_l ‘woman’ (Nahali); dual. ko_lhilt.el (Sudhibhushan Bhattacharya, Field-notes on Nahali, Ind. Ling. 17, 1957, p. 247); kola = bride, son’s (younger brother’s) wife (Kui) ko_l is a phonetic determinative of the two jackals, kol ‘tiger’; rebus: kol ‘metal’ (Ta.)
The decoding of ‘woman’ glyph on the tablet as a phonetic determinative of kol ‘tiger’ gains surprising validation from a ligatured terracotta image of a feline tiger with a woman’s face and headdress..
Feline figurine terracotta. A woman’s face and headdress are shown. The base has a hole to display it on a stick. (After JM Kenoyer/Courtesy Dept. of Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of Pakistan).
The phonemes and the associated glyph evoke a meaning: kol ‘metal’ (Ta.) kola = blacksmith (Ma.); kol, kollan- (Ta.); kolime, kulime, kolume = a fire-pit or furnace (Ka.); kolime id., a pit (Te.); kulume kanda_ya = a tax on blacksmiths (Ka.) kolimi titti = bellows used for a furnace (Te.)
There is a lexeme which connotes pan~caloha, an alloy containing five metals:: kol This word is represented rebus (lit. sounds like) by a tiger, kolhu-o (G.)
kol = pan~calo_kam (five metals); kol metal (Ta.lex.) pan~caloha = a metallic alloy containing five metals: copper, brass, tin, lead and iron (Skt.); an alternative list of five metals: gold, silver, copper, tin (lead), and iron (dha_tu; Na_na_rtharatna_kara. 82; Man:gara_ja’s Nighan.t.u. 498)(Ka.) kol, kolhe, ‘the koles, an aboriginal tribe if iron smelters speaking a language akin to that of Santals’ (Santali) kol = kollan-, kamma_l.an- (blacksmith or smith in general)(Ta.lex.) kollar = those who guard the treasure (Ta.lex.) cf. golla (Telugu) khol, kholi_ = a metal covering; a loose covering of metal or cloth (G.) [The semant. expansions to kolla_puri or kolha_pur and also to 'kolla_ppan.t.i' a type of cart have to be investigated further].
kol ‘working in iron, blacksmith (Ta.); kollan- blacksmith (Ta.); kollan blacksmith, artificer (Ma.)(DEDR 2133)
kolime, kolume, kulame, kulime, kulume, kulme fire-pit, furnace (Ka.); kolimi furnace (Te.); pit (Te.); kolame a very deep pit (Tu.); kulume kanda_ya a tax on blacksmiths (Ka.); kol, kolla a furnace (Ta.) kole.l smithy, temple in Kota village (Ko.); kwala.l Kota smithy (To.); konimi blacksmith; kola id. (Ka.); kolle blacksmith (Kod.); kollusa_na_ to mend implements; kolsta_na, kulsa_na_ to forge; ko_lsta_na_ to repair (of plough-shares); kolmi smithy (Go.); kolhali to forge (Go.)(DEDR 2133).] kolimi-titti = bellows used for a furnace (Te.lex.) kollu- to neutralize metallic properties by oxidation (Ta.lex.) kol brass or iron bar nailed across a door or gate; kollu-t-tat.i-y-a_n.i large nail for studding doors or gates to add to their strength (Ta.lex.) kollan--kamma_lai < + karmas'a_la_, kollan--pat.t.arai, kollan-ulai-k-ku_t.am blacksmith's workshop, smithy (Ta.lex.) cf. ulai smith's forge or furnace (Na_lat.i, 298); ulai-k-kal.am smith's forge; ulai-k-kur-at.u smith's tongs; ulai-t-turutti smith's bellows; ulai-y-a_n.i-k-ko_l smith's poker, beak-iron (Ta.lex.) [kollulaive_r-kan.alla_r: nait.ata. na_t.t.up.); mitiyulaikkollan- mur-iot.ir.r.an-n-a: perumpa_)(Ta.lex.) Temple; smithy: kol-l-ulai blacksmith's forge (kollulaik ku_t.attin-a_l : Kumara. Pira. Ni_tiner-i. 14)(Ta.lex.) cf. kolhua_r sugarcane milkl and boiling house (Bi.); kolha_r oil factory (P.)(CDIAL 3537). kulhu ‘a hindu caste, mostly oilmen’ (Santali) kolsa_r = sugarcane mill and boiling house (Bi.)(CDIAL 3538).
kola_ burning charcoal (L.P.); ko_ila_ burning charcoal (L.P.N.); id. (Or.H.Mth.), kolla burning charcoal (Pkt.); koilo dead coal (S.); kwelo charcoal (Ku.); kayala_ charcoal (B.); koela_ id. (Bi.); koilo (Marw.); koyalo (G.)(CDIAL 3484). < Proto-Munda. ko(y)ila = kuila black (Santali): all NIA forms may rest on ko_illa.] koela, kuila charcoal; khaura to become charcoal; ker.e to prepare charcoal (Santali.lex.)
Grapheme: ko_lemu = the backbone (Te.)
kolma = a paddy plant (Santali) Rebus: kolime= furnace (Ka.)
2949 Dotted circles 2950 Rojdi
kolom = cutting, graft; to graft, engraft, prune; kolom dare kana = it is a grafted tree; kolom ul = grafted mango; kolom gocena = the cutting has died; kolom kat.hi hor.o = a certain variety of the paddy plant (Santali); kolom (B.); kolom mit = to engraft; kolom porena = the cutting has struck root; kolom kat.hi = a reed pen (Santali.lex.) cf. kolom = a reed, a reed-pen (B.); qalam (Assamese.Hindi); kolma hor.o = a variety of the paddy plant (Desi)(Santali.lex.Bodding) kolom baba = the threshed or unthreshed paddy on the threshing floor; kolom-ba_rum = the weight a man carries in taking the paddy from the threshing floor to his house; kolom = a threshing floor (Mundari); cf. kal.am (Tamil) [Note the twig adoring the head-dress of a horned, standing person]
ku_l.e stump (Ka.) [ku_li = paddy (Pe.)] xo_l = rice-sheaf (Kur.) ko_li = stubble of jo_l.a (Ka.); ko_r.a = sprout (Kui.) ko_le = a stub or stump of corn (Te.)(DEDR 2242). kol.ake, kol.ke, the third crop of rice (Ka.); kolake, kol.ake (Tu.)(DEDR 2154) [kural = corn-ear (Ta.)] V267 Sign 261 kan- copper work, copper (Ta.)
kana kona = corner (Santali) [Glyphs of corner + splinter shown on the first line of the epigraph on the gold pendant, may thus connote: worker in copper.]
cu_d.a = tiger’s mane (Pkt.) cu_r.a_ = bracelet (Go.); cu_d.a = bracelet (Skt.Pkt.) These sounds result in the construction of an image by the artist. He creates a person adorned with bracelets with the face composed of tiger’s mane. These glyphs and associated phonemes evoke a meaning: cul.l.ai = potter’s kiln, furnace (Ta.); culli_ = fireplace (Skt.); culli_, ulli_ id. (Pkt.)
