Seals, mercantile protocol of Indus Valley Civilization, evidence in ANE. Book (2017) by Steffen Laursen and Piotr Steinkeller Book on Indus Seals by Parveen Talpur

October 29, 2017, 5:52 am

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Babylonia, the Gulf Region and the Indus

Archaeological and Textual Evidence for Contact in the Third and Early Second Millennia BC

by Steffen Laursen and Piotr Steinkeller

Mesopotamian Civilizations - MC 21

Eisenbrauns, 2017 

List Price: $59.50

Description

During the third millennium BC, the huge geographical area stretching between the Mediterranean in the west and the Indus Valley in the east witnessed the rise of a commercial network of unmatched proportions and intensity, within which the Persian Gulf for long periods functioned as a central node. In this book, Laursen and Steinkeller examine the nature of cultural and commercial contacts between Babylonia, the Gulf region, and Indus Civilization. Focusing on the third and early second millennia BC, and using both archaeological data and the evidence of ancient written sources, their study offers an up-to-date synthetic picture of the history of interactions across this vast region. In addition to giving detailed characterizations and evaluations of contacts in various periods, the book also treats a number of important related issues, such as the presence of Amorites in the Gulf (in particular, their role in the rise of the Tilmun center on Bahrain Island); the alleged existence of Meluhhan commercial outposts in Babylonia; and the role that the seaport of Gu’abba played in Babylonia’s interactions with the Gulf region and southeastern Iran.

Product Details

Publisher: Eisenbrauns Publication date: 2017 Bibliographic info: Pp. x + 141 Language(s): English		Cover: Cloth Trim Size: 7 x 10 inches ISBN: 1-57506-756-0 ISBN13: 978-1-57506-756-8

Write-up about the book

This is a very important book by two scholars who have spent years studying ancient Mesopotamian cultures (Steinkeller, Harvard University) or leading explorations of more recently discovered Gulf Arab cultures (Laursen, Moesgaard Museum Denmark). The authors summarize and integrate previously-known textual data, primarily from ancient Mesopotamia, with “the dramatic increase of archaeological data, in particular on Tilmun and Makkan [ancient civilizations contemporaneous with the ancient Indus in the Arabian Gulf], in recent decades.” In their words, “following many e-mail exchanges about various points related to the archaeology and history of the Persian Gulf region during the third millennium BC, we concluded that, because of the great accumulation of new data and persistence of many misconceptions, there was a pressing need to produce an up-to-date synthetic evaluation of this subject” (p. 1, ix).

Laursen and Steinkeller rigorously review textual and archeological data. One comes away with a sense of how delicate the ebb and flow of trade between Oman [Makkan], Bahrain [Dilmun], Marhasi [southeastern Iran], the Indus civilization [Meluha], and Mesopotamia was in the 3rd millennium. Intense periods of contact and exchange were followed by fallow ones. One can infer that trade relationships were dependent on political, religious, tribal, or navigational ties that were fragile and subject to disruption. For example, Laursen points out that “sometime in the late ED III or early Sargonic period (ca. 2350 BCE), the trading post on Umm an-Nar island was abandoned, possibly after a fire had destroyed the ‘warehouse’ for the second time.” (p. 28).

Connections between Makkan [Oman] and Marhasi [southeastern Iran] seem to have been stronger than between the latter and Dilmun [Bahrain] despite their greater proximity. With such small populations on all sides of the Gulf, connections between places would have been transformative as well as tenuous. There is no doubt about how important trade was to these early civilizations; the authors show that the goal of the Sargonic kings of Babylonia was not so much annexation and conquest as “the control of critical nodal points . . . [and] to set the terms of trade and to provide protection for Babylonian traders, who lived in extra territorial commercial settlements in the periphery or simply conducted business there . . .. The main function of the empire’s political and military apparatus was to ensure that the entire commercial network worked smoothly, with the merchandise flowing from one end of the system to the other without any disturbances or interruption” (pp. 31-32). Across such large areas, this kind of integration was a big step in human history.

Indus civilization may have had similar trading objectives though the homogeneity across its territory seems to have been greater.

If we know what Meluha exported to Mesopotamia, we know little about what was sent in return. Nothing definitive from the region has turned up in graves (of which there are precious few Indus ones), where Bronze Age civilizations tended to hoard goods from other cultures.

Most archaeologists assume goods exported to the Indus valley were perishable. The items listed in Appendix I as exports from Babylonia to the Gulf region based on textual records would bear this out if the same goods were also exported to Meluha. These most often consisted of oils (including sesame and perfumed oils), wool and textile garments, leather objects and barley. Interestingly, while we think textiles were important economic products of Indus civilization, the book reminds us that this was also the case in ancient Mesopotamia, with many pages on the major textile production center and port of Gu’abba. Did the two civilizations exchange distinctive textile products? The fact that Mesopotamian ruling clans liked to be buried with Indus goods like carnelian and lapis suggests that foreign goods were important prestige objects.

Nowhere do cultural linkages appear as clearly as in the Indus contributions sketched both here (and in other papers by Laursen) to the rise of civilization in the area centered on what is now Bahrain island. “Approximately halfway through the 21st century BC,” write the authors, “Tilmun society suddenly underwent a series of major reorganizations that are concordantly suggestive of an explosion in both social complexity and economic prosperity. . . . The temporary segregation from the Meluha trade, which Tilmun had been subjected to, comes to a conspicuous end. Most important in this respect is the introduction in Tilmun of major urban innovations associated with the organization and administration of trade, each of which clearly are inspired by the mercantile protocol of the Indus Valley civilization.”

“The first Indus-inspired circular stamp seals of “Gulf-type” appear in the layers at Qala’at al-Bahrain concurrent with the construction of the city wall ca. 2050 BC. The synchronous introduction of Indus “writing” is suggested by the occasional presence in the Gulf seals of short inscriptions written in the characters of the Indus script. The distribution of this class of inscribed ‘Gulf Type’ seals ranges as far as Babylonia in the west to Sindh and Gujarat (Dholavira) in the east. By all appearances, this first series of stamp seals native to the Gulf is connected with a league of Tilmun-associated merchants that was now actively involved in the Meluha trade.”

“The introduction of sealing technology was accompanied by the introduction of a formal weight system, as evidenced in the cubical and spherical stone weights that correspond perfectly to the standard weight units of the Harappans. In Babylonia, Tilmun’s newly adopted Meluhan weight system became known as the Tilmun norm (na Tilmun) (UET 5 796)” (p. 50).

It may be worth noting that this flowering of Indus cultural influence was followed by the decline of Indus civilization in both in the homeland and in the Gulf. Could its blossoming in Dilmun have been associated with some population of Meluhans trying to get away and establish a new presence in another place?

There are hints of Meluha participating in external conflicts – the authors note that “the conflict with Marhasi continued into the reign of Sargon’s son Rimus, who successfully fought a major Marhasian coalition, one of whose members was, very revealingly, Meluha” (p. 35). There are tantalizing references to the ancient land of “Kupin,” which may have been present-day Balochistan and the Makran coast, between Meluha and Marhasi, and could  be related to the so-called Kulli culture that preceded the Indus civilization.

However inconclusive the evidence is, there is much to be learned about the ancient Indus civilization outside of the region directly, in its relationships with other civilizations. There are many Mesopotamian texts in archives that still remain to be read that may have clues to, for example, Meluhan rulers, as all the areas around them seemed to have rulers, and why should Meluha be an exception? This book is an excellent and critical marker on the long journey of discovery ahead.

https://www.harappa.com/content/babylonia-gulf-region-and-indus-archaeological-and-textual-evidence-contact-third-and-early

Indus Seals (2600-1900 Bce) Beyond Geometry: A New Approach to Break an Old Code Kindle Edition

by Parveen Talpur  (Author), G.A. Allana (Foreword), & Subhash Kak (Foreword 2)

$27.92

A Sindhi writer and scholar examines the manifold relationships between Indus artifacts and elements of Sindhi culture that still exist or did so in the near past; she also speculates on how Indus religious traditions – like the stupa crowning the ruins of Mohenjo-daro – may have survived in later Buddhist and Jain traditions. A wide-ranging discussion that brings up a lot of issues and possible connections and points the way for further research into pre- and post- Indus practices, words and beliefs. Her emphasis on trying to find surviving threads of Indus culture in contemporary Sindh is fertile ground for investigation; she quotes the writer N.A. Baloch: "Even if we were to presume that the language of the Indus civilization had died away as a spoken language like Sumerian, Assyrian, Sanskrit, Latin and others, it must have left behind some words, names of persons and their castes or ethnic groups, names of trees, plants, herbs and shrubs, animals, household goods, and building materials. There is a possibility that some of the words used by people of the Indus Civilization could still be prevalent among the inhabitants f the remote areas of Sindh where external influences have not been in abundance." (p. 127).
Abstract
“Indus Seals (2600-1900 BCE) Beyond Geometry: A New Approach to Break an Old Code” is a pioneering work which draws attention to the languages and culture of the Indus region for a better understanding of its ancient Indus seals. The signs and symbols inscribed on the seals are considered to be an ancient script which is yet to be deciphered. However, the seals are also imbued with images of animals, humans, deities, trees and unidentifiable objects. Hence, apart from depicting the script they also symbolize an assortment of social, cultural and ideological content which requires a holistic approach for its interpretation. This book looks for clues in three latent sources to establish the socio-cultural context of the seal images: it seeks ancient words retained in the Sindhi language and relates them to the seal images; it highlights the symbols of Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism on the seals and traces the roots of the philosophy of nonviolence in ancient Indus cities; and it examines the geometric principles and patterns of seals to study the significance of geometry in the Indus Civilization. The book, through a few examples, demonstrates that these seemingly diverse means can eventually converge to present a clearer picture of a small fraction of the seal iconography. Hence, the book also emphasizes to explore more sources to understand the multiple facets of the seals. “Indus Seals (2600-1900 BCE) Beyond Geometry: A New Approach to Break an Old Code” is Talpur’s third book on the Indus Civilization. It is a companion to her last book “Moen jo Daro: Metropolis of the Indus Civilization (2600-1900 BCE)” and it is an update to her previous research covered in “Evidence of Geometry in Indus Valley Civilization,” her first book on this subject.

https://www.harappa.com/content/indus-seals-2600-1900-bce-beyond-geometry-new-approach-break-old-code

The westward transmission of Indus Valley sealing technology: origin and development of the ‘Gulf Type’ seal and other administrative technologies in Early Dilmun, c.2100–2000 BC

Steffen Terp Laursen

A very interesting and informative article that starts bringing the adjacent ancient state of Dilmun on the Arabian Gulf (many of the finds have been in present day Bahrain) to light, and what must have been a very rich trade and cultural relationship with ancient Indus cities, as we are finding Oman.
From the abstract
The Indus inscriptions on the seals are investigated with particular emphasis on the abnormal occurrence of prefixed ‘twins’ signs in the western inscriptions. The hypothesis that a language different from that of the Harappans was used on these seals is reconfirmed on the basis of a newly found seal with a particular instructive pseudo-inscription. The paper concludes that breakaway Harappans operating in the western orbit invented the Gulf Type seals but that the type from around 2050 BC became practically synonymous with the merchant communities in Dilmun.
First published in Arabian archaeology and epigraphy, 2010: 21: 96-134.

 The_westward_transmission_of_Indus_Valle.pdf

Symbols of Dilmun’s royal house – a primitive system of communication adopted from the late Indus world 

Steffen Terp Laursen

Perhaps some of the best clues to deciphering Indus seals may lie in the Arabian Gulf, where inscribed seals seem to have arrived and taken root just as they disappeared in Indus cities around 2000 BCE. "The Harappan sealing tradition, however, continued in Dilmun long after it had vanished from the Indian subcontinent and lived a vibrant life of its own," writes Steffen Laursen. Indeed, "the new sealing technology was apparently still conceived as something of a novelty by Dilmun's general public." This leads to one of the most surprising findings in Dilmun, that of "pseudo-string-and-sealing appliques" on Dilumn pottery, in other words, representations of seals and cords drawn on pottery [Images 1,2]. This is apparently found nowhere else in the world!
"Besides being a symbolic and ornamental function it is clear that they did not serve any practical purpose," writes Laursen. Although most of his careful speculations are fairly drawn from evidence, on this point one wonders whether the representations were there to remind the receiver to check for a sealing? If it is was something new, to seal pottery vessels with clay stamped token, could this not make sense? Or could they serve, as they often do now on goods, as a symbol of quality, a brand of some sort?
Laursen's paper pulls together many facts nicely, and opens the question of whether seals may have functioned similarly in ancient Indus cities and places. Fortunately in Bahrain [Dilmun], seal representations and signs have been found associated with royal burial mounds, allowing him to relate some signs to temple institutions or offering stands, with the palm strand in particular playing a role in a royal inscription that can be translated as "Palace of Rimum, servant of Inzak of Agaru(m)," with Rimum possibly being a local ruler, Inzak the local deity, and "Agaru(m) the indigenous name used for Dilmun or parts thereof." (p. 15).
This seems entirely reasonable – look at the economic prowess of temples and shrines today in the subcontinent. Business is a matter of relationships, enforced privileges, ownership of land and of manufacturing facilities, then and now, and these were likely communicated through seals and sealings. An excellent read.
Originally published in Arabian archaeology and epigraphy 2016: 27: 2-18.

 Laursen-2016-Arabian_Archaeology_and_Epigraphy.pdf

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• The Story of the Gulf Type Indus Seal

May 23rd, 2017

A very interesting paper by Steffen Terp Laursen, an expert on Dilmun, or the civilization in Bahrain contemporaneous with the ancient Indus civilization, suggests that the round, so-called [Arabian] "Gulf seal", often found with Indus signs and creatures like the short-horned bull and standard, developed from ancient Indus seals and representatives moving westward. Later these types of seals followed their own development trajectory and their Indus iconography. The westward transmission of Indus Valley sealing technology: origin and development of the ‘Gulf Type’ seal and other administrative technologies in Early Dilmun, c.2100–2000 BC is a fascinating example of how, once again, very careful analysis, indeed microanalysis of even small objects like seals, can indicate different styles and traditions that speak to larger issues like different maker communities or craftsmen. They shed light on how a technology and style moves across place and time, changing along the way to fit a different cultural equation. It also reinforces the great likelihood that seals in the ancient Indus, just like in neighbouring civilizations in Mesopotamia and Dilmun with whom Indus traders interacted, were primarily economic instruments.

Laursen writes of the Gulf seal, which "come from a vast geographical area encompassing Bahrain, the Indus Valley (Mohenjo-daro and Chanh-Daro), Iran (Kerman, Luristan, Susa and the eastern Iranian plateau), Kuwait (Falaika), Mesopotamia (Ur, Girsu, Babylon and others unspecified) and the U.A.E. (Tell Apraq)," that "the Indus inscriptions on the seals are investigated with particular emphasis on the abnormal occurrence of prefixed ‘twins’ signs in the western inscriptions. The hypothesis that a language different from that of the Harappans was used on these seals is reconfirmed on the basis of a newly found seal with a particular instructive pseudo-inscription. The writer "concludes that breakaway Harappans operating in the western orbit invented the Gulf Type seals but that the type from around 2050 BC became practically synonymous with the merchant communities in Dilmun."

The paper lists all of the Gulf seals found, including a number of new ones, and meticulously goes through the research, the facts known about them and how this could fit into the political and economic trajectory of the area. Laursen is the co-author of the forthcoming (this month!) Babylonia, the Gulf Region and the Indus, which looks like it will be a new, comprehensive study of the evidence around Indus contacts with sister civilizations.

https://www.harappa.com/blog/story-gulf-type-indus-seal

Ancient Indus Weights

July 3rd, 2017

"The weights are precisely made, well polished and systematic (though unfortunately not inscribed with any Indus characters, which would have helped scholars to decipher the script's numerical system). Unique in the ancient world, the Indus weight system does not correspond to any of the weight systems used in Mesopotamia or Egypt. It has left a remarkable legacy in India. It provided the weight standards for the earliest Indian coins, issued in the seventh century BC. It was identical with the system used by the first Gangetic kingdoms around 300 BC (just prior to the reign of Asoka). And it still functions, in the third millennium AD, for weighing small quantities in traditional markets in both Pakistan and India." (Andrew Robinson, The Indus, p. 64).
Indus weight images copyright and courtesy Jameel Center for Islamic and Asian Art, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
https://www.harappa.com/blog/ancient-indus-weights
Steffen terp Laursen

Curator, Moesgaard Museum, Denmark

Bekræftet e-mail på moesgaardmuseum.dk
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=l_Cwd9IAAAAJ&hl=da


 Target Online publication November 2017 ISBN 9781108160186

Edited by Sarah Jarmer Scott, Wagner College , Sarah Kielt Costello, University of Houston-Clear Lake , Marta Ameri, Colby College, Maine , Gregg Jamison, University of Wisconsin-Waukesha

Book description

Studies of seals and sealing practices have traditionally investigated aspects of social, political, economic, and ideological systems in ancient societies throughout the Old World. Previously, scholarship has focused on description and documentation, chronology and dynastic histories, administrative function, iconography, and style. More recent studies have emphasized context, production and use, and increasingly, identity, gender, and the social lives of seals, their users, and the artisans who produced them. Using several methodological and theoretical perspectives, this volume presents up-to-date research on seals that is comparative in scope and focus. The cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approach advances our understanding of the significance of an important class of material culture of the ancient world. The volume will serve as an essential resource for scholars, students, and others interested in glyptic studies, seal production and use, and sealing practices in the Ancient Near East, Egypt, Ancient South Asia and the Aegean during the 4th-2nd Millennia BCE.

Article by Steffen Terp Laursen, SEALS AND SEALING TECHNOLOGY IN THE DILMUN CULTURE: THE POST-HARAPPAN LIFE OF THE INDUS VALLEY SEALING TRADITION

Abstract

The seals and sealing of the Dilmun Culture represent one of the most understudied glyptic traditions of the old world. Based on the extant data from the Early Dilmun period (ca. 2250–1650 BCE) the present contribution provides an introduction to the all-pervasive “Gulf” and “Dilmun Type” stamp seals and evaluates the range of their chronological and geographical distribution. Above all, Bronze Age Dilmun is seen as a key context for understanding the sealing traditions of the Old World because it represent a melting pot in which hybrid forms of glyptic art developed under the influence of her major trade partners in the Indus Valley, Babylonia, and beyond. In the present study, rectangular Dilmun seals and cylinder seals carved in the Dilmun style are investigated as cardinal examples in Dilmun art of such creative translations. The study additionally introduces evidence that applies to the symbolic and practical function of the seals as bureaucratic devices in an ideological and administrative system. The latter includes impression on sealings and cuneiform tablets but also address a small group of so-called tokens stamped with Dilmun-related seals, and sealing symbolism expressed on pottery vessels.

https://moesmus.academia.edu/SteffenTerpLaursen

Epigraphia Indus Script documents accounting/trading entries of Tin-Bronze Age metalwork wealth-creating activities of artisans and seafaring Meluhha merchants. See: Epigraphia Indus Script – Hypertexts & Meanings (3 Volumes) by S. Kalyanaraman (2017)

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Śri Kr̥ṣṇa, Śri Balarāma on Al Khanoum ancient coins with Indus Script hypertexts signify wealth of a nation

October 29, 2017, 11:40 pm

≫ Next: Copper anthropomorphs 3rd millennium BCE, are calling cards of tāmrikā, brazier coppersmiths, meḍh, 'seafaring merchants'

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https://tinyurl.com/y979p38z

This is a tribute to Paul Bernard, Remy Audouin, Osmund Bopearacchi who have contributed to the identification of worship of Kr̥ṣṇa Vāsudeva कृष्ण-वासुदेव, Sankarṣaṇa Balarāma सङ्कर्षण बलराम, by Greek kings of 2nd century BCE on ancient coins from Al Khanoum, Afghanistan. 

Kr̥ṣṇa Vāsudeva कृष्ण-वासुदेव, Sankarṣaṇa Balarāma सङ्कर्षण बलराम are artisans with expertise in metalwork and farmwork and signifiers of creation of wealth of the nation. Ancient Arthaśāstra (Economic history) in  Bhāratīya Itihāsa from 4th millennium BCE, from the time Indus Script signifiers documented wealth-creation has to be retold to explain why Ancient India accounted for 32% of the world GDP (pace Angus Maddison).

The coins dug up by Paul Bernard and the French archaeological team (embedded summary report) signify Indus Script hypertexts in the context of cataloguing wealth production in mints and metallurgical competence of metalworkers of the Bronze Age. This validates the claim made elsewhere that almost all punch-marked coin symbols are Indus Script hypertexts to signify such wealth accounting ledgers.

The roles of Kr̥ṣṇa Vāsudeva कृष्ण-वासुदेव, Sankarṣaṇa Balarāma सङ्कर्षण बलराम in Bhāratīya Itihāsa are documented in the ancient text narratives of Mahābhārata. In 200+ ślokas of śalyaparvan, the pariyātrā of Sankarṣaṇa Balarāma is detailed. During this pilgrimage journey for 42 days from Prabhasa (Somnath) to Plakṣapraśravaṇa (Himalayan glacier source of Vedic River Sarasvati near Har-ki-dun), he meets with his youngr brother Kr̥ṣṇa Vāsudeva कृष्ण-वासुदेव. Together they watch the gadāyuddha, between Duryodhana and Bhīma. Sankarṣaṇa Balarāma सङ्कर्षण बलराम informs Kr̥ṣṇa Vāsudeva कृष्ण-वासुदेव that he would not participate in the ongoing war and returns to Dwārakā (Bet Dwāraka) in Gujarat Rann of Kutch. The witnesses to the gadāyuddha are enshrined in a sculptural monument of Angkor Wat. (The monument taken to USA was returned in 2016).

Source: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/art-crime/0/steps/11862

The reality of Vedic River Sarasvati has been established and Veda roots of the seafaring merchants and artisans have been validated with the discovery.of Binjor yajnakuṇḍa with an aṣṭāśri Yūpa and inscribed Indus Script seals documenting wealth-creating metalwork catalogues.

 Binjor Yūpa, Binjor seal

The hypertexts identified from Al Khanoum coins are: 1. phaḍa'cobra hood'; 2. kaṇī 'pupil of eye',kaṇa, °ṇā ʻeye of seed'; 3. hala'ploughshare'. 

These are also read as Rajane in Brahmi as on another Agathocles coin:

Coin of Agathokles, king of Bactria (ca. 200–145 BC). British Museum.

Inscriptions in Greek. Upper left and down: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ (VASILEOS AGATHOKLEOUS)

Rev Lakshmi, a Goddess of abundance and fortune for Hindus & Buddhists, with Brahmi legend Rajane Agathukleyasasa "King Agathocles".

An six-arched hill symbolsurmounted by a star.Kharoṣṭhī legend Akathukreyasa "Agathocles". Tree-in-railing, Kharoṣṭhīlegend Hirañasame (Monnaies Gréco-Bactriennes et Indo-Grecques, Bopearachchi, p.176) The symbols used together with Kharoṣṭhī legends are Indus script hypertexts: dang 'hill range' rebus: dhangar 'blacksmith' med 'polar star' rebus: med 'iron'; khaṇḍa 'divisions' rebus: kaṇḍa 'equipment', kolom 'three' kolmo 'rice plant' rebus; kolimi 'smithy. Thus, the hypertexts signify the metallurgical competence of the mint with smithy/forge working in iron and metal implements. Hence, the message 'hiranasame' which means 'wealth like gold' (of the mintwork and products from the mint).
Coin of Agathocles of Bactria.Obv: Arched hills surmounted by a star (Read as Indus Script hypertexts:dang 'hill range' rebus: dhangar 'blacksmith' med 'polar star' rebus: med 'iron') . Rev: Trisula symbol, Kharoshthi legend HITAJASAME "Good-fame-possessing" (lit. meaning of "Agathocles").Source: From "Coins of the Indo-Greeks", Whitehead, 1914 edition, Public Domain. The mint of Al Khanoum proclaims its wealth-producing metallurgical repertoire on the Indus Script messageon the coin.

'ra' 'ja''na' (Brāhmī syllabic symbols)

Coin of Agathocles
'Obv Balarama-Samkarshana with Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ.( VASILEOS AGATHOKLEOUS)

Rev Vasudeva-Krishna with Brahmi legend Rajane Agathukleyasasa "King Agathocles". https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Agathocles_of_Bactria

While accepting 'rajane' as a valid Brāhmī reading on the coin, I suggest an alternative reading for the Brahmi syllabic sequence of the word  'rajane'. treating the 3 symbols on the right side of the coin as Indus Script hypertexts, because the symbol for 'ja' is not clear as a symbol on the Al Khanoum coin signifying Śri Kr̥ṣṇa, Śri Balarāma..

The symbol used is more like 'pupil of the eye' (which is NOT a Brahmi syllable)..

The rebus renderings in Indus Script cipher and meanings are:

 1. phaḍa'cobra hood' rebus: phaḍa फड 'manufactory, company, guild',  paṭṭaḍi'metals workshop'.

2. kaṇī 'pupil of eye', kaṇa, °ṇā ʻeye of seed' PLUS vr̥tta'circle' rebus: kampaṭṭam, kaṇvaṭṭam, 'mint, coiner, coinage' கண்வட்டம் kaṇ-vaṭṭam , n. < id. +. 1. Range of vision, eye-sweep, full reach of one's observation; கண்பார்வைக்குட்பட்ட இடம். தங்கள் கண்வட்டத்திலே உண்டுடுத்துத்திரிகிற (ஈடு, 3, 5, 2). 2. Mint;நாணயசாலை. கண்வட்டக்கள்ளன் (ஈடு.).  Ta. kampaṭṭam coinage, coin. Ma. kammaṭṭam, kammiṭṭam coinage, mint. Ka. kammaṭa id.; kammaṭi a coiner. (DEDR 1236)

 PLUS 

The hypertext composed of two combined hieroglyphs (spoked wheel with sharp edges or fish-fin endings on spokes) PLUS pupil of eye are read together. The ligatured spoked wheel is: vaṭṭa PLUS arā, i.e. circle PLUS spokes PLUS ayo 'fish' rebus: aya 'iron' ayas 'alloy metal' PLUS khambhaṛā 'fish fin' rebus: kammaṭa,'mint, coiner, coinage'. Thus, together, the unique orthography of the spoked wheel is read as: ayo kammaṭa vaṭṭhara'alloy metal mint, exclusive area of community, enclosed piece of ground earmarked for metal-, mint-work'.  वठार (p. 423) vaṭhāra m C A ward or quarter of a town. वाडगें (p. 433) vāḍagēṃ n (Dim. of वाडी) A small yard or enclosure (esp. around a ruined house or where there is no house). वाडा (p. 433) vāḍā m (वाट or वाटी S) A stately or large edifice, a mansion, a palace. Also in comp. as राज- वाडा A royal edifice; सरकारवाडा Any large and public building. 2 A division of a town, a quarter, a ward. Also in comp. as देऊळवाडा, ब्राह्मण- वाडा, गौळीवाडा, चांभारवाडा, कुंभारवाडा (Marathi) Shown together with the pratimā  of  कृष्ण-वासुदेव , the hypertext is read as: cakrā yudha 'discus weapon' and ayo kammaṭa vaṭṭhara 'alloy mint quarter of town'. For orthographic variants of the spoked-wheel on thousands of punch-marked coins, see: Vajra and Indus Script ivory hypertexts on a seal, ivory artifacts
https://tinyurl.com/y85goask
3. hala'ploughshare' Cognate Meluhha phonetic forms: araka a plough with bullocks, etc. complete. Malt. are a plough. (DEDR 198) hal 'plough' (Santali) phāla [mod. Ind. phār] 'ploughshare'. It is possible that a hieroglyph (apart from the orthographic shape of the plough) which signifies the word is: pāla, 'rice seedling' (Kui). I suggest that on the coin, this symbol signifies phāla 'ploughshare' (which is a semantic expansion of araka, hala'plough handle').
 

The other hieroglyphs on the Al Khanoum coins of Kr̥ṣṇa Vāsudeva, Sankarṣaṇa Balarāma are: musala 'pestle', śankha 'conch', chhatra'parasol', पट्टा (p. 273) paṭṭā m ( H) A kind of sword. It is long, twoedged, and has a hilt protecting the whole fore arm. Applied also to a wooden sword for practice and sports. This signifier is also read as a semantic determinative rebus:  phaḍa फड 'manufactory, company, guild'; paṭṭaḍi 'metals workshop'.

These hypertexts and their meanings are posited and a framework indicated for Economic narrative of wealth-creation in Bhāratīya Itihāsa from 4th millennium BCE.

Pāṇini  and Patañjali mention temples which were called prāsāda-s. This word in Pali is pāsāda, pasada as in lohapasada, 'palace of metal'. prāsāda m. ʻ lofty seat or terrace ʼ ŚāṅkhŚr., ʻ lofty mansion ʼ MBh. [√sad?]

Pa. pāsāda -- m. ʻ lofty platform, terrace, high building ʼ; Pk. pāsāya -- m. ʻ palace ʼ; Si. pahaya, pāya ʻ mansion, palace ʼ. (CDIAL 8971)

The right-most glyph on line 2 of the seal impression is a 'plough' circumscribed by four 'splinter' glyphs. The plough is decoded rebus: Glyph: மேழி mēḻi , n. cf. mēdhi. [T. K. M. mēḍi.] 1. Plough; கலப்பை. வினைப்பக டேற்ற மேழி (புறநா. 388). 2. Plough-tail, handle of a plough; கலப்பையின் கைப்பிடி. மேழி பிடிக்குங் கை (திருக்கைவழக்கம், 22).Ta. mēr̤i plough, plough-tail, handle of a plough; mēr̤iyar agriculturalists. Ma. mēr̤i, mēññal ploughtail. Ko. me·y handle of plough. Ka. mēṭi, mēṇi plough-tail. Te. mē̃ḍi, (K.) mēḍi hind part or handle of a plough. Konḍa mēṛi plough handle, plough-tail. Kuwi (F.) mēri plough handle; (Isr.) mēṛi id., plough. (DEDR 5097).Compare with plough used by Sumerians.

Ta. araka a plough with bullocks, etc. complete. Malt. are a plough. (DEDR 198) Ka. maḍike a kind of harrow or rake. Te. maḍãka plough with bullocks complete. (DEDR 4656) Ta. ñāñcil, nāñcil plough. Ma. ñēṅṅōl, nēññil plough-shaft. Ko. ne·lg plough. Ka. nēgal, nēgil, nēgila id. Koḍ. ne·ŋgi id. Tu. nāyerů id. Kor. (T.) nēveri id. Te. nã̄gali, nã̄gelu, nã̄gēlu id. Kol. na·ŋgli, (Kin.) nāŋeliid. Nk. nāŋgar id. Nk. (Ch.) nāŋgar id. Pa. nã̄gil id. Ga. (Oll.) nāŋgal, (S.) nāngal id. Go. (W.) nāṅgēl, (A. SR.) nāngyal, (G. Mu. M. Ko.) nāŋgel, (Y.) nāŋgal, (Ma.) nāŋgili (pl. nāŋgisku) id. (Voc. 1956); (ASu.) nāynāl, (Koya Su.) nāṅēl, nāyṅēl id. Konḍa nāŋgel id. Pe. nāŋgel id. Manḍ. nēŋgel id. Kui nāngeli id. Kuwi (F.) nangelli ploughshare; (Isr.) nāŋgeli plough. / Cf. Skt. lāṅgala-, Pali naṅgala- plough; Mar. nã̄gar, H. nã̄gal, Beng. nāṅgal id., etc.; Turner, CDIAL, no. 11006.(DEDR 2907)  lāˊṅgala n. ʻ plough ʼ RV. [→ Ir. dial of Lar in South Persia liṅgṓr ʻ plough ʼ Morgenstierne. -- Initial n -- in all Drav. forms (DED 2368); PMWS 127 derives both IA. and Drav. words from Mu. sources] Pa. naṅgala -- n. ʻ plough ʼ, Pk. laṁgala -- , ṇa°, ṇaṁgara<-> n. (ṇaṁgala -- n.m. also ʻ beak ʼ); WPah.bhad. nã̄ṅgal n. ʻ wooden sole of plough ʼ; B. lāṅal, nā° ʻ plough ʼ, Or. (Sambhalpur) nã̄gar, Bi.mag. lã̄gal; Mth. nã̄gano ʻ handle of plough ʼ; H. nã̄gal, nāgal, °ar m. ʻ plough ʼ, M. nã̄gar, °gor, nāgār, °gor m., Si. nan̆gul, nagala, nagula. -- Gy. eur. nanari ʻ comb ʼ (LM 357) very doubtful.lāṅgalin -- .Addenda: lāṅgala -- : A. lāṅgal ʻ plough ʼ(CDIAL 11006)lāṅgūlá (lāṅgula -- Pañcat., laṅgula -- lex.) n. ʻ tail ʼ ŚāṅkhŚr., adj. ʻ having a tail ʼ MBh., ʻ penis ʼ lex. 2. *lāṅguṭa -- . 3. *lāṅguṭṭa -- . 4. *lāṅguṭṭha -- . 5. *lēṅgula -- . 6. *lēṅguṭṭa -- . [Cf. lañja -- 2. -- Variety of form attests non -- Aryan origin: PMWS 112 (with lakuṭa -- ) ← Mu., J. Przyluski BSL 73, 119 ← Austro<-> as.] 1. Pa. laṅgula -- , na° n. ʻ tail ʼ, Pk. laṁgūla -- , °gōla -- , ṇaṁgūla -- , °gōla -- n.; Paš. laṅgūn n. ʻ penis ʼ; K. laṅgūr m. ʻ the langur monkey Semnopithecus schistaceus ʼ; P. lãgur, lag° m. ʻ monkey ʼ; Ku. lãgūr ʻ long -- tailed monkey ʼ; N. laṅgur ʻ monkey ʼ; B. lāṅgul ʻ tail ʼ, Or. laṅgūḷa, lāṅguḷa; H. lagūl, °ūr m. ʻ tail ʼ, laṅgūr m. ʻ longtailed black -- faced monkey ʼ; Marw. lagul ʻ penis ʼ; G. lãgur, °ul (l?) m. ʻ tail, monkey ʼ, lãguriyũ n. ʻ tail ʼ; Ko. māṅguli ʻ penis ʼ (m -- from māṅgo ʻ id. ʼ < mātaṅga -- ?); Si. nagula ʻ tail ʼ, Md. nagū.2. Or. lāṅguṛa, nā° ʻ tail ʼ, nāuṛa ʻ sting of bee or scorpion ʼ (< *nāṅuṛa?); Mth. lã̄gaṛ, nāgṛi ʻ tail ʼ; M. nã̄goḍā, nã̄gāḍā, nã̄gḍā, nã̄gā m. ʻ scorpion's tail ʼ. 3. Sh.jij. laṅuṭi ʻ tail ʼ, Si. nan̆guṭa, nag°, nakuṭa. -<-> X lamba -- 1: Phal. lamḗṭi, Sh.koh. lamŭṭo m., gur. lamōṭṷ m. 4. Pa. naṅguṭṭha -- n. ʻ tail ʼ. 5. A. negur ʻ tail ʼ, B. leṅguṛ. 6. Aw.lakh. nẽgulā ʻ the only boy amongst the girls fed on 9th day of Āśvin in honour of Devī ʼ. Addenda: lāṅgūlá -- [T. Burrow BSOAS xxxviii 65, comparing lāṅgula -- ~ Pa. nȧguṭṭha -- with similar aṅgúli -- ~ aṅgúṣṭha -- , derives < IE. *loṅgulo -- (√leṅg ʻ bend, swing ʼ IEW 676)]

1. Md. nagū (nagulek) ʻ tail ʼ (negili ʻ anchor ʼ?). (CDIAL 11009)

ala 3 अल । हलम् (for ala 1 and 2 see al 1 and 2), f. a plough. Cf. āla.-böñü -बा&above;ञू&below; । हलदण्डः f. the main beam of a plough (Śiv. 1531), cf. al-böñü (s.v.); (?) a goad; hal 1 हल् । हलम् m. (sg. abl. hala 1 हल), a plough. A plough and a pestle are the weapons of Balarāma, the brother of Kṛṣṇa (K. 99), and also (Śiv. 13, 116) of the elephant-god Gȧnish or Gaṇēśa. (Kashmiri)

پاله pālaʿh, s.f. (3rd) A kind of plough-share. Pl. يْ ey. See سسپار ; پولک pū-lak, s.m. (2nd) A kind of double wedge for fastening the iron ploughshare to the frame of a plough. Pl. پولکونه pū-lakūnah; S هل hal, s.m. (2nd) The handle of a plough, a plough. Pl. هلونه halūnah. See یویه.(Pashto)

Cp. Balūčī nangār] a plough S i.115; iii.155; A iii.64; Sn 77 (yuga˚ yoke & plough); Sn p. 13; J i.57; Th 2, 441 (=sīra ThA 270); SnA 146; VvA 63, 65; PvA 133 (dun˚ hard to plough); DhA i.223 (aya˚); iii.67 (id.).
   -- īsā the beam of a plough S i.104 (of an elephant's trunk); -- kaṭṭhakaraṇa ploughing S v.146=J ii.59; -- phāla [mod. Ind. phār] ploughshare (to be understood as Dvandva) DhA i.395. (Pali)

Santali glosses

The word for 'hoe' in Sumerian: al 'hoe'. "The hoe (al), the implement whose destiny was fixed by father Enlil -- the renowned hoe (al)! Nisaba be praised!"

http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section5/tr554.htm

Part of yoke of a plough: "Stambha (also spelled as Skambha) - is used to denote pillar or column. In the context of Jain & Hindu mythology, it is believed to be a cosmic column which functions as a bond, which joins the heaven (Svarga) and the earth (Prithvi). A number of Hindu scriptures, including the Atharva Veda, have references to Stambha. In the Atharva Veda, a celestial stambha has been described as an infinite scaffold, which supports the cosmos and material creation." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stambha skambhá1 m. ʻ prop, pillar ʼ RV. 2. ʻ *pit ʼ (semant. cf. kūˊpa -- 1). [√skambh] 1. Pa. khambha -- m. ʻ prop ʼ; Pk. khaṁbha -- m. ʻ post, pillar ʼ; Pr. iškyöp, üšköb ʻ bridge ʼ NTS xv 251; L. (Ju.) khabbā m., mult. khambbā m. ʻ stake forming fulcrum for oar ʼ; P. khambh, khambhā, khammhā m. ʻ wooden prop, post ʼ; WPah.bhal. kham m. ʻ a part of the yoke of a plough ʼ, (Joshi) khāmbā m. ʻ beam, pier ʼ; Ku. khāmo ʻ a support ʼ, gng. khām ʻ pillar (of wood or bricks) ʼ; N. khã̄bo ʻ pillar, post ʼ, B. khām, khāmbā; Or. khamba ʻ post, stake ʼ; Bi. khāmā ʻ post of brick -- crushing machine ʼ, khāmhī ʻ support of betel -- cage roof ʼ, khamhiyā ʻ wooden pillar supporting roof ʼ; Mth. khāmh, khāmhī ʻ pillar, post ʼ, khamhā ʻ rudder -- post ʼ; Bhoj. khambhā ʻ pillar ʼ, khambhiyā ʻ prop ʼ; OAw. khāṁbhe m. pl. ʻ pillars ʼ, lakh. khambhā; H. khām m. ʻ post, pillar, mast ʼ, khambh f. ʻ pillar, pole ʼ; G. khām m. ʻ pillar ʼ, khã̄bhi, °bi f. ʻ post ʼ, M. khã̄b m., Ko. khāmbho, °bo, Si. kap (< *kab); -- X gambhīra -- , sthāṇú -- , sthūˊṇā -- qq.v.2. K. khambürü f. ʻ hollow left in a heap of grain when some is removed ʼ; Or. khamā ʻ long pit, hole in the earth ʼ, khamiā ʻ small hole ʼ; Marw. khã̄baṛo ʻ hole ʼ; G. khã̄bhũ n. ʻ pit for sweepings and manure ʼ.*skambhaghara -- , *skambhākara -- , *skambhāgāra -- , *skambhadaṇḍa -- ; *dvāraskambha -- .Addenda: skambhá -- 1: Garh. khambu ʻ pillar ʼ.(CDIAL 13639)  *skambhadaṇḍa ʻ pillar pole ʼ. [skambhá -- 1, daṇḍá -- ]Bi. kamhãṛ, kamhaṛ, kamhaṇḍā ʻ wooden frame suspended from roof which drives home the thread in a loom ʼ. (CDIAL 13642) Rebus: Ta. kampaṭṭam coinage, coin. Ma. kammaṭṭam, kammiṭṭam coinage, mint. Ka. kammaṭa id.; kammaṭi a coiner. (DEDR 1236)

Hieorglyph:Pa. palla, pāla seedlings. Ga. (S.2) palle rice seedling. Konḍa pala (pl. paleŋ) seedlings for transplantation. Pe. pāṛa seedling. Kui plaha id. Kuwi (Su. Isr.) pāla, (Ṭ.) pala rice seedling. / Cf. Halbi pāla seedling, and Turner, CDIAL, no. 7969, pallava-.

