https://tinyurl.com/y9h9zkdt

For me, involved in the study of 8000 Indus Script Inscriptions, the significance of the stunning report is that the decipherment has proceeded on DNA validated lines, using lexemes from ancient Bharatiya languages treating the speech area as Meluhha, Indian sprachbund (speech union), not far from the Straits of Malaka (also spelled Macalla, cognate Meluhha, Mleccha)..

Harappan site of Rakhigarhi: DNA study finds no Central Asian trace, junks Aryan invasion theory

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/harappan-site-of-rakhigarhi-dna-study-finds-no-central-asian-trace-junks-aryan-invasion-theory/articleshow/64565413.cms

Baghpat anthropomorph with horned pipal leaf, dagger, Indus Script hypertexts lohār, kammaṭīḍu 'ironsmith, goldsmith', kamāṭhiyo 'soldier, śreṣṭhin श्रेष्ठिन् 'foreman of kammaṭa 'mint' guild'https://tinyurl.com/yd4c9634

Sign 176 wich has the shape of a comb is frequently on used Indus Script Corpora to signify:
khareḍo'a currycomb' (Gujarati) Rebus: kharādī‘turner’ (Gujarati);karaḍā 'hard alloy';खरडा kharaḍā'daybook' (wealth accounting ledger of metalwork processes).

The dotted circles on one comb are comparable to similar dotted circles which appear on a comb discovered at Tell Abraq (ca 2200 BCE). Dotted circle is an Indus Script hypertext which reads rebus: dāya 'one in dice', dhāū'strand' rebus dhāˊtu 'ore of red colour' PLUS vrtta, vaṭṭa 'circle'; thus, together rebus expression: धावड dhāvaḍa, 'iron smelter'; dhāvḍī ʻcomposed of or relating to ironʼ (Marathi).

In a remarkable semantic determinative, a zebu (bos indicus) bull is ligatured to the second comb. The rebus readings of zebu are:  पोळ [pōḷa] zebu; a bull dedicated to the gods, marked with a trident and discus, and set at large rebus:पोळ [pōḷa]'magnetite, ferrite ore'. Thus, the comb with a zebu ligatured on the edge of the comb signifies पोळ [pōḷa]'magnetite, ferrite ore'. khareḍo'a currycomb' rebus: 1. [karaḍā] Hard from alloy--iron, silver &c. (Marathi); 2.
kharādī‘turner’ (Gujarati); 3.खरडा kharaḍā also खरडें n A scrawl; a memorandum-scrap; also खरडें n A rude sketch; a rough draught; a foul copy; a waste-book; a day-book; a note-book (Marathi). Vikalpa (alternative reading) kanasi 'comb'; rebus: kã̄sī'gong';
कांसें kāṃsēṃ n (कांस्य S) Bell metal: also queen's metal, or any amalgam of zinc and copper; कासार or कांसार kāsāra or kāṃsāra m (कांस्यकार S) A caste or an individual of it. They are braziers or workers in white or bell metal. 2 (By mispronunciation of or mistake for कांचार) A maker of or stringer of glass bangles (Marathi).

Thus, the comb with Indus Script hypertext/hieroglyphs signifies a daybook of wealth accounting ledger related to iron-/metal-work, work ofकांसारa brazier in particular.

This comb discovered in Tell Abraq (ca. 2200 BCE) has two Harappa Script hieroglyphs: 1. dotted circles; and 2. tabernae montana 'mountain tulip' Rebus readings: 1.Hieroglyph: dotted circles: dāntā 'ivory' dāya 'one in dice', dhāū'strand' rebus dhāˊtu 'ore of red colour' PLUS vrtta, vaṭṭa 'circle' rebus: धावड dhāvaḍa, 'iron smelter' 2. Hieroglyph: tagaraka 'tabernae montana, mountain tulip' rebus: tagara 'tin'. Thus, two mineral ores are signified by the two hieroglyphs: ferrite, copper ores and tin ore (cassiterite). See:

Dotted circles, tulips and tin-bronze revolution of 4th millennium BCE documented in Harappa Script http://tinyurl.com/z3x7zev

 

Beside the dead man was buried his sword | Sanjay Ahlawat

 

 

 

AHURA "MAZDĀ"'LORD WISDOM'?