The meaning conveyed by penance itself can be composed as a glyph: a person seated in a yogic posture. kamad.ha, kamat.ha = a type of penance (Pkt.). This word can also be imaged like a ficus leaf,: kamat.ha (Skt.) or a bat, kabat.a (Ka.)
This sound of this word evokes meanings related to tools of trade of a professional artisan : kamat.a = a portable furnace for melting precious metals (Te.) kamat.ha_yo = a learned carpenter or mason, working on scientific principles (G.) kammat.i_d.u = a goldsmith, a silversmith (Te.) kampat.t.am = mint (Ta.)
Sign 28 Ligature on sign 28: dhanus ‘bow’ (Skt.) dhan.i_ = the owner, the possessor (G.)
kamat.amu, kammat.amu = a portable furnace for melting precious metals; kammat.i_d.u = a goldsmith, a silversmith (Te.lex.) ka~pr.aut., kapr.aut. jeweller's crucible made of rags and clay (Bi.); kapr.aut.i_ wrapping in cloth with wet clay for firing chemicals or drugs, mud cement (H.)[cf. modern compounds: kapar.mit.t.i_ wrapping in cloth and clay (H.); kapad.lep id. (H.)](CDIAL 2874). kapar-mat.t.i clay and cowdung smeared on a crucible (N.)(CDIAL 2871).
kampat.t.tam coinage, coin (Ta.); kammat.t.am, kammit.t.am coinage, mint (Ma.); kammat.i a coiner (Ka.)(DEDR 1236) kammat.a = coinage, mint (Ka.M.) kampat.t.a-k-ku_t.am mint; kampat.t.a-k-ka_ran- coiner; kampat.t.a- mul.ai die, coining stamp (Ta.lex.)
Glyph: kamad.ha, kamat.ha, kamad.haka, kamad.haga, kamad.haya = a type of penance (Pkt.lex.)
Buffalo's horns. Gumla, NW Frontier province. After Sankalia 1974: 354, fig. 88: b (=b), c (=c)
Buffaloes sitting with legs bent in yogic a_sana. Susa Cc-Da, ca. 3000-2750 BC, proto-Elamite seals: (a-c) After Amiet 1972: pl. 25, no. 1017 (=a); and Amiet 1980a: pl. 38, nos. 581-2 (b-c)
m0305AC 2235 Pict-80: Three-faced, horned person (with a three-leaved pipal branch on the crown with two stars on either side), wearing bangles and armlets. Two stars adorn the curved buffalo horns of the seated person with a plaited pigtail. The pigtail connotes a pit furnace:
Substantive: sund ‘pit (furnace)’; sum, sumbh a mine, a pit, the opening into a mine, the shaft of a mine; sum bhugak the entrance to a mine, pit’s mouth (Santali). sun.d.i a semi-hinduised aboriginal caste; this caste are the distillers and liquor sellers; sun.d.i gadi a liquor shop (Santali) cun.d. to boil away (Ko.); sun.d.u to evaporate (Ka.); cun.d.u to be evaporated or dried up (Te.); s’un.t.hi to become dry (Skt.)(DED 2662).
Glyph: su_nd gat. knot of hair at back (Go.); cundi_ the hairtail as worn by men (Kur.)(DEDR 2670).
V051 Sign 51 might have been normalised from an early variant which depicts a mouse or rat seen from the back. There could be two glyphs involved: one, that of kaca 'scorpion'; rebus: kacc 'iron' and the second, that of rat sun.d.a; rebus: sun.d. 'pit furnace'. sun.d.a musk-rat (Ka.)(DEDR 2661)]. s'un.d.i-mu_s.ika_, s'un.d.a-mu_s.ika_ musk-rat (Skt.)(CDIAL 12517).
V205 Sign 205 and variants: son.d.a = a tusk, as of wild boar, elephant (Santali.lex.) sonda = a billhook, for cutting fire wood (Santali.lex.)
Glyph: kama_t.hiyo = archer; ka_mat.hum = a bow; ka_mad.i_, ka_mad.um = a chip of bamboo (G.) ka_mat.hiyo a bowman; an archer (Skt.lex.) Copper tablets (15) Field Symbol 52
kamar.kom = fig leaf (Santali.lex.) kamarmar.a_ (Has.), kamar.kom (Nag.); the petiole or stalk of a leaf (Mundari.lex.)
There is a lexeme which connotes pan~caloha, an alloy containing five metals:: kol This word is represented rebus (lit. sounds like) by a tiger, kolhu-o (G.)
kol = pan~calo_kam (five metals); kol metal (Ta.lex.) pan~caloha = a metallic alloy containing five metals: copper, brass, tin, lead and iron (Skt.); an alternative list of five metals: gold, silver, copper, tin (lead), and iron (dha_tu; Na_na_rtharatna_kara. 82; Man:gara_ja’s Nighan.t.u. 498)(Ka.) kol, kolhe, ‘the koles, an aboriginal tribe if iron smelters speaking a language akin to that of Santals’ (Santali) kol = kollan-, kamma_l.an- (blacksmith or smith in general)(Ta.lex.) kollar = those who guard the treasure (Ta.lex.) cf. golla (Telugu) khol, kholi_ = a metal covering; a loose covering of metal or cloth (G.) [The semant. expansions to kolla_puri or kolha_pur and also to 'kolla_ppan.t.i' a type of cart have to be investigated further].
kol ‘working in iron, blacksmith (Ta.); kollan- blacksmith (Ta.); kollan blacksmith, artificer (Ma.)(DEDR 2133)
Daimabad The glyph is the rim of a short-necked jar can be explained in the context of a metalsmith’s repertoire.