 (DEDR 3996) pallava1 m.n. ʻ sprout, twig, blossom ʼ MBh.

Pa. pallava -- n. ʻ sprout ʼ, Pk. pallava -- m. ʻ sprout, leaf ʼ; Phal. palāˊ m. ʻ leaf ʼ; S. palī f. ʻ leaves of gram and peas (used as vegetable) ʼ; L. pallī f. ʻ green leaves of gram (similarly used) ʼ, P. pallhī f.; Ku. pālo ʻ vegetation ʼ, paluwā ʻ new shoots of trees (used as fodder) ʼ; N. pāluwā ʻ sprig, shoot ʼ; B. pālā ʻ twig, bundle of twigs ʼ; Or. pa(h)lā ʻ tiny hut made of leaves ʼ (rather than < pallī -- 1), (Ganjam) ʻ seedling ʼ; Bi. pallā, (SMunger) palaī ʻ leaf of the yoke of a plough ʼ, (N of Ganges) pālo ʻ yoke of a plough ʼ, Mth. pālā (semant. cf. páttra -- in Bi.); OAw. pālava ʻ sprout ʼ; H. pālau, °lā, palhā m. ʻ twig, tender leaves, leaves of jujube tree ʼ (whence ālā -- pālā m. ʻ leaves ʼ), palwā m. ʻ sprouts of sugarcane used for planting ʼ, palaī f. ʻ young branch or spray of a tree ʼ; G. pālav, °lɔ m. ʻ tuft of foliage ʼ, pālũ n. ʻ temporary shed of leaves ʼ, pāl m. ʻ tender shoots ʼ (?); M. pālav, °lā m. ʻ tuft of foliage, sprout ʼ, pālẽ n. ʻ foliage ʼ, pālvā m. ʻ green stick plucked from hedge ʼ, pālvī f. ʻ the sprouting of plants ʼ; Ko. pāllo ʻ sprout, bud ʼ, Si. palla, pl. palu.pallavayati.Addenda: pallava -- 1 [IE. *petlawos: √pet ʻ to spread out ʼ cf. Gk. pe/talon ʻ leaf, metal plate ʼ Burrow Tau vii 458]S.kcch. palī f. ʻ matted foliage of the jujube tree ʼ; WPah.poet. paulo m. ʻ leaf, bud, sprout ʼ, kṭg. paulṭi f. ʻ shoot of a tree ʼ.(CDIAL 7969)

Poughshare: phāˊla1 m. ʻ ploughshare ʼ RV., ʻ mattock ʼ R. [Cf. phala -- 5 n. ʻ ploughshare ʼ lex.: prob. conn. phálati2. Poss. < *spāla -- ~ Ir. *spāra -- in Pers. supār, Sar. spur (EVP 68). If so, it may have been influenced by Mu. or Drav. to account for early ph -- (cmpds. also show -- ph -- , not -- pph -- ): EWA ii 397 with lit. -- √phal]

Pa. Pk. phāla -- m.n. ʻ ploughshare ʼ, Wg. pāl, Kt. pōl, Dm. phal, Tir. phāl, Paš.chil. kuṛ. phāl, ar. āl -- päṛīˊ (halá -- ), Shum. phāl, ā̤l -- phäleik, Gaw. phāl, Kho. phal, Bshk. Tor. phāl, Sv. phal, Phal. phōl, Sh.pales. phāl; K. phāl m. ʻ ploughshare, metal blade of mattock &c. ʼ (cf. phal < phala -- 2); S. phāru m. ʻ ploughshare, steel edge of a tool ʼ; L. phālā m. ʻ ploughshare ʼ, awāṇ. phāl, P. phālā m., °lī f. ʻ small do. ʼ, WPah.bhal. phāl f., jaun. phāwā, (Joshi) fāḷā m., Ku. phālo, gng. phāw, N. phāli, A. B. phāl, Or. phāḷa, (Bastar) phāra, Bi. phār, Mth. phār, °rā, phālā, Bhoj. phār, H. phāl, °lā m., °lī f., phār, °rā m., M. phāḷ m.
*phālaghara -- ; *ardhaphāla -- , *dārvaphālaka -- , *niṣphālika -- , *baddhaphāla -- , *halaphāla -- .
Addenda: phāˊla -- 1: †*lōhaphāla -- . (CDIAL 9072)  †*lōhaphāla -- ʻ ploughshare ʼ. [lōhá -- , phāˊla -- 1]
WPah.kṭg. lhwāˋḷ m. ʻ ploughshare ʼ, J. lohāl m. ʻ an agricultural implement ʼ Him.I 197; -- or < †*lōhahala -- .(CDIAL 11160a)

Point of ploughshare: dhāˊrā2 f. ʻ sharp edge, rim, blade ʼ RV., ʻ edge of mountain ʼ lex.

Pa. Pk. dhārā -- f. ʻ edge of weapon ʼ; NiDoc. cliuradhara ʻ knife -- blade ʼ; Ash. Wg. dā ʻ mountain, pass ʼ, Kt. då (→ Pr. dō NTS xv 257); Dm. dâr ʻ hill ʼ, Paš. dhār, Shum. Niṅg. dār, Woṭ. dār m., Gaw. d'ār f. (→ Kho. dahār ʻ ridge of hill ʼ Rep2 49), Sv. dhārē, Sh. (Lor.) dār ʻ ridge of hill ʼ; K. dār f. ʻ edge or point of weapon or tool ʼ, kash. dhār f. ʻ hill ʼ; S. dhāra f. ʻ edge of weapon or tool ʼ; L. dhār f. ʻ edge ʼ; P. dhār f. ʻ edge of weapon, ridge of mountain ʼ, bhaṭ. dhār ʻ hill ʼ; WPah. bhad. bhal. cur. dhār f. ʻ hill ʼ, khaś. (obl.) dhāra; Ku. dhār ʻ edge, ridge, summit of hill ʼ, dhāri ʻ edge, mouth (of mill) ʼ; N. dhār ʻ edge, blade of knife, cliff ʼ (whence dhārilo ʻ sharp ʼ); A. dhār ʻ edge of weapon, blade ʼ (whence dharāiba ʻ to sharpen ʼ), dhāri ʻ line, row ʼ; B. dhār ʻ edge, sharpness of a blade ʼ, dhāri ʻ edge, edge of mud veranda ʼ; Or. dhāra ʻ blade ʼ; Bi. dhār ʻ edge or point of ploughshare ʼ, dhārī ʻ deep furrow ʼ; Mth. dhār ʻ line ʼ; Bhoj. dhār ʻ curved blade of mattock ʼ; OAw. dhārī ʻ line ʼ; H. dhār f. ʻ edge, line, boundary ʼ, dhārī f. ʻ line, groove ʼ; G. M. dhār f. ʻ edge of tool, brink ʼ; Ko. dhāra ʻ sharpness ʼ; Si. daraya ʻ edge, sharpness ʼ. -- Kal.rumb. dar ʻ ridge -- pole ʼ or poss. < dāˊru -- 2.

*dhārāmr̥ttikā -- ; *ēkkadhāra -- , *caturdhāra -- , tīkṣṇadhāra -- , *tridhāra -- , *dārvadhāraka -- , *dudhāra -- , *pr̥ṣṭhadhāra -- , *māṁsadhārā -- , *sītādhārā -- .
Addenda: dhāˊrā -- 2: WPah.kṭg. (kc.) dhāˋr f. ʻ edge, mountain ridge ʼ, J. dhā'r f.; -- kṭg. dhàrkɔ ʻ steep, curved ʼ; dhàrṭi, dhàṭṭi f. ʻ ridge of a hill ʼ; Md. dāra ʻ edge ʼ ← G. M. dhār f. (CDIAL 6793)

The seed plough was an invention of the Sumerians and is seen prominent in various cylindrical seals. It was called by Sumerians "gis.apin", (seed plough),

http://nuwaupianism.com/360-questions/wrong-knowledge/374-ask-the-nuwaupians-about-va-243

Compare with Greek plough.

Nisaba, Master Scribe & Goddess of Grains

Plough shown on Sumerian cylinder seals.

http://www.mesopotamiangods.com/the-debate-between-the-hoe-and-the-plow-translation/

Isidore, the farm labourer's plough

Isidore the Farm Labourer, also known as Isidore the Farmer, (Spanish: San Isidro Labrador), (c. 1070 – 15 May 1130) was a Spanish farmworker known for his piety toward the poor and animals. He is the Catholic patron saint of farmers and of Madrid and of La Ceiba, Honduras. His feast day is celebrated on 15 May. Thi plough was discovered by Subhas Chandra Bose (Netaji).

http://warehouse-13-artifact-database.wikia.com/wiki/Isidore_the_Laborer%E2%80%99s_Plough

"William Smith in 1875 decribes the ARATRUM a plow developed in Greece that "was by taking a young tree with two branches proceeding from its trunk in opposite directions, so that whilst in ploughing the trunk was made to serve for the pole, one of the two branches stood upwards and became the tail, and the other penetrated the ground, and, being covered sometimes with bronze or iron, fulfilled the purpose of a share.""

Compare with plough shown on Balarama image on a coin.

Sankarsana, the wielder of the plough, with the fan-palm as his emblem. Silver drachm of the Greco-Bactrian king Agathocles (190-180 BCE)found in the excavations at Al-Khanuram in Afghanistan. 

Modern photo showing an Indian plough.

Ploughing and sowing. Warli painting (detail) Maharashtra.Source: http://ignca.nic.in/ex025005.htm

Harappa. h0146 seal.

m0357

m0357 Text 1401  The 'fish' on this text and on a tablet (together with crocodile) seem to focus on the fins of fish and hence, signify. khambhaṛā ʻfinʼ rebus: kammaṭṭam, kammiṭṭam coinage, mint.

Reading of Text 1401: karaNika 'rim of jar' rebus: karNi 'supercargo' bhaTa 'warrior' rebus: bhaTa 'furnace' goTa 'round' rebus: khoTa 'ingot' PLUS kolom 'rice plant' rebus: kolami 'smithy, forge' tutha 'goad' rebus: tutha 'pewter' PLUS kolom 'three' rebus: kolami 'smithy, forge' khambhaṛā ʻfinʼ rebus: kammaṭṭam, kammiṭṭam coinage, mint PLUS ayo 'fish' rebus: aya 'iron' ayas 'metal'.

Last three hieroglyphs as a distinct string: tutha 'goad' rebus: tutha 'pewter' PLUS kolom 'three' rebus: kolami 'smithy, forge' khaNDa 'notch' rebus: khaNDa 'implements' arA 'spoke' rebus: Ara 'brass' eraka 'nave of wheel' rebus: eraka 'moltencast, copper'.

Excavations at Ai-Khanum, Afghanistan, conducted by P. Bernard and a French archeological expedition, dug up six rectangular bronze coins issued by the Indo-Greek ruler Agathocles (180?-?165 BCE).

http://www.persee.fr/doc/numi_0484-8942_1974_num_6_16_1062

Trésor de monnaies indiennes et indo-grecques d'Aï Khanoum (Afghanistan). [II. Les monnaies indo-grecques.] 

[article]

II. Les monnaies indo-grecques.

Rémy Audouin Paul Bernard

Revue numismatique  Année 1974  Volume 6  Numéro 16  pp. 6-4

http://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/numi_0484-8942_1974_num_6_16_1062.pdf

https://www.scribd.com/document/362957076/Tresor-de-monnaies-indiennes-et-indo-grecques-d-Ai-Khanoum-Afghanistan-Les-monnaies-indo-grecques-Remy-Audouin-Paul-Bernard

Cakra, vajra.

Bowman shown on Bhaja cave verandah is an Indus Script hypertext to sigify a mint.,kāmaḍum=a chip of bamboo (G.) kāmaṭhiyo bowman; an archer(Skt.)rebus: kammaṭa 'mint, coiner, coinage'

Source: https://www.academia.edu/25807197/Emergence_of_Vi%E1%B9

%A3%E1%B9%87u_and_%C5%9Aiva_Images_in_India_Numismatic_and_Sculptural_Evidence

This monograph demonstrates using thousands of punch-marked and early coins of Ancient Bharata that the Harappa Script tradition of data archiving metalwork catalogues continues into the historical periods. Hence, all the symbols used on ancient coins of Bharata are Harappa Script hieroglyphs read rebus in Meluhha to signify metalwork.

Source: http://vidyaonline.org/dl/cultddk.pdf

See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2016/10/vrishni-janapada-coin-with-hieroglyphs.html

वृष्णि is a term in Rigveda. A Vrishni silver coin from Alexander Cunningham's Coins of Ancient India: From the Earliest Times Down to the Seventh Century (1891) (loc.cit., Lahiri, Bela (1974). Indigenous States of Northern India (Circa 200 B.C.E to 320 C.E.), Calcutta: University of Calcutta, pp.242 3). वृष्णि [p= 

1013,2] वृष्ण्/इ or व्/ऋष्णि, mfn. manly , strong , powerful , mighty RV.m. a ram VS. TS. S3Br.m. a bull L.m. a ray of light L.m. N. of शिव MBh.m. of विष्णु-कृष्ण L.m.of इन्द्र L.m. of अग्नि L.m. pl. N. of a tribe or family (from which कृष्ण is descended , = यादव or माधव ; often mentioned together with the अन्धकs) MBh. Hariv. &cn. N. of a सामन् A1rshBr. (Monier-Williams)

An identical ancient silver coin (perhaps produced from the same ancient mint) of Vrishni janapada ca. 10 CE with kharoṣṭhī, Brahmi inscriptions and Harappa Script hieroglyphs was sold in an auction in Ahmedabad (August 2016) for Rs. 27 lakhs. In fact, the treasure is priceless and defines the heritage of Bhāratam Janam, 'metalcaster folk' dating back to the 7th millennium of Vedic culture. It signifies a spoked wheel which is the centre-piece of Bharat's national flag. 

सांगड sāṅgaḍa 'joined animal', rebus: sangaDa ‘lathe’ sanghaṭṭana ‘bracelet’ rebus 1: .sanghāṭa ‘raft’ sAngaDa ‘catamaran, double-canoe’rebusčaṇṇāḍam (Tu. ജംഗാല, Port. Jangada). Ferryboat, junction of 2 boats, also rafts. 2  jangaḍia 'military guard accompanying treasure into the treasury' ചങ്ങാതം čaṇṇāδam (Tdbh.; സംഘാതം) 1. Convoy, guard; responsible Nāyar guide through foreign territories. rebus 3: जाकड़ ja:kaṛ जांगड़ jāngāḍ‘entrustment note’ जखडणें tying up (as a beast to a stake) rebus 4: sanghāṭa ‘accumulation, collection’ rebus 5. sangaDa ‘portable furnace, brazier’ rebus 6: sanghAta ‘adamantine glue‘ rebus 7: sangara ‘fortification’ rebus 8: sangara ‘proclamation’ 9: samgraha, samgaha 'arranger, manager'.

On the VRSNi coin, tiger and elephant are joined to create a composite hyperext. This is Harappa Script orthographic cipher. 

Hieroglyph: ढाल (p. 204) ḍhāla f (S through H) The grand flag of an army directing its march and encampments: also the standard or banner of a chieftain: also a flag flying on forts &c. v दे. ढाल्या (p. 204) ḍhālyā a ढाल That bears the ढाल or grand flag of an army.

Rebus/Hieroglyph: ढाल (p. 204) ḍhāla f (S through H) A shield. ढालपट्टा (p. 204) ḍhālapaṭṭā m (Shield and sword.) A soldier's accoutrements comprehensively. ढाल्या (p. 204) ḍhālyā a ढाल Armed with a Shield.ḍhāla n. ʻ shield ʼ lex. 2. *ḍhāllā -- .1. Tir. (Leech) "dàl"ʻ shield ʼ, Bshk. ḍāl, Ku. ḍhāl, gng. ḍhāw, N. A. B. ḍhāl, Or. ḍhāḷa, Mth. H. ḍhāl m.2. Sh. ḍal (pl. °le̯) f., K. ḍāl f., S. ḍhāla, L. ḍhāl (pl. °lã) f., P. ḍhāl f., G. M. ḍhāl f.Addenda: ḍhāla -- . 2. *ḍhāllā -- : WPah.kṭg. (kc.) ḍhāˋl f. (obl. -- a) ʻ shield ʼ (a word used in salutation), J. ḍhāl f.(CDIAL 5583) தளவாய் taḷa-vāy
, n. prob. தளம்³ + வாய். [T. daḷavāyi, K. dalavāy.] Military commander, minister of war; படைத்தலைவன். ஒன்ன லரைவென்று வருகின்ற தளவாய் (திருவேங். சத. 89).
Rebus:  ḍhālako = a large metal ingot (G.) ḍhālakī = a metal heated and poured into a mould; a solid piece of metal; an ingot (Gujarati) ढाळ (p. 204) Cast, mould, form (as of metal vessels, trinkets &c.) 

This Indus Script cipher signifies that an ox-hide ingot of Ancient Near East was called ḍhāla 'a large metal ingot' -- a parole (speech) word from Indian sprachbund (language union or speech linguistic area) of the Bronze Age.

kola 'tiger' rebus: kol 'blacksmith' kolhe 'smelter'

The pellet border is composed of: goṭā 'seed', round pebble, stone' rebus: goṭā ''laterite, ferrite ore''gold braid' खोट [ khōṭa ] f A mass of metal (unwrought or of old metal melted down). The railing for the pillar is Vedi, sacred fire-altar for Soma samsthā Yāga. There is evidence dated to ca. 2500 BCE for the performance of such a yajna in Binjor (4MSR) on the banks of Vedic River Sarasvati. The fire-altar yielded an octagonal pillar, which is detailed in ancient Vedic texts as a proclamation of Soma samsthā Yāga.

Three hour-glass shaped vajra-s are shown in a cartouche below the yupa on the coin. Normally Vajrapani is shown such a vajra which has octagonal edges. kolom'three' rebus: kolimi, kole.l 'smithy, forge' kole.l 'temple'

It is a record of the performance of a Soma samsthā Yāga. It is Vrishni Janapada coin of ca. 10 CE.Cakra, pavi in Vedic tradition is also

a vajra. Rudra is vajrabāhu 'vajra weapon wielder'; said also of Agni and Indra. 

वज्र [p=913,1] mn. " the hard or mighty one " , a thunderbolt (esp. that of इन्द्र , said to have been formed out of the bones of the ऋषि दधीच or दधीचि [q.v.] , and shaped like a circular discus , or in later times regarded as having the form of two transverse bolts crossing each other thus x ; sometimes also applied to similar weapons used by various gods or superhuman beings , or to any mythical weapon destructive of spells or charms , also to मन्यु , " wrath "RV. or [with अपाम्] to a jet of water AV. &c ; also applied to a thunderbolt in general or to the lightning evolved from the centrifugal energy of the circular thunderbolt of इन्द्र when launched at a foe ; in Northern Buddhist countries it is shaped like a dumb-bell and called Dorje ; » MWB. 201 ; 322 &c ) RV. &c; a diamond (thought to be as hard as the thunderbolt or of the same substance with it) , Shad2vBr. Mn. MBh. &c; m. a kind of column or pillar VarBr2S.; m. a kind of hard mortar or cement (कल्क) VarBr2S. (cf. -लेप); n. a kind of hard iron or steel L.

On some sculptural friezes, three tigers or three elephants carry the wheel hypertext to signify iron working in smithy/forge: kolom 'three' rebus: kolimi 'smithy, forge' PLUS karabha, ibha 'elephant' rebus:karba, ib 'iron' ibbo 'merchant' PLUS kola 'tiger' rebus: kol 'working in iron'.

Art historian and scholar of Bauddham studies, Huntington has identified the following characteristic, common features on the hypertext signified on these coins. I suggest that conclusions indicated by Huntington need to be revised in the context of life-activities of the artisans related to mint-metalwork signified on sculptural hypertexts and Punch-marked coin hypertexts.

Magadha janapada, Silver karshapana, c. 4th century BCE

Weight: 3.45 gm., Dim: 25 x 23 mm.
Five punches: sun, 6-arm, and three others / Banker's mark
Ref:  GH 48.

karibha 'elephant' ibha 'elephant' rebus: karba 'iron' ib 'iron' 

eraka 'knave of wheel' rebus: erako 'moltencast, copper'; arA 'spokes, rebus: Ara 'brass' khaNDa 'division'

rebus: kaNDa 'implements' arka 'sun' rebus: arka, eraka 'copper'. Six-spoked hypertext emanating from

dotted circle is: dhAu 'element, mineral ferrite' PLUS muhA 'furnace quantity, ingot' PLUS kANDa 'arrow'

rebus: kaNDa 'implements;. Thus, the five PMC hypertexts signify mintwork with iron, molten cast copper,

iron implements, ingots, furnace work.

On some sculptural friezes, the 'fish-fin' hypertext is ligatured to the tip of the spokes of the wheel emanating

from the dotted circle. This signifies: ayo 'fish' rebus: ayas 'metal' aya 'iron'.

PLUS  khambhaṛā 'fish-fin' rebus: kammaTa 'mint, coiner, coinage'.

Bhaja Chaitya ca. 100 BCE. Hieroglyphs are: fish-fin pair; pine-cone; yupa: kandə ʻpine' rebus: kaṇḍa 'implements, fire-altar' khambhaṛā 'fish-fin' (Lahnda CDIAL 13640) Ta. kampaṭṭam, kammaṭa 'mint, coiner, coinage'. Yupa: Or. kāṇḍa, kã̄ṛ ʻstalk, arrow ʼ(CDIAL 3023). Rebus: kāṇḍa,'implements'.

Ligature to 'mintwork' signifier is also shown on the wheel sculptural friezes of Amaravati -- spokes are ligatured on their tips with 'fish-fins' joined together:ayo kammaTa 'iron mintwork' ayo 'fish' PLUS khambhaṛā 'fish-fin'.;

Amaravati sculpturel friezes: cakra with ligatures.

Elaborate orthography on sanchi stupa relates the spoked wheel to 'fish-fin' hypertext (mintwork) and also to tAmarasa 'lotus' rebus: tAmra 'copper'.

1. dotted circle

2. arrow (three)

3. twist (three) Some examples replace the 'twist' with 'buns-shaped ingots'. Thus, total six hypertexts emanate from dotted circle as spokes.

Four components of hypertext are read rebus in Meluhha:

1. Dotted circle is a Harappa Script hieroglyph and signifies a 'strand' of rope. dhāī˜ 'strand' rebus: dhāu'soft red stone, element'(ferrite ore)

2. Twist is: मेढा mēḍhā A twist or tangle arising in thread or cord, a curl or snarl. (Marathi) Rebus: meḍ ‘iron’(Ho.)med 'copper' (Slavic languages) medha 'yajña, dhanam'. mũh 'face' (Hindi) rebus: mũhe 'ingot' (Santali) mũhã̄ = the quantity of iron produced at one time in a native smelting furnace of the Kolhes; iron produced by the Kolhes and formed like a four-cornered piece a little pointed at each end; mūhā mẽṛhẽt = iron smelted by the Kolhes and formed into an equilateral lump a little pointed at each of four ends;kolhe tehen mẽṛhẽt ko mūhā akata = the Kolhes have to-day produced pig iron (Santali).

3. Six spokes of wheel emanating from dotted circle: bhaṭa ‘six (hair-curls)’ Rebus: bhaṭa  ‘furnace’.  

4.. Hieroglyph: Or. kāṇḍa, kã̄ṛ ʻstalk, arrow ʼ(CDIAL 3023). Rebus: kāṇḍa,'implements'.

Connection to a rope imagery is seen here: 'strand' of rope. dhāī˜ 'strand' rebus: dhāu 'soft red stone, element'(ferrite ore) PLUS मेढा mēḍhā A twist or tangle arising in thread or cord, a curl or snarl. (Marathi) Rebus: meḍ ‘iron’(Ho.) Thus, the signifiers are: meD dhAtu 'iron element' PLUS ayo khambhaṛā 'fish-fin' rebus:aya kammaTa 'iron mint'. Eight spokes relate to अष्टाश्रि yūpo bhavati 'eight-corneres yupa' of a Soma Samsthā yāga

Thus, together, the hypertext of dotted circle linked to six spokes as the चषालः caṣāla or cakra signifies a weapon with multiple prongs orthographed by sculptors and mintworkers who punched symbols on punch-marked coins. The arrows and twists thus signify: implements and furnaced ingots of dhatu'(ferrite) minerals'.

Santali glosses

Hieroglyph: S. dhāī f. ʻ wisp of fibres added from time to time to a rope that is being twisted ʼ, L. dhāī˜ f.(CDIAL 6773).

Rebus: Pk. dhāu -- m. ʻ metal, red chalk ʼ; N. dhāu ʻ ore (esp. of copper) ʼ; Or. ḍhāu ʻ red chalk, red ochre ʼ (whence ḍhāuā ʻ reddish ʼ; M. dhāū, dhāv m.f. ʻ a partic. soft red stone ʼ (whence dhā̆vaḍ m. ʻ a caste of iron -- smelters ʼ, dhāvḍī ʻ composed of or relating to iron ʼ); -- Si. dā ʻ relic ʼ(CDIAL 6773)

British Museum. 2nd cent. Hoshiarpur, Punjab.

Republic of the Vrishni Peoples (10-40AD), Silver Drachm, MIGIS Type 928 variation, 2.15g. Obv: Standard, topped by a Nandipada finial and an elephant's head and forepart of a leaping lion below it, in an ornamental railing; Brahmi legend (Vŗ)shņi Rajaña Ganasya Tratarasya (वृ)ष्णी राजञ गणस्य त्रतरस्य reading anticlockwise outwards below. Rev: Ornate 14-spoked wheel with scalloped outer rim; Kharoshthi legend from 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock  "The Vrishnis were known to Panini and to Kautilya; the latter describes them as a Sangha. In the Mahabharata they are counted amongst the Vratya brotherhood of Kshatriyas. As one of the Yadava clans they are closely associated with Krishna in myth and lore. It is said that they migrated to Dwaraka from Mathura, after Krishna's capital was besieged by the demon Kalayavana. The reference to 'Yavana' here and the subsequent migration from Mathura may have had some historical basis" The coins of the Vrishnis are by far the rarest of the so-called 'Tribal' coins of India. Only one silver specimen, from the Alexander Cunningham collection, is known to exist in the British Museum and has been published by Mitchiner as Type 928 in MIGIS.  http://classicalnumismaticgallery.com/advancesearch.aspx

The ring-stones of Al Khanoum palace are comparable to the ring-stones of Dholavira

Ringstones, Dholavira.

Hala gets repeated as Indus Script hypertext on cast coins. On the coin on the right, three hieroglyphs are signified, one below the other: snake, pupil of the eye; plough

Hala shape also occurs on punch-marked coins, together with sun hieroglyph.

The hala shown on this coin also appears on Vasudeva coin. See the hieroglyph on the Vasudeva coin (right bottom)

Osmund Bopearachchi, Emergence of Viṣṇu and Śiva Images in India: Numismatic and Sculptural Evidence, 2016.

Mirror: https://www.academia.edu/25807197/Emergence_of_Vi%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%87u_and_%C5%9Aiva_Images_in_India_Numismatic_and_Sculptural_Evidence

Source: https://www.academia.edu/25807197/Emergence_of_Viṣṇu_and_Śiva_Images_in_India_Numismatic_and_Sculptural_Evidence

Krishna कृष्ण-वासुदेव as warrior and king. Earliest extant image on coin, from the borderlands, northwest India. Krishna (कृष्ण-वासुदेव) in Bactrian garb on silver coin of Vaishnava King Agathocles (~180 BCE). With शङ्ख, चक्र, छत्र.
Balarāma in the bronze coin of Emperor Moasa (Maues) with the characteristic हल and मुसल. Takshashila, Northwest India, ~70 BCE.
The earliest known representation of Balarāma (बलराम), elder brother of Krishna. Silver coin of Agathocles (~180 BCE). Notice हल, मुसल, छत्र

Pāṇini, 5th century BCE, says images used in shrines. Mahābhāṣya, 2nd Century BCE, mentions temples to Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, Śiva, and Viṣṇu.

Subhash Kak‏ @subhashkak1  Oct 24

More

Earliest known representation of Rama with bow on a coin. Huvishka (c 150 CE). British Museum.

Central India, AE 1/8 karshapana,'fish-holding Vasudhara'
Weight: 1.01 gm., Diameter: 8x8 mm.
Standing goddess Vasudhara holding a pair of fish with her outstretched
     right, left hand akimbo; she wears large earrings and pinned up hair (as
     if wearing a vessel on her head); svastika on the top left.
Lion standing to right
Reference: Pieper 452 (plate coin)

Ujjain, anonymous AE 3/8 karshapana,'Balarama & ass-demon'
Weight: 3.86 gm., Diameter: 15x14 mm.
Human figure on left holding stick and kamandalu standing towards a
     horse-like animal which faces him from right; palm tree on right; Ujjain
     symbol on top; a taurine above the animal and taurine and svastika at
     the bottom.
Ujjain symbol with a svastika in each orb and taurines in the angles.
Reference: Pieper 346

In a note to the SACG website Shailendra Bhandare suggested the scene on this coin representing the mythical story of 'Balarama killing the ass demon' and the depiction seems to reflect that story indeed quite well- even if the deity on this coin has no specific Vaishnavite attributes. We are told that there had been a large grove where there were palmyras bearing delicious fruits. But nobody dared to go there because the site was guarded by Dhenuka, a demon in the form of an ass. Finally Balarama, inseparable companion of Krishna, killed the demon by crashing him against one of the palm trees. In his contribution to 'Between the Empires' Bhandare discusses the story of 'Balarama killing the ass-demon' in the context of the coinage of Erikachha where the palm-tree and ass had been characteristic coin devices. Typologically this coin type may thus rather belong to Erikachha than to Ujjain.

"Shiva and Lakshmi other deities are also depicted on the coins of ancient Ujjain, such as Karttikeya, Shashthi, Vasudhara, Krishna, Brahma and others, according to the well-founded identifications of Devendra Handa."

http://coinindia.com/galleries-ujjain2.html

Azes, AE chalkous or quarter unit
Weight: 2.76 gm. Dimensions: 20 x 15 mm Die axis: 12 o'clock
Balarama walking left, holding club and plough,
     Greek legend around: BAΣIΛEΩΣ BA / ΣIΛEΩN M / EΓAΛOY AZOY
Female deity standing right, holding fillet, monogram at right,
     Kharoshthi legend around (on 3 sides only): maharajasa rajatirajasa mahatasa ayasa
MIG 742, Sen 78.1

Mitchiner identifies the obverse figure as an unidentified male deity, but Senior has correctly noted the plough, suggesting that the figure is Balarama (Senior calls him Bala-Krishna). The type follows the similar type issued by Maues (Sen 20).

"The Scythians or Sakas were originally a nomadic people from Central Asia who made their way into Bactria in the second century BCE. It is likely it is they who were responsible for the burning of Ai-Khanoum in what is now northern Afghanistan around 150 BCE. Maues was a king of this tribe who appears to have conquered territory in Kashmir and then acquired control of the area around Taxila in the Punjab. At this point, the Scythians were perhaps not as distinct from the Greeks as might be imagined, as considerable inter-marriage was probably taking place. There is a coin telling us that the so-called "Indo-Greek" king Artemidoros was the son of Maues. We also see this inter-mingling in the fact that most of Maues's coin types follow Greek prototypes. The date of Maues is still not entirely clear.The traditional dates are c. 90-60 BCE, but Artemidoros is dated to c. 85 BCE, which suggests Maues should be earlier."

http://coinindia.com/galleries-maues.html

káṇa m. ʻ a grain of corn ʼ AV., ʻ drop (of water) ʼ Kāv., kaṇikā -- f. ʻ a single grain ʼ MBh.
Pa. kaṇa -- m. ʻ dust between husk and grain of rice ʼ, kaṇikā -- f. ʻ particle of broken rice ʼ; Pk. kaṇa -- , °aga -- m. ʻ scattered grain, rice, wheat, particle, drop ʼ, kaṇiyā -- f. ʻ fragment of rice or wheat ʼ; Sh. (Lor.) k*lnáhʻ grain of rice with the husk on ʼ; K. kana m. ʻ granule ʼ, pl. ʻ broken bits of grain from husked rice ʼ; S. kaṇo m. ʻ a grain, a seed ʼ; L. kaṇ m. ʻ outturn of crops ʼ, kaṇī f. ʻ drop, slight rain ʼ, (Salt Range) kaṇ m. ʻ seedling onion ʼ, kaṇī f. ʻ broken rice, drop of rain ʼ, awāṇ. kaṇ ʻ drop ʼ; P. kaṇ m. ʻ outturn of crops, grain borrowed and repayable with interest, particle ʼ, kaṇī f. ʻ particle, bran, halfformed butter in milk ʼ, kiṇī f. ʻ drop of rain ʼ (whence kiṇnā ʻ to rain moderately ʼ); WPah. bhal. kaṇi ʻ a bit of meat ʼ; A. kanā ʻ a minute particle ʼ, kani ʻ egg, testicle, *drop ʼ (whence kaniyāiba ʻ to fall in small drops ʼ); B. kan ʻ eye of corn, particle ʼ, kanā ʻ piece of dust, cummin seed ʼ, kanī ʻ atom, particle ʼ; Or. kaṇa, °ṇā ʻ particle of dust, eye of seed, atom ʼ, kaṇi ʻ particle of grain ʼ; OAw. kana ʻ drop (of dew) ʼ; H. kan m., kanī f. ʻ grain, fragment, atom ʼ; G. kaṇ, kaṇũ n. ʻ single grain of corn ʼ, kaṇī f. ʻ small grain ʼ (whence kaṇiyɔ m. ʻ grain -- dealer ʼ); M. kaṇ m. ʻ grain, atom, corn ʼ, kaṇī f. ʻ hard core of grain, pupil of eye, broken bit ʼ, kaṇẽ n. ʻ very small particle ʼ; Ko. kaṇu m. ʻ a grain ʼ; Si. kaṇa ʻ a drop of water ʼ.(CDIAL 2661)  Ta. kaṇ eye, aperture, orifice, star of a peacock's tail. Ma. kaṇ, kaṇṇu eye, nipple, star in peacock's tail, bud. Ko. kaṇ eye. To. koṇ eye, loop in string. Ka. kaṇ eye, small hole, orifice. Koḍ. kaṇṇï id. Tu. kaṇṇůeye, nipple, star in peacock's feather, rent, tear. Te. kanu, kannu eye, small hole, orifice, mesh of net, eye in peacock's feather. Kol. kan (pl. kanḍl) eye, small hole in ground, cave. Nk. kan (pl. kanḍḷ) eye, spot in peacock's tail. Nk. (Ch.) kan (pl. -l) eye. Pa. (S. only) kan (pl. kanul) eye. Ga. (Oll.) kaṇ (pl. kaṇkul) id.; kaṇul maṭṭa eyebrow; kaṇa (pl. kaṇul) hole; (S.) kanu (pl. kankul) eye. Go. (Tr.) kan (pl. kank) id.; (A.) kaṛ (pl. kaṛk) id. Konḍa kaṇ id. Pe. kaṇga (pl. -ŋ, kaṇku) id. Manḍ. kan (pl. -ke) id. Kui kanu (pl. kan-ga), (K.) kanu (pl. kaṛka) id. Kuwi (F.) kannū (pl. kar&nangle;ka), (S.) kannu (pl. kanka), (Su. P. Isr.) kanu (pl.kaṇka) id. Kur. xann eye, eye of tuber; xannērnā (of newly born babies or animals) to begin to see, have the use of one's eyesight (for ērnā, see 903). Malt. qanu eye. Br. xan id., bud. Cf. 1443 Ta. kāṇ and 1182 Ta. kaṇṇāṭi.(DEDR 1159a)

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Copper anthropomorphs 3rd millennium BCE, are calling cards of tāmrikā, brazier coppersmiths, meḍh, 'seafaring merchants'

October 30, 2017, 8:38 pm

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Copper anthropomorphs are tã̄boṭī Indus Script templates for hypertexts, calling cards of  tāmrikā, brazier coppersmiths ताम्रिक [p= 443,3] mfn. coppery Mn. viii , 136 Yajn. i , 364; = °म्र-कार L.; ताम्रिका f. » °म्रक (Monier-Williams).

The chronological sequencing of copper anthropomorphs is now possible thanks to the painstaking documentation done by savants like Paul Yule (whose contributions are embedded). 

Paul Yule has demonstrated that copper anthropomorphs have been found at al-Aqir near Bahla’, Sultanate of Oman (ca. 2500 BCE), at R'as al-Jins (ca. 2300 BCE), at Lothal (ca.19th cent. BCE).   

Location of Rasal Jinz in Oman, Persian Gulf

R'as al-jins is famed for turtle reserves. Mudhif is cognate munda of Todas in Nilgiris.

Anthropomorph is a figure in ancient art resembling a human being. Indus Script Corpora is embellished with many anthropomorphs, even feline faces are ligatured to a human body, personifying the resulting composite form. There is a word for such composite forms: सांगड (p. 495) sāṅgaḍa 'a body formed of two or more parts of animals,men, fruits)(Marathi). This is a frequently used hypertext in Indus Script to signify rebus: jangad'trade on approval basis'sangara 'trade', jangadiyo'military guard accompanying treasure into the treasure' and sanghāta'adamantine metallic glue like vajra'.

I suggest that copper anthropomorphs dated from ca. 3rd millennium BCE in ANE and discovered in copper hoards of Ancient India are  intended to be wealth-accounting documentation templates, to function as calling cards of brazier coppersmiths. 

Evidences are presented to formulate the form and function of these anthropomorph plates as slates (takhtés'writing tablets') or  tã̄boṭī. 'coppr plate blanks' --during historical periods --for writing (inscribing) edicts & land grants with affixed mudrā of rulers. This procedure is attested by याज्ञवल्क्य: पटे वा ताम्रपट्टे वा स्वमुद्रोपरिचिह्नितम् । अभिलेख्यात्मनो वंश्यानात्मानं च महीपतिः ॥ Y.1.319. The scribes aretāmrika ताम्रिक a. (-की  A brazier coppersmith. 

baḍhia meḍḍha kũdār 'boar, ram, young bull' jangadiyo'military guard, meḍh'seafaring merchant' with kundaṇa 'fine gold' metalwork treasure'

Manjul, Sanjay, 2015, The Enigmatic Copper Anthropomorph: From Harappa to the Historical, Illustrated lecture by Dr. Sanjay Manjul, Director, Institute of Archaeology, in: India Archaeology Programme of India International Centre, Delhi, on 28 August 2015. http://www.iicdelhi.nic.in/writereaddata/ProgramAttachments/635736822482342405CR%20I.jpg  baḍhia, 'boar' are recognizable and read rebus: baḍhi 'worker in iron and wood'(Santali) is cognate with: baṛhai (Garhwali); bāṛaï 'carpenter' (Bengali) rebus: barea 'merchant' (Santali) PLUS kũdār ‘turner’. कोंद kōnda ‘engraver, lapidary setting or infixing gems’ (Marathi) kundaṇa 'fine gold' (Kannada) PLUS meḍḍha 'ram' rebus: ayo meḍh 'metal merchant' ayo mēdhā 'metal expert' PLUS karṇika 'spread legs' rebus: karṇika कर्णिक 'steersman'  "A composite copper Anthropomorphic figure along with a copper sword was found by the speaker at the Central Antiquity Section, ASI, Purana Qila in 2005. This composite copper Anthropomorph is a solitary example in the copper hoard depicting a Varāha head. The Anthropomorphic figure, its inscription and animal motif that it bears, illustrate the continuity between the Harappan and Early Historical period."                                                          Presented in September 2014 by Art curator Naman Ahuja. Event: exhibition titled The Body in Indian Art. Held in National Museum, New Delhi, in April 2014 Repeat of Exhibition for Europalia, Brussels. News Report of Sept. 27, 2014 http://www.business-standard.com/article/specials/naman-ahuja-is-mastering-the-art-of-reaching-out-114092501180_1.html                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  I suggest that this calling card of the professional tāmrika, brazier coppersmit is a proclamation of his/her competence in alloy metals, find gold merchandise and as a steersman, a seafaring meḍh, 'merchant' of metals.

Semantic structure of the words derived from the root: varddhr̥ ʻcutter, knifeʼ is clearly relatable to the work of carpentry and smithy in reference to cutting out copper plates to serve as writing tablets. 