• Pawel Prokop
• Ireneusz Suliga
• Abstract

  Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from iron slag revealed evidence of continuous iron smelting in the Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, NE India spanning the last two millennia. The slag layer, which is dated to 2040 ± 80 years BP (353 BC–AD 128), is the earliest iron smelting site studied in the entire region of NE India. The presence of wüstite, fayalite, glass and metal iron, together with spinels such as hercynite in the slag, indicates that it was an acid product of a bloomery iron-making process. The relative isolation of the Khasi people, who inhabited a highly elevated plateau, is evidence of the indigenous origin of this manufacturing technology, although diffusion of knowledge through cultural and technical contacts or population migration cannot be excluded.

   

  Location of the Khasi Hills in Meghalaya. Distribution of sampling sites (white squares) and other sites of iron smelting (white dots) is indicated on the basis of reports from the 19th century
• 
  

  RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

  CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 104, NO. 6, 25 MARCH 2013

  
  

  Two thousand years of iron smelting in

  the Khasi Hills, Megh

  alaya, North East

  India

  Pawel Prokop1,

  * and Ireneusz Suliga2

  1

  Department of Geoenvironmental Research,

  Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization,

  Polish Academy of Sciences, Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland

  2

  Faculty of Metals Engineering and

  Computer Science for Industry,

  AGH University of Science and Technology, al. A. Mickiewicza 30,

  30-059 Kraków, Poland 

  
  

  THE discussion on the early development of iron metal-lurgy in India has been shaped by two primary concepts.The first assumed a diffusive spread of iron smelting technology related to the migration of the Aryans, an Indo-European speaking people, who entered the Indian subcontinent from the northwest 1–3. The second concept postulates that there was an independent origin and development of iron-ore mining, extraction and manufac- turing technology, founded on the raw materials that were

  contemporaneously available in India 4–7

  .

  However, in both cases, North East (NE) India was not taken into consideration. The reason for this was the difficulties involved in archaeological exploration of areas of hilly terrain with frequent

  heavy rain and dense vegeta-tion cover, as well as evidence of the strong material, linguistic and genetic connection of the region with cultures of East Asia and Southeast Asia, at least from the Neolithic period 8–10

  
  

  These are clearly visible in the case of the central part of Meghalaya, which is inhabited by the Khasi, an Austro-Asiatic speaking people, representing the remnants of an ancient migration from Southeast Asia11,12

  .

  No demonstrable archaeological evidence of the Iron Age in Meghalaya has yet been found, although the first British naturalists who visited Meghalaya in the early19th century described the iron industry that had developed in the upper part of the Khasi Hills13–17. 

  
  

  The remnants of former iron-ore excavation and iron manu-facturing, visible today in the landscape of the Khasi Hills, indicate that it could be the result of prolonged occupation by the Meghalaya inhabitants. Metallurgical tradition was also accompanied by the erecting of megalithic memorial monuments, bearing similarities to other megalithic sites in India frequently associated with the Copper–Bronze or Iron Age

  18,19

  .

  The aim of this communication is to estimate the temporal extent of iron smelting in the Khasi Hills and to present an analysis of the technological process of iron production development during that time. This study inte-grates field observations with laboratory analysis of sam-ples from the raw materials and products, supplemented by reconstructions based on historical reports of iron smelting given by eye witnesses from the early 19th century. 

  
  

  Meghalaya is one of the rainiest inhabited environ-ments on earth, with more than 11,000 mm of precipita-tion recorded annually in Cherrapunji20,21. 

  
  

  This small state is a hilly plateau uplifted to about 1900 m above the Bengal Plain in the south and the Brahmaputra valley in the north (Figure 1). The basement of the plateau is formed by gneisses and quartzites with granite intrusions representing a source of iron-ore 22–24. 

  
  

  The upper part of the plateau in the Khasi Hills, 1000 m asl, is deforested, severely eroded and overgrown by grass 25. 

  
  

  Only the smallpatches of broadleaved hill forest (sacred groves) that remain, protected through the ages by the people for reli-gious and cultural reasons, are evidence that the plateaumust once have been covered by forest in the past 26 . 

  
  

  Historical reports from the British adinistration of the Khasi Hills were used as sources of information concerning the spatial distribution of iron metallurgy sites in the The principal source of iron-ore in the Khasi Hills were the granite outcrops. The ore, primarily titaniferous mag-

  netic oxide (Fe 2+(Fe3+,Ti)2O4), is a colluvial sand that results from the weathering of granite. Wet chemical analysis of colluvial sand from the granite area in Nonk-grem, the most important centre of iron-ore extraction15,indicates that it contained 10–12% by weight of ironoxides (FeO, Fe2O3). The operation of washing the decomposed granite in local streams enriched the content of iron oxides up to 35% by weight. About 65% by weight constituted gangue silicate minerals, which were mainly quartz and potassium feldspar.