Sign342 (1395) kan.d.a kanka = rim of pot (Santali) kanka = rim of pot (Santali) [cf. cognate, karn.aka Skt.]
kankha, kan.d.a kankha = brim, rim of a vessel (Santali); ka~kh; kanna_ (H.)(Santali.lex.Bodding) kan.t.u = the rim of a vessel (Ka.lex.) kan.d.a = an earthenware pot (having a neck a little longer than that of a t.hili, but otherwise of about the same shape as this, only somewhat larger; ghar.a kan.d.a = a waterpot of brass (Santali.lex.Bodding)
m0304AC 2420
kundavum = a manger, a hay-rick (G.lex.) kundhavum = a heap of hay or sticks (G.lex.) kuntam = haystack (Ta.); kuttar-i = a stack, a rick (Ka.)(DEDR 1724). [Note the haystack on the stool on which a person sits].
ku~d. = basin (G.)
kunda = a pillar of bricks (Ka.); pillar, post (Tu.Te.); block, log (Malt.); kantu = pillar, post (Ta.)(DEDR 1723). kunda = a post or pillar (Te.)
kun.d. = a pit (Santali) kun.d.amu = a pit for receiving and preserving consecrated fire; a hole in the ground (Te.) kun.d.am, kun.d.a sacrificial fire
pit (Skt.) kun.d.a an altar on which sacrifices are made (G.)[i] gun.d.amu fire-pit; (Inscr.)
kun.d.i_ = chief of village. kun.d.i-a = village headman; leader of a village (Pkt.lex.)
Ancient language and ancient writing system
The validity of the semantic contours of archaic chandas will be proved by the mlecchita vikalpa, hieroglyphs used to record inscriptions of Sarasvati civilization. The underlying spoken tongue is mleccha, the dialect used by Vidura, Yudhishthira and Kanaka (the miner) in the Mahabharata. Mlecchita vikalpa means ‘alternative representation in writing system by mleccha speakers’.
The meluhhan is shown on the Akkadian cylinder seal carrying an antelope ; this is an artistic style of depicting a phonetic determinant for the word read rebus : meluhha :
mr..eka ‘antelope, goat’ (Te.) Meluhha-speaker, merchant.
He is a copper merchant/smith.
m229 (sealing), m1186a seal
\Furnace, ingot
m229 (sealing), m1186a seal
m304A seal – Face shows a tiger’s mane: cu_l.a; rebus: cu_lha furnace (Pkt.)
mleccha-mukha (Skt.) = copper; milakkha (Pali) mu~hu~ = face (S.); rebus: mu_ha ‘smelted ingot’ [mũh opening or hole (in a stove for stoking, in a handmill for filling, in a grainstore for withdrawing)(Bi.)]
Signboard on the North Gate leading to the walled citadel. Dholavira. Courtesy ASI.
There is a glyph common to the Dholavira sign board, to the epigraph on the horned-tiger seal and the glyph on the button seal of Harappa. The glyph is a ‘lid, cover’ for a pot: ^ Lexemes: ad.aren, d.aren lid, cover (Santali) Rebus: aduru ‘native metal’ (Ka.). It is possible to unravel many substratum lexemes of Mleccha (Meluhhan) and at the same time, decode the epigraphs; the key is to unravel the dialectical continuum of the linguistic area circa 5500 years Before Present. Since the cultural traits of the civilization which evolved about 5500 years Before Present are present even today in Bharat, the languages of Bharat constitute the data set for decoding lexemes of such a dialectical continuum. A remarkable cultural trait which continues into the historical periods of Bharat is the use of copper plates to record epigraphs as property transactions. The epigraphs are the artifacts created by artisans of the Sarasvati civilization, the metal workers who recorded the ownership of the furnaces and trade in a civilizational resource: stones, metals and minerals. This hypothesis on language, writing system and function served by the epigraphs, will be tested further in a separate volume of the Saptathi Sarasvati, the septet of 7 volumes on Sarasvati.
The signboard glyphs can be divided into three segments:
erako san:gad.a ‘molten cast furnace’; d.ato ‘claws’; dhatu ‘ore’
erako khu~t. ad.aren kod. ‘copper, furnace (smelter pit), native metal, workshop.
Glyph: kod.a, ‘one’; rebus: kod., ‘artisan’s workshop’. Glyph: khu~t., ‘corner’; rebus: kun.d.amu = a pit for receiving and preserving consecrated fire; a hole in the ground (Te.) Glyph: ad.aren, d.aren ‘lid’; rebus: aduru ‘native metal’
erako khut.i kamar. ‘copper, furnace, mint [portable furnace for precious metals – kamat.amu] kamar ‘blacksmith’ (Santali).
Glyphs: erako (nave) + khut.i (pin) + lo kamat.ha (ficus leaf) = Rebus: erako ‘molten cast’ + khut.i ‘furnace’ + lo kamat.ha ‘metal mint: kammat.a’ [khut.i Nag. (Or. khut.i_) diminutive of khun.t.a, a peg driven into the ground, as for tying a goat (Mundari.lex.) khu~t.i_ wooden pin (M.)(CDIAL 3893)]
Alternative: tamire = the pin in the middle of a yoke (Te.)
Rebus: tavara = tin (Te.Ka.)
Sign 12 kut.i ‘water carrier’; rebus: kut.hi ‘furnace’
Seal impression, Ur (Upenn; U.16747); dia. 2.6, ht. 0.9 cm.; Gadd, PBA 18 (1932), pp. 11-12, pl. II, no. 12; Porada 1971: pl.9, fig.5; Parpola, 1994, p. 183; water carrier with a skin (or pot?) hung on each end of the yoke across his shoulders and another one below the crook of his left arm; the vessel on the right end of his yoke is over a receptacle for the water; a star on either side of the head (denoting supernatural?). The whole object is enclosed by 'parenthesis' marks. The parenthesis is perhaps a way of splitting of the ellipse (Hunter, G.R., JRAS, 1932, 476). An unmistakable example of an 'heiroglyphic' seal.
The history and formation of jaati bhaasha or Bharatiya Language Community is a history of a Linguistic Area (from circa 6500 BCE to the present day) recording interactions among Tamil, Prakrits, Samskr.tam, and Austric languages/dialects. A Linguistic Area is defined as a region where language-speakers absorb features of languages from one another and make them their own. Thus a family of languages enlarges into a Language Community. The area extended from Takshas’ila/Gandhara in the West along the Indian Ocean Rim and Himalayan ranges into Srilanka, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand.