I suggest that the early phonetic forms -- in lingua franca - of the word to signify baḍhia, 'boar' are recognizable and read rebus: baḍhi 'worker in iron and wood'(Santali) is cognate with: baṛhai (Garhwali); bāṛaï 'carpenter' (Bengali) rebus: barea 'merchant' (Santali). 

Detailed studies of phonetic variations in ancient Bhāratīya languages will establish a framework for the Bhāratīya sprachbund  in linguistic studies.       

Varāha is hieorglyph: boar: baḍhia = a castrated boar, a hog; rebus: baḍhi ‘a caste who work both in iron and wood’; baḍhoe ‘a carpenter, worker in wood’; badhoria ‘expert in working in wood’(Santali)' Rebus: bari 'merchant'. barea 'merchant' (Santali) বরাহ barāha 'boar' Rebus: bāṛaï

'carpenter' (Bengali)  Cognate terms are a variety of phonetic forms: వడ్రంగి, వడ్లంగి, వడ్లవాడు (p. 1126) vaḍraṅgi, vaḍlaṅgi, vaḍlavāḍu or వడ్లబత్తుడు vaḍrangi. [Tel.] n. A carpenter. వడ్రంగము, వడ్లపని, వడ్రము or వడ్లంగితనము vaḍrangamu. n. The trade of a carpenter. వడ్లవానివృత్తి. వడ్రంగిపని. వడ్రంగిపిట్ట or వడ్లంగిపిట్ట vaḍrangi-piṭṭa. n. A woodpecker. దార్వాఘాటము. వడ్లకంకణము vaḍla-kankaṇamu. n. A curlew. ఉల్లంకులలో భేదము. వడ్లత or వడ్లది vaḍlata. n. A woman of the carpenter caste.  వర్ధకి (p. 1135) vardhaki vardhaki. [Skt.] n. A carpenter. వడ్లవాడు. varddhr̥ 11371 *varddhr̥ ʻ cutter, knife ʼ. [√vardh]*varddhrī -- : N. bāṛ ʻ blade of khukri ʼ; Bi. bāṛh ʻ bookbinder's papercutter ʼ; H. bāṛh, bāṛ f. ʻ edge of knife ʼ, G. vāḍh f.; -- P. vāḍh, bāḍh f. ʻ cutting edge ʼ poss. < *vārddhrī -- .*vardharī -- , *vardhā̆ra -- : Bi. badhrī, °riyā, °rā, badhārū ʻ knife with a heavy blade for reaping with ʼ; <-> WPah.bhad. bardhāṇū ʻ to shear sheep ʼ < *badhār -- ṇū?VARDH ʻ cut ʼ: *varddhr̥ -- , vardha -- 1, vardhaka -- , vardhaki -- , vardhana -- 1, vardhayati1, vardhāpayati1, *vardhira -- , várdhra -- , *vardhrya -- , *vārdhaka -- , vr̥ddha -- 1. vr̥ddhi -- 1; *avavr̥ddha -- , *vivr̥ddha -- .vardha 11372 vardha1 m. ʻ a cutting ʼ W. [√vardh]S. vaḍhu m. ʻ a cut ʼ; L. vaḍḍh m. ʻ ears of corn remaining in a field after sheaves have been removed ʼ; P. vaḍḍh, ba° m. ʻ a cut in a piece of wood, chip, stubble of grain (wheat, maize, &c.) ʼ, vaḍḍhā, ba° m. ʻ cut, mark ʼ; G. vāḍh m. ʻ cut, wound, reaping a field ʼ; Si. vaḍa -- ya ʻ act of cutting off ʼ; -- K. broḍu m. ʻ septum of noseʼ várdha2 m. ʻ giving increase or prosperity ʼ RV. [√vr̥dh] Pa. vaḍḍha -- n. ʻ wealth ʼ, vaḍḍhaka -- ʻ augmenting ʼ; Paš. wāḍ m. ʻ body ʼ IIFL iii 3, 183; S. vādho m. ʻ profit ʼ; P. vāddhā, bā° m. ʻ increase, profit ʼ; WPah. (Joshi) bādhā m. ʻ increase in taxes ʼ; B. bāṛ(h)ā ʻ increase ʼ, Or. baṛhā, H. bādhā m., M. vāḍh m. *gōvardha -- .(CDIAL 11373)

vardhaka in cmpd. ʻ cutting ʼ, m. ʻ carpenter ʼ R. [√vardh]Pa. cīvara -- vaḍḍhaka -- m. ʻ tailor ʼ; Kho. bardog, °ox ʻ axe ʼ (early → Kal. wadók before v -- > b -- in Kho.); <-> Wg. wāṭ ʻ axe ʼ, Paš.dar. wāˊṭak (ṭ?).(CDIAL 11374)i 

vardhaki m. ʻ carpenter ʼ MBh. [√vardh]Pa. vaḍḍhaki -- m. ʻ carpenter, building mason ʼ; Pk. vaḍḍhaï -- m. ʻ carpenter ʼ, °aïa -- m. ʻ shoemaker ʼ; WPah. jaun. bāḍhōī ʻ carpenter ʼ, (Joshi) bāḍhi m., N. baṛhaï, baṛahi, A. bārai, B. bāṛaï, °ṛui, Or. baṛhaï, °ṛhāi, (Gaṛjād) bāṛhoi, Bi. baṛahī, Bhoj. H. baṛhaī m., M. vāḍhāyā m., Si. vaḍu -- vā. *vārdhaka -- .Addenda: vardhaki -- : WPah.kṭg. báḍḍhi m. ʻ carpenter ʼ; kṭg. bəṛhe\i, báṛhi, kc. baṛhe ← H. beside genuine báḍḍhi Him.I 135), J. bāḍhi, Garh. baṛhai, A. also bāṛhai AFD 94; Md. vaḍīn, vaḍin pl. †*vardhakikarman -- . †*vardhakikarman -- ʻ carpentry ʼ. [vardhaki -- , kár- man -- ]Md. vaḍām ʻ carpentry ʼ.(CDIAL 11375, 11375a)

Framework to determine the chronology and evolution of anthropomorph form and function             

After Fig. 2 in Yule (2003) 11 type I, Lothal, Dist. Ahmedabad, Guj.

These are precursors of the vivid semantic orthographic/iconographic expansions which occur on copper anthropomorphs reported by Sanjay Manjul and kept in Museums with citations that they are from copper hoards of Ancient India. The copper anthropomosph in Lucknow Museum is from Sheorajpur and has an inscription of Indus Script hypertext, 'fish'. The copper anthropomorph is from ASI archives ligatured with a varāha head and with raised script iconographic signifier of Indus Script hypertext 'one-horned young bull', which is the signature tune of Sarasvati Civilization occurring with highest freuquency in a corpora of over 8000 inscriptions.

These evidences prove the continuity of the writing system from ca. 3300 BCE (find of the first potsherd with Indus Script at Harappa by HARP team) and thus the continuity of metallurgical wealth-creating activities beyond 1900 BCE in Ganga-Yamuna doab and other parts of ancient India, evidenced by the so-called copper hoard cultures. I submit that the anthropomosphs cumulatively evidence the need to re-write the Bhāratīya Itihāsa from 1900 BCE to ca. 6th century BCE (so-called Mauryan period or the emergence of punch-marked coins from mints of ANE and Ancient India).

, 

tāmrapaṭṭa m. ʻ copper plate (for inscribing) ʼ Yājñ. [Cf. tāmrapattra -- . -- tāmrá -- , paṭṭa -- 1]M. tã̄boṭī f. ʻ piece of copper of shape and size of a brick ʼ.(CDIAL 5786)

tāmrika ताम्रिक a. (-की f.) Made of copper, coppery; Ms.8. 136; Y.I.365. -कः A brazier coppersmith. ताम्रता A coppery red. tāmra ताम्र a. [तम्-रक् दीर्घः Uṇ.2.16.] 1 Made of copper. -2 Of a coppery red colour, red; ततो$नुकुर्याद्विशदस्य तस्यास्ताम्रौष्ठपर्यस्तरुचः स्मितस्य Ku.1.44; उदेति सविता ताम्रस्ताम्र एवास्तमेति च Subhāṣ. -म्रः A kind of leprosy with red spots. -म्रम् 1 Copper. -2 A dark or coppery red. -3 A coppery receptacle; ताम्रलोहैः परिवृता निधयो ये चतुः- शताः Mb.2.61.29. -म्री A copper pot having a small hole at the botton used in measuring time by placing it in a water-vessel. -Comp. -अक्षः 1 a crow. -2 the (Indian) cuckoo. -अर्धः bell-metal. -अश्मन् m. a kind of jewel (पद्मराग); ताम्राश्मरश्मिच्छुरितैर्नखाग्रैः Śi.3.7. -आभम् red sandal (रक्तचन्दन). -उपजीविन् m. a coppersmith. -ओष्ठः (forming ताम्रोष्ठ or ताम्रौष्ठ) a red or cherry lip; Ku.1.44. -कारः, -कुट्टः a brazier, coppersmith. -कृमिः 1 a kind of red insect (इन्द्रगोप). -2 the lady bird. -3 cochineal. -गर्भम् sulphate of copper. -चूडः a cock; संध्याचूडैर- निबिडतमस्ताम्रचूडैरुडूनि । प्रासूयन्त स्फुटमधिवियद्भाण्डमण्डानि यानि ॥ Rām. Ch.6.96;7.56. -चडकः a particular position of the hand. -त्रपुजम् brass. -द्रुः the red sandalwood. -द्वीपः the island of Ceylon; Divyāvadāna.36. -धातुः 1red chalk. -2 Copper; Rām.3. -पट्टः, -पत्रम् a cop- per-plate on which grants of land were frequently inscribed; पटे वा ताम्रपट्टे वा स्वमुद्रोपरिचिह्नितम् । अभिलेख्यात्मनो वंश्यानात्मानं च महीपतिः ॥ Y.1.319. -पर्णी N. of a river rising in Malaya, celebrated for its pearls; R.4.5. Hence ताम्रपर्णिक (= obtained in the same river); Kau. A.2.11. -पलः Alangium Hexapetalum; दद्यात्ताम्रपलं वापि अभावे सर्वकर्मणः Yuktikalpataru. -पल्लवः the Aśoka tree. -पाकिन् Thespesia Populneoides (Mar. लाखी-पारासा पिंपळ). -पुष्पः Kæmpferia Rotunda (Mar. बाहवा). -ष्पी Bignonia Suaveolens (Mar. धायरी, भुईपाडळ) -फलकम् a copper-plate. -मुख a. copper-faced. (-खः) 1 a Frank or European; -2 the Moghals. -वदनः (see ताम्रमुख); योत्स्यन्ति ताम्रवदनैरनेकैः सैनिका इमे Śiva. B.26.23. -वर्णी the blossom of sesamum. -लिप्तः N. of a country. -प्ताः (pl.) its people or rulers. -वृक्षः a species of sandal. -शिखिन्m. a cook. -सारकः a sort of Khadira. (-कम्) red sandal-wood.(Apte)

To-date some 21 Copper anthropomorphs of Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization have been published. Some of these are found in the Ancient Near East and Persian Gulf sites. Most are found in northern India.

Two composite anthropomorphic / animal figurines from Harappa. Terracotta. Slide 72 harappa.com In these figurines, the ligatured components are: seated quadruped felines (?) with feminine anthropomorphic faces. 

Metaphor is exemplified by ligaturing an anthropomorph to an animal (say, bull, fish, eagle) to signify layered rebus-metonymy. Hieroglyph: ḍã̄go ʻmale (of animals)ʼ(Nepali) Rebus: dhangar ‘blacksmith’ (Maithili) Hieroglyph: אַרְיֵה (aryeh) 'lion' (Hebrew) Rebus: āra, āram Brass (Tamil). Composite animal on Indus script is a composite hieroglyph composed of many glyphic elements. All glyphic elements are read rebus to complete the technical details of the bill of lading of artifacts created by artisans.

72. Two composite anthropomorphic / animal figurines from Harappa

Slide72. Two composite anthropomorphic / animal figurines from Harappa. Whether or not the attachable water buffalo horns were used in magic or other rituals, unusual and composite animals and anthropomorphic/animal beings were clearly a part of Indus ideology. The ubiquitous "unicorn" (most commonly found on seals, but also represented in figurines), composite animals and animals with multiple heads, and composite anthropomorphic/animal figurines such as the seated quadruped figurines with female faces, headdresses and tails offer tantalizing glimpses into a rich ideology, one that may have been steeped in mythology, magic, and/or ritual transformation. 

Approximate dimensions (W x H(L) x D) of the larger figurine: 3.5 x 7.1 x 4.8 cm. (Photograph by Richard H. Meadow)

A composite terracotta feline wearing necklace like a woman. kola 'tiger' kola 'woman' Rebus: kol 'working in iron'. Nahali (kol ‘woman’) and Santali (kul ‘tiger’; kol ‘smelter’).

http://www.harappa.com/figurines/index.html kola 'tiger' kola 'woman' Rebus: kol 'working in iron'. Ta. kol working in iron, blacksmith; kollaṉ blacksmith. Ma. kollan 

blacksmith, artificer. Ko. kole·l smithy, temple in Kota village. To. kwala·l Kota smithy. Ka.kolime, kolume, kulame, kulime, kulume, kulme fire-pit, furnace; (Bell.; U.P.U.) konimi blacksmith; (Gowda) kolla id. Koḍ. kollë blacksmith. Te. kolimi furnace. Go.(SR.) kollusānā to mend implements; (Ph.) kolstānā, kulsānā to forge; (Tr.) kōlstānā to repair (of ploughshares); (SR.) kolmi smithy (Voc. 948). Kuwi (F.) kolhali to forge(DEDR 2133).

A copper anthropomorph tablet was used in historical period to record a land grant

See: 

Recycling an Indus Script anthropomorph of 2nd millennium BCE to inscribe a land grant recorded in 1483 CE Keonjhar, Orissa 

Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/jnasdd9

One anthropomorph tablet was found in a Keonjhar copper hoard. Keonjhar copper hoard is comparable to the copper hoards found in the Ganeshwar-Jodhpura and Ahar coper hoard cultures of 2nd millennium BCE which is a continuum of the Bronze Age Revolution from 4th to 2nd millennium BCe, recorded on Indus Script Corpora.

On an anthropomorph copper plate of 2nd millennium BCE from Keonjhar copper hoard, an inscription dated to 1483 CE has been recorded in Keonjhar, Orissa.

Paul Yule lists the Oriya/Samskrtam land grant of 1483 CE as an axe ingot from out of the hoard discovered in Keonjhar Dist., Orissa in 1985. See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2016/07/anthropomorphs-with-indus-script.html

J. Beames who has read the inscription on the land grant has NOT commented on the shape of the copper plate used for the inscription.

I suggest that this was a copper anthropomorph (NOT an axe) of earlier times (perhaps 2nd millennium BCE) which was used to inscribe the land grand by Raja Purushottama Deb.

Dist. Keonjhar, Or. – Around 1985 three type III axeingots and a small stand (nos. 1195-1197), evidently part of the same hoard, to judge from the surface texture and patina, were acquired as a group for the Orissa State Museum from this district. Detailed information exists neither for their provenance, nor the circumstances of discovery63 . 1195. Axe-ingot, type III. 14.7x12.3x1.3 cm, 972 gm, sharp lead edge (Fig. 19, 1195). – Orissa State Museum (0.52.1). – Unpub. 1196. Axe-ingot, type III. 17x13.2x1.4cm, rev. surface very rough (Fig. 19, 1196). – Orissa State Museum (0.52.2). – Unpub. 1197. Miniature stand. 24.6 x 13. 2 x 8. 5 cm, thick light green patina, rough surface similar to other metallic artefacts from eastern Chota Nagpur, heavy corrosion on the legs, legs recently bent inward (Fig. 19, 1197). – Orissa State Museum (0.52.3). – Unpub. 

A facsimile of an inscription on a copper plate recording a land grant made by Rāja Purushottam Deb, king of Orissa, in the fifth year of his reign (1483). J. Beames The Indian Antiquary, December 6, 1872, p. 355.
Land grants made by royal decree were protected by law, with deeds often being recorded on metal plates.

An anthropomorph figure on a cylinder seal

Impression of an Indus-style cylinder seal of unknown Near Eastern origin in the Musee du Louvre, Paris. One of the two anthropomorphic figures carved on this seal wears the horns of water buffalo while sitting on a throne with hoofed legs, surrounded by snakes, fishes and water buffaloes.
 Copyrighted photo by M. Chuzeville for the Departement des antiquites orientales, Musee du Louvre.

http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/pdf/vidale2004.pdfSee: 

Indus Script hypertexts of Nāga and phaḍa 'cobra hood' signify metals manufactory 

https://tinyurl.com/ybuym5su

Anthropomorphic figure. Sheorajpur, Kanpur Dist. Inscribed with fish hieroglyph. ca. 2nd millennium BCE. 4 kg; 47.7 X 39 X 2.1 cm. State Museum,   Lucknow (O.37)  Title / Object:anthropomorphic sheorajpurFund context:Saipai, Dist. KanpurTime of admission:1981Pool:SAI South Asian ArchaeologyImage ID:213 101Copyright:Dr Paul Yule, HeidelbergPhoto credit:Yule, Metalwork of the Bronze in India, Pl 23 348 (dwg) Decipherment: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2016/08/anthropomorph-sheorajpur-indus-script.html  Anthropomorph with Indus Script ayo 'fish' mẽḍhā 'curved horn' meḍḍha 'ram' rebus: ayo meḍh 'metal merchant' ayo mēdhā 'metal expert' karṇika 'spread legs' rebus: karṇika कर्णिक 'steersman' Typical find of Gangetic Copper Hoards. miṇḍāl markhor (Tor.wali) meḍho a ram, a sheep (G.)(CDIAL 10120) Rebus: meḍh ‘helper of merchant’ (Gujarati) meḍ iron (Ho.) meṛed-bica = iron stone ore, in contrast to bali-bica, iron sand ore (Munda) ayo ‘fish’ Rebus: ayo, ayas ‘metal. Thus, together read rebus: ayo meḍh ‘iron stone ore, metal merchant.’  miṇḍāl markhor (Tor.wali) meḍho a ram, a sheep (G.)(CDIAL 10120) Rebus: meḍh ‘helper of merchant’ (Gujarati) meḍ iron (Ho.) meṛed-bica = iron stone ore, in contrast to bali-bica, iron sand ore (Munda) ayo ‘fish’ Rebus: ayo, ayas ‘metal. Thus, together read rebus: ayo meḍh ‘iron stone ore, metal merchant.’                                                                                                                                                              Yule, Paul, 2003, Beyond the Pale of Near Eastern Archaeology: Anthropomorphic Figures from al-Aqir near Bahla’, Sultanate of Oman, In: Stöllner, T. (Hrsg.): Mensch und Bergbau Studies in Honour of Gerd Weisgerber on Occasion of his 65th Birthday. Bochum 2003, pp. 537-542 Mirror: http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeumdok/109/1/Yule_2003.pdf https://www.scribd.com/document/363007548/Beyond-the-Pale-of-Near-Eastern-Archaeology-Anthropomorphic-Figures-from-al-Aqir-near-Bahla-Sultanate-of-Oman-Paul-Yule-2003                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Yule, Pul, 2014,  A New Prehistoric Anthropomorphic Figure from the Sharqiyah, Oman, in:‘My Life is like the Summer Rose’ Maurizio Tosi e l’Archeologia come modo de vivere, Papers in Honour of Maurizio Tosi on his 70th Birthday, BAR Intern. Series 2690, Oxford, 2014, 759–60, ISBN 978 1 4073 1326 9 Mirror: https://tinyurl.com/y8nwmov3  https://www.scribd.com/document/363007677/A-New-Prehistoric-Anthropomorphic-Figure-from-the-Sharqiyah-Oman-Paul-Yule-2014                                      Copper anthropomorphs constitute calling cards of the brazier coppersmith professional who is also a scribe.     Contrasted, confounded with: miṇḍāl markhor (Tor.wali) meḍho a ram, a sheep (G.)(CDIAL 10120) Rebus: meḍh ‘helper of merchant’ (Gujarati) mẽṛhẽt, meḍ 'iron' (Mu.Ho.) med 'copper' (Slavic) meṛed-bica = iron stone ore, in contrast to bali-bica, iron sand ore (Munda) Hieorglyph of one-horned bull inscribed on chest: khoṇḍ, kõda 'young bull-calf' Rebus: kũdār ‘turner’. कोंद kōnda ‘engraver, lapidary setting or infixing gems’ (Marathi) kundaṇa 'fine gold' (Kannada)

I have presented over 1000r of monographs at https://independent.academia.edu/SriniKalyanaraman For ready reference, I list below a list with particular reference to discussion of anthropomorph evidences:

Data mining explains Indus script hieroglyphs evolving as śiva, gaṇeśa metaphors of pilgrims' progress from Being to Becoming                                                                                   Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/znnpzqg 

Mlecchita vikalpa Indus Script Hieroglyphs signify चषालः caṣāla in pyrolysis to carburize hard alloys 

Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/hat9n3a This includes an excursus on Gudimallam Śivalinga with  the face of the anthropomorph, hunter, standing person is mũh 'face' a reinforcement of mũhe 'ingot' shown as ornaments on the person.

Inscriptions on metal implements validate decipherment of Indus Script Corpora as metalwork catalogues 

Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/okw7xly

Recycling an Indus Script anthropomorph of 2nd millennium BCE to inscribe a land grant recorded in 1483 CE Keonjhar, Orissa 

Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/jnasdd9

Copper anthropomorphs of ca. 3rd-2nd millennium BCE are Indus Script hieroglyphs deciphered as sangara 'proclamations' of metalwork 

Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/nb9pez5

Varāha in indus script reinforces Vedic roots of civilization of Bharatam Janam on the banks of Vedic River Sarsvati. Anthropomorph hieroglyphs deciphered. 

Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/j2od2yx

All four types of anthropomorphs of Copper Hoard Culture are dharma saṁjñā'metalwork signifiers of responsibilities in guild or professional calling cards' 

Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/jfhcb63 

Indus Script Gonur Tepe seal, hypertexts on anthropomorphs deciphered, Sarasvati-Ganga Doab Bronze Age Revolution & spread of Copper Hoard Culture into Bactria 

Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/j9ekajo

Anthropomorphs four types on Indus Script signify metal-, mint-worker, seafaring merchant, karṇika 'supercargo, helmsman', koṭiya 'dhow'

Mirro: http://tinyurl.com/zgzv5e5

Composite copper alloy anthropomorphic Meluhha hieroglyphs of Haryana and Sheorajpur: fish, markhor, crocodile, one-horned young bull

Mirror: https://www.academia.edu/12200059/Composite_copper_alloy_anthropomorphic_Meluhha_hieroglyphs_of_Haryana_and_Sheorajpur_fish_markhor_crocodile_one-horned_young_bull                                                                                                                                         

Beyond the Pale of Near Eastern Archaeology: Anthropomorphic Figures from al-Aqir near Bahla’, Sultanate of... by Srini Kalyanaraman on Scribd 

Beyond the Pale of Near Eastern Archaeology: Anthropomorphic Figures from al-Aqir near Bahla’, Sultanate of... by Srini Kalyanaraman on Scribd

A New Prehistoric Anthropomorphic Figure from the Sharqiyah, Oman (Paul Yule, 2014) by Srini Kalyanaraman on Scribd

Interactions between Meluhha metalsmiths and Barbar temple artisans evidenced by high-tin bronze mirror handles

October 31, 2017, 4:07 am

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https://tinyurl.com/y6weq27o

Sources of tin from Ancient Far East, the largest tin belt of the globe created the Tin-Bronze revolution

Lloyd R. Weeks presents a detailed and cogently argued thesis that tin bronzes of the third and second millennia in the early metallurgy of Persian Gulf points to sources of tin from the East. He posits possible sources from north and east in Afghanistan or Central Asia. However, he fails to resolve the archaeological fact that not many tin-bronzes have been found in Central Asia where there is predominant presence of tin-bronzes in sites such as Tell Abraq (Persian Gulf). (Weeks, Lloyd R., 2003, Early metallurgy of the Persian Gulf, Boston, Brill Academic Publishers Embedded for ready reference.) 

https://www.scribd.com/document/363093182/Early-Metallurgy-of-the-Persian-Gulf-Lloyd-R-Weeks-2003

I agree with the analysis of TE Potts (Potts, TF, 1994, Mesopotamia and the East. An archaeological and historical stuydy of foreign relations ca. 3400-2000 BCE, Oxford Committee for Archaeology Monograph 37, Oxford) that the tin for the tin-bronzes of ANE was sourced from the East. I further venture to posit that the tin came from the largest tin belt of the globe, through seafaring merchants of Ancient Far East (the Himalayan river basins of Mekong, Irrawaddy and Salween) mediated by Ancient India trade guilds of 4th to 2nd millennia BCE. See. Maritime Meluhha Tin Road links Far East and Near East -- from Hanoi to Haifa creating the Bronze Age revolution https://tinyurl.com/y9sfw4f8 This hypothesis is a work in process.

Here is a small argument about the high tin-bronze of mirrors found in Barbar temple and in Sarasvati civilization areas mediated by the brilliant metalwmithy work of artisans from Mehi of Kulli Culture.

A bronze mirror is among the aṣṭamangala-s अष्ट-मङ्गलम् [अष्ट- गुणितं मङ्गलं शा. क. त.] a collection of eight auspicious things; according to some they are:-- मृगराजो वृषो नागः कलशो व्यञ्जनं तथा । वैजयन्ती तथा भेरी दीप इत्यष्टमङ्गलम् ॥ according to others लोके$स्मिन्मङ्गलान्यष्टौ ब्राह्मणो गौर्हुताशनः । हिरण्यं सर्पि- रादित्य आपो राजा तथाष्टमः ॥ 

Aranmuḷa metalwork by artisans are exemplified in high tin-bronze mirrors produced by Vishwakarma

 വിശ്വകർമ്മജർ Using the cire perdue or lost-wax casting technique, a Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization tradition continues in a village of Kerala, Aranmula, by Visvakarma sthapatis who make high-tin bronze mirrors which are patented as Geographical Indicators and called āṟanmuḷakkaṇṇāṭi.

A tribute to the inventive genius of the Baluchistan metal-smiths of the period

Piggott, 1961, Prehistoric India, Harmondsworth, p. 112. Female figure with breasts, with arms akimbo. Compares with the handle of bronze mirror found in Barbar temple whish shows a male figure with arms joined on the chest in a worshipful pose.

Bronze mirror handle from Barbar Temple, Bahrain (After illustration by Glob, PV, 1954, Temples at Barbar, Kuml 4:142- 53, fig. 6) Another remarkable figure in bronze is a bird (After fig. 7 ibid.)

Source: https://tidsskrift.dk/kuml/article/download/97163/146495

https://www.scribd.com/document/363092681/Bronzehandtag-til-et-spejl-fra-barbartemlet-pa-Bahrain-MS-Nagaraja-Rao-Kuml-1969-1970-pp-218-220

Kuml: Journal of the Jutland Archaeological Society

Nagaraja Rao notes that this handle resembles a mirror from the Kulli site of Mehi in Baluchistan.

(Stein, A., 1931, An archaeological tour in Gedrosia,Memoirs of ASI 43,: pi.32. Mehi II, 1.2.a; Possehl 1986: 48, Mehi II.1.2.a). These objects are similar to the head of the figure handle in the Mehi example is actually the face of the mirror itself. (Julian Reade, 2013, Indian Ocean in Antiquity, Routledge, p.26). These comments of Julian Reade have to be seen in the context of the artifacts with Indus Script hypertexts discovered in Kulli culture (Mehi). Kulli culture provides indication of working with magnetite, ferrite ore and with alloys of copper with high tin content resulting in the bronze mirrors. At Mehi were found several decorated chlorite vessels, imported from Tepe Yahya and attesting trade contacts with the Eastern Iran.^[5]Copper and bronze was known. These are indications that Kulli culture artisans were trade partners with Sarasvati Civilization.

A Kulli plate very similar to ancient Indus plates with two tigers facing each other and motifs similar to those of the Nal culture of Balochistan. arka'sun' rebus: arka'gold'eraka'moltencast, copper'kola'tiger' rebus: kol'working in iron'kolhe'smelter'kolle'blacksmith'dula'pair' rebus: dul metal casting'.

Pot with zebu, bos indicus tied to a post. Indus Script hieroglyph.

Zebu and leaves. In front of the standard device and the stylized tree of 9 leaves, are the black buck antelopes. Black paint on red ware of Kulli style. Mehi. Second-half of 3rd millennium BCE. [After G.L. Possehl, 1986, Kulli: an exploration of an

ancient civilization in South Asia, Centers of Civilization, I, Durham, NC:
46, fig. 18 (Mehi II.4.5), based on Stein 1931: pl. 30. 

 

A synonym for 'bull', bos indicus, is: poḷa 'zebu' which is a definitive Indus Script hieroglyph. 

pōḷā 'zebu, bos indicus'  Rebus signifier of poḷa 'magnetite, ferrite ore'-- a metalwork for wealth creation by artisans of Sarasvati_Sindhu Civilization. This Indus Script hieroglyph which signifies 'zebu' or poḷa is seen on early inscriptions of Indus Script as on the paintings of Nausharo pots. The bird perched on the shoulder of the zebu painting is black drongo: pōlaḍu, 'black drongo',rebus: pōlaḍ, 'steel', The zebu is tied to a post with a rope to signify:  meṛh f. ʻ rope tying oxen to each other and to post on threshing floor ʼ (Lahnda)(CDIAL 10317) rebus: mūhā mẽṛhẽt = iron smelted by the Kolhes and formed into an equilateral lump a little pointed at each end;  mẽṛhẽt, meḍ ‘iron’ (Mu.Ho.)

I suggest that the bird is a black drongo which is often shown on Nausharo pots atop a zebu, Bos indicus bull. This hypertext has been deciphered: 

“Mirrors in the shape of circular metal discs, originally polished on one side and plain or with a design or decoration on the other, have been found in a limited number at many sites. The earliest reported examples are from Mehi (Stein, Aurel, 1931, Archaeological town in Gedrosia, Mem. ASI, 43, pp. 157-8) in Baluchistan where two copper mirrors have been found in the cemetery. One of them has been described as a thin copper disc probably used as a mirror; the other, 1.27 cm in diameter, has an elegant handle ‘representing a stylized female figure…with breasts and conventionalized arms akimbo, but with the head provided only by the reflection of of the user of the mirror.’ (Piggott, 1961, Prehistoric India, Harmondsworth, pp. 112-113). The stylized female figure has been done in the ‘manner of the clay figurines’ from sites of the Kulli culture indicating thereby that it is a local product. In Piggott’s view the idea of the head of the user of the mirror serving as the head of the figure in the handle and ‘the sophistication of the metal-work make the Mehi mirror stand out among the toilet accessories of the whole Ancient East – there is nothing like it in theotherwise more advanced Harappan culture, and the use of a human figure as a mirror handle, though familiar in Egypt in the XVIII Dynasty (from about 1570 BCE), is unknown in Western Asia. The close resemblance between the Mehimirror-handle and the clay figurines of women from the same site, and from other sites of the Kulli culture, increases our confidence in claiing it as a local product, and as a very considerable tribute to the inventive genius of the Baluchistan metal-smiths of the period.’ (ibid.). However a handled copper mirror of the Mehi type has also been found at Sapalli-Tepe near Temex on the Oxus in s. Uzbekistan (Gupta, 1979, 2, pp. 203-4). Eight Harappa mirrors are reported, three each from Mohenjo-daro and Harappa and one each from Kalibangan and Lothal. Of those from Mohenjodaro (Mackay,1938, pp. 477-8), all of Bronze, slightly oval in shape with recessed face and the edge slightly raised, one is comparatively small in diameter and was ‘possibly made for a child’ (ibid.). The other two have respectively a rectangular and long flat handle, each having a hole at the end of the handle. The mirrors from Harappa are of copper, One of them, 1.80 c in diameter is oval in shape with a long tang (Vats, 1940, p.391), while another, which is similar, is of a smaller size (ASI-AR 1936-7, p.40). The third specimen, round in shape with a plain flat handle, was ‘found in the water-jar’ placed along with other pottery in Burial 2 from Cemetery R 37 (Wheeler, 1947, pp.87, 125-6). The copper or bronze mirror from Kalibangan also has been found in a grave near the head of a human skeleton (IAR 1963-4, p.38). The Lothal bronze mirror is ovoid in shape having a slightly concave surface. In this context reference may also be made to the bronze/copper mirrors found at a number of contemporary sites like Mundigak and Dashli-Tepe, respectively in s. and n. Afghanistan, Altin-Depe in s.Turkmenia, Bronze Age sites of the Andronovo culture and Tulkhar Depe in s. Tadjikistan (Gupta, 1979, 2, pp. 116 160-1, 190, 193, 195 and 201). ”(Amalananda Ghosh,1990,  An encyclopaediaof Indian Archaeology, BRILL p.347).

This is a tribute to Sharada Srinivasan and Ian Gloverwho have reported the process of bronze mirror making using 32.6% tin in Aranmula, Kerala.This finding shows the significant role played by Ancient Indian artisans in the development of tin-bronzes and perfecting the metallurgical techniques resulting in exquisite bronze mirrors with high tin content in the bronze alloy, during the Brone Age. This fact may provide leads to determining the sources of tin for the Tin-Bronze revolution of Eurasia. I have suggested that the source for tin were the river basins of Mekong, Irrawaddy, Salween Himalayan rivers which have ground down granite to create the largest tin belt of the globe. (Srinivasan, Sharada and Ian Glover, 2007, Skilled mirror craft of intermetallic delta high-tin bronze (Cu31Sn8, 32.6% tin) from Aranmula, Kerala, in Current Science, Vol. 93,No. 1, 10 July 2007, pp. 35-40)

https://www.scribd.com/document/363076105/Skilled-mirror-craft-of-intermetallic-delta-high-tin-bronze-Cu31Sn8-32-6-tin-from-Aranmula-Kerala-Srinivasan-Sharada-and-Ian-Glover-2007

http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_093_01_0035_0040_0.pdf

Aranmula mirrors were made of — a binary copper-tin alloy with 32-34 per cent tin.
High tin-bronze Aranmula mirror, British Museum, 18 inches
Aranmula Kannadi

"Polished bronze or copper mirrors were made by the Egyptians from 2900 BCE onwards." (Z. Y. Saad: The Excavations at Helwan. Art and Civilization in the First and Second Egyptian Dynasties, University of Oklahoma Press, Oklahoma 1969, p.54)

"In China,bronze mirrors were manufactured from around 2000 BC, some of the earliest bronze and copper examples being produced by the Qijia culture. Mirrors made of other metal mixtures (alloys) such as copper and tin speculum metal may have also been produced in China and India." 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror

Ancient history is all around us. The celebration of Bali Yatra on Karthik Purnima day in Bharatam coastline is a remembrance of the ancesors, seafaring people among Bharatam Janam who created the Hinduised States of the Far East (pace George Coedes' work in French with the title).

Another remarkable evidence comes from Aranmula where two ancient traditions are celebrated annually: 1. the high tin-bronze mirror in remembrance of the archaeometallurgical traditions of Sarasvati-Sindhu Civilization; and 2. annual boat race in remembrance of the seafaring merchants who had interactions across Persian Gulf upto Haifa, Israel in the Fertile Crescent where a shipwreck revealed three pure tin ingots with Indus Script inscriptions.2. Aranmula snake boat race palliyodam is held annually, on ‘’Uthrittathi’’ day, the birthday of Sri Krishna, Ashtamarohini day.

images of Aranmula Kannadi making process  http://aranmulakannadi.org/tag/aranmula-mirror/

Clay mould

• Aranmula is a little village in the district of Pathanamthitta, which is well known for its ancient temple dedicated to Lord Sree Krishna as Parthasarathy,the colorful snake boat Regatta and the Aranmula Kannadi.
• The British Museum in London has a 45 centimeter tall Aranmula metal mirror in its collection

"Bronze mirrors preceded the glass mirrors of today. This type of mirror has been found by archaeologists among elite assemblages from various cultures, from Etruscan Italy to China...In the Indus valley civilization, manufacture of bronze mirrors goes back to the time between 2800 and 2500 BCE.(Richard Corson: Fashions in Makeup: From Ancient to Modern Times, 1972)." Sourced from World Heritage Encyclopedia. http://self.gutenberg.org/Article.aspx?Title=bronze_mirrors

https://www.scribd.com/document/363077011/Temples-at-Barbar-PV-Glob-1954

Skilled mirror craft of intermetallic delta high-tin bronze (Cu31Sn8, 32.6% tin) from Aranmula, Kerala (Sri... by Srini Kalyanaraman on Scribd

Temples at Barbar (PV Glob, 1954) by Srini Kalyanaraman on Scribd

Bronzehandtag til et spejl fra barbartemlet pa Bahrain( MS Nagaraja Rao, Kuml, 1969 (1970), pp. 218-220)) by Srini Kalyanaraman on Scribd

Early Metallurgy of the Persian Gulf (Lloyd R. Weeks, 2003) by Srini Kalyanaraman on Scribd

Call for papers, Wales UK Conf. 8-10 May 2018, "Re-Thinking Globalisation in the Ancient World" University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD), Lampeter

October 31, 2017, 6:10 pm

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Mirror from Agade List

From Ralph Haussler <ralph.haussler@...>

From the 8th to the 10th May 2018, we are organising a three-day multi-disciplinary and international conference at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter entitled:

"Re-Thinking Globalisation in the Ancient World"

The aim is to explore approaches to the theme of ‘globalisation’ across the ancient world, c.500 BCE to 700 CE, from a methodological, cultural, and economic perspective. Methodological issues relating to the theme of ‘globalisation’ will be analysed in different contexts, notably the application of this concept in different regions and
different periods of the ancient world. For example, one can scrutinise such a concept in the multi-ethnic Seleukid Empire, study concepts of local identities in the ‘global world’ of the Roman Empire or ancient China, consider concepts like ‘Mediterranisation’ and ‘Oikoumenisation’, or explore interaction and cultural exchange between the Roman world, Africa, Southern Asia and China.

We are inviting papers that will broadly fit one or more of the following themes for any region across the ancient world and from any disciplinary perspective. We will also consider significant methodological papers from other periods.

Proposed sessions so far:

1) Globalisation in Antiquity – a valid approach?

2) Empires and the concept of Globalisation

3) Migration and diaspora

4) Shaping local identities in a ‘global world’

5) Individual and regional responses to globalisation across the ancient world

6) The Indian Ocean and the movement of goods, ideas and peoples

7) How connected was the Afro-Eurasian world?

Deadline for proposals: 1st January 2018. Please send a short abstract of no more than 400 words for your paper, plus a short CV, to the session organisers. If you wish to propose a session, please send us
an abstract and a list of potential speakers by the end of November. The time allocated for each paper will be approximately 20 minutes, plus 10 minutes for discussion. And of course we intend to publish the papers in an edited volume.

Conference fee to cover tea, coffee, reception and lunch: £45 (£30 for students and speakers; free for UWTSD students)

We have applied for funding to reimburse speakers’ expenses (e.g., accommodation and travel expenses), but we cannot promise you any reimbursement at the moment; we will keep you posted.

Organisers and contact details:

- Dr Matthew Cobb - m.cobb@...

- Assoc.-Prof. Ralph Haeussler - r.haeussler@...

Place: Lampeter campus, Academy of Cultural Heritage, University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD), Lampeter, SA48 7ED, Wales, U.K.

Further details will be circulated in due course.

Ancient coins of Greco-Bactrian Zoilus, Agathocles, signify Indus Script Meluhha mintwork hypertexts

November 1, 2017, 5:05 am

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https://tinyurl.com/ybwvm85q
Zoilus II Soter (Greek: Ζωΐλος Β΄ ὁ Σωτήρ; epithet means "the Saviour") was an Indo-Greek king who ruled from Sagala in eastern Punjab. Bopearachchi dates his reign to c. 55–35 BCE, a date approximately supported by R. C. Senior. The name is often Latinized as Zoilus. It is possible that some of his coins were issued by a separate king, Zoilos III.
Monolingual coin of Zoilos II Soter with "boxy" mint-mark. Obv Standing Apollo with bead and reel border. Rev Diadem with Kharoshthi legend "Maharajasa tratarasa Jhahilasa" (Saviour King Zoilos).