  
  

  The only fuel used for smelting was charcoal. The best charcoal was produced from local oak species, but in cases where there was a lack of a hardwood other kinds of trees were used for carbonization 16 . The smelting was performed in above-ground bloomery furnaces that could

  hold 0.3–0.5 m3of ore and charcoal in alternate layers.The fire inside was blown by large bellows, from whichthe air was conducted by kaolin clay tuyeres. The tem-perature inside the furnace was controlled by regulating the rate of operation of the bellows. Most interesting from the technological point of view was the intentional preparation and use of slag-ore lumps.Analysis of sections indicates that it contained slag core wrapped up with a mixture of iron-ore and charcoal, which was heated before smelting in the furnace. The slag core additionally favoured the scorification of the gangue, thereby increasing the efficiency of the metallurgical process. 

  The hot porous mass of iron, extracted from the furnace, was immediately shaped into circular lumps andthen split into two with an axe. The split was opened by a couple of wedges and the hot mass was inserted into a trough full of pounded dross to cool. The weight of the lump obtained during a single smelt reached about 6.5 kg.The technology applied permitted up to 15 smelts daily from the same furnace15,17. In most cases, the crude iron,as obtained from the smelting furnaces, was taken tomarket or carried to other villages, where it was manufac-tured into tools. The lumps were placed in the fire and after eight re-heatings and beats, a new tool was formed.The loss of weight arising from impurities of the iron as it comes from the smelting reached about 43% (ref. 17). The manufacturing of iron by the bloomery process generates substantial quantities of waste products in the form of slag.Traces of the iron industry are still visible in the Khasi Hills as deposits of washed sand with charcoal, clay tuyeres and slag. Lithological analysis of deposits containing iron slag, combined with radiocarbon dating of charcoal from four sites scattered in the upper part of the plateau, helped determine the temporal range of iron smelting (Figure 3, Table 1). However, it is important to note that because of the effects of high rainfall, settlement development and road construction, most of the originally deposited remnants of former iron smelting have been destroyed or re-deposited. Therefore, only a few sites located in areas with less rainfall, mainly between Shillong and Nongkrem, are valuable for con-

  tinuous reconstruction of metallurgy development in theKhasi Hills.The Shillong site (27°37′09′′N, 91°53′49′′E, 1500 m asl)is located within the quartzite area on the top of an elongated hill. Several slags up to 20 cm in size were scattered on the surface of a cultivated field over an area oftens of square metres. Remains of a broken quartzite megalith were visible near

  the investigated site. Excavation up to the quartzite bedrock did not reveal any traces of iron smelting below ground level.The Nongkrem site (25°29′34′′N, 91°52′54′′E, 1750 masl) is located within the granite area in the valley bottom. This is the main centre of the former iron-ore exca-vation15,17. The section cut by an adjacent road exposed washed sandy deposits containing charcoal and several layers of slag with broken clay tuyeres. The upper part of the section has a well-developed soil horizon about 50 cm thick. The middle part of the section, up to a depth of

  240 cm, is loamy sand with gravels and layers of slag with diameter between 1 and 10 cm. The charcoal extracted from the slag layer at a depth of 80 cm was dated at 245±25 yearsBP. The lower part is a coarse-grained weathered cover in situ along with partially weathered granite boulders. Several iron slags reaching

  
  

  
  

  
  

   
  

  
  

  
  

  15–20 cm in diameter were found at a depth of 270 cm. Charcoal extracted from one of these slags was dated at 2040 ±80 years BP.The Raitkteng site (25°18′00′′N, 91°42′40′′E, 1450 mamsl) is located within a sandstone area at the base of a small hill overgrown by grasses.A section is exposed by a local sand–clay quarry. The skeletal soil covers a 10 cm thick slag layer, stretching over an area of at least several hundreds of square metres. The radiocarbon age of char-coal extracted from the top of this layer was determinedto be 240±60 yearsBP. The bottom of the  profile pre-sents loamy sand with a horizon of charcoal dated at 1110± 30 yearsBP. Relatively large charcoal particles up to 0.5 cm in size probably indicate the main phase of de-forestation. 