The importance of Gujarat (and hence, the Indian Ocean Rim as also Hemachandra’s Des’inaamamaala) in unravelling the linguistic area of Bha_rata is stated in the following terms by Colin P. Masica: "...the entire Indo-Aryan realm (except for Sinhalese) constitutes one enormous dialectical continuum...The speech of each village differs slightly from the next, without loss of mutual intelligibility, all the way from Assam to Afghanistan....Mitanni kingdom... Indo-Iranians appear in northern Syria a full half millennium before their appearance in western Iran. How did they get there?...To call these Mitanni kings 'Indo-Iranians', however, is to beg an important question...Some have held that these linguistic fragments are specifically Indo-Aryan. Others including Burrow (1955) held they represent undifferentiated Indo-Iranian, before the split between Iranian and Indo Aryan...An Indo-Aryan identification would demand an earlier dating of the Iranian/Indo-Aryan split; with it have also been associated speculations regarding the route taken by the Aryans to India (e.g., the Asia Minor route...), or, possibly a back migration of Aryans from India. (If the latter, the date of the Aryan settlement of India would have to be moved back far enough to allow not only for them to reach Syria by 1500 BC, but also for their language to have died out by then, leaving only the terminological residue noted...)...the philological evidence alone does not allow an Indian origin of the Aryans...there is the matter of the nature of the common vocabulary shared by Sanskrit with the rest of Indo-European, which points to a more northerly ultimate home...The native Dravidian vocabulary has not been reconstructed. Burrow and Emeneau's Dravidian Etymological Dictionary (1960) only assembles materials for it... The civilization seems to have continued peacefully in Gujarat until a comparatively late period, i.e. 800 BC (Fairservis 1975: 307), after which it dissolved into the subsequent culture, which makes that area one of prime importance in detecting any Harappan influence on Aryan language and culture." (Colin P. Masica, The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991).
From an autochthonous perspective, the examples of 8000+ semantic clusters of the Indian Lexicon, point to an indigenous evolution of the Prakrits, later refined into Sanskrit.
There is no basis to assume that the Bhils of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh originally spoke a non-IE language, probably Nahali, yet: "No group of Bhils speak any but an Aryan tongue. (...) it is unlikely that traces of a common non-Aryan substratum will ever be uncovered in present-day Bhili dialects." (von Fürer-Haimendorf 1956:x, quoted in Kuiper 1962:50).
Braziers
The search for minerals and metals and for inventions of new alloys took Bharatiya from the banks of River Sarasvati, far and wide, establishing contacts with contemporary civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Europe and perhaps also Thailand (where evidence for early bronze age has been discovered).
It is no mere coincidence that (1) the lexeme bharatiya means 'caster of metals' in Gujarati and (2) the name of a script which diffused out of Bharat was called Brahmi, another name for Sarasvati, divinity va_k, lingua franca.
Bha_rati_ is a name of Sarasvati_, the godess of Speech, word, eloquence, literary composition, dramatic art; bha_rati_ means relating to Bha_rata, that is, India. In R.gveda (1.188.8), Bha_rati_, the godess of Speech is invoked with Il.a_ and Sarasvati_: bha_rati_l.e sarasvati. Bha_rati_ is also the name of a bird, a quail (Telugu). Thus, when a bull is depicted with a bird, the reference could be to bha_rati_ the bird with a rebus representation for the following substantive etyma:
bharatiyo = a caster of metals; a brazier; bharatar, bharatal, bharatal. = moulded; an article made in a mould; bharata = casting metals in moulds; bharavum = to fill in; to put in; to pour into (G.lex.) bhart = a mixed metal of copper and lead; bhart-i_ya_ = a brazier, worker in metal; bhat., bhra_s.t.ra = oven, furnace.
The context for decoding inscribed objects is thus apparent. Tools of trade of metal-workers! The language is des’i or bha_s.a_ or Meluhhan! Yes, the Meluhhan which was understood by both Vidura and Yudhis.t.ira in the Maha_bha_rata. The people from Milakku are copper-workers, since milakku means ‘copper’ in Pali language. Meluhhans are referred to in the texts of Mesopotamian civilization. Sumerian had words of a substrate language, for example, tibira, ‘merchant’ may relate to ta_m(b)ra, ‘copper’; san:gi, ‘priest’ could relate to sa_n:ghvi_, ‘pilgrim’s companion’ (Gujara_ti_). The key to decoding is, thus, provided by the ancient lexemes of the present-day languages of the region, with intense interactions, for example, Gujara_ti_, Punja_bi_, Kon:kan.i, Kannad.a, Telugu, Tamil, Brahui, Mundari, Santali. Substrate and ad-strate words of these languages of Bha_rata hold the key to unraveling the linguistic area of the civilization, ca. 3300 to 1500 BCE.
There are some indications of close contacts between Sumerian and Dravidian as seen from a few agricultural vocabulary:
ur 'millstone' (Sumerian); ur-al 'mortar' (Ta.); ulu_khala (Skt.)
ili 'sesame' (Sumerian), ellu/u_lu 'sesame oil' (Akkadian); el., el.l.u 'Sesamum indicum' (Ta.); tila, jar-tila 'sesame' (Vedic)(Blazek, V. and C. Boisson, The Diffusion of Agricultural Terms from Mesopotamia. Archiv Orientalni 60, 1992, 16-37)
It is possible that IE *kwe-kw-lo- ‘wheel’ may be related to Sumerian gilgul 'wheel'; (GIS-); gigir 'wagon'. a_n.i which occurs in the R.gveda as ‘lynch pin’ is considered foreign to both Dravidian and Vedic. IE rota ‘rotate’ may also relate to urut.t.u ‘roll’; urul. ‘roll’ (Ta.)
The semantic expansion of the Bharatiya Language Community was concordant with the expansion of the Metals Age (Bronze and Iron) emerging out of the Lithic (Stone) Age along the basins of great Himalayan rivers: Sarasvati, Sindhu, Ganga, Brahmaputra and Mekong (Maa Ganga). The need for writing system is correlated to the evolution of the Metals Age involving trade exchanges of metal artifacts and lapidary/mineral products.
Neolithic and Harappan period settlements in the cradle of the Sarasvati Civilization. The delta area is now called Rann of Kutch. [After KS Valdiya, 2002, Fig. 1.3]
The premise for using the spectrum of attested, ancient lexemes of the Bharatiya Language Community is that there is a remarkable cultural continuum evidenced by many facets such as: the cire perdue technique for making bronze statues, women wearing sindhur at the parting of the hair, s’ankha industry (since 6500 BCE), veneration of s’ivalinga as a metaphor of the summit of Mt. Kailas (Manasarovar), acharya wearing uttariyam leaving the right-shoulder bare, yoga and forms of salutation using namaste and arya/ayya as a respectful form of address.