Zoilus II, Gold unit
Weight: 0.71 gm. Dimensions: 7 x 7 mm. Die axis: 12h
ZOIΛOY monogram, surrounded by Greek legend around: BAΣIΛEΩΣ (king)
Diadem, surrounded by Kharoshthi legend: jhahilasa
Reference: Bopearachchi 1999
This remarkable coin, apparently from the second Mir Zakah hoard, was published by Bopearachchi in a 1999 paper and appeared in a CNG auction. (photo, courtesy CNG) http://coinindia.com/galleries-zoilus2.html
There are two Indus Script hypertexts:

1. DivisionsPLUS two rice-plants: khaṇḍa'division' rebus: kaṇḍa'equipment'kolmo'rce plant' rebus; kolimi 'smithy, forge' PLUS dula'pair' rebus: dul'metal asting' Thus, metalcasting smithy, metal equipment

2. Dotted circle PLUS two chains:dhāu 'strand (dotted circle)' rebus: dhatu 'mineral ore' PLUS chain, link: śã̄gal, śã̄gaḍʻchainʼ (WPah.) śr̥ṅkhala m.n. ʻ chain ʼ MārkP., °lā -- f. VarBr̥S., śr̥ṅkhalaka -- m. ʻ chain ʼ MW., ʻ chained camel ʼ Pāṇ. [Similar ending in mḗkhalā -- ]Pa. saṅkhalā -- , °likā -- f. ʻ chain ʼ; Pk. saṁkala -- m.n., °lā -- , °lī -- , °liā -- , saṁkhalā -- , siṁkh°, siṁkalā -- f. ʻ chain ʼ Rebus: Vajra Sanghāta 'binding together': Mixture of 8 lead, 2 bell-metal, 1 iron rust constitute adamantine glue. (Allograph) Hieroglyph: sãghāṛɔ 'lathe'.(Gujarati) dula 'pair' rebus: dul 'metal casting'.

A comparable hypertext appears on kuntala janapada coins

Kuntala Janapada 6th century BCE, Silver, 6.24 g, pulley type with a big pulley-type symbol in the center and a clock-wise Triskeli in two of its orbs(Uniface)

Clearly, Indian engravers familiar with the Indian art tradition had designed the hypertexts on coins of Agathocles.

On this coin of Agathocles, Zeus is seen wielding vajra, 'thunderbolt' weapon of Rudra and Indra in Veda tradition.

BACTRIA, Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. Agathokles Dikaios. Circa 185-175 BC. AR Tetradrachm (31mm, 16.44 g, 12h). Commemorative issue struck for Antiochos III of Syria. ANTIOXOY down right, NIKATOPOΣ down left, diademed head of Euthydemos right / Zeus Bremetes, seen from behind, advancing left, aegis draped over outstretched left arm, and brandishing thunderbolt in right hand; in inner left field, wreath above eagle standing left; monogram to inner right. Bopearachchi 13A; HGC 12, 84; Triton XII, lot 402 (same obv. die).The attribution of the individual on this tetradrachm, one of the series of pedigree issues struck by Agathokles, has been the subject of much discussion. Based on his own coinage, the portrait here is that of Euthydemos I. The legend – ANTIOXOY NIKATOPOΣ – suggests one of the early Seleukid kings of that name, and attempts have been made to associate the Antiochos on this tetradrachm with Antiochos II, who is named on the issues of Diodotos I.

https://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=1039541&AucID=2024&Lot=563&Val=7ced5530126acd0a4a21ede3306ef19e 

Euthydemos II - c.190-171 BC - Nickel didrachm 24mm diameter, 7g. Apollo bust / tripod monogram to left " Of King Euthydemos"

Agathocles - c.171-160 BC - Nickel drachm 19mm diameter, 3.3g. Dionysos bust / Panther touching vine monogram behind " Of King Agathokles"

"Three rulers in the early second century BCE issued coins in nickel (a first in the world). On the left we see a Euthydemos II coin which collectors have named didrachm or dichalkous. Later, Agathocles and his brother Pantaleon issued Dionysos/panther nickel coins in two denominations of which we show the smaller: the drachm or chalkon. We really do not know the correct name of these coins or their relationship to the copper or silver issues of the same rulers. It is probably safe to consider the nickel coins a minor denomination since the style and workmanship more closely matches the copper coins than it does the silver.The alloy is about 25% nickel 75% copper (same as modern U.S. 5 cent pieces). Much discussion has been given to the source of the metal used in these coins. It is known that the Chinese worked nickel alloys at this time and speculation suggests that these coins were a result of trade with China. Nickel retrieved from meteorites has also been mentioned." 

https://web.archive.org/web/20050306233802/http://dougsmith.ancients.info/feac58bak.html 

Bactria: Agathocles, Cupro-nickel dichalkon or double unit, c. 185-170 BCE

Weight: 7.44 gm., Diam: 23 mm., Die axis: 12 h
Laureate head of Dionysos facing right /
Panther standing right with raised paw, grape vine before
     Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ AΓAΘOKΛEOYΣ      monogram in exergue panja'felinepaw' rebus: panja'kiln, furnace, melter' kola 'tiger' rebus: kol'working in iron'kuṭi 'tree' rebus: kuṭhi'smelter'
Bactria: Agathocles, AE double karshapana, c. 185-170 BCE
Weight: 14.45 gm., Dim: 22 x 27 mm., Die axis: 12 h
Female deity moving left, holding flower
     Brahmi legend: Rajane Agathukleyasasa /
Lion standing right,
     Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ AΓAΘOKΛEOYΣ This coin parallels the similar issue of Pantaleon, and so has a claim to being the first Greek coin aimed at an Indian audience (since we are not sure whose coins were issued earlier, Agathocles's or Pantaleon's. But we have an Indian style deity (thought by some to represent Lakshmi) holding a lotus blossom), a square flan (recall that Mauryan coins were typically square), a legend in Brahmi, and a weight-standard that seems to be associated with an Indian standard. http://coinindia.com/galleries-agathocles.html

Śri Kr̥ṣṇa, Śri Balarāma on Ai Khanoum ancient coins

Bactria, Agathocles. Circa 185-170 BC. AR Drachm. Bilingual series. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ (VASILEOS AGATHOKLEOUS) the Indian god Balarama-Samkarshana standing facing, in ornate headdress, earrings, & sheathed sword, brandishing gada in his right hand, holding plow-symbol in left / “Rajane Agathuklayasa” in  Brāhmī , the Indian god Vasudeva-Krishna standing facing, in ornate headdress, earrings, & sheathed sword, holding śankha in his right hand.

For detailed reading of Indus Script hypertexts, see: 

Śri Kr̥ṣṇa, Śri Balarāma on Ai Khanoum ancient coins with Indus Script hypertexts signify wealth of a nation https://tinyurl.com/y979p38z

Coin of Agathocles of Bactria. Obv: (missing) Dancing girl, or Lakshmi, holding a flower. Brahmilegend: RAJANE AGATHUKLAYASHA "King Agathocles".

Rev: Lion, Greek legend BASILEOS AGATOKLEOU "King Agathocles".(From "Coins of the Indo-Greeks", Whitehead, 1914 edition). On his coins, Agathocles calls himself, ΔΙΚΑΙΟΥ (DIKAIOU 'The Just').Pedigree coin of Agathocles with Alexander the Great. Obverse – Greek inscription reads, ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ i. e. of Alexander son of Philip. Reverse – Greek inscription reads, iI) Pedigree coin of Agathocles with Diodotus the Saviour. Obverse – Greek inscription reads, ΔΙΟΔΟΤΟΥ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ i. e. of Diodotus the Saviour.

Coin of Agathokles, king of Bactria (ca. 200–145 BC). British Museum.

Inscriptions in Greek. Upper left and down: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ (VASILEOS AGATHOKLEOUS)

Rev Lakshmi, a Goddess of abundance and fortune for Hindus & Buddhists, with Brahmi legend Rajane Agathukleyasasa "King Agathocles".

Coin of Agathocles of Bactria.Obv: Arched hills surmounted by a star (Read as Indus Script hypertexts:dang 'hill range' rebus: dhangar 'blacksmith' med 'polar star' rebus: med 'iron') . Rev: Trisula symbol, Kharoshthi legend HITAJASAME "Good-fame-possessing" (lit. meaning of "Agathocles").Source: From "Coins of the Indo-Greeks", Whitehead, 1914 edition, Public Domain. The mint of Al Khanoum proclaims its wealth-producing metallurgical repertoire on the Indus Script messageon the coin.

Bactria: Agathocles, AE dichalkon, c. 185-170 BCE

Weight: 4.90 gm., Dim: 20 x 14 mm., Die axis: 12 h
Railed tree, Kharoshthi legend below: hiranasme (golden hermitage) /
Six-arched hill, Kharoshthi legend below: akathukreyasa
     Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ AΓAΘOKΛEOYΣ Agathocles issued this enigmatic coin, thought to have been minted in Taxila. The significance of this type is still not properly understood. http://coinindia.com/galleries-agathocles.html

An six-arched hill symbolsurmounted by a star.Kharoṣṭhī legend Akathukreyasa "Agathocles". Tree-in-railing, Kharoṣṭhīlegend Hirañasame (Monnaies Gréco-Bactriennes et Indo-Grecques, Bopearachchi, p.176) The symbols used together with Kharoṣṭhī legends are Indus script hypertexts: dang 'hill range' rebus: dhangar 'blacksmith' med 'polar star' rebus: med 'iron'; khaṇḍa 'divisions' rebus: kaṇḍa 'equipment', kolom 'three' kolmo 'rice plant' rebus; kolimi 'smithy. Thus, the hypertexts signify the metallurgical competence of the mint with smithy/forge working in iron and metal implements. Hence, the message 'hiranasame' which means 'wealth like gold' (of the mintwork and products from the mint).

Apollodotus coin. Indus Script hypertexts: karibha, ibha 'elephant' rebus: karba, ib 'iron'; hill range, dang'hill range' rebus  dhangar'blacksmith' baṭa = rimless pot (Kannada) Rebus: baṭa = a kind of iron ḍabu'an iron spoon' (Santali) Rebus: ḍab, ḍhimba, ḍhompo'lump (ingot?) kuṭi 'tree' rebus: kuṭhi 'smelter'sattva 'svastika symbol' rebus: jasta'zinc'  गोटी [ gōṭī ] 'round pebbles, stones' rebus: गोटी [ gōṭī ] 'A lump of silver' kuṭhāru 'crucible' rebus:kuṭhāru 'armourer' 

Osmund Bopearachchi - Detail of coin, from Apollodotus I coin photograph in Osmund Bopearachchi, Monnaies Greco-Bactriennes et Indo-Grecques, Pl. 11. The detail is a non-creative 2-dimensional work of art dating to the 1st century BCE, Mathura, India. The 3D frame (coin edge) was cut out in conformity with PD-Art guidelines.

 पोळ pōḷa 'zebu, bos indicus taurus, bull set at liberty' rebus: पोळ pōḷa 'magnetite (a ferrite ore)' 

https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/sites/silkroad/files/knowledge-bank-article/recent_discoveries_of_coin_hoards_from_central_asia_and_pakistan.pdf
On the signifiance of six-armed wheel (and link with vajra, 'thunderbolt weapon') atop the elephant, see: Vajra and Punchmarked coins with Indus Script hypertexts https://tinyurl.com/y85goask  Sun symbol, the six edges of six spokes are arrowheads and 'nandipada' symbols which are read as Indus Script hypertexts: 

arka 'sun' rebus: erako 'moltencast' arka 'copper, gold'      
dhAu 'strand' rebus: dhAtu 'mineral ore' PLUS Hieroglyph: vaṭa A loop of coir rope, used for climbing palm-trees Rebus: dhā̆vaḍ 'iron-smelter.

kāˊṇḍa'arrow'-- [< IE. *kondo -- , Gk. kondu/los ʻ knuckle ʼ, ko/ndos ʻ ankle ʼ T. Burrow BSOAS xxxviii 55]S.kcch. kāṇḍī f. ʻ lucifer match ʼ? (CDIAL 3023) *kāṇḍakara ʻ worker with reeds or arrows ʼ. [kāˊṇḍa -- , kará -- 1]L. kanērā m. ʻ mat -- maker ʼ; H. kãḍerā m. ʻ a caste of bow -- and arrow -- makers ʼ.(CDIAL 3024) Rebus: लोखंडकाम (p. 723) [ lōkhaṇḍakāma ] n Iron work; that portion (of a building, machine &c.) which consists of iron. 2 The business of an ironsmith.लोहोलोखंड (p. 723) [ lōhōlōkhaṇḍa ] n (लोह & लोखंड) Iron tools, vessels, or articles in general. khāṇḍa 'tools, metalware'.
goṭi, ‘silver, laterite’ are signified by goṭa, ‘seed’ hieroglyph. PLUS koṭhārī f. ʻcrucible' PLUS khōṭa 'alloy ingot', kuṭi  in cmpd.‘curve' Rebus:kuṭhi'smelter' Rebus: koṭhārī ʻ treasurer '.

Western philosophy is racist -- Bryan W Van Norden

November 1, 2017, 6:40 am

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Academic philosophy in ‘the West’ ignores and disdains the thought traditions of China, India and Africa. This must change

Mainstream philosophy in the so-called West is narrow-minded, unimaginative, and even xenophobic. I know I am levelling a serious charge. But how else can we explain the fact that the rich philosophical traditions of China, India, Africa, and the Indigenous peoples of the Americas are completely ignored by almost all philosophy departments in both Europe and the English-speaking world?

Western philosophy used to be more open-minded and cosmopolitan. The first major translation into a European language of the Analects, the saying of Confucius (551-479 BCE), was done by Jesuits, who had extensive exposure to the Aristotelian tradition as part of their rigorous training. They titled their translation Confucius Sinarum Philosophus, or Confucius, the Chinese Philosopher (1687).

One of the major Western philosophers who read with fascination Jesuit accounts of Chinese philosophy was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). He was stunned by the apparent correspondence between binary arithmetic (which he invented, and which became the mathematical basis for all computers) and the I Ching, or Book of Changes, the Chinese classic that symbolically represents the structure of the Universe via sets of broken and unbroken lines, essentially 0s and 1s. (In the 20th century, the psychoanalyst Carl Jung was so impressed with the I Ching that he wrote a philosophical foreword to a translation of it.) Leibniz also said that, while the West has the advantage of having received Christian revelation, and is superior to China in the natural sciences, ‘certainly they surpass us (though it is almost shameful to confess this) in practical philosophy, that is, in the precepts of ethics and politics adapted to the present life and the use of mortals’.

The German philosopher Christian Wolff echoed Leibniz in the title of his public lecture Oratio de Sinarum Philosophia Practica, or Discourse on the Practical Philosophy of the Chinese(1721). Wolff argued that Confucius showed that it was possible to have a system of morality without basing it on either divine revelation or natural religion. Because it proposed that ethics can be completely separated from belief in God, the lecture caused a scandal among conservative Christians, who had Wolff relieved of his duties and exiled from Prussia. However, his lecture made him a hero of the German Enlightenment, and he immediately obtained a prestigious position elsewhere. In 1730, he delivered a second public lecture, De Rege Philosophante et Philosopho Regnante, or On the Philosopher King and the Ruling Philosopher, which praised the Chinese for consulting ‘philosophers’ such as Confucius and his later follower Mengzi (fourth century BCE) about important matters of state.

Chinese philosophy was also taken very seriously in France. One of the leading reformers at the court of Louis XV was François Quesnay (1694-1774). He praised Chinese governmental institutions and philosophy so lavishly in his work Despotisme de la China (1767) that he became known as ‘the Confucius of Europe’. Quesnay was one of the originators of the concept of laissez-faire economics, and he saw a model for this in the sage-king Shun, who was known for governing by wúwéi (non-interference in natural processes). The connection between the ideology of laissez-faire economics and wúwéi continues to the present day. In his State of the Union address in 1988, the US president Ronald Reagan quoted a line describing wúwéi from the Daodejing, which he interpreted as a warning against government regulation of business. (Well, I didn’t say that every Chinese philosophical idea was a good idea.)

Leibniz, Wolff and Quesnay are illustrations of what was once a common view in European philosophy. In fact, as Peter K J Park notes in Africa, Asia, and the History of Philosophy: Racism in the Formation of the Philosophical Canon (2014), the only options taken seriously by most scholars in the 18th century were that philosophy began in India, that philosophy began in Africa, or that both India and Africa gave philosophy to Greece. 

So why did things change? As Park convincingly argues, Africa and Asia were excluded from the philosophical canon by the confluence of two interrelated factors. On the one hand, defenders of the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) consciously rewrote the history of philosophy to make it appear that his critical idealism was the culmination toward which all earlier philosophy was groping, more or less successfully.

On the other hand, European intellectuals increasingly accepted and systematised views of white racial superiority that entailed that no non-Caucasian group could develop philosophy. (Even St Augustine, who was born in northern Africa, is typically depicted in European art as a pasty white guy.) So the exclusion of non-European philosophy from the canon was a decision, not something that people have always believed, and it was a decision based not on a reasoned argument, but rather on polemical considerations involving the pro-Kantian faction in European philosophy, as well as views about race that are both scientifically unsound and morally heinous.

Kant himself was notoriously racist. He treated race as a scientific category (which it is not), correlated it with the ability for abstract thought, and – theorising on the destiny of races in lectures to students – arranged them in a hierarchical order:

1. ‘The race of the whites contains all talents and motives in itself.’

2. ‘The Hindus … have a strong degree of calm, and all look like philosophers. That notwithstanding, they are much inclined to anger and love. They thus are educable in the highest degree, but only to the arts and not to the sciences. They will never achieve abstract concepts. [Kant ranks the Chinese with East Indians, and claims that they are] static … for their history books show that they do not know more now than they have long known.’

3. ‘The race of Negroes … [is] full of affect and passion, very lively, chatty and vain. It can be educated, but only to the education of servants, ie, they can be trained.’

4. ‘The [Indigenous] American people are uneducable; for they lack affect and passion. They are not amorous, and so are not fertile. They speak hardly at all, … care for nothing and are lazy.’

Those of us who are specialists on Chinese philosophy are particularly aware of Kant’s disdain for Confucius: ‘Philosophy is not to be found in the whole Orient. … Their teacher Confucius teaches in his writings nothing outside a moral doctrine designed for the princes … and offers examples of former Chinese princes. … But a concept of virtue and morality never entered the heads of the Chinese.’

Kant is easily one of the four or five most influential philosophers in the Western tradition. He asserted that the Chinese, Indians, Africans and the Indigenous peoples of the Americas are congenitally incapable of philosophy. And contemporary Western philosophers take it for granted that there is no Chinese, Indian, African or Native American philosophy. If this is a coincidence, it is a stunning one.

If philosophy starts with Plato’s Republic, then I guess the inventor of the Socratic method was not a philosopher

One might argue that, while Kant’s racist premises are indefensible, his conclusion is correct, because the essence of philosophy is to be a part of one specific Western intellectual lineage. This is the position defended by D Kyle Peone in the conservative journal The Weekly Standard. Peone, a postgraduate in philosophy at Emory University in Georgia, argued that, because ‘philosophy’ is a word of Greek origin, it refers only to the tradition that grows out of the ancient Greek thinkers. A similar line of argument was given here in Aeon by Nicholas Tampio, who pronouncedthat ‘Philosophy originates in Plato’s Republic.’

These are transparently bad arguments (as both Jay Garfield and Amy Olberding have pointed out). For one thing, if the etymology of a term determines which culture ‘owns’ that subject, then there is no algebra in Europe, since we got that term from Arabic. In addition, if philosophy starts with Plato’s Republic, then I guess the inventor of the Socratic method was not a philosopher. My colleagues who teach and write books on pre-Socratic ‘philosophers’ such as Heraclitus and Parmenides are also out of jobs.

Peone and Tampio are part of a long line of thinkers who have tried to simply define non-European philosophy out of existence. In What is Philosophy (1956), Martin Heidegger claimed that:

The often-heard expression ‘Western-European philosophy’ is, in truth, a tautology. Why? Because philosophy is Greek in its nature; … the nature of philosophy is of such a kind that it first appropriated the Greek world, and only it, in order to unfold.

Similarly, on a visit to China in 2001, Jacques Derrida stunned his hosts (who teach in Chinese philosophy departments) by announcing that ‘China does not have any philosophy, only thought.’ In response to the obvious shock of his audience, Derrida insisted that ‘Philosophy is related to some sort of particular history, some languages, and some ancient Greek invention. … It is something of European form.’

The statements of Derrida and Heidegger might have the appearance of complimenting non-Western philosophy for avoiding the entanglements of Western metaphysics. In actuality, their comments are as condescending as talk of ‘noble savages’, who are untainted by the corrupting influences of the West, but are for that very reason barred from participation in higher culture.

It is not only philosophers in the so-called Continental tradition who are dismissive of philosophy outside the Anglo-European canon. The British philosopher G E Moore (1873-1958) was one of the founders of analytic philosophy, the tradition that has become dominant in the English-speaking world. When the Indian philosopher Surendra Nath Dasgupta read a paper on the epistemology of Vedanta to a session of the Aristotelian Society in London, Moore’s only comment was: ‘I have nothing to offer myself. But I am sure that whatever Dasgupta says is absolutely false.’ The audience of British philosophers in attendance roared with laughter at the devastating ‘argument’ Moore had levelled against this Indian philosophical system.

It might be tempting to dismiss this as just a joke between colleagues, but we have to keep in mind that Indian philosophy was already marginalised in Moore’s era. His joke would have had an exclusionary effect similar to sexist jokes made in professional contexts today.

The case of Eugene Sun Park illustrates how Moore’s intellectual descendants are equally narrow-minded. When Sun Park was a student in a mainstream philosophy department in the US Midwest, he tried to encourage a more diverse approach to philosophy by advocating the hiring of faculty who specialise in Chinese philosophy or one other of the less commonly taught philosophies. He reportsthat he found himself ‘repeatedly confounded by ignorance and, at times, thinly veiled racism’. One member of the faculty basically told him: ‘This is the intellectual tradition we work in. Take it or leave it.’ When Sun Park tried to at least refer to non-Western philosophy in his own dissertation, he was advised to ‘transfer to the Religious Studies Department or some other department where “ethnic studies” would be more welcome’.

Sun Park eventually dropped out of his doctoral programme, and is now a filmmaker. How many other students – particularly students who might have brought greater diversity to the profession – have been turned off from the beginning, or have dropped out along the way, because philosophy seems like nothing but a temple to the achievement of white males?

Those who say that Chinese philosophy is irrational do not bother to read it, and simply dismiss it in ignorance

Some philosophers will grant (grudgingly) that there might be philosophy in China or India, for example, but then assume that it somehow isn’t as good as European philosophy. Most contemporary Western intellectuals gingerly dance around this issue. The late Justice Antonin Scalia was an exception, saying in print what many people actually think, or whisper to like-minded colleagues over drinks at the club. He referred to the thought of Confucius as ‘the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie’.

To anyone who asserts that there is no philosophy outside the Anglo-European tradition, or who admits that there is philosophy outside the West but thinks that it simply isn’t any good, I ask the following. Why does he think that the Mohist state-of-nature argument to justify government authority is not philosophy? What does he make of Mengzi’s reductio ad absurdum against the claim that human nature is reducible to desires for food and sex? Why does he dismiss Zhuangzi’s version of the infinite regress argument for skepticism? What is his opinion of Han Feizi’s argument that political institutions must be designed so that they do not depend upon the virtue of political agents? What does he think of Zongmi’s argument that reality mustfundamentally be mental, because it is inexplicable how consciousness could arise from matter that is non-conscious? Why does he regard the Platonic dialogues as philosophical, yet dismiss Fazang’s dialogue in which he argues for, and responds to, objections against the claim that individuals are defined by their relationships to others? What is his opinion of Wang Yangming’s arguments for the claim that it is impossible to know what is good yet fail to do what is good? Does he find convincing Dai Zhen’s effort to produce a naturalistic foundation for ethics in the universalisability of our natural motivations? What does he make of Mou Zongsan’s critique of Kant, or Liu Shaoqi’s argument that Marxism is incoherent unless supplemented with a theory of individual ethical transformation? Does he prefer the formulation of the argument for the equality of women given in the Vimalakirti Sutra, or the one given by the Neo-Confucian Li Zhi, or the one given by the Marxist Li Dazhao? Of course, the answer to each question is that those who suggest that Chinese philosophy is irrational have never heard of any of these arguments because they do not bother to read Chinese philosophy and simply dismiss it in ignorance.

The sad reality is that comments such as those by Kant, Heidegger, Derrida, Moore, Scalia and the professors that Sun Park encountered are manifestations of what Edward W Said labelled ‘Orientalism’ in his eponymous book of 1979: the view that everything from Egypt to Japan is essentially the same, and is the polar opposite of the West: ‘The Oriental is irrational, depraved (fallen), childlike, “different”; thus the European is rational, virtuous, mature, “normal”.’ Those under the influence of Orientalism do not need to really read Chinese (or other non-European) texts or take their arguments seriously, because they come pre-interpreted: ‘“Orientals” for all practical purposes were a Platonic essence, which any Orientalist (or ruler of Orientals) might examine, understand, and expose.’ And this essence guarantees that what Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern or other non-European thinkers have to say is, at best, quaint, at worst – fatuous.

Readers of this essay might be disappointed that my examples (both positive and negative) have focused on Chinese philosophy. This is simply because Chinese philosophy is the area in non-Western philosophy that I know best. To advocate that we teach more philosophy outside the Anglo-European mainstream is not to suggest the unrealistic goal that each of us should be equally adept at lecturing on all of them. However, we should not forget that Chinese philosophy is only one of a substantial number of less commonly taught philosophies (LCTP) that are largely ignored by US philosophy departments, including African, Indian, and Indigenous philosophies. Although I am far from an expert in any of these traditions, I do know enough about them to recognise that they have much to offer as philosophy.

Just read An Essay on African Philosophical Thought: The Akan Conceptual Scheme (1987) by Kwame Gyekye, or Philosophy and an African Culture (1980) by Kwasi Wiredu, or Philosophy in Classical India (2001) by Jonardon Ganeri, or Buddhism as Philosophy (2007) by Mark Siderits, or Aztec Philosophy (2014) by James Maffie, or the writings of Kyle Powys Whyte at Michigan State University on Indigenous environmentalism. Many forms of philosophy that are deeply influenced by the Greco-Roman tradition (and hence particularly easy to incorporate into the curriculum) are also ignored in mainstream departments, including African-American, Christian, feminist, Islamic, Jewish, Latin American, and LGBTQ philosophies. Adding coverage of any of them to the curriculum would be a positive step toward greater diversity.

I am not saying that mainstream Anglo-European philosophy is bad and all other philosophy is good. There are people who succumb to this sort of cultural Manicheanism, but I am not one of them. My goal is to broaden philosophy by tearing down barriers, not to narrow it by building new ones. To do this is to be more faithful to the ideals that motivate the best philosophy in every culture. When the ancient philosopher Diogenes was asked what city he came from, he replied: ‘I am a citizen of the world.’ Contemporary philosophy in the West has lost this perspective. In order to grow intellectually, to attract an increasingly diverse student body, and to remain culturally relevant, philosophy must recover its original cosmopolitan ideal.

This article is an edited excerpt from Bryan W Van Norden’s ‘Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto’ (2017), with a foreword by Jay L Garfield, published by Columbia University Press.

Bryan W Van Norden

is Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple professor at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, professor of philosophy at Vassar College in New York, and chair professor at Wuhan University in China. His latest book is Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto (2017), with a foreword by Jay L Garfield. 

https://aeon.co/essays/why-the-western-philosophical-canon-is-xenophobic-and-racist

Khaṇḍērāva Śiva, Bhāratīya Arthaśāstra Itihāsa, wealth-creation Indus Script hypertexts on ancient coins, sculptures

November 2, 2017, 12:06 am

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khaṇḍērāva Śiva, Bhāratīya Arthaśāstra Itihāsa, Indus Script hypertext akṣarasamāmnāya, 'recitation of phonemes' is compiled from ancient lexemes of over 25 Bhāratīya languages constituting Meluhha lexis of metalwork consistent with Indus Script cipher.

-- on ancient coins and sculptures, context wealth-creation of poḷaḍa'crucible steel'

The monograph demonstrates that Indus Script hypertexts are abiding symbols in mints of ancient India and constitute a documentation of metalwork, armouries built in ancient mints. Ancient mints also produce metal weapon workshops. The hypertexts are enshrined in many many metal artifacts and in sculptural friezes all over India constituting the framework to narrate Bhāratīya Arthaśāstra Itihāsa of the Bronze Age which fused into the Iron Age ca. 19th century BCE (evidenced by iron smelters found in Ganga River Basin. Rakesh Tewari, 2003, The origins of Iron-working in India, cf. http://archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/iron-ore
 Damaged circular clay furnace, comprising iron slag and tuyeres and other waste materials stuck with its body, exposed at lohsanwa mound, Period II, Malhar, Dist. Chandauli.

-- Tāṇḍava Nr̥tyam in ādibhautika level is a metaphor for the wealth-creation of a nation, signified on metalwork accounting ledgers of Indus Script hypertexts.

-- Mahākāla Śiva, Ujjain (on Ujjain coins) & tāṇḍava Nr̥tyam, Gaṇeśa, (on Bādāmi sulptures) are Indus Script hypertexts khaṇḍērāva is a name of Śiva. खंडेराव (p. 110) khaṇḍērāva m (खंड Sword, and राव) An incarnation of Shiva. Popularly खंडेराव is but dimly distinguished from भैरव. खंडा (p. 110) khaṇḍā m A sort of sword. It is straight and twoedged. See खांडा. खांडा (p. 116) khāṇḍā m A kind of sword, straight, broad-bladed, two-edged, and round-ended. 2 A jag, notch, or indentation (as upon the edge of a tool or weapon. लोखंड (p. 423) lōkhaṇḍa n (लोह S) Iron. लोखंडाचे चणे खावविणें or चारणें To oppress grievously.  81) लोखंडकाम (p. 423) lōkhaṇḍakāma n Iron work; that portion (of a building, machine &c.) which consists of iron. 2 The business of an ironsmith. 82) लोखंडी (p. 423) lōkhaṇḍī a (लोखंड) Composed of iron; relating to iron. 2 fig. Hardy or hard--a constitution or a frame of body, one's हाड or natal bone or parental stock. 3 Close and hard;--used of kinds of wood. 4 Ardent and unyielding--a fever. 5 लोखंडी, in the sense Hard and coarse or in the sense Strong or enduring, is freely applied as a term of distinction or designation.

-- Indus Script hypertexts are a form of Akṣarasamāmnāya, "recitation of phonemes," organized as vākyapadīya, 'meanings of word messages' in Bhāratīya sprachbund, 'language union of ancient Bhāratsm,' embodied in, which live on in the lingua franca of 25+ ancient languages of Bhāratam.

-- The metaphor of caṣāla, 'godhuma, wheatchaff' shape of a heap of chaff is comparable to the hour-glass or vajra-shape of ḍamaru drum held on a right hand of Naṭarāja of Bādāmi Cave 1. The sounds of the ḍamaru drum yield Śivasūtrāṇi or Māheśvarāni sūtrāṇi which contains all sounds of the Samskr̥tam language. The fourteen verses of Śivasūtrāṇiorganize the phonemes of Sanskrit as referred to in the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini.
lōhakāri f. blacksmith: 
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bc/3e/4c/bc3e4c4ae1bb41fcdd2f2ec6c7f32268.jpg lōhakāra m. ʻ iron -- worker ʼ, °rī -- f., °raka -- m. lex., lauhakāra -- m. Hit. [lōhá -- , kāra -- 1] Pa. lōhakāra -- m. ʻ coppersmith, ironsmith ʼ; Pk. lōhāra -- m. ʻ blacksmith ʼ, S. luhā̆ru m., L. lohār m., °rī f., awāṇ. luhār, P. WPah.khaś. bhal. luhār m., Ku. lwār, N. B. lohār, Or. lohaḷa, Bi.Bhoj. Aw.lakh. lohār, H. lohār, luh° m., G. lavār m., M. lohār m.; Si. lōvaru ʻ coppersmith ʼ. Addenda: lōhakāra -- : WPah.kṭg. (kc.) lhwāˋr m. ʻ blacksmith ʼ, lhwàri f. ʻ his wife ʼ, Garh. lwār m.(CDIAL 11159)
Close-up of an 18th-century Iranian crucible-forged Damascus steel sword. The sword was made of wootz steel, a process said to have started in 300 BCE. [K. Kris Hirst Damascus Steel. Nanotechnology and SwordMaking. Archaeology.about.com (2010-06-10)] 

Magnetite is the most magnetic of all the naturally occurring igneous and metamorphic rocks with black or brownish-black with a metallic luster. 

These magnetite ore stones could have been identified as pola iron by Meluhha speakers.

The context of wealth-creation of poḷaḍa 'crucible steel' is exemplified by a painting which adorns the institute of Steel Authority of India, Ranchi. The painting shows (Porus) Purushottama gifting a poḷaḍa paṭṭā  .'crucible steel sword' पट्टा (p. 273) paṭṭā m ( H) A kind of sword. It is long, two-edged, and has a hilt protecting the whole fore arm (Marathi) பட்டா¹ paṭṭā , n. < K. paṭṭā. Sword; வாள். पट्टिश [p= 579,3] m. a spear with a sharp edge or some other weapon with three points MBh. R. &c (written also पट्टिस , पटिस and पट्टीस (Monier-Williams)

IAST International Alphabet of Sanskrit transliteration	Devanāgarī Script
1. a i u ṇ 2. ṛ ḷ k 3. e o ṅ 4. ai au c 5. ha ya va ra ṭ 6. la ṇ 7. ña ma ṅa ṇa na m 8. jha bha ñ 9. gha ḍha dha ṣ 10. ja ba ga ḍa da ś 11. kha pha cha ṭha tha ca ṭa ta v 12. ka pa y 13. śa ṣa sa r 14. ha l	१. अ इ उ ण्। २. ऋ ऌ क्। ३. ए ओ ङ्। ४. ऐ औ च्। ५. ह य व र ट्। ६. ल ण्। ७. ञ म ङ ण न म्। ८. झ भ ञ्। ९. घ ढ ध ष्। १०. ज ब ग ड द श्। ११. ख फ छ ठ थ च ट त व्। १२. क प य्। १३. श ष स र्। १४. ह ल्।

Courtesy: Frits Staal's lecture. See:  Scripts of India. 
https://www.academia.edu/10256908/Scripts_of_India

Mahākāla Śiva, Ujjain, mendicant carrying a daṇḍa, 'staff', with matted hair, signify 

1. a Yūpa and 
2. a caṣāla (wheat chaff to infuse carbon into the molten metal) atop aṣṭāśr yūpa 

These metaphors of ādibhautika level evolve into ādhyātmikā (turīya) level as Naṭarāja's tāṇḍava Nr̥tyam, 'cosmic dance' at the 6th century Bādāmi cave temples, accompanied by tridhātu Gaṇeśa. 

The 'cosmic dance' is replicated at the ādibhautika level in the metallurgical processes in a phaḍa, 'metals manufactory' led by tridhātu Gaṇeśa with his kharva, 'dwarf' gaṇa, śreṇi, 'guilds' and mūṣa '[mouse' rebus: mūṣa 'crucible' for producing crucible steel -- poḷaḍa 'steel'.

This narrative of Bhāratīya Arthaśāstra Itihāsa with particular reference to wealth created with the technological excellence of the world-renowned poḷaḍa '(crucible) steel' is enshrined in ancient coins and sculptures
See: 

Pōlāda: archaeometallurgy of ancient Indian metalwork. Signified on Indus Script Corpora by hieroglyph: zebu, bos indicus http://tinyurl.com/nsfgedh bolad 'steel' (Russian) folad 'steel' (Old Persian). It is possible that the word bolad (Russian) was cognate with पोळ (p. 305) pōḷa m A bull dedicated to the gods, marked with a trident and discus, and set at large. पोळा (p. 305) pōḷā m (पोळ) A festive day for cattle, the day of new moon of श्रावण or of भाद्रपद. Bullocks are exempted from labor; variously daubed and decorated; and paraded about in worship rebus: पोळ pōḷa 'magnetite (a ferrite ore)'. 

dāntā 'tooth, tusk' rebus: dhāˊtu 'ore of red colour' (ferrite ores, copper ores).Volker Rybatzki cites the following cognate words:"Turco-Mongolian bulat 'steel'...The earliest sources showing bulat 'steel' are Sino-Uigur and Sino-Mongolian from about the 14th century. Caucasus: Udian pholad; Cocenian buolat; Ingiloi folad, pholad; Budux polot; Georgian foladi, pholadi; Mingrelian fulandi, foladi; Svanetian polad, blat, OssT bolat. NArm. polpat, CArm. polovat, polopat (10th century) 'steel'; Psh. fulAd, pUlAd; Yid. pUlAd, pUlOd, fulad; Wakhi pUlOd 'steel'; Shug.Bal.Baj.Shd.Rsh.Yaz. pulod; Kal. pol'at; MP pOlAwas; pOlAvatOn 'made of steel'< pOlAvat 'steel'; KurdS pola, polad; Pers. pUlAd 'the finest Damascus steel, with that of QUm, is esteemed the best in the East; steel generally, a sword; name of a demon and a famous warrior; a club'; pUlAdi hind 'an Indian sword; fUlAd 'steel'; Dari folAd; Brahui folAt, pOlAt 'steel'; Tib. p'o-lad 'steel'; UigS bolut; TurkiKh pulat; KtBl. bolat '(of) steel'; Kum. bolat 'steel'; Khak. molat; Krg. bolat; Oir. bolod 'steel, sword'; Evk. bolot 'Stahl'. The word bulat in Turkic and Mongolian is a loanword from Early New Persian. Possibly the word was spread as a result of the Mongolian conquests in the 13th century...The origin of the word is unknown...pUlAd is foreign in Persian, Abaev also was unsure of its origin, but he refers to FE Kors, who considered pUlAd to be of Indian origin. There are reasons why this last hypothesis seems acceptable. In earliest times Persian pUlAd denoted damescene steel. The ingots from which damescene steel was produced, were, at least since Islamic era, imported from South-Central India. But Alexander the Great had already received 100 talents of Indian steel as a tribute. After +115, when Parthians were importing steel from Margiana, Romans called this imported steel ferrum sericum. Here seres may refer to China, but an identification with Southern India is also not impossible. Later sources stress the quality of the Indian ingots.After the 17th century, when the English became acquainted with these ingots, they were called wootz, a term of Dravidian origin. Secondly, pUlAd is not the oldest Iranian name for steel, this being haosafna, attested in the Young Avesta. In modern East Iranian languages the meaning of haosafna has changed to 'iron'. In a book dealing with Indian arms and armours, a special kind of sword, originating in the early 17th century, is called pulowar. This word cannot be connected with any Indo-Aryan language. Strangely enough, the word resembles the Middle Persian form of pUlAd."(Rybatzki, Volker, 1999, Turkic names for 'steel' and 'cast iron', pp.60-63). 

https://www.academia.edu/1843816/Rybatzki-1999-Turkic_names_for_steel_and_cast_iron_

Maurya,  punchmarked AR karshapana,  'standing Shiva type'
Weight:  3.57 gm., Dimensions: 16 x13mm.
Standing Shiva with crested hair holding danda and kamandalu; sun; six-armed symbol;
     three-arched hill with crescent on top; 'bale-mark'.
'Bale-mark'
Reference:  Pieper 135 (plate coin)/ GH 566

Typologically this Mauryan karshapana type will become an important prototype on the way towards the 'Shiva type' of the local Ujjain coin series.

Indus Script hypertexts on this Ujjain punch-marked coin: arka 'sun' rebus: arka 'gold', eraka 'moltencast, copper' daürā 'rope' Rebus dhāvḍā 'smelter' dang 'hill range' rebus: dhangar 'blacksmith'. For the significance of six-armed, six-spoked wheel see:

Vajra षट्--कोण 'six-angled' hypertext of Punch-marked coins khambhaṛā 'fish-fin' rebus: kammaṭa 'mint' http://tinyurl.com/huwkos4 For the reading of 

Jaṭāmaṇḍalam of the mendicant on Ujjain coins signifying Śiva see: Jaṭāmaṇḍalam & Rudrabhāga of Śivalinga pratimā signify yūpa and caṣāla (vajra) of R̥gveda, Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa  

https://tinyurl.com/yaouqqm5

Ujjain region, punchmarked AE,  'standing Shiva type'
Weight:  2.21 gm., Dimensions: 12x11 mm.
Standing Shiva; sun; six-armed symbol; three-arched hill with crescent on top;
     'bale-mark'.
'Bale-mark'.
Reference:  Pieper 166 (plate coin)
These coins are still close copies of the silver karshapana type listed above but they are no longer issued in silver. They still maintain the 'bale-mark' reverse symbol of their prototype.