  The Cherrapunji site (25°16′12′′N, 91°44′15′′E, 1300 mamsl) is located within a sandstone area at the base of a small hill overgrown by grasses. Several sandstone mega-liths are scattered in the neighbourhood. Many slags up to20 cm in size were found over an area covering tens of square metres. Excavation up to the sandstone bedrock  did not yield traces of iron smelting below ground level.The Cherrapunji location, similar to the Raitkteng site,was probably one of the main iron smelting centres in this region 15,16. However, in the 19th century, slag deposits from both sites were used as material for construction of the Cherrapunji–Shillong road. 

  Slags are the most abundant and best-preserved productof traditional iron smelting and thus are a staple of archaeometallurgical research in the Khasi Hills. Their composition and structure are closely related to the mate-rials used and the conditions of the metallurgical process.The samples from the Shillong and Raitkteng sites rep-resent tap slags, as indicated by the smooth surfaces and pronounced flow structures, composed of multiple fingers of tap slag welded together (Figure 4); evidently, it wasvery fluid.The samples from Nongkrem and Cherrapunji are from the lower part of the furnace and are extremely inhomo-geneous, incorporating numerous inclusions of unreduced or partially reduced ore. Evidently, it was not very fluid at furnace temperatures, because the surfaces are rough and broken surfaces show many cavities from entrapped gas. The slag was rapidly chilled producing very fine structure throughout. In a thin section, slags from Shillong, Raitkteng and Cherrapunji are almost entirely composed of fayalite (Fe2SiO4) in a glass matrix, with dendrites of wüstite (FeO). Wüstite dendrites differ in size reflecting local diversity of slag crystallization. Within the fayalite, her-cynite (FeAl2O4), fusible eutectics (FeOFe2SiO4), mullite(Al6Si2 O13 ) and occasional iron droplets were also crys-tallized. As the slags contain abundant hercynite, the ore must also have contained alumina or aluminosilicate clayminerals in particles too small to be visible in a thin sec-tion. Analysis shows that tuyeres were produced from kaolin clay with quartz sand and heated at low tempera-tures, making possible the poor transition of kaolinite into mullite.

  
    

  The slag from the Nongkrem site has a more compli-cated microstructure. Iron oxide (56–67% FeO) and sili-con oxide (up to 20% SiO2) are predominant in all the slags with an increased contribution of titanium (TiO2) inthe presence of other phases (Figure 4f: 1–4; Table 2). 

  Apart from fayalite and dendrites of wüstite, visible

  
  

  phases have also been identified using the EDS method as a composition of Ti–Fe–O, Fe–Al–O (Figure 4f: 4) andAl–Si–K–O (Figure 4f: 3).Evidence of substantial bloomery smelting has been found in the appearance, microstructure, composition and excavation context of slag, char

  coal and tuyeres, as well as in the surviving 19th century descriptions of iron manufacturing in the Khasi Hills. Iron was produced inthe Khasi Hills over the last two millennia. The Nongkrem site, one of the main sources of iron-ore, was continuously in use for smelting from early in the 1st

  century AD to the middle of the 19th century. The conti-nuity of iron production is confirmed by thick deposits of washed sand with several layers of slag, as well as radio-carbon dating of charcoal from the lowermost and uppermost layers of the slag. Similar features of sedimen-

  tation continuity reveal all deposits of colluvial sandswith charcoal in this part of the Khasi Hills24

  The location of the lower layer of slag almost on the granite boul-ders in Nongkrem, was dated at 2040±80 yearsBP(353 BC–AD128), making it the earliest studied iron smelting site in the Khasi Hills and consequently, in the whole of NE India. The direct reduction process of iron smelting declined after the advent of processes for mak-ing liquid steel on a large scale in the 19th century28

  .

  Official statistics shows that iron was the main export ar-ticle from the Khasi Hills in 1858 (ref. 29), but it does not appear in the statistics prepared in 1876 (ref. 30). The low ore content in the granite rocks and consequent high cost of obtaining it, were additional factors in the rapid collapse of iron smelting in the plateau. This is also con- firmed by radiocarbon dating of charcoal from the top slag layers in Nongkrem and Raitkteng.The results of a study of chemical and phase composition and the microstructure of iron smelting slags, reveal that they are an acid product of a bloomery iron-making process. The process of iron-ore reduction is governed byobjective physical, chemical and thermodynamic rules and cannot be unique by itself. It is carried on in the same material-energetic system: ore + reducer (charcoal, CO, H2), at a suitable temperature. Therefore, despite covering such a vast expanse of land and spanning two millennia,there was little fundamental variability in the resulting products: bloomery iron and fayalitic slag. Specific to the iron smelters’ skills are the materials used, metallurgical devices and the technology of the reduction process that influence the conditions of slag formation.Metallurgical slag from the Khasi Hills reveals typicalheterogeneity for ancient metallurgy, related to incomplete reactions following premature termination of the smelting process or local gradients in oxygen supply in the furnace. Further complications arise from post-process alterations, beginning with rapid oxidation and the rate of crystallization during the removal of liquid slag from the furnace (tapping)31,32

  .