Tradition and a dialectical continuum
Such a metaphor of a Zebu bull or other thousand heiroglyphs can be expressed on any medium: copper plate inscription, glyphs assembled on a sign-board or incised on a weapon itself. The glyptic tradition of writing endures in Bharatiya tradition. The svastika_, the tree, the range of mountains, the dotted circle, the leaf, the tiger looking back, the antelope looking back, hooded serpent, are all heiroglyphic metaphors representing meaning, the material phenomena which provide for life-sustaining activities organized in a community which lives together, in an inter-dependent economy. The glyphs on the epigraphs are semantic indicators of a bharatiya language substratum called mleccha or bha_s.a_, the parole (va_k) a dialectical continuum traceable in all languages of Bharat: vedic mantra or Sanskrit lexemes (s’abda or dha_tu) or va_kyapadi_ya (lit. steps of va_k) elaborated by Bhartr.hari.
The dialectical continuum evidenced by languages of Bharat (of all linguistic families) is matched by the cultural continuum in all parts of Bharat with the over-5000-year-old roots found on the banks of River Sarasvati.
The texts of contiguous civilizations provide evidences of speakers of Bharatiya languages moving into new lands west of River Sindhu. The evidences relate to Bogazkoi inscriptions, Mitanni treaties and the glyphs of Mesopotamia and Elam, apart from Avestan texts which can be demonstrated as a direct evolution from Vedic. When availability of soma, electrum, diminishes, substitutes – plants -- are used both in the Avestan and the Bra_hman.a periods, succeeding the Vedic periods. Juxtaposed to this evidence cluster, there is no evidence whatsoever, either textual or archaeological, supporting movements of people into Bharat during the lithic or chalcolithic or bronze or iron ages.
urseal6 Cylinder seal; BM 122947; U. 16220 (cut down into Ur III mausolea from Larsa level; U. 16220), enstatite; Legrain, 1951, No. 632; Collon, 1987, Fig. 611.Humped bull stands before a plant, feeding from a round manger or a bundle of fodder (or, probably, a cactus); behind the bull is a scorpion and two snakes; above the whole a human figure, placed horizontally, with fantastically long arms and legs, and rays about his head.
takaram tin, white lead, metal sheet, coated with tin (Ta.); tin, tinned iron plate (Ma.); tagarm tin (Ko.); tagara, tamara, tavara id. (Ka.) tamaru, tamara, tavara id. (Ta.): tagaramu, tamaramu, tavaramu id. (Te.); t.agromi tin metal, alloy (Kuwi); tamara id. (Skt.)(DEDR 3001). trapu tin (AV.); tipu (Pali); tau, taua lead (Pkt.); tu~_ tin (P.); t.au zinc, pewter (Or.); taru_aum lead (OG.); tarvu~ (G.); tumba lead (Si.)(CDIAL 5992).
takar sheep, ram, goat (Ta.); tagar ram (Ka.); tagaru (Tu.); tagaramu, tagaru (Te.); tagar (M.)(DEDR 3000).
t.agara = taberna montana (Skt.)
ran:ga, ran: pewter is an alloy of tin lead and antimony (an~jana) (Santali).
ran:ga ron:ga, ran:ga con:ga = thorny, spikey, armed with thorns; edel dare ran:ga con:ga dareka = this cotton tree grows with spikes on it (Santali) [Note the thorns on the round object in front of the bull on the Ur cylinder seal impression – U 16220]
Talking through the footsteps of time
The principle used for cracking the code of the heiroglyphs is simple: the glyphs can be read in bharatiya languages with corresponding homonyms denoting metal workers’ repertoire.
What would Jamshedji Tata do when asked to inscribe his calling card stating his profession or in general, what he does for a living ? [Tata is a Parsi who set up the Tata Iron and Steel Works in Jamshedpur using the iron ore of Bengal-Bihar Jharia mines. Hence, the city is named after him.]
He will take a steel plate and inscribe thereon: Artisan of steel blast furnace.
The hypothesis of this inquiry is that artisans of Sarasvati civilization inscribed on copper plates and other media their versions of blast furnaces, an astonishing array of them, working with an array of mineral ores and rare-earths, rare of those times, ca. 8500 years Before Present.
Bronze foot and bronze anklet: Mohenjo-daro [After fig. 5.11 in: DP Agrawal, 2000].
Surely, the furnaces of circa 5000 years Before Present brought about a veritable technological revolution in Bharatiya society, exemplified by the bronze anklet shown a bronze foot made by a vis’vakarma mleccha. The s’ankha industry dates back to circa 8500 years Before Present.
Our hypothesis is that the traders with their seals, and people who travelled in Swat and Seistan, in search of minerals, were the bronze-age smiths and lapidaries of Meluhha.
Meluhhan
There is evidence of a substrate language of anient Sumer; this language could be located in Bha_rata in the contemporaneous Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization ca. 3500 -2500 BCE. Like the influence of Celtic on ancient Gaul, Sumerian shows signs of a substrate language in the use of professional names such as sanga 'priest', simug 'blacksmith' and tibira 'copper smith', 'metal-manufacturer'; craftsman like nangar 'carpenter', a:gab 'leather worker'; agricultural terms, like engar 'farmer', apin 'plow' and absin 'furrow'.
tambira = copper (Pkt.) tibira = merchant (Akkadian)
Sumerian
tibhi = to prop by means of a post with a V-shaped head, a prop with a V-shaped head (Santali).
tabar = a broad axe (P.lex.)
taber = face downwards, upper side down; taber akanae he is lying on his face, or stomach (Santali) [Note the glyph of a woman lying upside down.]
Rebus: t.ibri, t.ebra = small, short of stature with large stomach (Santali)
Rebus: tebr.a, tebor. ‘three times, thrice’; tebr.age emok hoyoktama you will have to give thee times that (Santali) The glyptic representation is three long linear strokes:
Recording property items
Any number of reasonable speculations may be made given the object types such as tablets which may have had many duplicates and objects such as seals and bangles which could have been carried on the person possessing the object perhaps worn on the wrist. If the script was intended to serve a personal marker in a disciplined cultural group there is a possibility that the script was used not to record personal names but to record personal items of property or OTHER items of value entrusted to the person by the collective cultural group. The script could thus be hypothesized to have served the purpose of recording the name of a commodity or product and the quantities or VALUE of such products.