Ujjain, punchmarked AE,  'standing Shiva type'
Weight:  3.88 gm., Dimensions: 14 mm.
Standing Shiva holding danda and kamandalu; sun; six-aarmed symbol; tree.
'Bale-mark' and Ujjain symbol.
Reference:  Pieper 164 (plate coin)
Typologically this type departs further from the Mauryan prototype towards the  typical local Ujjain 'Shiva type'. On that type Shiva will henceforth occupy the dominant position to which the associated symbols are subordinated. As can be seen below these associated symbols are frequently still the same as on the Mauryan prototype, particularly sun and six-armed symbol. This coin is still punchmarked in contrast to the subsequent types which are all die-struck, but the symbol arrangement on the coin flan is already more a composition than a randomly done application of punches. On the reverse the 'bale-mark' is still maintained but now it is accompanied by the Ujjain symbol. In the further development the 'bale-mark' will disappear and the Ujjain symbol alone will become the reverse emblem of the whole series.

Ujjain, anonymous, AE 1/2 karshapana,  'standing Shiva type'
Weight:  4.94 gm., Dimensions: 16 mm.
Standing Shiva holding danda in right and kamandalu in left; sun above railed tree
     on left and 6-armed symbol above taurines on right.
Double-orbed Ujjain symbol.
Reference:  Pieper 265 (plate coin)/ BMC pl.XXXVIII, nos.5-6
Devendra Handa in 'Divinities on Ujjain Coins', ICS-NL 51, p.5: "The commonest figure is that of a male bearing matted locks or a top-knot and holding a staff and water vessel in his two hands corresponding almost exactly to the description of Rudra-Shiva in the Skanda Purana." The importance of the Shiva cult at Ujjain and the combined depiction of the same figure with a bull, the vahana of Shiva, support its identification as Shiva.

Ujjain symbol of four arms ending with dotted circles is Indus Script hypertext: dhāu (Prakrtam) 'a strand' rebus: dhāu, dhātu 'mineral ore' PLUS gaṇḍa 'four' rebus: kaṇḍa 'fire-altar'.

Ujjain, anonymous AE 3/4 karshapana, 'standing Shiva type'
Weight:  7.22 gm., Dimensions: 17 mm.
Standing Shiva holding danda in right and kamandalu in left; sun above railed tree
     on left and 6-armed symbol on right; taurine and svastika on top.
Double-orbed Ujjain symbol
Reference: Pieper 268 (plate coin)

Ujjain, anonymous AE  1/4karshapana, 'poly-cephalous Shiva type'
Weight:  2.65 gm., Dimensions: 12 mm.
Multi-headed Shiva holding danda and kamandalu; tree on left; (cakra above
     fish-tank on right)
Double orbed Ujjain symbol surrounded by river with fish.
Reference: Pieper 276 (plate coin) / BMC, pl. XXXVIII, no.19

Ujjain, anonymous AE 3/8 karshapana, 'standing Shiva type'
Weight:  3.16 gm., Dimensions: 18x14 mm.
Standing Shiva holding danda and kamandalu; cakra above svastika and standard
     on left; fish-tank above railed tree on right; river at the bottom.
Ujjain symbol with a svastika in each orb.
Reference: Pieper 289 (plate coin) / BMC, pl.XXXVII, nos.19-20

Ujjain symbol of four arms ending with dotted circles is Indus Script hypertext: dhāu (Prakrtam) 'a strand' rebus: dhāu, dhātu 'mineral ore' PLUS gaṇḍa 'four' rebus: kaṇḍa 'fire-altar' PLUS sattva 'svastika symbol' rebus: jasta 'zinc'.

Ujjain, anonymous AE 3/8 karshapana, 'standing Shiva + nandi type'
Weight:  3.18 gm., Dimensions: 18x16 mm.
Standing Shiva holding danda and kamandalu, nandi facing from left towards the
     deity; cakra and standard on top left.
Double-orbed Ujjain symbol.
Reference: Pieper 319 (plate coin)

Ujjain, anonymous AE 1/2 karshapana, 'standing Shiva + nandi type'
Weight:  5.03 gm., Dimensions: 17x15 mm.
Standing Shiva holding danda and kamandalu, nandi on the left facing towards the
     viewer; cakra and Indradhvaja on top; parts of tree on right.
Ujjain symbol with a svastika in each orb.
Reference: Pieper 318 (plate coin)

Ujjain, anonymous AE 2 karshapana, 'standing Shiva + nandi type'
Weight:  15.53 gm., Dimensions: 26x21 mm.
Standing Shiva on right with nandi on left facing towards the deity; railed tree in
     center between Shiva and bull; taurines on top and a svastika on right bottom;
     river with diverse aquatic creatures at the bottom.
Double-orbed Ujjain symbol with an extra arm topped by a taurine in each angle.
Reference: Pieper 322 (plate coin) 
An unusual heavy weight standard for the series. The heaviest recorded specimen offered at a public auction weighed 25.8 gm thus roughly representing a triple copper karshapana.

Ujjain symbol of four arms ending with dotted circles PLUS extra arms topped by a taurine in each angle, is Indus Script hypertext: dhāu (Prakrtam) 'a strand' rebus: dhāu, dhātu 'mineral ore' PLUS gaṇḍa 'four' rebus: kaṇḍa 'fire-altar' PLUS N. goṭo ʻ piece ʼ, goṭi ʻ chess piece ʼ; A. goṭ 'stone' rebus: goṭi 'silver' PLUS  kuṭhara 'crucible' rebus: kuṭhAru 'armourer' . 

Umā-Maheśvara with boy Skanda with spear between them from NW India (3rd century BCE) with akṣamālā, kamaṇḍal and triśūla.
AE tetradrachm or unit, c. first quarter of 2nd. Century
Weight: 16.18 gm., Diam: 28 mm., Die axis: 12 o'clock
King standing facing, sacrificing at fire altar at left, club, tamgha and axehead-shafted trident in fields,
   Greek legend around: BACIΛEYC BACIΛEWN CWTHP MEΓAC OOHMO KAΔΦICHC/
Siva standing facing, holding trident and deerskin, bull Nandi right behind,
   bead and reel border around
Göbl 760, MAC 3006This coin introduces a powerful new image of the king: a full height representation exuding power, sacrificing at a fire altar, and surrounded by evocative symbols. This early bronze coinage was issued in two denominations: a tetradrachm (or unit) and a drachm (or quarter unit). The early, very rare coinage, like this and the next coin, featured a bead and reel border on the reverse ... this was later replaced by a Kharoshthi legend. The fact that the gold coins always feature a Kharoshthi legend suggests that these mono-lingual bronze coins were issued first and the gold coins were issued some years later, when Vima's power (and wealth) had grown.Gold dinar, c. first quarter of 2nd. Century

Weight: 7.95 gm., Diam: 21 mm., Die axis: 12 o'clock
Crowned, diademed torso of king left, holding club and elephant goad,
   Greek legend around: BACIΛEYC OOH .. MO KAΔΦICHC (King Vima Kadphises) /
Ithyphallic Siva standing facing, with head turned to left, holding trident and deerskin
   Kharoshti legend: maharajasa rajadirajasa sarvaloga isvarasa mahisvarasa
      Vima Kathphishasa tratara
Göbl 19, MAC 3004

AE tetradrachm or unit, c. first quarter of 2nd. Century
Weight: 17.01 gm., Diam: 27 mm., Die axis: 12 o'clock
King standing facing, sacrificing at fire altar at left, club, tamgha and axehead-shafted trident in fields,
   Greek legend around: BACIΛEYC BACIΛEWN CWTHP MEΓAC OOHMO KAΔΦICHC/
Siva standing facing, holding trident and deerskin, bull Nandi right behind,
   Kharoshti legend: maharajasa rajadirajasa sarvaloga isvarasa mahisvarasa
      Vima Kathphishasa tratara
Göbl 762, MAC 3008

A nice example of the bi-lingual tetradrachm with Kharoshthi legend on the reverse. The bi-lingual bronze coinage was issued in three denominations: a tetradrachm (or unit), a didrachm (or half unit) and a drachm (or quarter unit).

http://coinindia.com/galleries-vima-kadphises.html

Amaravati sculptural frieze. For 

śrīvatsa as Indus Script hypertext See:

'Ujjain', 'nandipāda', 'śrīvatsa' ancient coin symbols are Indus Script metalwork hypertexts https://tinyurl.com/yaljqnhb
'srivatsa' atop a circle (vaṭṭa 'round, circle' rebus: vaṭhara, phaḍa, paṭṭaḍi, vāḍii
 'enclosed area for mintwork workshop') as a phonetic determinant that the  aya PLUS kambha is in fact to be pronounced, aya khambhaṛā (Lahnda) rebus: aya 'iron' PLUS kammaTa 'mint' (Kannada)== 'fish PLUS fin' rebus: ayas kammaTa 'metal mint'. meḍ 'foot' rebus: meḍ 'iron' (Mu.Ho.)

Śiva (see triśūla, paraśu, cakra, vajra, kamaṇḍalu) on the coin of Śaivite Emperor Vima Kadphises (1-2 century CE), father of Kaniṣka कणिष्क

2nd century CE Kushan coins with one side showing a deity with a bull. Some scholars consider the deity as Shiva because he holds a trident, is in ithyphallic state and next to Nandi bull his mount, as in  Śaivism. Others suggest him to be Zoroastrian Oesho, Vayu, not Shiva.( Loeschner, Hans (2012) The Stūpa of the Kushan Emperor Kanishka the Great, Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 227 (July 2012), p.11; Bopearachchi, O. (2007). Some observations on the chronology of the early Kushans. Res Orientales, 17, 41-53; Perkins, J. (2007). Three-headed Śiva on the Reverse of Vima Kadphises's Copper Coinage. South Asian Studies, 23(1), 31-37). 

Note on Oisho. This is cognate with īśa a synonym of Śiva. ईश [p= 171,1] one who is completely master of anything, powerful, supreme, a ruler , master , lord Mn. S3Br. MBh. Kum. &c; m. a रुद्र; m. the number " eleven " (as there are eleven रुद्रs). (Monier-Williams) Association with Rudra and Maruts leads to the link with the storms, vāyu, 'winds'. īśá m. ʻ master, lord ʼ ŚBr. [√īś] adhīśa -- ; araṇyēśa -- , narēśa -- , *prāṇīśa -- . īˊśāna -- , °ná -- ʻ ruling ʼ RV. [√īś]mahēśāna -- . īśvará ʻ capable of ʼ, m. ʻ master ʼ AV., ʻ god ʼ Mn. [√īś]Pa. issara -- m. ʻ lord ʼ; KharI. iśparaka -- nom. prop.; Pk. issara -- , īsa° m. ʻ lord, god ʼ; P. īssar m. ʻ God, Providence ʼ, Ku. H. īsar m.; Si. isurā ʻ lord, ruler ʼ. áiśvarya -- ; narēśvara -- , *lakṣēśvara -- . ĪṢ ʻ move ʼ: údīṣatē. Addenda: īśvará -- : WPah.J. iśar m. ʻ God ʼ.(CDIAL 1617 to 1619)

Oesho or Śiva 

Oesho or Śiva with bull 

Gold dinar, c. 195 CE
Weight: 8.07 gm., Diam: 21 mm., Die axis: 12 o'clock
Crowned, diademed king standing facing, nimbate, holding trident and sacrificing at altar at left,
   Bactrian legend around: þAONANOþAO BA ... ZOΔηO KOþANO
   (King of Kings Bazodeo Kushan) /
Two-armed Shiva standing facing, holding trident and diadem, Bull Nandi left behind,
   Bactrian legend left: OηþO, tamgha at right
Göbl 504
An example of the early Vasudeva issues in which there is nothing above the fire altar, and featuring Oesho on the reverse. After this time, Vasudeva did not feature any deity other than Oesho on his coins.

Copper unit (tetradrachm?), c. 200-225 CE
Weight: 8.93 gm., Diam: 22 mm., Die axis: 1 o'clock
Crowned, diademed king standing facing, nimbate, holding trident and sacrificing at altar at left,
   second trident above altar, Bactrian legend around: þAONANOþAO BA ... ZOΔηO KOþANO
   (King of Kings Bazodeo Kushan), nandipada in right field /
Two-armed Shiva standing facing, holding trident and diadem, Bull Nandi left behind,
   Bactrian legend left: OηþO, tamgha at right
Göbl 1004, MAC 3491
This variety features the nandipada in the right obverse field.

A tulvar with a hare and a lion's head-shaped pommel, India 19th century. 
https://www.pinterest.se/pin/330592428869514310/ Indus Script hypertexts: kola 'tiger' rebus: kol 'working in iron'; kharā 'hare' (Oriya): *kharabhaka ʻ hare ʼ. [ʻ longeared like a donkey ʼ: khara -- 1?]N. kharāyo ʻ hare ʼ, Or. kharā, °riā, kherihā, Mth. kharehā, H. kharahā m(CDIAL 3823) ``^rabbit'' Sa. kulai `rabbit'.Mu. kulai`rabbit'. KW kulai 
@(M063)  खरगोस (p. 113) kharagōsa m ( P) A hare.  (Marathi) Rebus: khār खार् 'blacksmith' (Kashmiri)

Swords of Akbar. https://www.pinterest.se/pin/ATKITSSlrtro1q8EAk7yPlF2pmedmOnlRvWODR6xWvkOwLFZ3rKBm7s/
Various swords. Ancient India. https://www.pinterest.se/pin/7881368078200571/
P.Holstein, "Contribution A L’Etude des Armes Orientales", 1931. Vol. II, plate XX, the author shows both pesh kabz and karud daggers. https://www.pinterest.se/pin/7881368081954663/

Period:

Eastern Javanese period, Singasari kingdom

Date:

ca. second half of the 13th century

Culture:

Indonesia (Java)

Medium:

Copper alloy

Dimensions:

L. 18 3/4 in. (47.7 cm)

Classification:

Metalwork

Credit Line:

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Perry J. Lewis, 1986

Accession Number:

1986.504.2

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39348 Indus Script hypertexts: makara 'composite animal' rebus: dhmakara, dhamaka 'forge blower, blacksmith' 

కమఠము kamaṭhamu. [Skt.] n. A tortoise. कमठ [ kamaṭha ] m S A tortoise Rebus: kammaṭa 'mint' (Kannada).

Indian sword hilt, extensive carvings of flowers and leaves, the raised surfaces applied with gold, the guard is in the form of a tiger rearing up with the pommel in the shape of an elephant whose trunk is wrapped around the attacking tiger below. https://www.pinterest.se/pin/7881368070845060/ Indus Script hypertexts: karibha, ibha, 'elephant' rebus: karba, ib 'iron'kola'tiger' rebus: kol 'working in iron' ibbo 'merchant' kolle 'smelter'.

Silver-Inlaid Katar & Hilt Srirangam, Tanjore, India circa 1650 
https://www.pinterest.se/pin/817755244810309756/ Indus Script hypertext: kola 'tiger' rebus: kol 'working in iron' ibbo 'merchant' kolle 'smelter'.
Indian (Mughal) tabar (axe) in the form of an ibex and tiger,18th century, the steel crescent shaped blade emanating from a tiger and terminating in an ibex head with fine damascened decoration, the gilt handle with pierced and incised floral design 66cm. length. https://www.pinterest.se/pin/7881368075895247/ Tiger and ibex on this tabar, 'axe' are Indus Script hypertexts: kola 'tiger' rebus; kol 'working in iron' Tor. miṇḍ 'ram', miṇḍā́l 'markhor' (CDIAL 10310) Rebus: meḍ (Ho.); mẽṛhet 'iron' (Munda.Ho.) tabar = a broad axe (Punjabi). Rebus: tam(b)ra 'copper' See chanhudaro axe, double-axe on Chanhudaro seal.

Indian tabar-zin (saddle axe), Lucknow, 18th century, chiselled steel head, ebony shaft covered with chased silver. https://www.pinterest.se/pin/817755244810787324/ Indus Script hypertext: kanku'crane, egret, heron' rebus: kangar 'portable furnace'.
Chanhudaro seal 23 See decipherment at 

Sarasvati script hieroglyphs adorn Somaskanda mẽḍhā 'markhor', ṭāṅg 'axe', to signify rebus yajña, dhanam, mint, metalwork http://tinyurl.com/zq4dlq3

Indian talwar 1935, made for the silver jubilee of Osman Ali Khan, Asf Jah, the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad (at the time the richest man in the world. Polished steel blade (probably seventeenth-century), with gold inscription on both sides towards the forte, gold hilt with twirling-leaf design set with finely-cut diamonds throughout,, yellow velvet scabbard bound with yellow velvet scabbard with diamond-set chape.

https://www.pinterest.se/pin/541346817698867248/
Ottoman (Anatolian or Balkan) yatagan / yataghan, A.H. 1238/A.D. 1822, steel, silver, gold, coral, Length, 29 1/4 in. (74.3 cm) Length of blade, 22 1/8 in. (56.2 cm), Met Museum, Bequest of George C. Stone, 1935. Inscribed with the date 1238 (A.D. 1822), the name of the maker ("Made by Abdullah"), six Turkish verses of good will towards the owner, and the names of two owners (Ismael Gazi and Abdul Kadar).https://www.pinterest.se/pin/7881368073648142/

Indian khanda, ca 1800. The khanda (from Sanskrit खड्ग khaḍga) is a South Asian double-edge straight sword. The blade is usually broad and quite heavy & broadens from the hilt to the tip. The blade transforms into tip rather abruptly. The hilt has a small metal spike. The khanda & related straight swords are generally used in Indian theater & art to represent the weapons of the ancient period of Indian history. https://www.pinterest.se/pin/162692605262936236/

Indian "sissors" katar, 18th to 19th century, L. 19 1/4 in. (48.9 cm); W. 3 3/16 in. (8.1 cm); Wt. 30.5 oz. (864.7 g), Met Museum, Bequest of George C. Stone, 1935.https://www.pinterest.se/pin/354799276867834800/  kartari f. ʻ scissors, knife ʼ Suśr., °rī -- f. lex., °rikā -- f. Hit. [< karttrī -- ? -- √kr̥t1]
Pa. kattarĭ̄ -- , °rikā -- f. ʻ scissors, shears, knife ʼ; Pk. kattarī -- f. ʻ scissors, shears ʼ; Shum. kātar ʻ knife ʼ; S. katari, °ra f. ʻ scissors, shears ʼ; L. kātar f. ʻ shears ʼ (← G.?); Or. kaṭri ʻ knife ʼ, kaṭari ʻ billhook ʼ (katurī,katariā ʻ shears ʼ ← W); G. kātar f. ʻ scissors ʼ, M. kātar, °trī f., Ko. kātrī f.; Si. katura ʻ scissors, shears ʼ. <-> Deriv. verb: Pk. kattaria -- ʻ cut ʼ; K. katarun ʻ to cut into slices ʼ; S. katiraṇu ʻ to shear, clip ʼ; L. (Jukes) katraṇ ʻ to cut, clip with scissors ʼ; P. katarnā ʻ to clip, shear ʼ, N. katranu; Or. katuribā ʻ to trim ʼ; H. katarnā ʻ to clip ʼ, G. kātarvũ, M. kātarṇẽ; Si. kätiri -- ʻ torn, cut (of clothes) ʼ; -- S. katara f. ʻ strip of cloth ʼ; L. katraʻ a little ʼ (→ Psht. katra ʻ piece of meat ʼ), katr m. ʻ cutting of a rib ʼ; P. kattar m. ʻ strip of cloth ʼ (→ H. katar f. ʻ a cutting ʼ, N. kattar ʻ cut, slit ʼ); Or. katurā ʻ a cutting ʼ; G. kātrī f. ʻ thin slice ʼ, kātrɔ m. ʻ an insect which cuts off shoots of corn ʼ; M. kātrā m. ʻ clippings ʼ; -- P. katarnī f. ʻ scissors ʼ, Ku. katarṇī, N. katarni, Or. kataruṇi, H. katarnī f., G. kā̆tarṇī.Addenda: kartari -- : S.kcch. katar f. ʻ scissors ʼ, Md. katuru.(CDIAL 2858)
Indian weapons. Katar (push dagger), 17th century. Steel, damascened and inlaid with gold. Zaghnal (war hammer / pick) 18th century. Steel, damascened and inlaid with gold. The Museum of Oriental Art, Moscow. https://www.pinterest.se/pin/395261304767312043/

Indian (Deccan, Bijapur or Golconda) dagger, 16th c, cast copper hilt, chased, gilded, inlaid with rubies. Portraits of Sultan 'Ali 'Adil Shah of Bijapur 1558–80 show him wearing similar zoomorphic hilt daggers. In the ruby-studded hilt, a dragon whose tail wraps around the grip attacks a lion, which is attacking a deer, symbolic of the deity Garuda. Before the deer is a bird with a snake in its beak. Lower down is a mythical lionlike Yali, with floral scrolls issuing from its mouth. Met Museum https://www.pinterest.se/pin/365565694727134785/ Indus Script hypertexts: goat, tiger, peacock, feline paw:  meḷh 'goat' (Br.) Rebus: meḍho 'one who helps a merchant' vi.138 'vaṇiksahāyah' (deśi. Hemachandra).Rebus: Rebus: milakkhu 'copper'. mleccha,mlecchamukha 'copper' (Skt.); panja 'feline paw' rebus: panja 'kiln, furnace' kola 'tiger' rebus: kol 'working in iron' kolhe 'smelter' maraka 'peacock' Rebus: marakaka loha'copper alloy, calcining metal'. फड, phaḍa 'cobra hood' rebus: फड, phaḍa  'metals manufactory'

Late 18th century Indian Cobra Head Blade Serrated Khanda Sword Khanda hilted sword with serrated edged and of Cobra form. This formidable example is 98cms long from end to end. The blade is 82cms long, 4cms wide with a weighted tip 9cms wide.https://www.pinterest.se/pin/382102349615319452/ Indus Script hypertext: फड, phaḍa 'cobra hood' rebus: फड, phaḍa  'metals manufactory'

An indian tulwar taken from a mahratta soldier at the battle of maharajpoor in 1843 19th century 
https://www.pinterest.se/pin/374361787755080186/

AN IVORY HILTED SAFAVID SHAMSHIR, PERSIA, 17TH CENTURY the slender curved and tapering finely watered-steel blade, two inlaid inscriptions in lobed and foliate cartouches, dragon head quillons, the ivory hilt with gold overlaid floral motifs and ensuite suspension mounts, leather-covered wood scabbard stamped with stylised animal and foliate motifs.

https://www.pinterest.se/pin/429249408206080301/

Ottoman shamshir, 19th Century, Iranian wootz steel blade, scabbard set with gold, diamonds, emeralds and pearls, jade handle, a ceremonial sword, used for an investiture ceremony, a perfect symbol of the luxury, extravagance and workmanship in the Ottoman Empire, said to have been made in 1876 for the investiture of the Ottoman sultan Murad V (reigned May 30–August 31, 1876). He suffered a nervous breakdown before the ceremony and was deposed and imprisioned until his death in 1904.https://www.pinterest.se/pin/517562182151583060/

Indian sossun patta sword with serrated blade. Early to middle 19th Century All steel hilt Blade length 27 5/8 inches Overall length 32 inches.

https://www.pinterest.se/pin/467037423841682199/

A JEWELLED SWORD TALWAR, RAJASTHAN, INDIA,The slightly curved steel blade with raised edge and fullers struck at forte with three talismanic dots on either side, the gilded-silver hilt with characteristic broad pommel and hemispherical quillon terminals, wholly embellished in green and blue enamel and set with thirty-three gems including rubies and white sapphires, devanagari inscription to flat edge of blade at forte, velvet-covered wood scabbard with later addition of gilt braid

https://www.pinterest.se/pin/426082814725548190/

Portrait of a Balochi warrior 1870, full length standing, he wears a white turban over his long curling hair, a cloth wrapped around his shoulders, knee-length baggy pajamas, he carries a traditional sword talwar and a lacquered round dhal shield decorated with four bosses.

https://www.pinterest.se/pin/297167275392996162/?lp=true

Indian khanda sword.

https://www.pinterest.se/pin/343047696590473610/

खड्ग [p= 335,3] n. iron L.; m. (fr. √खड् for खण्ड्?) a sword , scymitar MBh. R. &c (ifc. f(आ). Katha1s. ) Hieroglyph: खड्ग a rhinoceros MaitrS. iii , 14 , 21 = VS. xxiv , 40 (खङ्ग्/अ) S3a1n3khS3r. Mn. MBh. &c (Moniker-Williams). Indian swords [Image source: Egerton, Wilbraham Egerton, Earl <1832-1909>: A description of Indian and Oriental armor: illustrated from the collection formerly in the India Office, now Exhibited at South Kensington, and the author's private collection, with a map , twenty-three full-page plates (two colored), and Numerous woodcuts, with an introductory sketch of the military history of India / by the Right Hon Lord Egerton of Tatton. - New edition - London: Allen, 1896.

https://www.pinterest.se/pin/7881368071261409/

Indian or Nepalese kukri, 19th century, steel, silver, wood, leather, Knife (a); H. with sheath 18 1/16 in. (45.9 cm); H. without sheath 16 13/16 in. (42.7 cm); W. 1 11/16 in. (4.3 cm); Wt. 16.6 oz. (470.6 g); sheath (b); Wt. 9.5 oz. (269.3 g); small knife (c); H. 4 9/16 in. (11.6 cm); W. 7/8 in. (2.2 cm); Wt. 0.8 oz. (22.7 cm); small knife (d); H. 4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm); W. 15/16 in. (2.4 cm); Wt. 1.2 oz. (34 g), Met Museum, Bequest of George C. Stone, 1935.

https://www.pinterest.se/pin/7881368073636376/

Indian tegha back sword, 18th century. 26 1/2" blade, 2 7/8" width at the widest, thick "armor piercing" point. Overlaid in brass scenes of Krishna flanked by gopis. Four oval panels above. Three with copper and brass detailed deities and the lower with calligraphy. Additional panels with flower heads and foliage. Large iron hilt with delicately pierced langets, chiseled overall with flower buds. https://www.pinterest.se/pin/558727897500732894/

Tegha/pala style short sword from India. Probably mid 19 C. Deeply curved.https://www.pinterest.se/pin/439663982357165656/

Various Indo-Persian swords showing the difference in size, blade shape and curvature. (yatagan, firangi, shamshir, shashka, tulwar, pulwar, kilij)

https://www.pinterest.se/pin/7881368076368115/

Ottoman kilij (saber), 19th century. The blade is signed by its maker, Acem Oglu. The Arabic inscriptions decorating it include: "Oh from the gentle God whose gentleness is without end, You are the Powerful, we will love You in Your palace on the day of judgement." The foliate ornament on the guard and scabbard mounts shows the strong influence of European design in Turkish art of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Bequest of George C. Stone, 1935, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/08/20/d5/0820d54ae8fa7236a17a798822ce22ab.jpg
Tulwar Sword | early19th, North Indian, Wootz steel, silver North Indian Tulwar sword of Sirohi type. The steel hilt is complete with a knuckle guard of thick construction, decorated with silver Koftgari in foliate design. The disc pommel exhibits a sun burst decoration and a faceted large spike. This Sirohi type blade is forged from Wootz Crucible Steel and features an even watered pattern that runs along the entire length of the blade including the edge.
https://www.pinterest.se/pin/297167275392996162/
Indian tulwar, European blade dated 1673, 19th c hilt, steel, silver, diamonds, enamel, leather, length, 31 1/2 in. (80.01 cm), Met Museum, Bequest of George C. Stone, 1935. Inscribed in Arabic and Persian with the name of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb (reigned 1658–1717) and the 16th year of his reign (1673). Marked with a parasol, an ancient symbol of the dome of heaven and a symbol of royal authority in the Middle East and India, impling that the weapon belonged to Emperor Aurangzeb. https://www.pinterest.se/pin/7881368073769813/

Damascus blade sword of Saladin.

Eighteen armed Naṭarāja, with Gaṇeśa. Bādāmi. Cave 1. Dance-step of Gaṇeśa on Bādāmi sculpture compares with the dance-step of Mahāvināyaka of Gardez, Afghanistan.

The metaphor of caṣāla, 'godhuma, wheatchaff' shape of a heap of chaff is comparable to the hour-glass or vajra-shape of ḍamaru drum held on a right hand of Naṭarāja of Bādāmi Cave 1.

Mahākāla Śiva evolves into the cosmic metaphor of dancing Śiva Naṭarāja tāṇḍava Nr̥tyam, 'cosmic dance'at the 6th century Bādāmi cave temples with dance-step of Gaṇeśa. Dance-step and  Gaṇeśa.are Indus Script hypertext to signify the cosmic dance, tāṇḍava Nr̥tyam, in metallurgical processes creating wealth of a nation. Naṭarāja is deification of caṣāla (wheat chaff to infuse carbon into the molten metal) atop aṣṭāśrī yūpa; Gaṇeśa tridhātu karibha, ibha'elephant', rebus: karba, ib 'iron' PLUS phaḍa 'cobra hood' rebus: phaḍa'metals manufactory'' PLUS mūṣa '[mouse' rebus: mūṣa'crucible' for producing crucible steel -- poḷaḍa 'steel', from tridh dhātu: poḷa, 'magnetite, ferrite ore', bica'haematite, ferrite ore', goṭa'laterite, ferrite ore'. (Rebus hieroglyphs are  poḷa, 'zebu, bos indicus':, bica'scorpion', goṭa, 'round stone, pebble'). The meḍ, 'dance step' is: meḍ 'iron'.

The metaphor of aṣṭāśrī yūpa is matched by the association of aṣṭalakṣmi,'eight personifications of wealth' aṣṭamātr̥kā as deified aṣṭāśrī seen with Gaṇeśa in Ellora and Udayagiri caves.

Ellora caves 14, 16, 21 22 depict Gaṇeśa. 

Devi Purāṇa describes Māṭrpaňcaka (the five mothers). Gaṇeśa sculpture together with a group of Mātr̥kā divinities who help Gaṇeśa to annihilate evil. In Devi Mahatmya, Chamunda emerged as Chandika Jayasundara from an eyebrow of goddess Kaushiki, a goddess created from "sheath" of Durga and was assigned the task of eliminating the demons Chanda and Munda,  Chamunda is shown with her feet on Andhaka whose body lies on the floor (Narrative from Matsya Purāṇa).

Udayagiri, Madhya Pradesh Cave 6, detail showing Dvārapāla, Viṣṇu and Gaṇeśa

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ASI approves excavation at site of Mahabharata’s ‘house of lac'

November 2, 2017, 12:46 am

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ASI approves excavation at site of Mahabharata’s ‘house of lac'

Sandeep Rai| TNN | Updated: Nov 2, 2017, 11:09 IS The site is located in Barnawa area of Baghpat district.  Barnawa is the twisted name of Varnavrat, one of the five villages that the Pandavas had demanded from the Kauravas. According to ASI officials, the excavation will begin in the first week of December and will continue for three months. 

A circuitous tunnel inside the ancient site, in UP's Baghpat district which is said to be used by the Pandavas... Read More

MEERUT: After years of requests by archaeologists and local historians, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has finally approved the excavation of what locals believe is the site of the 'Lakshagriha', the house of lac which features in an important incident in the Mahabharata.

The site is located in Barnawa area of Baghpat district.

Retired ASI superintending archaeologist, (excavation) KK Sharma said, "Lakshagriha plays a significant part in the Mahabharata. The Kauravas had built the palace out of lac and planned to burn the Pandavas alive, but the brothers escaped through a tunnelThe structure was located in what is now 

Baghpat, at the site called Barnawa. In fact, Barnawa is the twisted name of Varnavrat, one of the five villages that the Pandavas had demanded from the Kauravas to settle in after their exile."

Speaking to TOI, director (excavation) of ASI Jitender Nath said, "After a thorough study of the proposal we have given licence to two ASI authorities, Institute of Archaeology in Red Fort, Delhi, and our excavation branch, to jointly conduct the excavation."

According to ASI officials, the excavation will begin in the first week of December and will continue for three months. Students of the Institute of Archaeology will also participate in it.

Asked about the religious significance of the site, Dr SK Manjul, director, Institute of Archaeology, said, "It will not be appropriate to say anything on the religious aspect of this site as of now. We chose this site primarily because of its proximity to other important sites like Chandayan and Sinauli. In Sinauli, excavations had revealed an important Harappan-period burial site. We had recovered skeletons and pottery in large quantities in 2005. Similarly, a copper crown along with carnelian beads was found in Chandayan village in 2014."

TOP COMMENT

ð ð Great work by Government..... Pidi-tards (Congis), Aaptards, Commis and Libtards have buried Indian historical sites over the past 7 decades !Saimenon

The crown was found by local archaeologist Amit Rai Jain and the find had been reported by TOI. Though not much remains at the site, its most significant part is the tunnel inside the mound, which the Pandavas may have used to make their escape.

Krishan Kant Sharma, associate professor, department of history, Multani Mal PG College Modinagar and secretary of Culture & History Association, "No one has ever ventured too deep into the tunnel as it has several turns. But maybe now this excavation will map its length."

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/asi-approves-excavation-at-site-of-mahabharatas-house-of-lac/articleshow/61428457.cms

Cricket historian's pseudo-secular googly against Commies and Congress, uses a meaningless term, 'jingoism' against BJP

November 2, 2017, 4:05 am

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Cricket historian's googly against Commies and Congress, uses a meaningless term, 'jingoism' against BJP.Normally a googly is a type of deceptive delivery by a right-arm leg spin bowler. In this case, a pseudo-googly is delivered: a pseudo-leftist takes on the Commies, a pseudo-secular takes on the withered Congress.I think Guha should stay with cricket and not enter into pontificating on the polity.
Kalyan
Posted at: Nov 2, 2017, 11:50 AM; last updated: Nov 2, 2017, 11:50 AM (IST)

Left hypocrisy, Cong corruption behind BJP’s jingoism: Guha

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 2
In these times of constant tensions between patriotism and jingoism, acclaimed historian Ramachandra Guha has held “financial, moral and intellectual corruption of the Congress and hypocrisy of the Left” responsible for the rise of paranoid nationalism under the ruling BJP.

Delivering the 23rd Justice Sunanda Bhandare Lecture here on Wednesday evening on the controversial subject of ‘Patriotism versus Jingoism’, Guha said hypocrisy of the Indian Left, corruptions of the Congress Party and the global rise of hyper nationalism were the three key factors that explain why patriotism is receding and jingoism is ascending.

Arguing that the form of nationalism the BJP is practising under Prime Minister Narendra Modi was essentially the model of nationalism born in Europe in the 19th century, Guha said, “As a historian I’ve also thought about why jingoism is resurgent and constitutional patriotism is receding. I’ve concluded that hypocrisy of the Left is a huge factor. The Indian Left has always loved another country more than India. In their party conferences they’ve always had four portraits hanging in the backdrop. None of these are of Indian leaders. Two portraits are of dead German scholars and the other two are of Lenin and Stalin, the biggest mass murderers of the 20th century. They (the Left) can at least have one of Bhagat Singh.”

Elaborating further, Guha, who earlier described PM Modi as authoritarian and fallible, went on to blame the Congress for ceding space to jingoists.

“The second reason is the corruption of the Congress Party and how a great movement has now been reduced to one family. It’s shocking how Indira Gandhi, Congress and Sonia Gandhi named everything after their family. They even ceded a man like Lal Bahadur Shastri to the jingoists. When Rahul Gandhi campaigned in last UP elections, was Shastri mentioned?” asked Guha as he mercilessly dissected the emergence of what he called “BJP’s hyper-nationalism”.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Guha’s European attribution to the form of nationalism practised by the BJP was rooted in three points—both forms of nationalism privilege one language, one religion and one common enemy.

For the BJP, Hindutva is the one religion that must bind the nation, Hindi is the shared language and Pakistan is the common enemy every nationalist must concentrate their energies against.

An interesting point Guha made was that Pakistan in the early 20th century adopted the European model of nationalism by adopting the Urdu language, the Islam and by being bound by a shared hatred for India, a model of nationalism rampant in 19th century Europe where the British hated the French and vice versa.

“The European form of nationalism that was born in Pakistan long time back has reborn in India now. This nationalism is opposed to the constitutional patriotism which Mahatma Gandhi spoke of and promoted and in which there was no requirement for a patriot to owe allegiance to one language or religion or to even hate the British. Gandhi’s nationalism promoted diversity, ability to learn from other nations and courage to question the wrongs of the state,” Guha argued.

To drive home his point he remembered to mention that Gandhi’s best friend, Charles Andrews, was an Englishman.

Bhandare Award to Zakia Somen, Shayda Bano
The 23th Justice Sunanda Bhandare Award was presented to Zakia Somen and Shayda Bano who fought to ultimately get a Supreme Court ruling against instant triple talaq. Present at the event were Justice Madan B Likud, Judge of the SC, and Justice Gita Mittal, Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/left-hypocrisy-cong-corruption-behind-bjp-s-jingoism-guha/491278.html

Form and function of history books -- Voir et concevoir la couleur en Asie (JL Filliozat et al, 2016)

November 2, 2017, 4:26 pm

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See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2016/07/rama-personifiedf-dharma-evidences-for.html 

रामो विग्रहवान् धर्मः Rama personifiedf dharma Evidences for abiding memory across space and time of Ramayana on sculptures, inscriptions

Hanuman meets Sita. Parambanan. Indonesia.

Here is the cover page of the book in French, together with a review in Italian. Th cover page contains a scene from the Sundara Kāṇḍa of  Rāmāyaṇa. In the study of the text Rāmāyaṇa. as itihāsa, is it necessary to date the event shown on the cover page while the contents of this particular French book contains articles about the use of colour in texts and contains anecdotes about archaeological stealth of museum materials. History unfolds while dealing with narratives handed down in history. Rāmāyaṇa is an ākhyāna as important as the other ākhyānas of dāśarājñá war (Battle of Ten Kings) described in the R̥gveda. Is it essential to argue about the historicism of the R̥gveda.as a text and argue further about the 'dating' of the events of this Battle of Ten Kings? What resources exist to arrive at a consensus on the 'dating' (which is a word with sexist connotations)?

In this particular book, the historians seek to present the types of jewellery worn and an inquiry into the source materials used to produce exquisite colours of the illustrations. Is this a history book or not? Is this a fit subject matter for archaeological studies or not?

I suppose an enquiry, veda, can take a variety of forms and still constitute itihāsa. In Bhāratīya tradition, both Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata are considered itihāsa. In a historical quest, is it necessary to arrive at a consensus on the dates of the events described in this itihāsa? I supose the polemical question is between historicism and darśana. These two texts Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata are itihāsa texts to protect dharma and hence, mandatory reading material for children of all ages, of all times and climes.

See a related blogpost http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2017/11/western-philosophy-is-racist-bryan-w.html 

Western philosophy is racist -- Bryan W Van Norden 

S. Kalyanaraman
Sarasvati Research Center

Voir et concevoir la couleur en Asie

Actes du colloque international des 11 et 12 janvier 2013, organisé par l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, la Société asiatique et l’INALCO.

MM. Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat et Michel Zink éd.

344 pages.100 illustrations.Parution : février 2016

Prix : 35 € Reflecting on color requires the use of all the human and social sciences, not to mention the sciences of matter or nature. Reflecting on Asia, its languages, its literatures, its arts, its societies, its nations, its cultural universes does not fail to put the researcher before the shimmering colors, the proliferation of visions and the concepts that they proliferate. In front of the color one is receptive and creative. From a material reality, from a retinal sensation, civilizations make a work of art, a national symbol, a badge of social belonging, a language. The study of colors, their mutual influences, their names, their classifications, their destinations in use, is a powerful tool for characterizing entities of all kinds, a poet, an artist, an individual, a family, a people. It's always a revealer of originality... 
http://www.aibl.fr/publications/actes-de-colloque/colloques-journees-d-etude/article/voir-et-concevoir-la-couleur-en-1782?lang=fr

Read the book review by Maurizio Buora, Società friulana di archeologia (published: 2017-10-06)

Bacqué-Grammont, Jean-Louis - Filliozat, Pierre-Sylvain - Zink, Michel : Voir et concevoir la couleur en Asie (Actes de colloques, 12). 16 x 24 cm, 324 p., ISBN : 978-2-87754-336-1, 35 € (Editions de Boccard, Paris 2016) Excerpts translated from Italian into Engligh (Google translate) The most interesting part, we believe, of the work is the seventy pages that form the Chapter IV, dedicated to the analysis of materials (pp. 99-172). A large space is dedicated to spoons (pp. 134-151), which in the number of 14 constitute almost half of the pieces considered. Of them only one (published here with No. 32) has an unmistakable Christian symbol.            Thanks to the very beautiful figures (183, of which very large, full-page) very clear with 6 tables, the part devoted in particular to the iconography is a reference text for many aspects of early Christian and late antique art in general. The analysis in some points extremely timely must in fact refer to what we know of the late-world. A name often used as a manufacturing center is Ravenna (eg, pp. 108-109) next to "Rome, or other Italic Institutional Center" (p. 122). Based on numerous studies, the A. excludes the Constantinopolitan manufacture of some pieces, such as the famous Meleagro dish, for which it proposes a Western origin "between Italy and Africa"​​during the VI secool (p. 121). ... The vast array of morphological, technical and iconographic comparisons makes this volume a sort of late-genre ornamentation encyclopaedia, very useful, even indispensable for anyone wishing to study the subject. The volume, therefore, must always be at the hands of those who deal with these issues.