  The microstructure and phase composition show that fayalite and fine wüstite dendrites are dominant compo-nents of iron slag. The presence of wüstite shows that an ideal operation was not attained and that more metal that could have been recovered in the smelting process33

  Additional constituents such as hercynite and identified phases Ti–Fe–O, Fe–Al–O and Al–Si–K–O are derived from aluminium and titanium minerals in the ore. This kind of slag constitutes strong evidence for the practice of bloomery iron smelting in the Khasi Hills34

  .

  The study reveals that both the oldest and youngest analysed slags have high iron content of above 55% (Table 2), similar to slags from furnaces found in many parts of Eurasia 35 . We have no indication that any great changes in technology occurred during the 2000 years of Khasi iron-making. As long as supplies of charcoal and ore remained abundant and bloomery iron was the superior market product, it is possible that producers had no motivation to seek change. However, it is important to mention that as slag from previous blooms had high iron content, it was recycled in the form of slag-ore lumps into the furnace with new ore. This technological innovation has not been described in ot her areas of India so far. Only a small portion of smelted iron was manufactured into tools, such hoes, hammers and arrow heads for the local market. The larger portion was transported in the form of impure lumps and sold in the Bengal Plain (today Bangladesh). There, in the villages along the rivers, iron was used for the production of nails for fastening the planks of boats 17. Allen29, using calculations from custom gates, estimated that the quantity of exported iron from the Khasi Hills was about 1700–2400 tonnes annually.The smelting of iron in the Khasi Hills, which exceeded considerably the needs of the local inhabitants, shows standardization of manufacturing related to mass produc-tion in a seemingly efficient technological system. Standardization may be a sign of more established technologies, when the main engineering parameters have been locally modified and accepted by both producers and consumers 36. 

  The above evidence for bloomery smelting in the ancient Khasi Hills, throughout the last two millennia, raises important questions regarding its origin. Meghalaya is inhabited by two ethnic groups representing the remnants of Neolithic migration. It is assumed that the Khasi and Jaintia groups, belonging to the Austro-Asiatic language family, migrated from Southeast Asia and spread up to the lower Ganges around 3000 BC(ref. 11). Later on, the present-day population of the Garo group, belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family, migrated southwards from their original homeland in China37. The archaeological record of this period and specifically, the shouldered celts and the cord-impressed potteries found in Meghalaya, confirm close affinity with the materials found in South China and Southeast Asia. However, there was no evidence of Copper–Bronze or Iron Age in Meghalaya, or any relationship to subsequent migration
  

  or cultural contacts with East Asia. In contrast, the Khasi and Jaintia groups had occasional contacts with the Indo-European speaking people living in the Bengal lowlands. 

  
  

  Iron technologies appeared in Southeast Asia around the 5th century BC (refs 38, 39). The production of iron by the bloomery process has led to suggestions that iron technologies were transferred by some means from the west or north38,40. Recent evidence shows that bloomeries

  were used in China, migrating from the West as early as the 8th century BC , before being replaced by the locally developed cast-iron production around the 4thcentury BC (ref. 41). Therefore, despite Neolithic migration of ancient farmers from the southeast to the Khasi Hills, the iron-making technology was probably invented independently or alternatively, could have been introduced from the West. 

  The relative isolation of the Khasi people, who inhabited a highly elevated plateau, suggests the indigenous origin of manufacturing technology. On the other hand, given their trade contacts with surrounding lowlands, one cannot exclude the possibility of the diffusion of iron-production   knowledge, which is known to have reached the lower Ganges and Brahmaputra, close to the western border of the plateau, about 700 years BC (ref. 42). Diffusion of technological practices does not necessarily imply movement of people. However, several colonization waves in the Early Medieval Period forced local Austro-Asiatic language-speakers to move eastwards from the lower Ganges towards the surrounding Meghalaya low-lands43. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal and the results of chemical, microstructure and phase composition of iron-ore and slags, indicate that the smelting of iron in the Khasi Hills was initiated at least 2000 years ago and continued up to the middle of the 19th century. Large-scale metallurgic production was the response to the demand for iron from the adjacent lowlands, which did not have iron-ore resources.