"The amount of copper involved in this trade was quite considerable. One text from Ur (UET 5 796), dated to the reign of Rim-Sin of Larsa (1822-1763 BCE), records the receipt in Dilmun of 611 talents, 6 2/3 minas of copper (presumably from Magan). This shipment, according to the text, was weighed according to the standard of Ur, giving a modern equivalent of 18,333 kilograms (40,330 pounds) of copper. One-third of this copper was earmarked for delivery to Ea-na_s.ir of Ur, a merchant who had close connections with Magan and the Dilmun copper trade...This contact beween Metopotamia and the Indus Valley, the land of Melukkha, was clearly by sea and must have brought products across the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. These products included the copper of Magan. Did they also include the tin of Afghanistan and Central Asia, perhaps the tin designated by Gudea, king of Lagash (now known to be a contemporary of Ur-Nammu, king of Ur, circa 2100 BCE), as the tin of Melukkha?" (James D. Muhly, 1995, Mining and Metalwork in Ancient Western Asia, in: Jack M. Sasson, ed. 1995, Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, Vol. III, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 1501-1521).
Two tin ingots with Sarasvati epigraphs
Two other rosetta stones are the two late bronze age tin ingots from the harbor of Haifa, Israel contain glyphs used in epigraphs of Sarasvati civilization!
The picture of these two ingots was published by J.D. Muhly [New evidence for sources of and trade in bronze age tin, in: Alan D. Franklin, Jacqueline S. Olin, and Theodore A. Wertime, The Search for Ancient Tin, 1977, Seminar organized by Theodore A. Wertime and held at the Smithsonian Institution and the National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C., March 14-15, 1977]. Muhly notes:"A long-distance tin trade is not only feasible and possible, it was an absolute necessity. Sources of tin stone or cassiterite were few and far between, and a common source must have served many widely scattered matallurgical centers. This means that the tin would have been brought to a metallurgical center utilizing a nearby source of copper. That is, copper is likely to be a local product; the tin was almost always an import...The circumstances surrounding the discovery of these ingots are still rather confused, and our dating is based entirely upon the presence of engraves signs which seem to be in the Cypro-Minoan script, used on Cyprus and at Ugarit over the period 1500-1100 BCE. The ingots are made of a very pure tin, but what could they have to do with Cyprus? There is certainly no tin on Cyprus, so at best the ingots could have been transhipped from that island. How did they then find their way to Haifa? Are we dealing with a ship en route from Cyprus, perhaps to Egypt, which ran into trouble and sank off the coast of Haifa? If so, that certainly rules out Egypt as a source of tin. Ingots of tin are rare before Roman times and, in the eastern Mediterranean, unknown from any period. What the ingots do demonstrate is that metallic tin was in use during the Late Bronze Age...rather extensive use of metallic tin in the ancient eastern Mediterranean, which will probably come as a surprise to many people." (p.47)
We will demonstrate that the symbols incised on the ingots are not Cypro-Minoan symbols but Harappan pictographs.
m-1336a 2515 (Mahadevan)
m-1097 (On this seal, the antelope appears in the middle of the inscription; it is apparently this pictograph that gets normalised as a 'sign', Sign 184 and variants].
m1341 2092 m0516At
m0516Bt 3398 m0522At m0522Bt 3378
The sign pictographs are:
Sign 137 and variants Sign 142 and variants
kulhi ‘the village street’ (Santali) Rebus: kol metal (Ta.)
Sign 249 Sign 252 and variants
This pictograph clearly refers to an antelope as depicted on the Mohenjodaro copper plate inscription: (m-516b shown).
Sign 182 is a stylized glyph denoting a ram or antelope: tagar (Skt.); rebus: takaram ‘tin’ (Ta.)
On each ingot, there are two signs as shown below:
[Let us refer to these signs as, 'antelope' and X]
[Let us refer to these signs as, X and 'mould' or ‘liquid measure’].
Liquid measure: ran:ku; rebus: ran:ku = tin; rebus: ran:ku = antelope. Thus both liquid measure glyph and antelope glyphs are graphonyms (graphically denoting the same rebus substantive: ran:ku, ‘tin’.
X glyph which is common to epigraphs on both the tin ingots may refer to an ‘ingot’ or a dha_tu ‘mineral’. upadha_tu an inferior metal, a semi-metal: svarn.am ma_ks.ikam ta_rama_ks.ikam tustham ka_syam rati sindu_ram s'ila_jatu (Skt.)(Skt.lex.) siddha-rasa quick-silver (Ka.lex.) siddha-dha_tu quick-silver (Skt.); ore (as gold) (Ka.lex.) cittam < kit.t.a iron dross (Ta.lex.) siddha-patra hemp-leaves for smoking etc. (Ka.lex.) dha_tu strength, courage (Ka.); dha_tu-ged.u strength to be impaired or be gone; to become deprived of strength or courage (Ka.); dha_tunas.t.a loss of strength (Ka.)(Ka.lex.) The semant. ‘strength’ points to the dha_tu being tin since the addition of tin as an alloy strengthened copper. sapta-dha_tu, tridha_tu ‘seven/three elements’ are recurrently occurring compound lexemes in R.gveda.
In RV 6.044.23 the term used is: tridha_tu divi rocanes.u = ‘three-fold amr.tam hidden in heaven’ is the metaphor; and in RV 8.044.12 the term is: tridha_tuna_ s’arman.a_.
6.044.23 This Soma made the dawns happily wedded to the sun; this Soma placed the light within the solar orb; this (Soma) has found the threefold ambrosia hidden in heaven in the three bright regions. [ayam tridha_tu divi rocanes.u, trites.u, trites.u vindat amr.tam nigu_l.ham = Soma becomes as it were ambrosia when received or concealed in the vessels at the three diurnal ceremonies, which ambrosia is properly deposited with the gods abiding in the third bright sphere, or in heaven].
8.040.12 Thus has a new hymn been addressed to Indra and Agni, as was done by my father, by Mandha_ta_, by An:girasa; cherish us with a triply defended dwelling; may we be the lords of riches. [Triply defended dwelling: tridha_tuna_ s'arman.a_ = triparvan.a_ gr.hen.a, with a house of three joints; in RV. 1.34.6, tridha_tu s'arma = va_tapitta s'les.ma dha_tutrayas'amana vis.ayam sukham; in RVV 1.85.12 s'arma tridha_tu_ni = pr.thivya_dis.u tris.u stha_nes.u avasthita_ni sukha_ni gr.ha_ni va_; Note: it is possible that the term may simply mean, three elements, copper, silver, gold].
Rebus (for the glyptic of crossing over):
da~_t.u = cross over; da.t.- (da.t.-t-) to cross (Kol.); da_t.isu – to cause to pass over (Ka.); da.t.- (da.t.y-) to cross (mark, stream, mountain, road)(Ko.); ta_t.t.uka to get over or through (Ma.); ta_n.t.u = to cross, surpass (Ta.)(DEDR 3158).