2600-year-old shipwreck off Sicily coast. Orichalcum found. This is आर--कूट 'a kind of brass'

November 2, 2017, 6:48 pm

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It is possible that the orichalcum artifacts of Cyprus were from Meluhha artisans. The 'brass' ingots look similar to the ingots found in ancient India Bronze Age. Archaeometallurgical researchers are called for to hypothesise the provenience of the artifacts. (Brass is an alloy of coper PLUS zinc). Bhāratīya Zinc metallurgy of Bronze Age is renowned.

I submit that while discussing orichalcum, the contributions of ancient India to zinc smelting through remarkably designed retorts should not be ignored. Zinc is an essential element in brass (orichalcum) called āra आर 1 [p= 149,2] n. brass BhP. x , 41 , 20 (Monier-Williams).
Zinc, fragment and sublimed 99.995%


Zinc smelters. Zawar mines. https://www.ancient-asia-journal.com/articles/10.5334/aa.06112/


http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/39-1/Yule.pdf Yule, Paul, 1997, Copper hoards of northern India, Expedition, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 22-32  "After Fig. 4. Metal hoard implements from Haryana, including harpoons, so-called bars, and flat axes. Chemical analyses prove these implements are made of copper, not bronze. Recent discoveries at sites in the doab are shedding light on the people who made these objects and aspects of their culture. See: 

Inscriptions on metal implements validate decipherment of Indus Script Corpora as metalwork catalogues http://tinyurl.com/okw7xly

See:

Copper bars of Haryana, 2nd millennium BCE compare with the orichalcum bars found in Gela shipwreck http://tinyurl.com/p5nwea4

Gela shipwreck finds.

In 1870, while tending cattle, two young boys in the village of Ghangaria in central India noticed a long metal object poking out of the ground. Grubbing at the spot revealed many more such pieces, and soon word of the find reached local officials. The discovery of this hoard, with over five hundred copper and silver antiquities weighing some 368 kilograms, added a new and tantalizing chapter to the little-known prehistory of India. Within a few decades the probable great antiquity of these “cherubs,” so called because local inhabitants commonly thought they fell from heaven during thun­derstorms, was confirmed. Since then, some 129 large and small hoards consisting of harpoons, flat axes, ingots, lanceheads, and swords have been reported, part­ly in the Indian Ganges-Yamuna Doab, the land between these two rivers (Figs. 1 and 2). In recent years, large numbers have also come to light a few kilometers to the west and southwest of Delhi. Additional hoards consist­ing of other kinds of metal artifacts have been found in the fringes and the eastern part of the Chota Nagpur uplands and in the northern hills of Orissa, both of which gradually extend into the plains of West Bengal.

Although these mysterious hoard objects show some general resemblance to more readily dated metal artifacts outside of India from the 2nd millennium ac, unfortunately, none of the 1500 hoard artifacts have come from archaeological excavations that could be dated unequivocally. Over the years more copper weapons and tools have come to light in peasants’ fields, often during agricultural work, or sometimes in local scrap metal markets (Fig. 3). A lack of information on the geomorphology of the findspots hinders a determi­nation of whether these so-called gangaghati were, as their name implies, anciently deposited in the banks of streams or occurred in regular association with other particular features of the landscape.

https://www.scribd.com/doc/274415558/The-Copper-Hoards-of-Northern-India-Paul-Yule-1977

The Copper Hoards of Northern India -- Paul Yule 1977

[quote] In West Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean early copper zinc alloys are now known in small numbers from a number of third millennium BC sites in the Aegean, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kalmykia, Turkmenistan and Georgia and from 2nd Millennium BC sites in West India, Uzbekistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq and Canaan.^[43] However, isolated examples of copper-zinc alloys are known in China from as early as the 5th Millennium BC.^[44]

The compositions of these early "brass" objects are highly variable and most have zinc contents of between 5% and 15% wt which is lower than in brass produced by cementation.^[45] These may be "natural alloys" manufactured by smelting zinc rich copper ores in redox conditions. Many have similar tin contents to contemporary bronze artefacts and it is possible that some copper-zinc alloys were accidental and perhaps not even distinguished from copper.^[45] However the large number of copper-zinc alloys now known suggests that at least some were deliberately manufactured and many have zinc contents of more than 12% wt which would have resulted in a distinctive golden color.^[45][46]

By the 8th–7th century BC Assyrian cuneiform tablets mention the exploitation of the "copper of the mountains" and this may refer to "natural" brass.^[47] "Oreikhalkon" (mountain copper),^[48] the Ancient Greek translation of this term, was later adapted to the Latin aurichalcum meaning "golden copper" which became the standard term for brass.^[49] In the 4th century BC Plato knew orichalkos as rare and nearly as valuable as gold^[50] and Pliny describes how aurichalcum had come from Cypriot ore deposits which had been exhausted by the 1st century AD.^[51] X-ray fluorescence analysis of 39 orichalcum ingots recovered from a 2,600-year-old shipwreck off Sicily found them to be an alloy made with 75–80 percent copper, 15–20 percent zinc and small percentages of nickel, lead and iron.^[52][53][unquote] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orichalcum

Kalyanaraman

2 MARCH, 2017 - 22:49 MARK MILLER

More Orichalcum, the Atlantis Alloy, Turns Up with Helmets at a Sicilian Shipwreck, What Was its Use?

Researchers have recovered yet more ingots, possibly of the fabled metal orichalcum, from a ship that sank off the coast of Sicily around 2,600 years ago. The find has led some to ponder whether the mythical island of Atlantis, where the legendary alloy was supposed to have been created, was real. The shipwreck, however, dates to about seven millennia later than the legend of Atlantis.

In 2015, researchers diving near the shipwreck found 39 ingots of a copper, zinc, and charcoal alloy that resembles brass. They believe it may be the ancient metal orichalcum. The new cache of the same metal consists of 47 ingots.

Some of the orichalcum ingots found near a 2,600-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Sicily. (Superintendency of the Sea, Sicily)

While the metal is rare, it is not as precious as researchers expected from reading ancient Greek philosopher Plato’s description of it in the Critias dialogue. Plato said only gold was a more precious substance than orichalcum.

• Orichalcum: Legendary Metal of Atlantis, Or Just A Common Ore?
• Rare orichalcum metal said to be from the legendary Atlantis recovered from 2,600-year-old shipwreck

Plato said only gold was a more precious substance than orichalcum. Here are two of the recently discovered ingots. (Sebastiano Tusa/ Superintendency of the Sea, Sicily)

Several ancient thinkers mention the alloy in writings - as far back as Hesiod in the 8th century BC. Until 2015, the metal had never been found in any appreciable quantities, says an articleabout the find on Seeker.com. Scholars have debated the origin and composition of orichalcum for a long time.

The shipwreck was found near two others about 1,000 feet (305 meters) off the coast of the Sicilian city of Gela. The wrecks were submerged in about 10 feet (3 meters) of water. Researchers think the ship went down in a storm, while close to the port.

Underwater archaeologists and some of the other artifacts found at the site. (Superintendency of the Sea, Sicily)

"The waters there are a priceless mine of archaeological finds," Adriana Fresina told Seeker.com. She works with archaeologist Sebastiano Tusa, Sicily’s superintendent of the seas.

Greek myth says Cadmus, a Phoenician and the first king of Thebes, invented orichalcum.

Cadmus, the Greek mythological figure who is said to have created orichalcum. (Public Domain)

Christos Djonis wrote an article for Ancient Origins in 2015 about the find of the 39 ingots and said of a news reports at that time:

“… unfortunately, none of the stories exposed anything new on Atlantis, or on the ‘mystical’ ore, as one reporter called it. Essentially, every editorial capitalized on repeating the same familiar story, raising the usual questions, and sadly arriving at the same past conclusions. Nothing new! As for the particular freight, most reporters connected it to Atlantis, as if Atlantis was around during the Bronze Age (thus, misleading everyone not so familiar with the story) and ignoring the fact that according to Plato, the story of Atlantis took place around 9,600 BC.”

Artist’s representation of Atlantis. (Source: BigStockPhoto)

Djonis writes that the orichalcum cargo likely originated on Cyprus, another island in the Mediterranean. Every known alloy containing copper has been produced, including orichalcum, on Cyprus since the 4th millennium BC.

Plato wrote that orichalcum covered the walls, columns and floors of Poseidon’s temple. He wrote the only metal that surpassed it in value was gold. "The outermost wall was coated with brass, the second with tin, and the third, which was the wall of the citadel, flashed with the red light of orichalcum," Plato wrote. Poseidon’s laws were also inscribed onto a pillar of orichalcum, according to Plato.

The city of Gela on Sicily was rich and had many workshops that produced fine objects. Researchers believe the orichalcum pieces were en route to those workshops for use in decorations and fashion objects.

• Atlantis: Examining the Legendary Tale of Plato
• Ten Odd and Mysterious Historical Finds of 2015

Altogether, the researchers have discovered 47 new ingots of varying sizes and shapes. (Sebastiano Tusa, Soprintendenza del Mare-Regione Sicilia)

Apart from this metal, the shipwreck also yielded two bronze Corinthian helmets.

“The presence of helmets and weapons aboard ships is rather common. They were used against pirate incursions,” Tusa told Seeker.com. “Another hypothesis is that they were meant to be an offer to the gods.”

The Corinthian helmets. (Salvo Emma, Soprintendenza del Mare-Regione Sicilia)

Tusa and his colleagues are still at work on the shipwreck and expect to recover more cargo.

Top Image: Some of the orichalcum ingots and the two Corinthian helmets found near a 2,600-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Sicily. Source: Superintendency of the Sea, Sicily

By Mark Miller
http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/more-orichalcum-atlantis-alloy-turns-helmets-sicilian-shipwreck-what-was-021254?nopaging=1

The Copper Hoards of Northern India -- Paul Yule 1977 by Srini Kalyanaraman on Scribd

Environmental & Cultural changes in the Indian Subcontinent -- Late Peistocene (Blinkton & Petraglia)

November 2, 2017, 7:59 pm

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Current Anthropology Volume 58, Supplement 17, December 2017

Environments and Cultural Change in the Indian Subcontinent Implications for the Dispersal of Homo sapiens in the Late Pleistocene by James Blinkhorn and Michael D. Petraglia

The Indian subcontinent lies on a key east-west corridor for hominin expansions across Asia, which has led to it playing a prominent role in debate surrounding the dispersal of modern humans. The current geography and ecology of the region consists of a diverse array of habitats. An examination of changes in monsoonal intensity indicates that geographic reconfiguration of ecological diversity occurred, but at a regional level, South Asia is shown to provide suitable environments for hominin occupations throughout the Late Pleistocene. Unfortunately, the fossil record of South Asia remains poor, preventing decisive resolution of modern human dispersal debates. However, in the past decade new interdisciplinary approaches to the archaeological record have overhauled the framework for understanding behavioral change during the Late Pleistocene. While the nature of the Late Acheulean to Middle Paleolithic transition remains to be resolved, it is now clear that it appears significantly later than in other Old World regions and may coincide with the expansion of modern humans across Asia. Mounting evidence supports a gradual rather than abrupt transition from Middle to Late Paleolithic technologies, which does not easily reconcile with arguments for the introduction of microlithic tool kits by the earliest expansions of modern humans.

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/693462

Human Colonization of Asia in the Late Pleistocene: Wenner-Gren Symposium Supplement 17

Danilyn Rutherford is President of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (470 Park Avenue South, 8th Floor, New York, New York 10016, USA [drutherford@wennergren.org]).
What do you do when new evidence overturns preconceptions within your discipline? From March 18 to 24, 2016, an internationally diverse group of 18 hominin paleontologists, archaeologists, geneticists, and geochronologists, along with the Wenner-Gren Foundation’s outgoing president, Leslie Aiello, and symposium coordinator, Laurie Obbink, gathered at Tivoli Palácio de Seteais in Sintra, Portugal, to confront this dilemma (fig. 1). On almost a daily basis, there are news reports on recent findings that are changing our understanding of how modern humans came to inhabit almost every corner of the world. Beginning in the 1980s, the old story of our origins as a unilineal progression along a long chain of ancestors from the australopiths to Homo erectusto Neanderthals to modern Homo sapiens began to change. At that time increased knowledge of the African fossil record together with genetic studies of contemporary humans lent support to the theory that modern humans originated in Africa and that the European Neanderthals were our cousins rather than direct ancestors. Various chronologies and routes were proposed for modern human migration out of Africa, but the general consensus favored a single wave with little, or no, interbreeding with populations that might have been encountered along the way. More recently new dating techniques, advances in genetics, and startling fossil finds are throwing even this tale into disarray. There is evidence for extensive interbreeding of modern humans with Neanderthals and with other extinct hominin lineages. There is also evidence for more than one modern human migration out of Africa. Our story is no longer just our own. Some of the most exciting recent discoveries have been in Asia, where the scholars who participated in this symposium work. The discussions in Sintra circled around a series of thorny questions. How many waves of modern humans left Africa? Did they arrive in fits and starts, and what routes did they take? What was the nature of their assimilation with hominins who colonized the region in earlier times? Did novel forms of human behavior begin in single regions and then spread, or were there multiple sites where modern human populations developed new means of thriving in diverse environments? The participants drew on the latest research—which in many cases was their own—to weigh possible answers. Scientists now know more about how temperature, altitude, latitude, and water level might have shaped dispersal patterns as fluctuations in the environment closed off, then reopened, possible pathways of migration. The latest excavation data suggest that modern humans crossed South Asia into southern China well before they arrived in Europe, reaching Southeast Asia before a second wave of migration north (see Bae, Douka, and Petraglia 2017; see also Buzhilova, Derevianko, and Shunkov 2017; Graf and Buvit 2017). In the diverse settings, ecological constraints changed the ways human populations used existing tools at the same time they were developing new skills (see Bae 2017). Rock art in one Sulawesi site dates to 40,000 years ago (see Aubert, Brumm, and Taçon 2017). There is evidence of open sea fishing dating to roughly the same time. Instead of simply spreading, novel behaviors developed in different places to adapt to different ends. The participants also considered the fossil record, which is full of surprises. For example, are some of the fossils once classified as H. erectus in fact Denisovans known from ancient DNA to have been widespread throughout eastern Asia? Data from modern populations, combined with the evidence from ancient DNA, speak of “failed dispersals and large-scale population replacements and admixture, as well as repeated colonization of geographic regions” (Sikora 2017; see also ReyesCenteno et al. 2017). One interesting question is whether the disappearance of the enigmatic species Homo floresiensis (the Hobbit) from the island of Flores related to the arrival of modern humans in island Southeast Asia. The participants may not have come to a consensus, but they did begin the hard work of determining which models the data support and which they do not. What do you do when new evidence rocks your academic world? Stay alert, stay nimble, stay in conversation, and hang on for the ride.

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/694424

'Vasudhara' ancient coins are Indus Script hypertexts of Ujjain, Malwa, Vidarbha, Mathura, Kausambi & Kuṣāṇa

November 2, 2017, 9:32 pm

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https://tinyurl.com/y73acpxe

I suggest that the symbols on coins discussed in Numismatic studies cited below as related to 'Vasudhara' can also be interpreted in the Indus Script hypertext tradition of wealth-creation metalwork documentation of wealth accounting ledgers.

Pair of fish

dula 'pair' rebus: dul 'metal casting' PLUS ayo, aya 'fish' rebus: aya 'iron' ayas 'alloy metal' (R̥gveda)

Dotted circle

dāya 'dotted circle, one on dice' PLUS vr̥tta, vaṭṭa 'circle'  rebus: vaṭa 'string'; thus together rebus: dhā̆vaḍ 'iron-smelter'

Elephant

karibha, ibha 'elephant' rebus: karba, ib 'iron' ibbo 'merchant'

Damaru (shape)

vajra 'thunderbolt weapon'

Triangle-headed standard

sangaḍa 'lathe, portable furnace' rebus: vajra sanghāta 'adamantine metallic glue'

Pellets

 गोटी [ gōṭī ] 'round pebbles, stones' rebus: गोटी [ gōṭī ] 'A lump of silver' 

Goddess

kola 'woman' rebus: kol 'working in iron' kolle 'blacksmith' kolhe 'smelter'

Thus, I suggest that the symbols on the coins together with the 'goddess with a pair of fish' are Indus Script hypertexts documenting the wealth-creating activities of metalsmiths in mints and guilds.

See: https://www.academia.edu/11484143/Icon_and_Identity_A_Numismatic_Enquiry_into_Early_Indian_Terracotta_Figurines_the_case_of_Vasudhara_ Shailen Bhandare, Icon and Identity: A Numismatic Enquiry into Early Indian Terracotta Figurines – the case of ‘Vasudhara’ cites:

Three specimens of this coin from Karur, Tamilnadu (Nagaswamy, 1995, Roman Karur, Brihad Prakashan, Madras: 35-36).

Kushana gold dinar. British Museum. River god ‘Oaksho’ (Skt. Vakshu – the river Oxus). He holds a fish in his hand.Hisnameiswritten exergue. Shailendra Bhandare sees the fish as an indicator of the fertility of the river and hence the significance of two fishes in the hands of a river goddess while Oaksho holds only one fish.

Coin of city-state of Tripuri. British Museum. Pair of fish on string. Shailen Bhandare sees this as a counter-marking device.

Fish-holding Vasudhara.West Malwa (Ujjain) coin.

Fish-holding goddess. Narmada valley.

Diestruck Vidarbha coin. Obv. Elephant marches to right with upright arrow on its back. Rev. goddess with a pair of fish on her hand.

Vidarbha. Copper punch-marked coin. The punches are: ‘fish-holding’ goddess, nandipada, elephant, Ujjain symbol (dotted circle) and a composite symbol consisting of a damaru and a triangle-headed standard. Ca. 2^nd to 1^st cent. BCE. Goddess holds the ish in her partially outstretched right hand, the left hand resting on her hip.

Ujjain, anonymous AE 1/8 karshapana, 'fish-holding Vasudhara'

Weight: 1.00 gm., Diameter: 8x8 mm.
Standing goddess Vasudhara holding a pair of fish with her outstretched
     right, left hand akimbo.; standard on right.
Ujjain symbol with extra circle in field.
Reference: Pieper 295 (plate coin) The fish-holding goddess is known on coins and sculptural objects from Malwa, Vidarbha, Mathura, Kausambi and elsewhere and has been identified as Vasudhara, a goddess of wealth and auspiciousness.  Like Lakshmi she was popular among traders and others who searched protection and promotion for their diverse activities. Handa emphasizes the symbolic importance of the pair of fish "as one of the eight mangalika-chihnas 'auspicious signs' in literature".

Central India, AE 1/8 karshapana, 'fish-holding Vasudhara'
Weight: 1.17 gm., Diameter: 11x8 mm.
Standing goddess Vasudhara holding a pair of fish with her outstretched
     right, left hand akimbo; her hair is pinned up (as if wearing a vessel on
     her head; two crescent-like devices on the left.
Tree
Reference: Pieper 453 (plate coin)

http://coinindia.com/galleries-ujjain2.html Indus Script hypertext: kuṭi 'tree' rebus kuṭhi 'smelter' 

Polemics and debates on sources for 'dating' Mahābhārata events

November 3, 2017, 11:05 pm

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Mahābhārata is a sacred text of Bhāratīya paramparā; Mahābhārata is not a mere tale of heroic deeds; nor is it a mere chronicle of rājadharma. 

The sacredness of the text is embellished by the narrative of Gaṇeśa as the scribe who documented the narratives.

A young Lord Gaṇeśa writing with his broken tusk at a stone-carver's workshop in Bali.

Sculptural frieze.Angkor Wat. Gaṇeśa as the scribe of Kr̥ṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsa's narrative. (Vyāsa, dark-skinned kavi, born in an island in Ganga river)

It is a text which, together with the Veda and Rāmāyaṇa, defines ātmā, of millions of people for millennia. 

The text constitutes the weltanschauung, enshrining the principles of life and sensations of Bhāratīya culture and Itihāsa.

The text has narratives, ākhyāna,or nārāśamsa on dharma. The narratives are elucidations provided to every student, every citizen, of a cosmic-consciousness order for 1. abhyudayam, 'general welfare' and 2. nihśreyas, 'moving from being to becoming' in ādhyātmikā and turīya levels of knowledge systems transcending ādibhautika and ādidaivika levels of life experiences.

The knowledge, results of enquiry, starting with the Veda, as the pramāṇa, is conveyed through आ-ख्यान [p= 129,2] n. telling , communication Pa1n2. Kap. Katha1s. &c; the communication of a previous event (in a drama) Sa1h.; a tale, story, legend S3Br. Nir. Pa1n2. &c;  नाराशंस [p= 537,2] n. a tale or legend in honour of liberal men L.; mf(/ई)n. (fr. न्/अरा-श्/अंस) relating to the praise of a man or men , laudatory, eulogistic (as a hymn , tale &c ) TS. Br. Ya1jn5. &c; relating or sacred to अग्नि नरा-श्/अंस (applied to the सोम RV. ; to a ऋच् TBr. &c); पुराण a[p= 635,1] n. a thing or event of the past , an ancient tale or legend , old traditional history. AV. &c; N. of a class of sacred works (supposed to have been compiled by the poet व्यास and to treat of 5 topics [cf. पञ्च-लक्षण] ; the chief पुराणs are 18 , grouped in 3 divisions: viz. 1. राजस exalting ब्रह्मा [e.g. the ब्रह्म , ब्रह्मा*ण्ड , ब्रह्मवैवर्त , मार्कण्डेय , भविष्य , वामन] ; 2. सात्त्विकexalting विष्णु [e.g. the विष्णु , भागवत , नारदीय , गरुड , पद्म , वराह] ; 3. तामस exalting शिव [e.g. the शिव , लिङ्ग , स्कन्द , अग्नि or in place of it the वायु, मत्स्य , कूर्म] ; by some the पद्म are divided into 4 , and by others into 6 groups ; cf. IW. 509 &c ); इति-हा* स b [p= 165,2] m. (इति-ह-आस , " so indeed it was "), talk, legend, tradition, history, traditional accounts of former events, heroic history S3Br. MBh. Mn. &c; प्रमाण [p= 685,3] a means of acquiring प्रमा or certain knowledge (6 in the वेदा*न्त , viz. प्रत्यक्ष , perception by the senses ; अनुमान , inference ; उपमान , analogy or comparison ; शब्द or आप्त-वचन , verbal authority , revelation ; अन्-ुपलब्धि or अभाव-प्रत्यक्ष , non-perception or negative proof ; अर्था*पत्ति , inference from circumstances ; the न्याय admits only 4 , excluding the last two ; the सांख्य only 3 , viz. प्रत्यक्ष , अनुमान and शब्द ; other schools increase the number to 9 by adding सम्भव , equivalence ; ऐतिह्य , tradition or fallible testimony ; and चेष्टा , gesture IW. 60 &c &c )(Monier-Williams) 

'Myth embodies the nearest approach to absolute truth that can be stated in words,' says Ananda Coomaraswamy. This means that leaving aside the polemics of Mahābhārata as a narrative of myths, the truth of events -- as 'falsifiable' statements, hence, valid research hypotheses -- described in the Mahābhārata as a basic resource document of Itihāsa should be realized using the methodologial disciplines available to students and researchers. 

History is simply one of the many integrating disciplines available to a student of civilization studies -- combining elements to form a connected, logically argued narrative together with raison d'etre of events as they unfolded.

A few such disciplines beyond history as resources for Itihāsa are: archaeology, archaeometallurgy, anthropology, genetics, geology, hydrology, tectonics, (earth sciences in general), astronomy, art history, ancient inscriptions, ancient coins, ancient texts (or even study of colour in ancient paintings on mss).  

Such resources should help 'date' and underscore the fact that Mahābhārata events are central to a narrative of progress of Bhāratīya civilization, Bhāratīya Arthaśāstra Itihāsa over millennia. 

See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2017/11/form-and-function-of-history-books-voir.html 

Form and function of history books -- Voir et concevoir la couleur en Asie (JL Filliozat et al, 2016). 

The inter-disciplinary challenge is to relate these sources to narrate Bhāratīya Arthaśāstra Itihāsa, from, say, 4th millennium BCE. Texts themselves are subjected to evaluation of multile manuscripts resulting in the publication of 'critical' editions, for e.g. the Mahābhārata mss. 

While the Mahābhārata mss. (there exist about 235 Mss. of the ādiparvan, notes Sukthankar) repeatedly cite skymaps in relation to events of the times, there are disagreements among scholars on interpretations of the texts and the reliability of attempts to replicate ancient astronomical observations using modern day tools such as Planetarium Software. Such disagreements have resulted in a number of suggested 'dates' of Mahābhārata events which range from 30-31 January 5560 BCE, 22 November, 3067 BCE,  to 26 October, 1478 BCE (http://ignca.nic.in/nl002503.htm)

This situation of disagreements is unsatisfactory from a 6th or 7th grade student's point of view when presented in school textbooks. The disagreements have to be reconciled and a consensus view presented to the school teachers and school students. 

Assuming that Mahābhārata contains grains of historical 'truth', how to reconcile these widely divergent opinions/analyses based on astronomical excursus? Maybe, the students have to be told that since there is disagreement about the 'dating' of Mahābhārata events, it is reasonable to relate the events to a time period related to the history of Vedic Sarasvati River -- the river basin is the locale for Mahābhārata events--; and that the history of the river can be narrated with the help of inter-disciplinary knowledge systems.

The disagreements are mainly related to 'meanings' assigned to 'astronomical' indicators contained in specific texts. This means that astronomers and philologists have to get together to discuss the contentious issue further. Ved Vyas' 1986 book Approach to dating the Mahabharata war): a tabulation of date results from about 120 scholars wherein 67 scholars have suggested a date prior to 3000 B.C.E, with 63 of them in the range 3100-3000 B.C.E. 

Skymap as interpreted reconstruction of textual narratives by Narahari Achar

That this date of this (4th millennium BCE) skymap is consistent with about 150 astronomical indicators of the Mahābhārata text is a non-trivial, but profound insight provided by Prof. Narahari Achar who has deployed planetaria software which validate the manual computations of Prof. Srinivasa Raghavan of Vivekananda College. 

The purport of this note is NOT to review and re-evaluate the reasons for divergences of upto 2 to 4 millennia in suggested dates (this is best left to the astronomers themselves to sort out and arrive at a consensus on the 'meanings' of astronomical indicators in ancient texts).

The objective is to present perspectives derived from other disciplines to 'date' (sorry for the term which has semantically evolved with sexist connotations in presend-day cultural parlance) -- Mahābhārata events. 

Are the results of 'digs' more reliable than the results of 'skymaps'? As the saying goes, different folks, different strokes.

How do we present Bhāratīya Arthaśāstra Itihāsa to 6th or 7th grade students, with particular reference to Mahābhārata as an Itihāsa text? 

Is the issue related to 'historicism' vs. 'darśana'; a quasi-scientific, philosophical-cultural enquiry as posited in Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee in their path-breaking Nay Science thesis? 

The Nay Science, A History of German Indology, Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee (2014), OUP 

Or, is the issue related to some acadeemics governed by racism? See: Western philosophy is racist http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2017/11/western-philosophy-is-racist-bryan-w.html Or, governed by orientalism (pace Edward W. Said, 1978)?

-- Re-writing Copper-hoard culture, plate tectonics, pralaya, 'flood', Mahābhārata events, role of Vedic River Sarasvati in Bhāratīya Arthaśāstra Itihāsa

An art history, archaeological excursus

--Copper-hoard culture, bhangar alluvium, Sri Balarāma's 42-day pariyātra, dates of Mahābhārata events relate to plate tectonics, Vedic River Sarasvati in full flow

Ancient  Itihāsa narratives include Manu's statement  of a great flood that destroyed everything on earth. Is Noah's ark of a similar flood a proto-historical event? [Old Testament (Genesis 6-9)]

 

Principal Harappan sites. Ganga-Yamuna doab (Source: http://asi.nic.in/pdf_data/HULAS_EXCAVATIONS_REPORT.pdf ) "Recently thermoluminiscent tests on the Ochre-Coloured Ware sherds have provided a long time bracket (c. 2650-1180 BCE) to this culture...The age of the Copper-hoard is difficult to assign." (pp.19-20 of the Hulas Excavation Report).

A view of the ancient mound at Hulas. In many Copper-hoard sites, the deeper sediments beyong 1200 BCE stratigraphic level signify upto 200 metres of flood-silt deposits (bhangar alluvium, as distinct from khadar, 'new alluvium') indicating the possibility of massive floodings in ancient times. Bhangar is dark coloured, rich in concretions and nodules of impure calcium carbonate known as kankar and is generally above the flood level. Is it possible to reconstruct the chronology of Manu's flood, the pralaya event? pralaya m. ʻ dissolution, destruction of the world ʼ ChUp. [√lī2] Pk. palaya -- m. ʻ destruction ʼ; Kho. (Lor.) pr*llōg ʻ silt left in field by irrigation water, water in flooded field ʼ (< *pralayaka -- or + udaká -- ?).(CDIAL 8755) pralayḥ

प्रलयः 1 Destruction, annihilation, dissolution; स्थानानि किं हिमवतः प्रलयं गतानि Bh.3.7,69; प्रलयं नीत्वा Si.11.66. 'causing to disappear'. -2 The destruction of the whole universe (at the end of a kalpa), universal destruction; Ku.2.8; अहं कृत्स्नस्य जगतः प्रभवः प्रलय- स्तथा Bg.7.6. -3 Any extensive destruction or devastation. (Apte) 

பிரளயம் piraḷayam , n. < pra-laya

. 1. 

 End of a Kalpa when the destruction of the world occurs; கற்பமுடிவு. (கூர்மபு. பிராகிருத. 1.) 2. Dissolution, destruction, annihilation; அழிவு. 3. Flood, inundation; வெள்ளம். (பிங்.) 

Sites of Copper-hoard culture including Hastināpura.

Please take a look at the following excerpts taken from an excellent presentation (video of 42 mins.) made in March 2017 by Megh Kalyanasundaram and Manogna Shastry in a conference. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJSsEA6fpJE Purva Pakṣa of Pollock's use of Chronology - Megh K & Manogna S

They claim to have found, in the critical edition of Mahābhārata text, atleast 70+ references to the river Sarasvati, atleast 20+ references (screenshots of 2 examples from their presentation follow later in this post) as evidence about river Sarasvati’s vitality (that is, references that seem to point to the possibility that not only was Sarasvati not-completely-dried, but also of it flowing with "frightening speed"). 

A reconstruction by ISRO of Ancient Sarasvati River channels. Sri Balarāma's 42-day pariyātra from Prabhaāsa (Somnath) through Kurukṣetra to Plakṣapraśravaṇa (Himalayan glacier source, perhaps near Har-ki-dun,Rupin-Supin glaciers) along the south bank of the flowing river is described in great detail in Mahābhārata. See: https://nileshoak.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/did-balarama-travel-to-dried-sarasvati-at-the-time-of-the-mahabharata-war/ Tirthasthāna-s visited by Sri Balarāma were Sarasvati River ghats. He also visits the sacred Plakṣapraśravaṇa in the hills (Himalayas). Nowhere is there a mention of any dry stretches; all references are to a flowing river excepting for a reference to Vinaśana where the river channel disappears (goes underground) and reappears (an apparent reference to the tectonic upheavals which created many diversions in the palaeo-channels caused by land uplifts/subsidences, due to earthquakes and bheda (forks), as noticed near Anupgarh (where one channel flows southwards to Jaisalmer and another flows westwards to Ganweriwala). There are two references to bheda-s on the river: Camaso bheda, Nagod bheda. The 90-degree diversion of Sutlej (a tributary joining Sarasvati at Ropar) is an indicator of an earthquake of ca. 2500 BCE which caused the migration of Sutlej flows westwards.

Landsat image. Anupgarh location (near Binjor).

"Janamejaya said, Tell me, O foremost of men, the features, the origin, and the merits of the several tirthas on the Sarasvati and the ordinances to be observed while sojourning there! Tell me these, in their order, O illustrious one! My curiosity is irrepressible, O foremost of all persons acquainted with Brahma Vaishampayana said, The subject of the features and origin of all these tirthas, O king, is very large. I shall, however, describe them to thee. Listen to that sacred account in its entirety, O king! Accompanied by his priests and friends, Valadeva first proceeded to the tirtha called Prabhasa." Section 9.33 Śalyaparva, Mahābhārata (Kisari Mohan Ganguly translation)

An event enrhsined in a sculptural ensamble of Angkor Wat. Gada yuddham between Bhima and Duryodhana."Dhritarashtra said, Beholding Rama approach that spot when the mace-fight was about to happen, how, O Sanjaya, did my son fight Bhima' Sanjayasaid, Beholding the presence of Rama, thy valiant son, Duryodhana of mighty arms, desirous of battle, became full of joy. Seeing the hero of the plough, king Yudhishthira, O Bharata, stood up and duly honoured him, feeling great joy the while. He gave him a seat and enquired about his welfare. Ramathen answered Yudhishthira in these sweet and righteous words that were highly beneficial to heroes, I have heard it said by the Rishis, O best of kings, that Kurukshetra is a highly sacred and sin-cleansing spot, equal to heaven itself, adored by gods and Rishis and high-souled Brahmanas! Those men that cast off their bodies while engaged in battle on this field, are sure to reside, O sire, in heaven with Shakra himself! I shall, for this, O king, speedily proceed to Samantapanchaka." Section 9.53 Śalyaparva, Mahābhārata (Kisari Mohan Ganguly translation) http://ancientvoice.wikidot.com/src-mbh-09:section-53

A digital rendering of the Prasat Chen sculptures that shows the centrality of the Duryodhana and Bhima sculptures to the grouping (image courtesy US Immigration & Customs Enforcement)

On this sculptural ensemble, one person is shown with 4 arms; he is Sri Kr̥ṣṇa.

Duryodhana (left) and Bhima (aka Temple Wrestler) (c. 925–50 CE), sandstone, 61-3/4 in (156.8 cm), Norton Simon Art Foundation, M.1980.15.S (Duryodhana images courtesy US Immigration & Customs Enforcement, and the Bhima image courtesy the Norton Simon Art Foundation)

This week (July 2016), we learned that two important Cambodian sandstone sculptures from the 10th century — one in the collection of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, and the other seized from Sotheby’s New York in 2012 — will be returned to the Kingdom of Cambodia after being looted in the 1970s. See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2016/07/duryodhana-bhima-prasat-chenkoh-ker.html

Balarama watches Gadayuddha in Kurukshetra (pictures of both B and K in Cambodian sculptural marvel stolen and just returned from America.

If we accept recollected memories, we accept Krishna. Sure, imagine him with four arms to signify divinity. What is referred to as 'myth' is the closest to truth, which generations of people narrate, called itihāsa in Bharata tradition.

See: Itihāsa of Bhāratam Janam; imperative of chronological narrative -- Manogna Sastry and Megh Kalyanasundaram (March 24, 2017)

In Government of India ISRO report titled PALAEOCHANNELS OF NORTH WEST INDIA: REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT (dated 2016 Oct 15), one may find:

in p. 87: 

On the basis of detailed geological, geomorphological, geohydrological and archaeological studies backed strongly by comprehensive remote-sensing investigations using latest technology, carried out in the last six decades, it is concluded that the Himalayan-born Satluj of the PAST that flowed through the channels of the present-day Ghaggar-Patialiwali rivulets represent the western branch of the ancient River Saraswati. 

in p. 84: 

Now, the word ‘Sarsuti’ is a corruption of the name, “Saraswati”. If this is the case, then the Ghaggar River in the past was known as the Saraswati River (Figure 6.14). 

in p. 83: 

Figure 6.14. From piecing together deduction of geomorphologists, sedimentologists, geohydrologists, geochemists, archaeologists and remote sensing specialists, emerges this portait of a large river originating in the Himalaya and emptying itself into the Sea, and on the way supporting vibrant progressive people in the prehistoric time. This river was known as the Saraswati [From Valdiya, 2016]. 

In sum, all facts and all postulations presented in these pages lead to the conclusion that the present-day Sarsuti–Markanda rivulets traversing the tract south of the foothills of the Siwalik Hills in northern Haryana were the water courses of the eastern branch of a Himalayan river; and the Ghaggar–Patiali channels provided the pathways to the western branch of the Himalayan river. The two branches combined near Shatrana and flowed through the extraordinarily wide channel of the Ghaggar–Hakra and discharged into the gulf of the western sea. 

In his educational module “The Saraswati River” (A presentation by Michel Danino, March 2016), Michel Danino, amongst other things, invokes Vedic texts to articulate river's Sarasvatī vitality (in slide 01: see excerpt below) and dating of "the loss of the  Sarasvatī" to about 1900 BCE to eloquently argue for the Vedic age to precede 1900 BCE (in slide 39: see excerpt below). 

in slide 01:  

The Sarasvatī is described as full of “great waters” (1.3.12) whose “impetuous” flow is “unbroken, swift-moving” (7.95.1) “from the mountain to the sea” (giribhya ā samudrāt) (7.95.2).

 The Sarasvatī receives the highest praise and is the only river to be deified in the Rig-Veda: she is “the best of mothers, the best of rivers, best of goddesses” (ambitame nadītame devitame sarasvatī, 2.41.16). 

in slide 39:  

“The “loss of the Sarasvatī” being now dated to about 1900 BCE, the Vedic age should be earlier, not later. In fact, an “unbroken” Sarasvatī points to 2700 BCE or earlier.”’

In the video of the presentation of their paper Purva Paksa of Sheldon Pollock's use of Chronology, Manogna Sastry and Megh Kalyanasundaram can be seen to be (what seems to be) extending Danino's argument—of scientifically attested period of "loss of the Sarasvatī" to ascribe Vedic period an earlier age—to question the tenability of dating Mahabharata to a period post-1900 BCE, in light of their claim to have identified atleast 20+ references (from amidst atleast 70+ occurences of river Sarasvatī in the critical edition) that demonstrate vitality of Sarasvatī. Two examples found in their presentation are included below: 

In addition to the above, they invoke in their presentation, Shri Aurobindo's statement "it should be remembered that the war of Kurukshetra took place 5000 years ago" and Table III A (from Ved Vyas' 1986 book Approach to dating the Mahabharata war): a tabulation of date results from about 120 scholars wherein 67 scholars have suggested a date prior to 3000 B.C., with 63 of them in the range 3100-3000 B.C. They can be heard saying more focused research might be needed to zero in on a year but they clearly question the possibility of a post-1900 BCE dating based on ample evidences of vitality of the river they claim to have found (in the critical edition of the text itself), in a way that seems quite similar to how Danino uses evidence from Vedic texts, to argue for the dating of Vedic age to precede 2700 BCE. 

With regard to standard of evidence needed to establish historicity, let us consider for the sake of argument, the point Dr. Raju raises (see p. 3 in this paper), as regards the admission by even specialist scholars like Thomas Heath (author of A History of Greek Mathematics, Dover, New York, 1981) about the evidence (or its lack) for Euclid:

 

“The key valid source of information about Euclid, that Heath acknowledges, is a remark by Proclus in his Commentary on the Elements. Why, one wonders, does Heath need this roundabout route? Don’t we have copies of the Elements which state Euclid to be the author? The answer to this innocuous question is “No”. As Heath admits—“All our Greek texts of the Elements up to a century ago. . . purport in their titles to be either ‘from the edition of Theon’. . . or ‘from the lectures of Theon’.”9 As Heath further admits, Euclid’s name does not appear even in the commentaries which “commonly speak of the writer of the Elements instead of using his name.”10” 

Surely, the combination textual evidence of vitality of Sarasvatī in the critical edition of Mahabharata along with results based on purely scientific methods (as found in ISRO's 2016 report PALAEOCHANNELS OF NORTH WEST INDIA: REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT, along with computer simulations of astronomical events from the text, should constitute as class of evidence of an order higher than that of the evidence on which Euclid's historicity rests! 

Addendum

I attach herewith a presentation (ppt of 47 slides) made by Rasika Meena Kaushik https://medium.com/@southasiandrama/mah%C4%81bh%C4%81rata-historicity-a-retrospectio-n-of-the-indian-renaissance-f2b028ea5437  Mahābhārata historicity a retrospection of the indian renaissance. This presentation reviews BB Lal's archaeological work and includes images obtained from ASI.