  Although we know when iron smelting first began to appear in the Khasi Hills, we do not know how the metal- workers came to possess knowledge of making iron. The relative isolation of the Khasi people, who inhabited a  highly elevated plateau, is evidence of the indigenous origin of manufacturing technology. On the other hand, given their trade contacts with the surrounding lowlands, one cannot exclude the possibility of the diffusion of iron-production knowledge from the West. 

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  Pigott, V. C. (ed.), The Archeometallurgy of the Asian Old World ,University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, 1999, pp. 1–207.
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  Eerkens, J. W. and Lipo, C. P., Cultural transmission, copying errors, and the generation of variation in material culture and the archaeological record. J. Anthropol. Archaeol., 2005,24, 316–334.

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  Driem, G. V., Neolithic correlates of ancient Tibeto-Burman migrations. InArchaeology and Language II: Archaeological

  Data and Linguistics Hypotheses (eds Blench, R. and Spriggs,M.), Routledge, London, 1998, pp. 67–102.

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  Bellwood, P.,Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago, Uni-versity of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1997, pp. 1–385.

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  Higham, C. F. W.,Mainland Southeast Asia from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. In Southeast Asia. From Prehistory to History(edsGlover, I. and Bellwood, P.), Routledge Curzon, London, 2004,pp. 41–67.

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  Bronson, B., Patterns in the Early Southeast Asian metals trade. In Metallurgy, Trade and Urbanism in Early Thailand and Southeast Asia (eds Glover, I. C., Suchitta, P. and Viliers, J.), White Lotus, Bangkok, 1992, pp. 63–114.

  41.

  Wagner, D. B., The earliest use of iron in China. In Metals in Antiquity (eds Young, S. M. M. et al.), BAR International Series 792, Archaeopress, Oxford, 1999, pp. 1–9.

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  Gadgil, M., Joshi, N. V., Shambu Prasad, U. V., Manoharan, S.and Patil, S., Peopling of India. In The Indian Human Heritage (eds Balasubramanian, D. and Appaji Rao, N.), Universities Press, Hyderabad, 1997, pp. 100–129.

  43.

  Misra, V. N., Prehistoric human colonization of India, J. Biosci.,2001, 26, 491–531. 

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. This paper is the outcome of a bilateral project agreed between the Indian National Science Academy and Pol-ish Academy of Sciences. We thank Prof. S. Singh and Dr H. J. Syiem-lieh, Department of Geography,

  North-Eastern Hill University,Shillong for help in organizing our fieldwork.

  
  Two thousand years of iron smelting in the Khasi Hills, Meghalaya, North East India. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261191818_Two_thousand_years_of_iron_smelting_in_the_Khasi_Hills_Meghalaya_North_East_India

  Section 2: Nazimaruttash kudurru and Aleppo citadel of storm-gods

  Reference to storm-gods in Aleppo citadel provides a parallel with Maruts in R̥gveda. The name Nazimaruttash may be in memory of the Maruts, storm divinities. The Nazimaruttash kudurru stone is a boundary stone (kudurru) of Nazimaruttaš, a Kassite king of Babylon, ca. 1307–1282 BC (short chronology). It was found at Susa and is now displayed at the Louvre."Nazimaruttash's kudurru does not use registers. Instead, graphic symbols are used. Nineteen deities are invoked to curse the foolhardy individual who seeks to desecrate it. Some are represented by symbols, such as a goat-fish for Enki or a bird on a pole for Papsukkal, a spear-head for Marduk or an eight-pointed star for Ishtar. Shamash is represented by a disc."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazimarutta%C5%A1_kudurru_stone

  "...text of Nazimaruttash and other similar documents that have recently been discovered prove that the presence of the figures and emblems of the gods upon the stones is to be explained on another and far more simple theory. They were placed there as guardians of the property to which the kudurru referred, and it was believed that the carving of their figures or emblems upon the stone would ensure their intervention in case of any attempted infringement of the rights and privileges which it was the object of the document to commemorate and preserve. A photographic reproduction of one side of the kudurru of Nazi-maruttash is shown in the accompanying illustration. There will be seen a representation of Gula or Bau, the mother of the gods, who is portrayed as seated on her throne and wearing the four-horned head-dress and a long robe that reaches to her feet. In the field are emblems of the Sun-god, the Moon-god, Ishtar, and other deities, and the representation of divine emblems and dwelling-places is continued on another face of the stone round the corner towards which Grula is looking. The other two faces of the document are taken up with the inscription. "http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17321/17321-h/v1c.htm
  

Kudurru of Nazi-Maruttaš (Kudurru Sb. 21, a later stone copy of clay original.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi-Maruttash#/media/File:Kudurru_of_Nazi-Maruttash.jpg The Kudurru stones of Nazi Maruttash depict the image of Scorpio that is referred to as Bica in Assamese to mean Iron-stone ore.