Rebus: ta_t.u = to strike against, come in contact with (Ka.); ta_d.uni = to gore, butt; ta_d.u = goring (Tu.); ha-n.t.u to collide (Tu.); ta_n.t.i = to hit (Kor.)(DEDR 3156).
ta_tu = powder, dust, pollen (Ta.); to.0 = powdery, soft (of flour or powdered chillies)(To.). There is a possibility that the early semant. Of ‘dha_tu’ was cassiterite, powdery tin mineral.
The three signs used have parallels in the inscriptions of the civilization; in m-1336 the 'antelope' pictograph appears together with the 'mould' pictograph; X sign occurs on many inscriptions with many variants elaborating it as a junction of four roads:
The Sign 249 which is shown on the second tin ingot of Haifa, Israel is a representation of an ingot, assuming that this shows an ingot is shaped like the one taken out of a mould. The X sign (with a ligatured perpendicular short linear stroke) is common on both the tin ingots.
ran:ku a species of deer; ran:kuka (Skt.)(CDIAL 10559). ra_n:kava made from the hair of the ran:ku deer (Ka.lex.) ra~_kat. big and boorish (M.)(CDIAL 10538). cf. ran:ka slow, dull (Skt.)(CDIAL 10538). cf. ro_hi a kind of deer (R.)(CDIAL 10870). rauhis.a, ro_his.a a kind of deer (Ka.lex.) ran:ku ‘antelope’ (Santali) ran:ku = a species of deer (Skt.); ran:kuka id. (Skt.)(CDIAL 10559). ra_n:kava belonging to the ran:ku deer (MBh.); made from the hair of the ran:ku deer, woollen (R.); coming from ran:ku (said of animals) (Pa_n. 4.2.100); a woollen cover or blanket (MBh.R.); ra_n:kava ku_t.a s'a_yin lying on a heap of woollen rags (MBh.); ra_n:kavajina a woollen skin; ra_n:kavastaran.a a woollen coverlet (R.); ra_n:kavastr.ta covered with a woollen rug (Skt.); ra_n:kavaka coming from ran:kiu (said of men) (Pa_n. 4.2.134); ra_n:kava_yan.a coming from ran:ku (said of animals) (Pa_n. 4.2.100). ran:ku a species of deer or antelope (Skt.lex.) ran:ku = a species of deer or antelope, the spotted axis (mare)(Ka.lex.)
kurunga = a kind of antelope; kurunga miga = the antelope deer (Pali); kulunga, kulanga (Skt.)(Pali.lex.) kulan:ga (MaitrS.); kulun:ga (TS); kuran:ga, kurun:ga (Pkt.); kuram.ga (Pali); kuran:g (P.); karam.gi_ (OG.); kura~g (G.); kurunga (Si.); kurangu the elk Rusa aristotelis (Si.)(CDIAL 3320). cf. kuran:g light chestnut colour (Kho.)(CDIAL 3321). kuran:ga = a species of antelope, antelope or deer (in general); kulun:ga = an antelope (VS 24; TS 5); kuran:gaka, kulan:ga = antelope; kuran:gama = an antelope; kuran:ga_yate to take the shape of an antelope (Skt.lex.) kurahu antelope (Kuwi), kuran:ga (Ka.) kulanga, kulunga = going in a herd, antelope (VS.); kulmi = a herd (TS. ii.4.5.2)
Mleccha, copper
mlecchamukha = copper (Skt.); what has the copper coloured complexion of the Greek or Mahomedans]. meriya = a rock; merayu = to shine, glitter (Te.lex.) mer = a kind of large copper or brass pot (G.lex.) cf. milakkhu = copper (Pali); mleccha = copper (Skt.)
mer.ed, me~r.ed iron; enga mer.ed soft iron; sand.i mer.ed hard iron; ispa_t mer.ed steel; dul mer.ed cast iron; i mer.ed rusty iron, also the iron of which weights are cast; bicamer.ed iron extracted from stone ore; balimer.ed iron extracted from sand ore; mer.ed-bica = iron stone ore, in contrast to bali-bica, iron sand ore (Mu.lex.)
Substantive: med.o merchant’ clerk (Hem.Dec.); mehto a schoolmaster, an accountant, a clerk, a writer (G.)
Glyph: med.ho a ram, a sheep (G.); mid.hia_o (Dh.Des.); men.d.h, men.d. a ram (Skt.); medhya a goat; fr. medh a sacrifice (Skt.) mr..eka = goat (Te.); mlekh (Br.) mer.h, mer.ha_, me~d.ha_ ram (H.), med.hia_o (Dh.Des.) ram, goat, sheep (G) mid.iyo = having horns bent over forehead (G.)(CDIAL 10120). me~r.a_, me~d.a_ = ram with curling horns (H.)(CDIAL 10120). me_t.am = goat (Ta.lex.) [cf. the pictorial motif of antelope with head turned backwards]. merom me~t = the goat’s eye (Santali.lex.) mes.a = ram (RV 8.2.40) mer.om = a goat; mer.om jel = the hind of the ravine deer, gazella bennettii; mer.om (Santali)
mer.go = with horns twisted back; mer.ha, m., mir.hi f.= twisted, crumpled, as a horn (Santali.lex.)
mer.hao = to entwine itself, wind round, wrap around, roll up (Santali.lex.) [Note the endless knot motif].
h702At h702Bt 4601 m0271 Goat-antelope with horns turned backwards and a short tail
Three caprids. Tepe Yahya. Cylinder seal reconstructed from seven fragments. To the left of this pair is a third caprid rampant with head turned back whose horns are viewed frontally rather than in profile. Beneath the belly of each animal is a four-sided cross. There are 9 fragments of clay slab wall sealings. Wall plaster is preserved on the reverse of most fragments. Seal is carefully roled along horizontal axis of sealing. Lamberg-Karlovsky 1971: pls. 4, 5; cf. Fig. 10.27 in Pittman, 2001, opcit.
Two caprids with heads turned back rampant against a stepped platform (mountain) surmounted by a tree.
‘Fish’ glyph on gold pendant
A fish sign, preceded by seven short numeral strokes, also appears on a gold pendant: Golden pendant with inscription from jewelry hoard at Mohenjo-daro. Drawing of inscription that encircles the gold ornament. Needle-like pendant with cylindrical body. Two other examples, one with a different series of incised signs were found together. The pendant is made from a hollow cylinder with soldered ends and perforated point. Museum No. MM 1374.50.271; Marshall 1931: 521, pl. CLI, B3. [After Fig. 4.17a, b in: JM Kenoyer, 1998, p. 196].
kanac konoc, kana kona, kana kuni ‘the corners, in the corners’ (Santali)
Glyphs: gan.d.a ‘four’; pene ‘three’;
Rebus: kan.d. ‘furnace’; pen.e ‘griddle’
Glyph: bhed.a hako ‘fish’; bed.a ‘hearth’
kanac ‘corner’; rebus: kan~cu ‘bronze’
Alternatives:
bat.hi = a furnace for melting iron-ore (Santali.lex.)
bhati = the unripe kernel of certain fruits (especially of the Palmyra palm, the Ebony tree, and makar.kenda). The kernel is taken out and eaten, the palm kernel as it is, the Ebony kernel after cleaning with water rubbing it on a stone. (Desi. Bhati).