I invite particular reference to the following image which shows the stratigraphy of Hastinapura:

In a seminar held in March 2017,  BB Lal noted: "Archaeologically, the deluge of the Saraswati took place around 2000-1,900 Before Common Era (BCE) or broadly, in the first quarter of the second millennium BCE. This was exactly the time of Manu's flood, which occurred after the Rigveda, but before the beginning of the second millennium BCE. Should we still call Manu's Flood a myth?"  His presentation suggested that the flood may explain the enormous layers of sediments in the Copperhoard sites such as Bahadarabad. 

The same reason may also explain the presence of large sand layers in Hastinapura site investigated earlier by BB Lal. See the slide of Hastinapura stratigraphy. 

“At a number of places such as Bahadrabad, Nasirpur, Jhinjhana, Hastinapur, Noh, Ahichchatra, Atranjikhera, etc., these (OCW) waves have been noticed to occur sporadically. Otherwise clean plain, which imperceptibly merge into natural soil. Indications are that these deposits may be water-laid. Are we then faced here with a huge deluge covering hundreds of miles of the Ganga-Yamuna basin? Chronologically, this deluge may have to be placed some time about the middle of the second millennium BCE. Again, though there is a strong circumstantial evidence that this ware may have associated with the Copper-Hoards.” Ochre colour pottery and copper hoard tools, Chapter IV, (pp. 130-131) http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/36863/5/chapter%204.pdf

Given the enormity of the sand, silt layers below the 1200 BCE OCW layer reported from Hastinapura, it is likely that the human settlement may have been in existence, at Hastinapura, for an extended period,  much earlier to 1200 BCE. 

This suggests a re-evaluation of the chronological sequencing of Copper-Hoard culture which may have started co-terminus with the late phases of Sarasvati (Harappan) civilization sites such as Bhirrana and Rakhigarhi. The anthropomorphs found in Copper-Hoard sites with Indus Script hypertexts, is also a corroborative evidence for the continuity of Sarasvati civilization in Coppper-Hoard culture.Anthropomorph. Sheorajpur. With 'fish' hieroglyph on chest. This has to be matched with the evidence of an iron smelter dated to ca. 19th century BCE found at Malhar on Ganga Basin.

Damaged circular clay furnace, comprising iron slag and tuyeres and other waste materials stuck with its body, exposed at lohsanwa mound, Period II, Malhar, (cf. Rakesh Tewari http://archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/iron-ore).

The origins of Iron-working in India New evidence from the Central Ganga Plain and the Eastern Vindhyas By Rakesh Tewari[Director, U.P. State Archaeological Department, Roshan-ud-daula Kothi,Kaisarbagh, Lucknow 226 001 (U.P.) India (Email: rakeshlko@rediffmail.com)]

Given these considerations, and the fact that Rakhigarhi has become the largest archaeological settlement of the civilization, further archaeological excavations are called for in the Copper-Hoard culture sites and along the mounds of Ganga-Yamuna doab.

Krishna Caritra, 'Krishna history', Vrishni, Varshneya (वार्ष्णेय) historical Harappa Script traditions of Bharata 

"Panini’s Ashtadhyayi mentions several ganas such as the Kshudrakas, Malavas, Ambashthas, Hastinayanas, Prakanvas, Madras, Madhumantas, Apritas, Vasatis, Bhaggas, Shibis, Ashvayanas and Ashvakayanas. Later references indicate that the Vrishnis, Andhakas and other allied clans in the Mathura region were part of a sangha. Vasudeva Krishna of the Vrishni clan is described as a sanghamukhya (the head of a sangha). Non-monarchical states are also mentioned in the Mahabharata, Megasthenes’ Indica and in Greek accounts of Alexander’s invasion.

"Names of ganas such as the Malavas, Uddehikas and Arjunayanas occur on coins of the early centuries AD, and some are also mentioned in inscriptions. In the 4^th century AD, Chandragupta I of the Gupta dynasty married a Lichchhavi princess, Kumaradevi, and this marriage was commemorated on gold coins. Their son, Samudragupta, is called Lichchhavi-dauhitra (grandson of the Lichchhavis) in inscriptions. The Lichchhavis, therefore, were still a political force worth making an alliance with in this period."

http://vle.du.ac.in/mod/book/print.php?id=11165&chapterid=20938

Carved from left to right is Samkarsana/Balarama holding a mace in the right hand and a ploughshare topped by a lion-face in the left hand. Next to him is Vasudeva-Krishna with his right hand in abhaya-mudra and the left hand holding a conch-shell and placed on hip. The next figure is of Narasimha which clearly indicates towards the merger of Sattvat cult with the Pancha Vrishni  Vira Cult. The next figure is of Pradyumna who holds a bow in his left hand and an arrow in his right hand. To his left is the figure of Samba who holds a wine goblet in his right hand and his left hand is on his waist. The last figure is that of

Aniruddha who is holding a sword in his right hand and a shield in his left hand. Sculpture is dated to 3^rd-early 4^th century CE. 

Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/hnfr6t6

This historical memoir complements the rebus readings of Harappa Script hieroglyphs on the Vrishni coin, presented in 

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2016/10/vrishni-janapada-coin-with-hieroglyphs.html 

Vrishni Janapada coin with hieroglyphs of iron mint and cakra. Harappa Script hieroglyphs on coins from Ancient Bharata mints. Unraveling pāradān 'mercury traders'& śrivatsa metaphor on coins and Bharhut/Sanchi sculptural friezes.

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2016/10/sri-krishna-is-historical-reality-like.html  

Sri Krishna is a historical reality like the Vrishni janapada coins. QED Harappa Script & Language.

See: https://www.scribd.com/document/321803210/Vrishni-Cult-in-South-India-pdf

Vrishni Cult in South India by

Haripriya Rangarajan and Vinay Kumar Gupta in History Today, No. 15, 201, pp. 82-85

A Vrishni silver coin from Alexander Cunningham's Coins of Ancient India: From the Earliest Times Down to the Seventh Century (1891) (loc.cit., Lahiri, Bela (1974). Indigenous States of Northern India (Circa 200 B.C.E to 320 C.E.), Calcutta: University of Calcutta, pp.242 3).

Half-lion, half-elephant mounted on pillar. NP Joshi, Iconography of Balarma, New Delhi, Abhinav Prakashan, 1979, Figure 1b, p. 117

http://www.oocities.org/bhupindersingh2/ddk/mar/images/fig118.jpg

Legend in Brahmi and Kharoshthi: 

Vrishni Baja jnaganasya bhubharasya

Varshneya (वार्ष्णेय) is an Indian bania caste, also called bara-saini (Rose, H.A., A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West, Volume 2, p.61). Tradition notes them as traders and bankers. (William Crook, Tribes and Castes of North Western Provinces and Oudh, Volume I, pages 177–8).

अ-क्रूर [p= 3,1] m. N. of कृष्ण's paternal uncle (Mahābhārata).

Varshneya worship Shri Akrurji Maharaj श्री अक्रूरजी महाराज.

Balarama, Akrur and Krishna in Gopi Nath temple, Akrur Ghat, Vrindavan, Mathura. Adi Varaha Purana celebrates this place of pilgrimage. Akrur reportedly saw the forms of Vishnu and Sesha in Krishna and Balarama.

The great-great-grandfather of Akrur and Krishna was Vrishni. Akrur was a chief in Dvārakā and his chiefdom may be traced to the rule by Vrishni.(Pargiter, F. E.,1922,Ancient Indian Historical Tradition. Oxford University Press, p.280).

The lineage of Akrur is: Yadu, Krostu, Satvata, Vrishni, Yudhajit,. Śvaphalka and Akrur. (Pargiter, F. E. (1922). Ancient Indian Historical Tradition. Oxford University Press, pp. 102-109). Akrur was an uncle of Krishna and is cited in the following historical (itihāsa) narratives:

-- Akrur rose to fame as a commander of the Yadava army. (Chapter 220 of Adi Parva, Mahābhārata).

-- Akrur was also present for the Swayamvara (wedding) of Draupadi. (Sloka 18, Chapter 185 of Adi Parva, Mahābhārata).

-- At the time that Arjuna eloped with Subhadra, a grand festival was being held in the Raivataka mountain, Akrur partook in the festival (Sloka 10, Chapter 218, Adi Parva, Mahābhārata).

-- Akrur accompanied Krishna to the marriage of Subhadra (Sloka 29, Chapter 220, Adi Parva,Mahābhārata) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrura)

Harivaṃśa हरिवंश (Viṣṇu parva chapters 25-28) recount the journey of Krishna and Samkarsana to Kamsa’s court accompanied by Akrur.

See also:

1.    Sri Bankim Chandra Chatterji’s Sri Krishna Charitra in Bengali (1886).

2.       " Krishna literature has grown since it first took definite shape in Mahabharata, then in Harivamsha and Vishnu Purana, and was elaborated in Shrimad Bhagavata and other Puranas. To this literature in Sanskrit has been added other literature, for the story of his life has been told in epic, song and story by thousands of poets in every Indian language for centuries. In the course of being so told, Shri Krishna has come to be invested with traits and credited with exploits of such divergent nature that it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for a reader to have a clear picture of the Krishna as he was known by his contemporaries." (From the Preface in 8 volumes of Krishnavatara कृष्णअवतार by KM Munshi, 1962).

https://archive.org/details/KrishnaCharitra Krishna Caritra by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

कृष्णावतार Krishna Avatar (Set of 7 Volumes) by KM Munshi http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/krishnavatara-set-of-7-volumes-NAF606/

How do I say Krishna is a historical reality?

Krishna not shown, but Bhima, Arjuna and Ganesa are shown in the sculptural frieze of Candi Sukuh sculpture.

Bhima is blacksmith, Arjuna works on bellows. Ganesa dancestep.

This is from Bhimaswarga version of Mahabharata in Javanese.

See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2016/07/bhimastava-by-fdk-bosch-bhima-signified.html

Bhimastava text.

Astronomy has dated Mahabharata events with astonishing precision (Narahari Achar's work).

Dwaraka submergence is REAL and mentioned in the epic, Krishna tells yadava to move out. 

Sangam text attests to 42 generations of Velir from Dwaraka.

Images of Balarama and Krishna are on ancient coins.

That the region of Sarasvati-Sindhu river basins was subject to frequent earthquakes caused by plate tectonics of the Indian plate moving northwards jutting into European plate at the pace of 6 cms. per year (lifting up the Himalayan ranges by 1 cm per year), is also attested in the Mahabharata epic which documents the enormity of the earthquakes and records the engulfing of Dwaraka by seawaves and submergence of Dwaraka. 

The migration of River Yamuna carrying the waters of Glacial Sarasvati from Paonta Saheb to join the Ganga creating Triveni Sangamam and themigration of River Sutlej by a 90-degree turn at Ropar, to join the Sindhu river, cut off the glacial perennial waters to Vedic River Sarasvati. Thus, the Sarasvati River become a monsoon-based river with stretches of breaks in the navigable channel and the creation of saras, 'lakes' in the regions of Haryana and Rajasthan. The snapping of the navigability of the River Sarasvati impacted the seafaring merchants of Meluhha who had crossed the Persian Gulf beyond Dholavira-Surkotada in Rann of Kutch to conduct maritime trade. The snapping of trade connections led to migrations of people eastwards and southwards as evidenced by the settlements of Rakhigarhi (near Delhi) and Daimabad on Pravara River, a tributary of River Godavari. That the migrations occurred southwards is attested in Purananuru, a Sangam text in Tamil. 

Recurrent earthquakes caused by plate tectonics are also indicated in ancient texts. For example, after Krishna’s atman departs the mortal body---

विवृद्ध मूशिकारथ्या विभिन्नमणिकास्तथा केशानखाश्च सुप्तानामद्यन्ते मूशिकैर्निशी (MBh., Mausala, 2.5)

चीचीकूचीति वाशन्ति सारिका वृष्णिवेश्मसु नोपशाम्यति शब्दश्च स दिवारात्रमेव हि (MBh., Mausala, 2.6)

अन्वकुर्वन्नुलूकानाम् सारसा विरुतं तथा अजाः शिवानाम् विरुतमन्वकुर्वत भारत (MBh., Mausala, 2.7)

Streets swarmed with rats and mice, earthen pots showed cracks or were broken from no apparent cause, sarika_s chirped ceaselessly day and night, sa_ras hooted like owls, goats cried like jackals, pigeons departed from their homes, and asses brayed aloud in disconsonant and awful voices (Ganguly, 1998).

निर्याते तु जने तस्मिन् सागरो मकरालयः द्वारकां रत्नसंपूर्णं जलेन प्लावयत् तदा (MBh., Mausala, 7.41)

तदद्भुतमभिप्रेक्ष्य द्वारकावासिनो जनाः तूर्णात् तूर्णतरम् जग्मुरहो दैवकितिब्रुवन् (MBh., Mausala, 7.43)

The sea, the abode of monsters, engulfed the gem-filled Dwraka with waves soon after the people departed the place. Seeing this astounding incident, the citizens of Dwaraka ran away, exclaiming, ‘O, our fate’. (Ganguly, 1998).

Reference to Dwaraka as Thuvarai in an ancient Sangam text

Ayasipur is a Vedic expression. अयस् n. iron , metal RV. &c अयस्मय (अयोमय) a. (-यी f.) Ved. Made of iron or of any metal. -यी N. of one of the three habita- tions of Asuras. pur पुर् f. (Nom. sing. पूः; instr. du. पूर्भ्याम्) 1 A town, fortified town; thus ayasipur refers to a fortification made of stone or metal. (पूरण्यभिव्यक्तमुखप्रसादा R.16.23)

துவரை² tuvarai, n. See துவாரகை. உவரா வீகைத் துவரை யாண்டு (புறநா. 201). துவாரகை tuvārakai, n. < dvārakā. The capital of Kṛṣṇa on the western side of Gujarat, supposed to have been submerged by the sea, one of catta-puri, q. v.; சத்தபுரியுளொன் றாயதும் கடலாற்கொள்ளப்பட்ட தென்று கருதப்படுவதும் கண்ணபிரான் அரசுபுரிந்ததுமான நகரம்.

This Vedic expression ayasipur is consistent with the description of Dwaraka in Purananuru as a fortification with walls made of copper (metal).

இவர் யார் என்குவை ஆயின் இவரே
ஊருடன் இரவலர்க்கு அருளித் தேருடன்

முல்லைக்கு ஈத்த செல்லா நல்லிசை
படுமணி யானைப் பறம்பின் கோமான்
நெடுமாப் பாரி மகளிர் யானே
தந்தை தோழன் இவர் என் மகளிர்
அந்தணன் புலவன் கொண்டு வந்தனனே
நீயே வட பால் முனிவன் தடவினுள் தோன்றிச்
செம்பு புனைந்து இயற்றிய சேண் நெடும் புரிசை
உவரா ஈகைத் துவரை யாண்டு
நாற்பத்து ஒன்பது வழி முறை வந்த
வேளிருள் வேள விறல் போர் அண்ணல்
தார் அணி யானைச் சேட்டு இருங்கோவே
ஆண் கடன் உடைமையின் பாண் கடன் ஆற்றிய
ஒலியற் கண்ணிப் புலிகடிமாஅல்
யான் தர இவரைக் கொண்மதி வான் கவித்து
இரும் கடல் உடுத்த இவ் வையகத்து அரும் திறல்
பொன்படு மால் வரைக் கிழவ வென் வேல்
உடலுநர் உட்கும் தானைக்
கெடல்அரும் குரைய நாடு கிழவோயே !

If you ask who they are, they are his daughters,
he who granted cities to those who came in need
and earned great fame for gifting
a chariot to the jasmine vine to climb,
he who owned elephants with jingling bells,
the lord of Parampu, the great king Pāri.
They are my daughters now.
As for me, I am their father’s friend, a Brahmin,
a poet who has brought them here.

You are the best Vēlir of the Vēlir clan,
with a heritage of forty nine generations of Vēlirs
who gave without limits,
who ruled Thuvarai with its long walls that
seemed to be made of copper, the city that
appeared in the sacrificial pit of a northern sage (Yaja).
King who is victorious in battles!

Great king with garlanded elephants!
Pulikatimāl with a bright garland
who knows what a man’s responsibility is,
and what you can do for bards!
I am offering them. Please accept them.
Lord of the sky high mountain that yields gold!
You whose strength cannot be equaled on the earth
that is covered by an arched sky and surrounded
by the ocean, you whose army puts fear into
enemies with victorious spears!
O ruler of a land that can never be ruined!

Irunkovel is supposed to be 49th generation of a king from (Thuvarai) Dwaraka. It can mean two things. Assuming about 30 years per generation, 1500 years earlier Dwaraka which had walls made of copper. Dating the early phase of Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization to ca. 3500 BCE, and the submergence of Dwaraka to ca. 1900 BCE (a date indicative of the drying up of Vedic River Sarasvati due to migrations of Sutlej and Yamuna rivers which were tributaries bringing in glacier waters), which necessitated the movements of Sarasvati's children down the coastline to Kerala, this text places Sangam literature text of Purananuru to ca. 400 BCE.

(Source: http://historum.com/asian-history/76340-satyaputras-earliest-indo-aryanizers-south-india-3.html

Migration from Tuvarai (Dwaraka) is attested in a 12th century inscription (Pudukottai State inscriptions, No. 

120) cited by Avvai S. Turaicaami in Puranaanuru, II (SISSW Publishing Soc., Madras, 1951). 

•துவரை மாநகர் நின்ருபொந்த தொன்மை பார்த்துக்கிள்ளிவேந்தன் நிகரில் தென் கவரி நாடு தன்னில் நிகழ்வித்த நிதிவாளர் 

Archaeo-metallurgical and seafaring traditions of the Civilization are attested in regions of southern Bharat 

The archaeo-metallurgical and seafaring traditions of the Civilization are attested in Southern Bharat as exemplified by the following:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/289709143/Metal-casting-Traditions-South-Asia-PT-Craddock-2014
http://www.insa.nic.in/writereaddata/UpLoadedFiles/IJHS/Vol50_2015_1_Art05.pdf Indian Journal of Hisory of Science, 50.1 (2015), 55-82 PT Craddock, Metal casting traditions of South Asia: Continuity and Innovation

“Legend has it that the Pandava princes ...left on a pilgrimage of India, and in Kerala, each of these brothers installed Vishnu on the banks of the Pampa and nearby places and offered worship. (Chengannur - Yuddhishtra, Tiruppuliyur - Bheema, Aranmula - Arjuna, Tiruvamundur - Nakula and Tirukkadittaanam - Sahadeva). It is said that Arjuna built this temple at Nilackal near Sabarimalai. and the image was brought here in a raft made of six pieces of bamboo to this site, and hence the name Aranmula (six pieces of bamboo). Legend has it that Arjuna built this temple, to expiate for the sin of having killed Karna on the battlefield, against the dharma of killing an unarmed enemy. It is also believed that Vishnu (here) revealed the knowledge of creation to Brahma, from whom the Madhukaitapa demons stole the Vedas.”

https://www.scribd.com/document/363439427/Eclipses-Planetary-Positions-in-Mahabharata-RN-Iyengar-2003

https://www.scribd.com/document/363439260/Discussion-on-BNN-Achar-s-RN-Iyengar-s-Chronology-of-Vedic-Rishis-Vedic-Venues-2014

https://www.scribd.com/document/363439035/Date-of-Mahabharata-TS-Kuppanna-Sastry

Eclipses & Planetary Positions in Mahabharata - RN Iyengar (2003) by Srini Kalyanaraman on Scribd

Discussion on BNN Achar's RN Iyengar's Chronology of Vedic Rishis (Vedic Venues 2014) by Srini Kalyanaraman on Scribd

Date of Mahabharata - TS Kuppanna Sastry by Srini Kalyanaraman on Scribd

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#Hindu Terror. A limited response to JNU Prof. Nivedita Menon's statements on Hindus and Violence -- Megh Kalyanasundaram

November 4, 2017, 12:50 am

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October 20, 2016

A limited response to JNU Professor Nivedita Menon’s statement “Hindu society must be one of the most violent…society in the world.”

In the article “JNU Students Abuse Lady Professor For Proposing Hindu Courses, Burn PM’s Effigy as Ravana” dated Oct 19 (yesterday), one statement piqued me enough to document some of the more objective portions of my mental responses to it.

The statement within double quotes in the title is an excerpt from this video in which Nivedita Menon can be heard saying it. She goes on to say that ‘surely, nothing in the world can compare to the deep-rooted violence and…intransigence of the caste system’ and that this ‘is something we can proudly claim India has contributed to world culture.’

Varna, as found in Srimad Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 4, verse 13), which is not meant to be based on birth but determined by an individual’s “Guna” and “Karma” (for a detailed explanation of Varna in Srimad Bhagavad Gita, listen to Swami Chinmayananda here or for a shorter read, see statement attributed to Swami Tejomayananda here; for  Varna in Vedas, read Swami Venkataraman’s Caste Hierarchy And Discrimination Not Sanctioned By The Vedas), is hardly what Menon has referred to as Caste system – a system, systematised really by colonisers and plunderers of the then Bharat (see Insight #3 here, based on GDP trend-data during the period when those colonialists were at helm), who are also referred to sometimes by the name of the language Menon is heard speaking in that video. That Varna has been misinterpreted and misused by people from its own tradition is true, just as it is true that there are people from the same tradition who have not misused it.

To vilify the caste system is one thing (and the human suffering and human rights violation that has resulted from it has the author’s condemnation too), but to brand Hindu society ‘as one of the most violent’ on that basis alone is preposterous, offensive, violence-inducing and hardly objective; and to include caste system in India’s contribution to world culture – I repeat, India’s contribution* (even if meant sarcastically) – made  me wonder:

Who really is this lady, Nivedita Menon?

What drives her, to live in India, to teach Indian students, in an Indian university, on a payroll funded by Indians’ (tax money), and still make such statements about India’s contribution to world culture and about Hindu society, a (still) not insignificant part of world (In my mind, the words ‘India’ (of today) and ‘Hindu’ cannot be used interchangeably without being incorrect and insensitive, yet she seems to be doing so, atleast in that video and it perhaps was in all probability, a slip)?

Since she appears to have taken it on herself to brand Hindus ‘as one of the most violent’, I request her, or any objective human mind, Hindu or otherwise, to reconcile her statement, atleast the ‘one of the most’ part, with the following data from ‘The Great Big Book of Horrible Things – The Definitive Chronicle of History’s 100 Worst Atrocities (2012)’ by Matthew White (who is neither Indian nor Hindu).

According to him (on page 554):

‘ONE HUNDRED DEADLIEST MULTICIDES’ got ‘455 million killed overall’.

Of that 445 million, ‘IDEOLOGICAL MULTICIDES’ (32 in total: ref. p. 549) accounted for 142 million

This is further broken down as ‘RELIGION: 47 million’ (13 of the 32 above), ‘COMMUNISM: 67 million’ (6 of 32) and ‘RED-WHITE CIVIL WARS: 26 million’ (6 of 32).

In the chapter titled RELIGIOUS KILLING (p. 107-112), on page 111, under the heading ‘In God We Trust’, is included:

If we categorise the entries in this list according to which religions came into conflict, we get this simplified breakdown:

Christian vs. Christian: 9

Muslim vs. Christian: 3

Christian vs. Jewish: 3

Eastern vs. Christian: 3

Jewish vs. pagan: 2

Muslim vs. Chinese: 2

Muslim vs. Muslim: 2

Human sacrifice in India: 1

Human sacrifice in Mexico: 1

Ritual killing in Rome: 1

Muslim vs. Hindu: 1

Manichaean vs. Taoist: 1

…

Then, Judaism and its offshoots, Christianity and Islam, devised a worldview where a single all-powerful god required a strict, uncompromising beliefs rather than tangible offerings.

Does Nivedita Menon have anything to say about Abrahamic religions and of Communism, based on the data included above? Where is her ‘one of the most violent’ societies in the list above and can she objectively justify the usage of ‘one of the most violent’?

On p. 529, where White ranks the 100 deadliest multicides, one finds the following:

1. Second world war (1939 – 45): 66,000,000

2. Mao Zedong (1949 – 76): 40,000,000

4. Famines in British India (18th – 20th centuries) – 27,000,000

11. Conquest of the Americas (after 1942) – 15,000,000

23. Aurangzeb (1658 – 1707) – 4,600,000

The above five data-points total to 152.6 million deaths. Should Indians and Hindus start looking for nationality  and religion (respectively) in this figure, Nivedita Menon? Can you objectively reconcile the result of such an enquiry with your statement?

* The hyperlink  to ‘Lecture-12- Highlights of Science in Ancient India – Part 1-IIT Kanpur’ by Michel Danino is, of course, a limited articulation of one aspect of Ancient India. Read Shri Aurobindo’s “A Defence of Indian Culture” for more.  Read Rajiv Malhotra’s Indra’s Net for a contemporary articulation of Santana Dharma’s ‘multi-dimensional, holographic understanding of reality.’

https://meghk.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/a-limited-response-to-jnu-professor-nivedita-menons-statement-hindu-society-must-be-one-of-the-most-violent-society-in-the-world/

Mahābhārata is the most accurately dated historical text in the history of world literature, a golden-page in the Story of Civilization

November 11, 2017, 8:10 am

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https://tinyurl.com/y8sqqg7o

The monograph is organized in three sections.

Section 1. Arthaśāstra Itihāsa, metaphors of aṣṭāśri yūpa, caṣāla, and start date of Mahābhārata war on November 22, 3067 BCE

Section 2. The Traditional Epoch of Yudhishthira Era and Mahābhārata War -- Vedveer Arya

Section 3. MahābhārataRetold with Scientific Evidences -- Saroj Bala

Chāndogya Upaniṣad (7.1.2), applies the term: itihāsapurāṇaṃ pañcamaṃ vedānāṃ to the "histories" itihāsa  "ancient traditions") of its day.

Mahābhārata categorises itself as itihāsa: cf. Fitzgerald, James (1985). "India's Fifth Veda: The Mahābhārata's Presentation of Itself". Journal of South Asian Literature.  20 (1): 125–140.

Gaṇeśa, 8th century. Central Vietnam. Lent by National Museum of Vietnamese History

Gaṇeśa as scribe is proclamation of divine sanction for the kāvya, narrated by Kr̥ṣṇa Dwaipāyana Vyāsa, the black Ganga island-dweller. The written version by Gaṇeśa is for wider dissemination of the message of the veda, the fifth Veda, pañcamaṃveda which is  itihāsa, ancient tradition of Bhāratam.

See:https://tinyurl.com/ycpoch5w

Gaṇeśa is scribe of Mahābhārata 

Gaṇeśa is Brāhmī scribe of Mahābhārata in the tradition of Indus Script cipher of Bronze Age 
https://tinyurl.com/y79j8rxp 

Section 1 presents metaphors of aṣṭāśri yūpa, caṣālato prove Veda cultural continuum of Arthaśāstra Itihāsa, consistent with details of astronomical observations provided in two theses of Srinivasa Raghavan and Narahari Achar who date the start of the Mahābhārata war on November 22, 3067 BCE. Sections 2 and 3 present arguments of Vedveer Arya and Saroj Bala, deviating from this November 22, 3067 BCE date, but still stay within the traditional chronology and epoch of the Mahābhārata war of 4^thmillennium BCE.

To prove the Veda cultural continuum, I have also presented: Binjor yajña kuṇḍa and Indus Script hypertexts, iconographic evidences related to Gardez Gaṇeśawho is the only scribe of the Epic narration, iconographic evidences for aṣṭāśri Rudrabhāga Śivalinga, the monumental unparalleled sculptural magnificence of Khajuraho Varāha, 19 Yūpa inscriptions,Bhimaswarga narrative of Bhīma, Arjuna, Gaṇeśa dance-step at a smithy/forge producing a sword, and other ancient texts including Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa.

In my view, the presentations by Srinivasa Raghavan and Narahari Achar meet the test of devices prescribed in tantra yuktidoctrine which guided researches of the savants Pāṇini, Caraka, Kauṭilya (kauṭīlika, ‘baclsmith’), a Bhāratīya research method which predates Harvard research method by several millennia. Details of 40 devices in tantra yukti doctrine, to derive vākyārtha have been presented separately. Hopefully, these devices will help resolve the disagreements on specific dates for the start of the war, dates within a time-frame of 4^th millennium BCE a broad-spectrum epoch which is consistent.the hydrological history of Vedic River Sarasvatī as a flowing channel, constituting a maritime waterway for seafaring merchants to advance their mercantile transactions.

I accept the dates determined by Srinivasa Raghavan and Narahari Achar because the dates are consistent with the internal textual evidence of the Epic and philological tradition of deriving meaning based on lakṣaṇā, particularly for the word graha which has to be interpreted (vākyārtha, ‘meanings of messages’) in context of the textual references, as either a planet or a comet.

In my view, Achar’s readings of the term grahabased on philological tradition of deriving meaning based on lakṣaṇā constitute a brilliant contribution to reconcile and resolve the apparent inconsistencies within the text, noted for example by TS Kuppanna Sastry.

No attempt has been made to reconcile the various dates of BCE arrived at by various scholars. The arguments are presented to the readers for adjudication as the Jury.

Section 1. Arthaśāstra Itihāsa, metaphors of aṣṭāśri yūpa, caṣāla, and start date of Mahābhārata war on November 22, 3067 BCE

The locus of events narrated is in sacred space of the basin of Vedic River Sarasvatī;

The context and abiding reality of the narrative is Arthaśāstra Itihāsa – History of Bhāratīya Political Economy.

This Arthaśāstra Itihāsa is signified by the metaphorsof aṣṭāśri yūpa topped by caṣāla consistent with the descriptions in R̥g Veda and Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa. The aṣṭāśri yūpa shape is Pratimā lakṣaṇāam of Rudrabhāga of Śivalinga.

The linga is ekamukha jaṭālinga‘face with matted hair on head’ shaped after caṣāla, ‘heap of godhūma wheat-chaff’; mukha‘face’ rebus: mũh‘ingot’; skambha ‘pillar’ rebus: kammaṭa‘coiner, coinage, mint’. Another metaphor of caṣāla is vajra, the sudarśana cakra, the discus weapon of Viṣṇu, analogous to Indra’s thunderbolt, vajra; also analogous to theḍamaru ‘hour-glass’ shape of the drum in the hand of Rudra-Śiva Naṭarāja.

The ḍamaru of Maheśvara yields the anāhata nāda, the unstruck sound of praṇava, divine sound signifier, is paramātman.

The ḍamaru also yields Māheśvara Sūtrāṇi, the Veda sound system which enshrines the sounds of language (see image after Frits Staal).

The word bharat is a signifier of the competence achieved in creating alloyed metals: barad, barat‘ox, bos gaurus’ rebus: bharat ‘mixed alloys’ (5 copper, 4 zinc and 1 tin) (Punjabi). Just as Sindon‘cotton’ signified Sindhu-Hindu, the region, bharat ‘alloy of copper and zinc’also signified the region with metalworkers who had unique alloying metallurgical competence, made bharatāñce bhāṇḍem‘pots, pans, implements and weapons of bharata-alloy-ware’.

That Kr̥ṣṇa Dwaipāyana Vyāsa [Black (Ganga-river) Island-born]kavi is also a competent astronomer is abundantly clear from the repeated celestial skymaps which are alluded to in the epic, Mahābhārata.

Celestial skymaps constitute the calendar of the times of Kr̥ṣṇa Dwaipāyana Vyāsa and the references made by the author-narrator to skymaps ensure that the dating of events is unambiguous and precise.

The accuracy achieved to precisely date an event is simply stunning and unparalleled in any other literary document of the world.

These times (4^th millennium, in my reckoning as demonstrated in this monograph) are a continuum of the tradition which dates back in time, to the R̥gveda. A text that also refers to earlier, pūrve yajñikā

The start date of the Mahābhārata war has been correctly reckoned by Narahari Achar as November 22, 3067.

The skymap on the 14^th day of the war is clear, unambiguous and emphatic validating the date reckoned by Narahari Achar and earlier by Srinivasa Raghavan consistent with the dates recorded in the Epic.

Jan. 17, 3066 BCE is the date of nirvāṇaof Bhīṣma. This date together with the dates of the war can be reconciled with the date of ascension to the throne of Parīkṣit (son of Abhimanyu and Uttara) at Hastināpura and dates suggested by Kota Venkatachalam in Kaliyuga Rājavr̥ttāntam to arrive at 1. the Mauryan era of the historical periods from ca. 6^th cent. BCE 2. the date on which Porus (Puruṣottama) presents the world-renowned Bhāratīya ukku(steel) sword to Alexander on the banks of Jhelum river in 4^thcentury BCE and 3. the date, ca. 6^th century BCE, on which the bilingual Sohgaura copper plate śāsana.was recorded both in Indus Script hypertext (top line) and in Brāhmī script describing the koṭhāgāra ‘storehoues’ were made available to itinerant metalworker merchants. This is also an attestation of the continuation of Indus Script hypertext tradition into the historical periods, together with tens of thousands of punch-marked and cast coins that have been evaluated by numismatists covering an extensive area from scores of copper-hoard culture sites. All these coins including the Vr̥ṣṇi bilingual coins with Indus Script hypertexts and Kharoṣṭhī script are evidences for the continuation of Indus Script hypertext tradition, since all symbols used on these coins are hypertexts and hieroglyphs of the Indus Script. Bhagavadgīta text refers to Sri Kr̥ṣṇa as belonging to the Vr̥ṣṇi kula.

See: http://vedicilluminations.com/downloads/History/Niraj%20Mohanka%20-%20Royal%20Chronology%20and%20History%20of%20India%20(Westernized).pdf

 

Vr̥ṣṇi bilingual coin (Obverse and Reverse)

In terms of chronology, the times of the R̥gveda (ca. 7^th millennium BCE.) – the ākhyāna of Daśarājña War (The Battle of Tin Kings) -- antedate Mahābhārataevents by about two millennia. See: http://www.sanskritimagazine.com/indian-religions/hinduism/dasarajna-battle-ten-kings-rig-veda/ 

The level of accuracy achieved by astronomical observations recorded in the text cannot be equalled by the presently available techniques for dating archaeologically discovered artifacts through digs. The archaeological Carbon-14, electro-luminiscence etc.techniques for dating are only crude approximations with an error of + / _ 150 to 200 years.

Chronology of cultural-textual markers of the Hindu civilization and Ancient Tin Maritime Route which predated Silk Road by 2 millennia

Bhāratīya Arthaśāstra Itihāsa from ca. 7^th millennium BCE can now be narrated in a hazy outline

With over 2000 archaeological sites (i.e. over 80% of the 2600 sites of the civilization) explored, identified and defined precisely with latitudes and longitudes in the Gazetteer of Sites (pace Gregory Possehl), the roots of the civilization are grounded on the banks of Vedic River Sarasvatī. The river -- together with Rivers Sindhu, Ganga, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Irrawaddy, Salween -- was a navigable waterway for seafaring merchants and artisans. This attests an Ancient Maritime Tin Route which linked through the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the waterways of Bharatam and Ancient Near East (Tigris-Euphrates doab, Mediterranean sea), Ancient Far East with the Levant in Ancient Near East.

Matching this epicentre of the civilization on Sarasvatī civilization, over 8000 Indus Script hypertext inscriptions have been discovered in Eurasia; these inscriptions are documents, accounting ledgers of wealth-production through metalwork; these evidences attest discoveries of metal alloys, varieties of metallurgical techniques of production and organization through śreṇi-s (guilds) to transact seafaring mercantile transactions. An underlying economic framework which explains the 32% contribution of Hindu civilization to World GDP in 1 CE (pace Angus Maddison). R̥gveda ca. 7^thmillennium BCE (Bhirrana settlement close to Kalibangan on the banks of River Sarasvatī has evidenced continuous settlements from 7^th millennium BCE to the historical periods) Circular houses of Bhirrana are attested by the reconstruction of circular Vedic houses based on textual evidences.

Archaeological sites linked by Vedic River Sarasvati.

Circular Vedic house ( reconstruction based in Louis Renou’s interpretation of texts).

Circular silos to store grains found at Bhirrana. Source: Archaeological Survey of India.

Migration of River Yamuna eastwards (ca. 5^th millennium BCE) (Mahābhārata evidences the Yamuna river in association with the narratives of Sri Kr̥ṣṇa) Evidence of the site of Rakhigarhi as the largest settlement (over 500 hectares) of the civilization on the banks of Proto-Yamuna river system.

Mahābhārata textual evidences and Vedic culture (vajra, Rudra-Śiva) are two sides of the same coin on the birth and evolution of Hindu civilization on the Sarasvatī river basin. Finds of Śivalinga-s in Harappa and Kalibangan are evidences of the emergence of pratimā of Śivalinga with aṣṭāśri yūpa in Rudrabhāga topped by caṣāla metaphors of ekamukha jaṭālinga and Mahadeva as Soma Skanda.

Varāhais deification, embodiment of the knowledge system of Veda. This is attested by a monumental sculpture, pratimā in Khajuraho Varāha, the signifier of Sarasvatī on the caṣāla, ‘snout of the boar’ rebus: caṣāla, ‘godhuma of yajñakuṇḍa to infuse,to carburize the molten metal to make it hard by infusion of carbon from the fumes of wheat-chaff’. The entire body of Varāha is studded with over 720 sculptural friezes of divinities mentioned in R̥igveda.

Thus, the metaphor of Varāha is deification of sacred yajña governed by the inexorable mahākāla, time as a cosmic dimension beyond space as a dimension, and metaphorical representation of Veda Puruṣa, embodied, personified and deified knowledge system which is the Veda which can be realized through multi-layered levels of enquiry: ādibhautika, ādidaivika, ādhyātmikā, turīya levels.

V.2.1.6 gaudhūmam caṣālam bhavati) represents Heaven. This is clear from the rite of ascending to the caṣāla, made of wheat-dough, in the Vajapeya sacrifice. The sarificer ascends to it with the help of a ladder (niśrayaṇī); and, while doing so, calls upon his wife, ‘Wife, come; let us ascend to Heaven’.  As soon as he ascends and touches the caṣāla, he utters,  ‘We have reached Heavven, O gods’ (ib., 12). According to Sāyaṇa on the Taiit.Sam. I.7.9.1, the sacrificer stretches his hands upwards when he reaches the  caṣāla and says, ‘We have reached the gods that stay in heaven’ (udgṛhītābhyām bāhubhyām). Even out of the context of the Vajapeya, when the yūpa is erected (say in the Paśubandha), it is addressed, ‘For the earth you, for the mid-region you, for heaven you (do we hoist you)’ (Taitt. Sam. I.3.6.1-3; cf. śat. Br. III.7.1.5-6). The chiselled portion of the  yūpa is above the earth. So, from the earth to heaven, through the mid-region the yūpa represents the three-regions. The un-chiselled portion of the yūpa is fixed in the pit (avaṭa) and the avaṭa, which represents the subterranean regions, is the region of the ancestors (ib.4).The yūpa, thus, is theaxis mundi…Then, it gave rise to various myths, one of them being that of the stūpa of Varuṇa, developing further into Aśvattha tree, which is nothing but a symbol of a tree standing with roots in the sun conceived as the horse (aśva-stha = aśvattha), a symbol obtaining at varius places in the Hindu tradition. It further developed into the myth of the churning staff of the mountain (Amṛta-manthana); and yet further, into the myth of Vasu Uparicara, whom Indra is said to have given his yaṣṭi (Mb.Adi. 6y3.12-19). This myth of the yaṣṭi was perpetuated in the ritual of the Indra-dhvaja in the secular practice (Brhatsamhita, Chapter XLII), while in the s’rauta practice the original concept of the axis mundi wa

s transformed into the yūpa that reached all regions, including the under-earth. There is another important angle to theyūpa. As the axis mundi it stands erect to the east of the Uttaravedi and indicates the upward move to heaven. This position is unique. If one takes into account the position of the Gārhapatya and the āhavaniya fireplaces, it gets clear that the march is from the earth to heaven; because, the Gārhapatya is associated with this earth and it is the household fire (cf. gṛhā vai gārhapatyah, a very common saying in the ritual texts), and the seat of the sacrificer’s wife is just near it, along with the wives of the gods, conceptually. From this fire a portion is led to the east, in the quarter of the rising sun (which is in tune with such expressions as prāñcam yajñam pra nayatā sahāyah, RV X.101.2); where the Ahavaniya fireplace is structured. As the offerings for the gods are cast in the Ahavaniya, this fire is the very gate of heaven. And, here stands, the yūpa to its east taking a rise heavenwards. This is, by far, the upward rise. But, on the horizontal plane, the yūpa is posted half-inside, half-outside the altar. The reason is, that thereby it controls the sacred region and also the secular, i.e. both heaven and earth, a belief attested by the ritual texts. (Tait. Sam. VI.6.4.1; Mait. Sam. III.9.4).”(Dange, SA, 2002, Gleanings from Vedic to Puranic age, New Delhi, Aryan Books International, pp. 20-24).