Luwian has been deduced as one of the likely candidates for the language spoken by the Trojans. (Melchert, H. Craig, ed. The Luwians. Boston: Brill, 2003, pp. 265-70 with ref. Watkins, C.1994. ‘The Language of the Trojans.’ In Selected Writings, ed. L. Oliver et al., vol. 2. 700–717. Innsbruck. = Troy and the Trojan War. A Symposium held at Bryn Mawr College, October 1984, ed. M. Mellink, 45–62. Bryn Mawr.; Watkins, C. 1995. How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics. New York and Oxford, pp. 144–51)."After the 1995 finding of a Luwian biconvex seal at Troy VII, there has been a heated discussion over the language that was spoken in Homeric Troy. Frank Starke of the University of Tübingen recently demonstrated that the name of Priam, king of Troy at the time of the Trojan War, is connected to the Luwian compound Priimuua, which means "exceptionally courageous". ^{(Starke, Frank. 'Troia im Kontext des historisch-politischen und sprachlichen Umfeldes Kleinasiens im 2. Jahrtausend. Studia Troica 7:446–87.)} "The certainty is growing that Wilusa/Troy belonged to the greater Luwian-speaking community," but it is not entirely clear whether Luwian was primarily the official language or it was in daily colloquial use...The two varieties of Proto-Luwian or Luwian (in the narrow sense of these names), are known after the scripts in which they were written: Cuneiform Luwian (CLuwian) and Hieroglyphic Luwian (HLuwian). There is no consensus as to whether these were a single language, or two closely related languages... Hieroglyphic Luwian is the corpus of Luwian texts written in a native script, known as Anatolian hieroglyphs.(Melchert, H. Craig , 1996, "Anatolian Hieroglyphs", in Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William, The World's Writing Systems, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press) Once thought to be a variety of the Hittite language, "Hieroglyphic Hittite" was formerly used to refer to the language of the same inscriptions, but this term is now obsolete. The dialect of Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions appears to be either Empire Luwian or its descendant, Iron Age Luwian."

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

Hieroglyphic Luwian is a unique writing system and has no parallels with Indus Script writing system. But, there are sculptural friezes discovered in Aleppo which have parallels with the anthropomorphs discovered on the lid of a wooden coffin at Baghpat. In particular, the similarities are vivid in the following pairs of images from Aleppo and from Baghpat.

I suggest that the comparable images are drawn in the Indus Script hypertext tradition.

Aleppo bull-man with raised hands and hair plaits dhai'strand, plait' rebus: dhau'red ore, mineral ore'dhatu, id.; eraka 'upraised hand' rebus: eraka 'moltencast'arka'gold, copper'dhangra'bull' rebus: dhangar 'blacksmith'.

Baghpat anthropomorph with horns of a bovine + Pipal leaf + dagger on waistbelt (one of eight)

Aleppo bull-drawn chariot accompanied by a soldier with a sword on waist-belt

Baghpat chariot (reconstructed drawing)

Baghpat sword and dagger

Friday, May 04, 2012

King Taita's Inscription at Aleppo

Aleppo Storm-god Temple (Gonnella, Khayyata and Kohlmeyer 2005: 112).

Relief of Taita with Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscription (Kohlmeyer 2009: 198).

Drawing of ALEPPO 6 (Hawkins 2011: 42).