Bharatiya tradition continues in copper plate inscriptions
Some glyphs on line 1: kut.hi = tree; rebus: kut.hi = smelting furnace; kos.t.ha_ga_ra = storehouse; s'u_la = spear; cu_l.a = kiln; kan.d.kanka = rim of jar; rebus: copper furnace; bat.a = quail; rebus: kiln.
The Sohgaura copper plate refers to a pair of kos.t.ha_ga_ra (dva_ra kot.t.haka); the two storehouses described as tri-garbha (i.e. having three rooms) are illustrated on line 1. (Fleet, JRAS, 1907). The illustrations indicate that the three rooms are in three storeys, with supporting pillars clearly seen. The inscription refers to the junction of three highways named Manavati, in two villages called Dasilimita and Usagama. The storehouses were made at this junction for the goods of people using the highways, which are indicated in line 3 by mentioning the three places to and from which they led. One of the names give is reognized by Fleet as Chanchu. (Fleet, JRAS, 63, 1894 proceedings, 86, plate, IA 25. 262; cf. Sohgaura copper plate/B.M. Barua. The Indian Historical Quarterly, ed. Narendra Nath Law. Reprint. 41)
Punch-marked coins from 5th cent. BCE, from many parts of Bharat, depict many glyphs, many of which are comparable to the glyphs depicted on inscribed objects of the Sarasvati Sindhu Civilization.
As the heiroglyphic code unravels, the meaning of the glyphs and their importance in the context of the lives of braziers is reinforced. Many glyphs are property possessions of lapidaries and metallurgists and evoke the tools of trade – furnaces, minerals and metals -- used in the smithy.
It is hypothesised that the inscriptions on copper plates and the symbols on punch-marked coins are the work of inheritors of the Sarasvati brazier-tradition.
This cultural tradition explains why copper plates are used for property transactions during the historical periods and also explains why many symbols on punch-marked coins are directly comparable with the Sarasvati heiroglyphs.
This is the most emphatic evidence for discerning the cultural continuity into historical periods of the tradition whose roots are to be found on the banks of River Sarasvati, dating back to 5,500 years Before Present.
[Pl.8, Local Tribal coin symbols: Ujjayini, Tripuri, Ayodhya, Almore, Pa_n~ca_la, Arjuna_yana (1-3), Ra_janya (3,6,8), Uddehika, Audumbara, Kun.inda, Kuluta, Vr.s.n.i, Yaudheya, Ks.atrapa, S’a_tava_hana]
[After Pl. 10 to 13 in: Savita Sharma, 1990, Early Indian Symbols: Numismatic evidence, Delhi, Agam Kala Prakashan]
Tha pattern of punch-marked coin hoard sites is comparable to the pattern of black and red ware/rice cultivation sites of proto-historic periods.
(This note is based on: S. Kalyanaraman, 1982, Indian Lexicon, available on the internet at http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati; S. Kalyanaraman, 2004, Sarasvati, an encyclopaedic work in 7 volumes: Sarasvati: Civilization; Sarasvati: R.gveda; Sarasvati: River; Sarasvati: Bharati; Sarasvati: Technology; Sarasvati: Language ; Sarasvati: Epigraphs, Bangalore, Babasaheb (Umakanta Keshav) Apte Smarak Samiti; S. Kalyanaraman, 2006, Bharatiya Languages -- History and Formation of Jaati-bhaasha -- Mlecchita Vikalpa – Sarasvati hieroglyphs (Decipherment of Indus Script, Banga;pre. Babasaheb (Umakanta Keshav) Apte Smaraka Samiti which includes Protovedic Continuity Theory of Bharatiya Languages http://protovedic.blogspot.com and a comprehensive corpus of inscriptions of Sarasvati civilization – Indus Script). Cf. S. Kalyanaraman, 2006, Bronze age trade and writing system of Meluhha (Mleccha) evidenced by tin ingots from the near vicinity of Haifa, presented in: Bronze Age Trade Workshop in Fifth International Conference on Archaeology of Ancient Near East, April 2006 http://jitnasa.india-forum.com/Docs/icaane_workshop.pdf)
[ii] tibira, ‘coppersmith, metal-manufacturer’ and similar-sounding lexemes
Image: gimlet: tamar hole made by a gimlet; a borer, gimlet, drill (Ma.); tamar boring instrument; gimlet, spring awl (Ta.); tamiru gimlet (Tu.); tamire, tagire the pin in the middle of a yoke (Te.); tavar (-v-, -nt-) to bore a hole; n. hole in a board (Ta.)(DEDR 3078). tau~ri giddiness, dizziness (Ku.); tavar id. (M.)(CDIAL 5688). ta~v, tav, tava_ giddiness (M.)(CDIAL 5689). tavar to bore a hole (Tiv. Tiruva_y. 9,9,1); tamar hole, as in a plank, commonly bored or cut (Tiruvil.ai. Ma_n.ikka. 61) Image: groove or mortise: tavan.ai-p-poruttu a groove or mortise on the top of a gate or door-post (Ta.lex.) tamire = the pin the middle of a yoke (Te.lex.) tavan.ai joint, in carpentry (Ta.lex.) tavar = hole (Ta.lex.) tamar = hole, commonly bored or cut (Ta.Ma.)(Ta.lex.) tava_l.i-ttal = to make flutings or grooves, as in carpentry; to dig a channel; tala_l.ippu cavity in a moulding, groove (Ta.lex.) tavar-aiva_ri = handspike, a tool used on a ship; tavar-ai mu_t.t.a_n- = anchor chain; tavar-ai < dabara (Te.) capstan, machine for winding up a cable in small craft (Ka.lex.) tavan. = circle drawn with lime, or string tied around a limb, above the site of a poisonous bite with incantations to stop the spread of poison; tavan.ai = joint, as in carpentry (Ta.lex.) cf. ta_mare = ringworm (Ka.); ta_mara id. (Te.); ta_mra = a kind of leprosy with large red spots (Skt.)(DEDR 3164).
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