Mahābhārata explains the daivika level in the context of daivam a sememe, which is a semantic synonym of‘Fate’, metaphored and symbol signified as Indus Script hypertext: dāya‘roll of one in dice’ rebus: dhāv ‘mineral ore’ dhāvaḍ‘smelter’ who uses the mediun of fire to transmute mere earth and stones into wealth-yielding metal ingots. The cosmic dance tāṇḍava nr̥tyam gets replicated, mirrored in the work on the anvil and forge of a blacksmith working together with the smelters. The sparks from the anvil of the blacksmith are the sparks from the anvil, pīṭham, or paṭṭaḍi of divine cosmic energy, śakti.

 caṣāla, ‘snout of the boar’ of pratimā of Khajuraho Varāha embellished with pratimā of Devi Sarasvatī

Varāha is explained as Indus Script Meluhha (mleccha) hypertext in the vernacular, spoken, idiom, the lingua franca.

baḍhia, বরাহ barāha 'boar' Rebus: baḍhi, bāṛaï 'carpenter, worker in wood and iron', vāḍhī, bari, barea 'merchant' వడ్రంగి, వడ్లంగి, వడ్లవాడు (p. 1126) vaḍraṅgi, vaḍlaṅgi, vaḍlavāḍu or వడ్లబత్తుడు vaḍrangi. [Tel.] n. A carpenter. వడ్రంగము, వడ్లపని, వడ్రము or వడ్లంగితనము vaḍrangamu. n. The trade of a carpenter. వడ్లవానివృత్తి. వడ్రంగిపని. వడ్రంగిపిట్ట or వడ్లంగిపిట్ట vaḍrangi-piṭṭa. n. A woodpecker. దార్వాఘాటము. వడ్లకంకణము vaḍla-kankaṇamu. n. A curlew. ఉల్లంకులలోభేదము. వడ్లత or వడ్లది vaḍlata. n. A woman of the carpenter caste. vardhaki m. ʻ carpenter ʼ MBh. [√vardh]Pa. vaḍḍhaki -- m. ʻ carpenter, building mason ʼ; Pk. vaḍḍhaï -- m. ʻ carpenter ʼ, °aïa -- m. ʻ shoemaker ʼ; WPah. jaun. bāḍhōī ʻ carpenter ʼ, (Joshi) bāḍhi m., N. baṛhaï, baṛahi, A. bārai, B. bāṛaï, °ṛui, Or. baṛhaï, °ṛhāi, (Gaṛjād) bāṛhoi, Bi. baṛahī, Bhoj. H. baṛhaī m., M. vāḍhāyā m., Si. vaḍu -- vā.*vārdhaka -- .Addenda: vardhaki -- : WPah.kṭg. báḍḍhi m. ʻ carpenter ʼ; kṭg. bəṛhe\i, báṛhi, kc. baṛhe ← H. beside genuine báḍḍhi Him.I 135), J. bāḍhi, Garh. baṛhai, A. also bāṛhai AFD 94; Md. vaḍīn, vaḍin pl.†*vardhakikarman -- .11375a †*vardhakikarman -- ʻ carpentry ʼ. [vardhaki -- , kár- man -- ]Md. vaḍām ʻ carpentry ʼ. (CDIAL 11375). 

Promoter: வத்தகம்² vattakam, n. < வர்த்தகம். Traffic, trade, commerce. See வர்த்தகம். (யாழ். அக.). (W.)வர்த்தகம் varttakam 

, n. < vardhaka. That which increases or promotes; விருத்திசெய்வது. இதுஆயுள்வர்த்தகம்.; வர்த்தகன் varttakaṉ

, n. < vardhaka. Promoter; one who helps to increase or promote; விருத்தியாக்குவோன். உத்பந்நையான பக்திக்கு வர்த்தகர் ஆர் (ஈடு, முதல் ்ரீய:பதி, அவ. பக். 94).

வராகன்¹ varākaṉ, n. < Varāha. 1. Viṣṇu, in His boar-incarnation; வராகரூபியானதிருமால். (பிங்.) 2. Pagoda, a gold coin = 3½ rupees, as bearing the image of a boar; மூன்றரைரூபாய்மதிப்புள்ளதும்பன்றிமுத்திரைகொண்டதுமானஒருவகைப்பொன்நாணயம். (அரு. நி.) 

வராகன்புள்ளிக்குளிகை varākaṉ-puḷḷi-k-kuḷikai, n. < id. +. An ancient coin; பழையநாணயவகை. (M. E. R. 1922-23, p. 114.)

The Indus Script hypertext is a metaphor for the cosmic dance tāṇḍava nr̥tyam replicated on the fire-altars of the Tin-Bronze Age by the production of wealth through minerals and metals out of mere earth and stones. tāṇḍava nr̥tyam of Rudra is matched by the dance-step of Gaṇeśa – as iconographic metaphors mirroring Indus Script hypertext tradition. (evidence of Gaṇeśa dance-step in Badami and Candi Sukuh sculptural friezes; evidence of venerated skambha, fiery pillar of light and flame in Amaravati venerated by Naga-s) phaḍa, ‘cobra hood’ is rebus phaḍa ‘metals manufactory’—an abiding hypertext evidenced in the adornment of cobra-hoods on the neck of Rudra-Śiva and on yajñopavītam of Mahāvināyaka of Gardez.

 Mahāvināyaka of Gardez.

Cloth worn onGaṇeśa pratimā, Gardez, Afghanistan. Hieroglyph: படம்¹ paṭam , n. < paṭa. 1. Cloth for wear; சீலை. (பிங்.) மாப்படநூலின்றொகுதிக்காண்டலின் (ஞானா. 14, 21). 2. Painted or printed cloth; சித்திரச்சீலை. (பிங்.) இப்படத்தெழுதுஞானவாவி (காசிக. கலாவ. 2). 3. Coat, jacket; சட்டை. படம்புக்கு (பெரும்பாண். 69). 4. Upper garment, cloak; போர்வை. வனப்பகட்டைப்படமாகவுரித்தாய் (தேவா. 32, 7). 5. Body; உடல். படங்கொடுநின்றவிப்பல்லுயிர் (திருமந். 2768).

Hieroglyph: படம் paṭam, n. < pada. Instep; பாதத்தின்முற்பகுதி. படங்குந்திநிற்றல் (சூடா. 9, 53).

फडा phaḍā f (फटा S) The hood of Coluber Nága Rebus: phaḍa फड ‘manufactory, company, guild, public office’, keeper of all accounts, registers. Nāga-s signified by the Indus Script ieroglyph-hypertext फड, phaḍa 'cobra hood' were artisans in-charge of manufactories to produce wealth of the nation in paṭṭaḍa ‘smithy’ of the Bronze Age.. 

फडनिविशी or सी (p. 313) phaḍaniviśī or sī & फडनिवीस Commonly फड- निशी& फडनीस. फडनिशी or सी (p. 313) phaḍaniśī or sī f The office or business of फडनीस. फडनीस (p. 313) phaḍanīsa m ( H) A public officer,--the keeper of the registers &c. By him were issued all grants, commissions, and orders; and to him were rendered all accounts from the other departments. He answers to Deputy auditor and accountant. Formerly the head Kárkún of a district-cutcherry who had charge of the accounts &c. was called फडनीस. फडपूस (p. 313) phaḍapūsa f (फड& पुसणें) Public or open inquiry. 

ādibhautikā levels of interpretation of Mahābhāratatextual evidences are provided by a sculptural frieze of Candi Sukuh (pace Bhīmaswarga, the ancient Khmer/Javanese version of Mahābhārata swargārohaṇa parvan: Bhīma is a blacksmith producing a Kris sword from the furnace, Gaṇeśa dance-step is meḍ‘dance-step’ rebus: meḍ ‘iron’, Arjuna is a dhmakara, dhamaka‘bellows-blower’. This replicates the significance of the dominant architectural signifier on monuments of makara‘composite crocodile’ in Indus Script hypertext tradition rebus: dhmakara, dhamaka‘bellows-blower, blacksmith’. The sculptural frieze of Candi Suku re-enacts the Mahābhārata wealth-producing metalwork activities. The Amaravati sculptural frieze also re-enacts the Mahābhārata wealth-producing metalwork activities by the signifier of Śrivatsa Indus Script hypertext atop the flaming pillar: aya‘fish’ rebus: aya‘iron’ ayas‘alloy metal’ PLUS dula ‘pair’ rebus: dul ‘metal casting’ PLUS khambhaṛāʻfinʼ rebus: kammaṭa‘mint,coiner, coinage’; thus aya dul kammaṭa‘alloy metal casting mint’. The metalwork metaphor of the Indus Script hypertext is reinforced by the signifiers of the worshippers shown with cobra-hoods: phaḍa, ‘cobra hood’ rebusphaḍa ‘metals manufactory’ and semantic determinative hieroglyph: pada‘in-step’ rebus phaḍa ‘metals manufactory’.

Indus Script cipher is logo-semantic representation of hypertexts using rebus principle to represent Meluhha image words and substantive meanings related to wealth-creation activities. Thus, the cipher protocol is HTTP, hypertext transfer protocol which is explained by Vātsyāyana as mlecchita vikalpa (Meluhha cipher) in Vidyāsamuddeśa which lists 64 arts including three related to semantics: akṣara muṣṭika kathanam (wrist-finger narrative), desabhāṣā jñānam (knowledge of dialects) and mlecchita vikalpa (cipher-writing).

The significance of the four-hooded serpent over the membrum virile of the charioteer on Daimabad bronze utsava bera is realized as hypertext in Meluhha.  bhar̥kanu 'rise of penis' rebus: bhaṭa 'furnace, smelter' PLUS phaḍa, ‘cobra hood’ rebusphaḍa ‘metals manufactory’ phaṇin 'hood of serpent' rebus: phaṇi 'lead, zinc merchant'. Thus, together, the hypertext reads: Furnace and Metals manufactory merchant of lead, zinc smelter (products). This reading is consistent with the other hieroglyphs on the Daimabad bronze chariot: pōlaḍu 'black drongo' rebus: pōlaḍa 'steel' PLUS dula 'pair' rebus: dul 'metal casting', thus steel metalcasting; pōla 'bos indicus, zebu' rebus: pōla 'magnetite, ferrite ore' PLUS mēṇḍhā A crook or curved end rebus: meḍ 'iron, metal' (Ho.) The utsava bera Daimabad chariot is thus a calling card of detailing the charioteer's professional competences as smelter, ironworker, metalworker. Semantic reinforcement of a synonym: kulyā 'hood of serpent' rebus: kol 'working in iron', kolhe 'smelter'.

The same logo-semantic cipher is applicable to the nāga worshippers/soldiers (bhar̥a), celebrating the fiery, flaming pillar topped by kambhar̥ā 'fish-fin'

 

Discovery of cotton, silk and domestication of agriculture through cultivation of maize, millets, rice from ca 7^th-6^th millennia BCE. Evidence of cire perdue technique used to produce bronze sculptures in Mehergarh, Nahal Mishmar (crown with Indus Script hypertexts) Shahi Tump (lead weights with Indus Script hypertexts of leopard and goat), Mohenjo-daro (bronze statues of dancing-girl’s dance-step and deepalakṣmi).

Bhirrana. Potsherd showing dance-step with the same pose as shown on cire Perdue bronze statue of dancing-girl of Mohenjo-daro.

The ancient world referred to cotton as Sindon, the agricultural product of cotton pods from the black-cotton soils, the Sarasvati river civilization area. A remarkable evidence of the spinning of cotton is seen on an Indus Script hypertext, the Lady Spinner from Susa kept in the Louvre Museum. This frieze is a metallurgical hypertext.

The sculptural frieze is a wealth-accounting ledger of metalwork: khāti‘spinner’ rebus: khāti ‘cartwright’ kola ‘woman’ rebus: kol ‘working in iron’ kolhe ‘smelter’ kolle‘blacksmith’ panja‘feline paw (as legs of stools)’ rebus: panja ‘kiln, furnace’ aya‘fish’ rebus: aya ‘iron’ ayas ‘alloy metal’ khambhaṛāʻfinʼ rebus: kammaṭa‘mint,coiner, coinage’; thus aya kammaṭa‘alloy metal mint’ baṭa ‘six’ rebus: bhaṭa‘furnace’ goṭi ‘pellet, round stone; rebus: goṭi‘silver ingot’ paṭṭa ‘cloth (uttarīyam, shawl), phaḍa‘turban’ rebus: phaḍa‘metals manufactory’. The person holding a fan behind the spinner is a semantic determinative of the substantive message: Visana‘fan’ rebus:bica‘stone iron ore, haematite, ferrite ore’.He wears wristlets: karã̄‘wristlet’ rebus: khār ‘blacksmith’.

This is a narrative of-Bronze revolution (From ca 5^th millennium BCE, Nahal Mishmar evidence, evidence of pure tin ingots found in a Haifa shipwreck, evidence of Karen and Dong Son Bronze drums of Ancient Far East and discovery of the largest cassiterite tin belt of the globe on the river basins of Himalayan rivers Mekong, Irrawaddy and Salween) Discovery of a potsherd in Bhirrana with Indus Script hypertext of a dance-step (comparable to the dance-step of the cire perduecopper-bronze statue discovered in Mohenjo-daro).

Discovery of Binjor yajña kuṇḍa, aṣṭāśri yūpa, and seals with Indus script hypertexts attest the continuum of Vedic culture on the Vedic Sarasvatī River Basin. Discoveries of 19 octagonal Yūpa-s in Iśāpur, Rajasthan sites, Allahabad, Mathura and East Borneo PLUS 19 Yūpa inscriptions as ketu (R̥gveda) proclamations confirm the continuum of Vedic culture of bahusuvarṇakasoma yajna-s from 3^rdmillennium BCE. Binjor seal with Indus Script hypertext is dated to earlier than ca. 2500 BCE since the writing system is attested dated to ca. 3300 BCE in a potsherd discovered in Harappa by Harvard Archaeology (HARP) Project.

Mahābhārata events along river basin of river Sarasvatī (72 mentions of the river in R̥gveda and Balarāma’s pariyātrā visiting tīrthasthana-s on the sacred river, Kr̥ṣṇa and Balarāma are witnesses to the gadāyuddhambetween Bhīma and Duryodhana in Kurukṣetra)

Veda tradition highlights the significance of celestial events impacting or moving in parallel with terrestrial events.

The notations of celestial events such as planetary positions is a Veda cultural tradition, paramparā.

The yajña-s have to be performed in consonance with the cosmic dance of motions of planets and the positions of nakṣatra-s. Yajña itself is a terrestrial replication of a metaphor of the celestial tāṇḍava nr̥tyam, as the yajñikā attempt to climb up the yūpa which is a proclamation, ketu of the yajna performance, to reach the heavens, to attain amr̥tatvam, ‘immortality’; it is a pilgrim’s journey from Being to Becoming. The performance of Yajña has to conform to the rhythm, r̥tam, of celestial events which modulate the timing of the event of a Yajña. At least 19 Yūpa inscriptions of Rajasthan, Mathura and East Borneo are testimony to the yajñaevents. (Satya Prakash, Yūpa pillars of Rajasthan, JRIHR, Vol. IV, No. 2, April-June 1968)

Mahābhārata narratives of events of 4^th millennium BCE begins with a Sarpa yajna – on the banks of River Sarasvatī. The closest event in time of a yajña archaeologically attested has come from Binjor (excavations by students of ASI Institute led by Sanjay Manjul in April 2015).

Location map of Binjor on the banks of Sarasvatī River.

Binjor seal. Binjor yajña kuṇḍa. I suggest that the aṣṭāśri Yūpa found at Binjor is consistent with its description as ketuin R̥gveda and Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa. The event can be dated to earlier than ca. 2500 BCE because of the find of seals with Indus Script hypertexts.

Shapes of Yupa: A. Commemorative stone Yūpa, Isāpur – from Vogel, 1910-11, plate 23; B. drawing based on Vedic texts – from Madeleine Biardeau, 1988, 108, fig. 1; cf. 1989, fig. 2); C. Miniature wooden Yūpa and caṣāla from Vaidika Samsodana Mandala Museum of Vedic sacrificial utensils – from Dharmadhikari 1989, 70) (After Fig. 5 in Alf Hiltebeitel, 1988, The Cult of Draupadi, Vol. 2, Univ. of Chicago Press, p.22). The two pillars from Isāpur have a quadrangular base and aṣṭāśri, 'octagonal' shapes above this base. These Yūpa are identical with the skambha of Veda tradition elabored in Skambha Sūkta of Atharva Veda (AV X.7,8). The skambha are axis mundi to reach the divinities.(Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, V.2,1,9 ff.). J. Ph. Vogel, 'The Yupa inscription of Mulavarman from Koelei (East Borneo)', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde 79, 1918: 213; Mulavarman's Second Yupa Inscription, Vogel, 'Yupa Inscriptions', p. 214; Mulavarman's Third Yupa Inscription; Vogel, 'Yupa Inscriptions', p. 215).

The precision achieved in dating historical events is demonstrated by the following reference from the Epic which describes planetary positions observed in relation to a terrestrial event – the date of the conversation between Kr̥ṣṇa and Karṇa—two eminent astronomers.

An extraordinary concept of time governs people in Bhāratīya Itihāsa. The concept of time is unique in the annals of history of civilizations. Time is called kāla. kāla is sacred. kāla is deified as mahākāla, the Supreme Divinity of Time. Time is defined with such precision by delineating planetary positions as snapshots of skymaps that the accuracy achieved is unparalleled in the annals of world literature.

Albert Einstein’s equation may provide a comparator to this profound concept of cosmic energy. E = mc2 (Energy = mass X squared speed of light.) In this equation c is shown as a constant to signify the speed of light. (This speed of light is synonymous with the concept of time as a cosmic, celestial motion, Light or Time may curve in space like a wave.) Just as celestial or terrestrial phenomena of pañcabhūta (mass) are deified, time is also deified as mahākāla, the Supreme Divinity of Time. The astronomical insights and inquiries by ancient Bhāratīya are so profound that in Yajurveda, the speed of light is specifically computed and recorded. This is a testimony to the concept and importance of Time as a cosmic dimension – in addition to ākāśa‘space’and pañcabhūta‘mass’ -- in Bhāratīya Itihāsa. In relation to affairs of people in their day-to-day lives, kāla is explained as inexorable Fate, a cosmic phenomenon, a cosmic order that controls mice and men, all physical, natural phenomena.

The word for Fate or destiny is daivam. Hence, the deification of phenomena which regulate the cosmic order in the narratives of Bhāratīya paramparā, Bhāratīya Itihāsa.

Inexorable Fate is like the roll of dice signifying ‘one’:. दाय 1474 dāya n. game, play Pancad.; mfn. ( Pa1n2. 3-1 , 139 ; 141) giving , presenting (cf. शत- , गो-); m. handing over , delivery Mn. viii , 165 (Monier-Williams). It is like dhāˊtu n. ʻ substance ʼ RV., m. ʻ element ʼ MBh., ʻ metal, mineral, ore (esp. of a red colour) ʼ Mn., ʻ ashes of the dead ʼ lex., ʻ *strand of rope ʼ (cf. tridhāˊtu -- ʻ threefold ʼ RV., ayugdhātu -- ʻ having an uneven number of strands ʼ KātyŚr.). [√dhā]Pa. dhātu -- m. ʻ element, ashes of the dead, relic ʼ; KharI. dhatu ʻ relic ʼ; Pk. dhāu -- m. ʻ metal, red chalk ʼ; N. dhāu ʻ ore (esp. of copper) ʼ; Or. ḍhāu ʻ red chalk, red ochre ʼ (whence ḍhāuā ʻ reddish ʼ; M. dhāū, dhāv m.f. ʻ a partic. soft red stone ʼ (whence dhā̆vaḍ m. ʻ a caste of iron -- smelters ʼ, dhāvḍī ʻ composed of or relating to iron ʼ); -- Si. dā ʻ relic ʼ; -- S. dhāī f. ʻ wisp of fibres added from time to time to a rope that is being twisted ʼ, L. dhāī˜ f.(CDIAL 6773)  

It is exemplified by a dhā̆vaḍ  ‘smelter’ who produces wealth by fire-work on mere earth, sand and stones called minerals.

I submit that it is the duty of historians to date the events narrated in Mahābhārata which is a principal source document of Bhāratīya Itihāsa and the Story of Civilization.

If there are disagreements among historians, there should be sustained debates to find a rationally argued consensus, to state the truth, the reality at ādibhautika, ādidaivika, ādhyāmikā and turīya levels of enquiry, so diligently presented, and narrated with fidelity, in the epic.

As a documented knowledge system, par excellence, the epic is an epitome attesting to the integral nature of links between consciousness at the level of ātmāwith the cosmic order ordained by paramātmā. This gets deified as a feminine form of śakti,‘energy’ and Rāṣṭrī Vāgdevi. Another level of manifestation of śakti,‘energy’ is asuratva, ‘power’ deified as Asura, --Agni, Rudra, Varuṇa are asura-s; even River Sarasvatī is āsuriī Sarasvatī, ‘sheer power for the cosmic order of dharma, the carrier of wealth’—aham Rāṣṭrī samgamanī vasūnām… she claims in a soliloquy sūkta (RV 10.125). It is remarkable that this sūkta is addressed to the divinity ātmā. The epic is a narrative detailing the puruṣārtha, the goals of life which includes the acquisition of wealth studied as Arthaśāstra, ‘wealth science’.

The concept of time makes it necessary for Kr̥ṣṇa Dwaipāyana Vyāsa as a witness, as an observer of terrestrial events to record descriptions of the celestial skymaps, which constitute the time-reckoner, the calendar available to him to date the events. A scribe who records the narration of Kr̥ṣṇa Dwaipāyana Vyāsa is Tridhātu Gaṇeśa attesting to the sacredness of the text being written down.

It will be a copout on the part of historians to avoid dealing with astronomical observations of the text and say that the text should be evaluated not in terms of ‘historicity’ or ‘historicism’ but in terms of the ādhyāmikā message of protection of dharma. The narrative as rendered in the text should be evaluated both in terms of the narrated events (hence, dateable) and the purport of the significance attached to the terrestrial events to which the astronomical references unambiguously relate. Astronomical observations provide the most precise dates for historical events narrated in the Epic. No Carbon-14 dating or electro-luminiscence dating can match with the level of accuracy achieved by the skymaps which are reconstructions of the observed by the narrator of the Epic and the scribe of the Epic, Sri Gaṇeśa. Pratimā of Gaṇeśa in Bhāratīya tradition of composite orthography of sangaḍa,‘joined animal parts’ (see composite animal on Indus Script seals) rebus: jangaḍ, ‘invoiced on approval basis’,jāngāḍ ‘entrustment note’, samgraha, samgaha'arranger, manager'.sangara ‘fortification, proclamation, trade’is also an Indus Script hypertext: karibha,ibha ‘elephant’ rebus: karba, ib ‘iron’ ibbo‘merchant’.rebus: sankaṭa-hara‘overcomer of obstacles’ sanghāta, ‘vajra sanghāta’‘adamantine metallic glue’. The combined Pratimā of Gaṇeśa is composed of elephant trunk as head PLUS human body: meḍ ‘body’ rebus: meḍ ‘iron’. His dance-step is a semantic determinative: meḍ ‘dance step’rebus: meḍ’iron’.

Mahābhārata astronomical references do not specify the weekday, but specify tithi (phase of the moon) and nakṣatra (star). The almanac or pañcānga-related information specified in the text identify precisely the date, month and (in many instances) year of a historical event of importance.

There is no other document in the history of world literature which can match upto the Mahābhārata in terms of precision achieved in accurate dating of events.

Read on...

https://tinyurl.com/y8sqqg7o

Annual migration of Siberian cranes to Sarasvatī River? -- Jayasree Saranathan

November 11, 2017, 6:07 pm

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Attached is a brilliant blogpost of Jayasree Saranathan. The insights provided by Jayasree are an affirmation of the reality of River Sarasvatī from the days of the R̥gveda and evidence provided in the Mahābhārata as the most accurately dated historical text. Sri Balarama's pariyātrā along the southern bank of River Sarasvatī is described in great detail as he visits many tīrthasthāna-s in the river basin.

The crane is a dominant hieroglyph in the Tin-Bronze Age as evidenced by its depiction on the tympanums of Karen and Dong Son Bronze Drums of Ancient Far East. I have suggested that this hieroglyph is read rebus to signify metalwork technologies: 

kanku 'crane, egret, heron' rebus: kangar 'portable furnace'

Hieroglyph: कंकर [ kaṅkara ](Commonly कांकर) A brace of a drum. (Marathi)
Hieroglyph: kaṅká m. ʻ heron ʼ VS kaṅká m. ʻ heron ʼ VS. [← Drav. T. Burrow TPS 1945, 87; onomat. Mayrhofer EWA i 137. Drav. influence certain in o of M. and Si.: Tam. Kan. Mal. kokku ʻ crane ʼ, Tu. korṅgu, Tel. koṅga, Kuvi koṅgi, Kui kohko] Pa. kaṅka -- m. ʻ heron ʼ, Pk. kaṁka -- m., S. kaṅgu m. ʻ crane, heron ʼ (→ Bal. kang); B. kã̄k ʻ heron ʼ, Or. kāṅka; G. kã̄kṛũ n. ʻ a partic. ravenous bird ʼ; -- with o from Drav.: M. kõkā m. ʻ heron ʼ; Si. kokā, pl. kokku ʻ various kinds of crane or heron ʼ, kekī ʻ female crane ʼ, kēki ʻ a species of crane, the paddy bird ʼ (ē?).(CDIAL 2595) Ta. kokku common crane, Grus cinerea; stork, paddy bird; kuruku heron, stork, crane, bird, gallinaceous fowl, aṉṟil bird. Ma. kokku, kokkan, kocca, kuriyan paddy bird, heron; kuruheron. To. košk heron. Ka. kokku, kokkare crane; kukku heron, crane. Tu. korṅgu crane, stork. Te. koṅga, kokkera, kokkarāyi crane; pegguru, begguru (< peru-kuru) adjutant crane. Kol.(Kin.) koŋga crane. Pa. kokkal (pl. kokkacil) id. Ga. (S) kokkāle (pl. kokkāsil) heron; (S.2) koŋalin (pl. koŋasil), (S.3) kokalin crane. Go. (L.) koruku id. (Voc. 921); (Mu.) kokoḍal heron, duck (Voc. 870); (Ma. Ko.) koŋga crane (Voc. 874). Kui kohko paddy bird. Kuwi (S.) kongi, (Ṭ.) kokoṛa crane. Br. xāxūr demoiselle crane. / Cf. Skt. kaṅka- heron; Turner, CDIAL, no. 2595. (DEDR 2125)

Rebus: kāgni m. ʻ a small fire ʼ Vop. [ka -- 3 or kā -- , agní -- ]K. kang m. ʻ brazier, fireplace ʼ?(CDIAL 2999) *kāṅgārikā ʻ poor or small brazier ʼ. [Cf. kāgni -- m. ʻ a small fire ʼ Vop.: ka -- 3 or kā -- , aṅgāri -- ]K. kã̄gürü, kã̄gar f. ʻ portable brazier ʼ whence kangar m. ʻ large do. ʼ (or < *kāṅgāra -- ?); H. kã̄grī f. ʻ small portable brazier ʼ.(CDIAL 3006)

Tympanum of Dong Son Bronze drum made using cire perdue technique of metal casting.

The palaeo-channels of River Sarasvatī have been reconstructed by Indian Space Research Organisation scientists using satellite imagery validated for ground-truth by digging of 25 borewells along the channels indicated by Central Ground Water Board of Min. of Water Resources. The borewells yielded evidence of abundant waters in aquifers within a depth of only 100 to 200 feet along the river basin.

Location of Bharatpur bird sanctuary mentioned by Jayasree Saranathan.

Kalyanaraman

Sarasvati Research Centre

Monday, November 6, 2017

Annual migration of Siberian cranes to Sarasvatī River?

 Siberian cranes were known to have frequented India during winter months. TheBharatput bird sanctuary in Rajasthan was a favourite spot of these birds until recently. The last time they were sited was in the year 2002. Since then none of them could be seen coming to this place due to reasons hypothesised here.

Siberian crane (Wikipedia)

One can say that a migration that was happening for thousands of years had come to a halt very recently. The proof of this migration from time immemorial is found attested in Mahabharata!

In Chapter 3-82 (3-80 in Sanskrit version in http://www.sacred-texts.com ) of Mahabharata, sage Pulastya describes the route of Tirthayatra (pilgrimage to sacred waters) as was popular during his times and before. Most places are on the banks of river Sarasvatī. One such place was Shashayāna (शशयान) where cranes “disappearing in the form of sasas (शशरूप), re-appear every year in the month of Karttika, and bathe ...in the Sarsawati.” (3-80.120-122).

The verses are reproduced here:

120. śaśayānaṃ ca rājendra tīrtham āsādya durlabham
    śaśarūpapratichannāḥ puṣkarā yatra bhārata
121.  sarasvatyāṃ mahārāja anu saṃvatsaraṃ hi te
    snāyante bharataśreṣṭha vṛttāṃ vai kārtikīṃ sadā
122. tatra snātvā naravyāghra dyotate śaśivat sadā
    gosahasrapalaṃ caiva prāpnuyād bharatarṣabha

(Translation:

One should proceed, next, to the inaccessible tirtha of Shasayana, where the cranes, O Bharata, disappearing in the form of sasas, re-appear every year in the month of Karttika, and bathe, O blessed chief of the Bharata race, in the Sarsawati. Bathing there, O tiger among men, one blazeth forth like the Moon, and obtaineth, O bull of the Bharata race, the merit of the gift of a thousand kine.)

The specific mention of annual return of the cranes to this place in the beginning of winter could only refer to birds from higher latitudes of cold regions. Siberian cranes have been observed to have made their annual return to this part of India. In Mahabharata verse, the name of the place, Shashayāna refers to a resting place. Cranes are associated with lakes, such that the Sanskrit word for crane ‘sarasa’ is derived from Saras, meaning, lake or pond. The migratory cranes were the special feature of this place that our ancient people had aptly named it as Shashayāna.

Migratory routes of Siberian crane. Pic courtesy: Wikipedia

Somehow that name has been lost now. But the present name is not suppressing the ancient connections, as Bharata was a common name for all Kuru kings. In the quoted verses above, Bhishma was addressed as Bharata only, to whom Pulastya was explaining the sacred waters. This place is very close to Mathura of Krishna clan (Yadavas) and must have been a favourite resting and sporting spot for long since or before Mahabharata times.

A view of Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur.

Surprising features

A surprise element in the Mahabharata-narration is that there is no deity associated with this place that was regarded as a sacred tirtha. One has to just go there and take a bath in the waters. That is enough to derive benefits equivalent to that of gifting thousand kine. One cannot call this as nature worship for there is no reference to that. All that is described is the serene and pure environs that are agreeable for birds present there and coming from afar to spend time leisurely here.

One will find similar description in Varahamihira’s Brihad Samhita (Ch 56) for the choice of place for building temples. The places where there are waters and gardens and which are liked by birds and water animals and filled with blossoming trees and plants are ideal for building temples. Devas are fixated in such places naturally. Shashayaanaseems to be one such place that must have been kept as a nature reserve without disturbing the flora and fauna. That makes it a sacred place where people can take a dip in the waters while enjoying the natural environment.

The other surprise element is that this sacred water was part of River Sarasvatī.

Today these two features (absence of a temple and the location on River Sarasvatī) with Bharatpur, are absent.

A Shiva temple is found here, and the name of the National Park is named after this temple (Keoladeo). It is possible to assume that the temple had come up after Mahabharata times. Anyway this place was next only a series of temples dedicated to Shiva in the narration of Mahabharata. But they were all located on the banks of Sarasvatī or at places where Sarasvatī had become ponds and lakes. One can reach (according to Mahabharata) here after Shivobheda and Nagobheda. From here the next stop is at Kumārakoti and then Rudrakoti. After that the next and last stop is at the confluence of Sarasvatī with the sea.

This description puts Shashayāna somewhat nearer to present-day Gujarat, but the location of Bharatpur is way up in the map.

In the above map, the route of Tirtha yatra narrated by sage Pulastya is roughly given. Only a few places are given here to show the region covered in this pilgrim-route.

The pilgrimage starts at Pushkar (marked as No 1 in the map).

From there the next major stop is at River Narmada (No 2).

From there one goes to Dvārakā (No 3)

and then Varuna Tirtha, at the confluence of River Sindhu with the sea (No 4).

From there one goes northward covering many Tirthas and reaches River Vitasta, presently known as Jhelum (No 5) in the country of Kasmiras.

From there one goes to a place called Devika, praised well by sage Pulastya.

The places of sacred waters after this are associated with River Sarasvatī.

In the map, the route from No 5 to No 7 is on the banks of Sarasvatī or where she has shrunk as a lake.  

The description in Mahabharata that is plotted in this way shows the location and probable origins of Sarasvatī within NW India and not stretched to NE India where it is believed to have originated according to some researchers.

Reserving those issues for a future article, let me point out here the issues in accepting Bharatpur as Shashayaana.

(1) In the narration of sage Pulastya, one crosses Vināsana where Sarasvatī had entered the ground in ‘Maru’ (desert) and therefore becomes invisible. However one is advised to take bath in the sacred waters there, thus indicating that there did exist residual waters of Sarasvatī in that place as a small pond.

After Vināsana, Sarasvatī reappears in Chamasabheda, Shivobheda and Nagobheda. After crossing these places only, one comes to Shashayāna. If we assume Bharatpur to be Shashayāna, then Vināsana occurs north or northwest to that. But in a description found in another part of Mahabharata, one comes across Vināsana upstream after crossing Dvārakā, Chamasabheda etc., which can be located in Gujarat – Punjab border. Bharatpur looks much higher in latitude.

A possible explanation to solve this discrepancy is to assume that where Sarasvatī was invisible there the name Vināsana was given. Presently scholars locate Vināsana in lower latitudes. But looking at the map there is scope to think that a Vināsana existed north of Bharatpur for a short stretch.

(2) The next issue is the route of Sarasvatī passing through Bharatpur. It is here research is needed to locate palaeo-channels of Sarasvatī in Bharatpur. From Wikipedia sources, it is known that Bharatpur was a natural depression, aiding in the formation of a lake. Two rivers Gambhir and Banganga are meeting very nearby. Very close to this place, Mathura is situated and this means River Yamana is close by.

In the route along River Sarasvatī to find its source, Balarama reaches Yamuna (MB 9-47). There is scientific proof that Yamuna was draining into Sarasvatī for many thousands of years before it changed course to join River Ganges. From the description in Mahabharata (9-47) it is known that Yamuna was joining Sarasvatī at that time and any travel in Sarasvatī had taken one to Yamuna and to its source at Yamunotri.

This link between the two rivers was there during Mahabharata times. This linkage also reveals why the legend of the confluence of Yamuna and Sarasvatī with Ganges in Allahabad (Triveni sangamam) is true. At the confluence one actually sees Yamuna joining Ganges. The legend is that Sarasvatī is flowing underneath that region. Till that point, the waters of Sarasvatī from the confluence of Sarasvatī and Yamuna, is supposed to travel along with Yamuna’s waters. At Sangaman all waters get mixed up. Sarasvatī is never seen (differentiated) after the place where Yamuna joins her.

Bharatpur lying close to Yamuna, raises scope to believe that Bharatpur was indeedShashayāna, once watered by Sarasvatī! That place having acquired a nameShashayāna, is indicative of migration of Siberian cranes for many millennia before that, as Sarasvatī was a massive river since the beginning of Holocene. By having left that place as a nature-reserve for the birds while at the same time treating that as a sacred waters, our ancestors have proved themselves as exemplary beings that we can be proud of and from whom we need to learn a lot. I am left without words at the ingenuity exhibited by them and the care they had for all beings around – both living and non-living. Thinking of this I realise the meaning of the Swasti vachan better than ever.

"swasthir maanushEbhyah :

Oordhwam jigaathu bheshajam/

Sham no asthu dwi-padhE:

Sham Chathush padhE

OM Shanthi Shanthi Shanthi:"

Translation:-

Let there be goodness to human beings.

Let the plants which are like medicine to us grow up well.

Let the bipeds and quadrupeds be well.

Let there be our goodwill to them.

Let there be peace at all three levels of

Bhu (physical),

Bhuvah (vital)

and swah(mental levels of) all these beings

A last word:

Bharatpur must be included in the map of geologists working on tracing lost Sarasvatī!

http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.in/2017/11/annual-migration-of-siberian-cranes-to.html

Hindu Americans Win Historic Victory in California Textbooks

November 11, 2017, 7:38 pm

≫ Next: River Sarasvati as eulogised in Rigveda -- Rekha Rao. Anāhitā -- Subhash Kak

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Hindu Americans Win Historic Victory in California Textbooks

A JOINT STATEMENT FROM THE HINDU AMERICAN COMMUNITY

https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/california-board-urged-to-adopt-textbooks-that-present-hinduism-accurately/304112

CC Yin of APAPA with children seeking fairness in textbooks

http://www.hindueducation.org/hindu-americans-win-historic-victory-in-california-textbooks/

Sacramento, CA (November 10, 2017) — After more than a decade of constructive civic engagement with the California Department of Education, the Hindu American community won a significant victory yesterday in its quest for an accurate, equitable, and culturally competent portrayal of Hinduism and India in California textbooks.

In its final public hearing, the Department’s State Board of Education (SBE) voted unanimously to approve positive edits submitted by Hindu American community groups to improve the portrayal of Hinduism and India in 10 textbooks. The board also voted to reject two deeply problematic textbook programs from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Grades K-6 and Grades 6-8) for adversely reflecting on Hinduism and other diverse communities.

"This is truly historic. After many years of civic engagement, Hindu-Americans have started to make themselves heard," said Shantharam Nekkar of Hindu Education Foundation USA, an organization dedicated to enriching the understanding of Indian civilization and Hinduism in America. “We will continue to engage constructively and fight biases and prejudices against Hinduism and India.”

The SBE’s decision came after hearing testimonies and receiving letters from thousands of Hindu American parents, children, educators and community members from across California, including immigrant Hindus from Fiji, Caribbean and India, as well as letters from a broad coalition of more than 75 interfaith and community groups, 17 state and federal elected officials, and 38 leading academics.

Throughout the day, several public officials across the country also sent social media messages of support, applauding the community’s efforts in ensuring that Hinduism is presented accurately in California textbooks.

The Board rebuffed last minute attempts to disrupt the process by a group calling itself South Asian Histories for All, which made vitriolic, bigoted, and Hinduphobic statements about Hinduism in public testimony and on social media, and threatened to sue the SBE.

“Despite the false claims of SAHFA, our broad interfaith coalition that represents individuals from all communities including Dalits, never tried to erase any community, caste, or religion’s history, and believe that all groups should be represented fairly in textbooks,” said Samir Kalra, Esq., Senior Director at the Hindu American Foundation, a nonprofit advocacy group for the Hindu American community. “In fact, we asked that the contributions of Hindus of all backgrounds, including the spiritual traditions of Dalit Hindus, be acknowledged in textbooks. Most of the changes that SAHFA submitted were hateful and violate California law and the textbook framework.”

The Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA), a leading coalition partner, released the following statement:

“We are grateful for the testimonies from NAACP representatives and the Hispanic Chamber, along with strong letters of support from over 17 public officials. Together, we rallied over 1000 people to rally in this amazing showing of civic engagement and empowerment. Our voices were heard!”

CC Yin, Founder and Chairman of APAPA, added, “When we work together, we will win.”
https://www.hafsite.org/hindu-americans-win-historic-victory-california-textbooks?utm_content=buffer17e92&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

River Sarasvati as eulogised in Rigveda -- Rekha Rao. Anāhitā -- Subhash Kak

November 12, 2017, 5:27 am

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Subhash Kak‏ @subhashkak123h23 hours ago

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With reference to the Harappan tablet showing a goddess with two tigers (pre- 2500 BCE), let us go to Goddess Anāhitā. Ārdravī Śūrā Anāhitā (ārdrā = moist, waters; śūrā = heroic; an+āhitā, “not fixed” = “fluid and inexhaustible” = “providing inexhaustible blessings”). 1/3

Anāhitā is venerated as the “goddess of the waters” and scholars see her as the Iranian name for Sarasvatī and Durgā, quite like Mahāsarasvatī. She is portrayed as a virgin in a golden cloak, and sometimes she carries a water pitcher. 2/3

Like Sarasvati and later Ganga, she represents the cosmos (the Milky Way) and the kings receive their investiture from her. अहं राष्ट्री संगमनी वसूनां चिकितुषी परथमायज्ञियानाम | तां मा देवा वयदधुः पुरुत्राभूरिस्थात्रां भूर्यावेशयन्तीम || RV 10.125

3/3

http://indiafacts.org/river-sarasvati-rig-veda/