Aleppo Aleppo (Halab, Halep) came under Hittite rule in 15th century BCE. In 14th century BCE, after his Syrian campaing, Suppiluliuma I installed his son Telipinu as the ruler of Aleppo. Telipinu was succeeded by his son Talmi-Sharruma. During the empire period, the city was overshadowed by Karkamis, which was the main administrative center of the Hittites in Syria. Aleppo was the center of the Storm-God cult in Syria. Aleppo survived the attacks of the Sea Peoples as a Neo-Hittite city state beyond 1200 BCE. Excavations in the Aleppo citadel revealed remains of a Storm-god temple with multiple orthostats which date to post empire period, possibly around 11th to 10th centuries. The city came under Assyrian rule in the 9th century BCE. A dedicatory inscription of Talmi-Sharruma (ALEPPO 1) is the only monumental inscription from the Empire period. Until the Syrian civil war most of the orthostats from Neo-Hittite period were still visible in the citadel while some others were in the Aleppo Museum. A large stele of Storm-god, which was excavated in Babylon at the palace complex of Nabuchadnezzar II in 1899 (last row of pictures below), was apparently carried away from Aleppo as a trophy. The stele is currently in Istanbul Archaelogy Museum. Talmi-Sharruma inscription (ALEPPO 1) Aleppo Citadel - Temple of Storm God Storm God Stele (BABYLON 1) Literature: Gonnella, J., W. Khayyata, K. Kohlmeyer, Die Zitadelle von Aleppo und der Tempel des Wettergottes: Neue Forschungen und Entdeckungen. Münster: Rhema, 2005. Hawkins, J. D. Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions, Vol 1,Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2000: 235-38, 388-97, 562 and plts. 206, 209-12, 320. Hawkins, J. D. "Cilicia, the Amuq, and Aleppo: New Light in Dark Age,"Near Eastern Archaeology 72.4, Dec. 2009: 164-173. Hawkins, J. D. "The inscriptions of the Aleppo Temple,"AnSt61, 2011: 35-54. Kohlmeyer, K. “The Temple of the Storm God in Aleppo during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages.” Near Eastern Archaeology 74.4, 2009: 190-202. Laroche, E. 1956. "L'inscription hittite d'Alep,"Syria 33: 131-141 (ALEPPO 1) Image sources: Gertrude Bell, 1909, University of Newcastle Gertrude Bell Project (www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk) Dick Osseman, 2009, Aleppo Citadel Gallery. Kay Kohlmeyer, NEA 74.4, 2009. Bora Bilgin, 2006. Bora Bilgin, Ertuğrul Anıl, 2011. Robert Koldewey, Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichung der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft I, Leipzig 1900.

The temple of the storm god in Aleppo during the late bronze and early iron ages

Why the Chariot discovered in Baghpat excavation is a game-changer in the understanding of Indian History?

• By Krishna Baalu June 11, 2018

• By Krishna Baalu June 11, 2018

Next, the ‘Chariot’ discovery would potentially change the hitherto held concept of the existence of ‘Horses’ in IVC. Horse bones were found in another IVC site, Surkotada in Kutch Gujarat some years ago. Royal Chariots were drawn by horses and with one single charioteer. This was also explained by the archaeologist.

Krishna Baalu

Indians used chariots 4,000 years ago, ASI unearths evidence in UP 

PTI Sanauli June 6, 2018 UPDATED: June 6, 2018 10:32 IST

ASI has unearthed the 'first-ever' physical evidence of Copper-Bronze age chariots. Photo: AajTak

The "first ever" physical evidence of chariots dating 2000 BC - 1800 BC have been found by the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) during a trial excavation in Sanauli village near Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh.

https://tinyurl.com/y9s4vcr4

Wheel: Meluhha bronze-age hieroglyph of the Ancient Near East and Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization

Bronze model. Chariot box. Chanhu-daro. ca. 2000 BCE. This model with X on the side of the chariot box compares with the chariot-box shown on Ur Standard.

Bronze chariot. Daimabad, Maharashtra. 2000 BCE?

 

 

 

 

Another view of the fire-altar pedestal of Tukulti-Ninurta I, Ishtar temple, Assur. Shows the king standing flanked by two standard-bearers; the standard has a spoked-wheel hieroglyph on the top of the staffs and also on the volutes of the altar frieze.The mediation with deities by king is adopted by Assurnasirpal II.

The two standards (staffs)  are topped by a spoked wheel. āra 'spokes' Rebus: āra 'bronze'. cf. erka = ekke (Tbh. of arka) aka (Tbh. of arka) copper (metal); crystal (Kannada) Glyph: eraka

This rebus reading is consistent with the prayer offered to the karaṇḍa 'hard alloy'; karandi 'fire god' (Remo)

Glyphic element: erako nave; era = knave of wheel. Glyphic element: āra ‘spokes’. Rebus: āra ‘brass’ as in ārakūṭa (Skt.) Rebus: Tu. eraka molten, cast (as metal); eraguni to melt (DEDR 866) erka = ekke (Tbh. of arka) aka (Tbh. of arka) copper (metal); crystal (Ka.lex.) cf. eruvai = copper (Ta.lex.) eraka, er-aka = any metal infusion (Ka.Tu.); erako molten cast (Tu.lex.) Glyphic element: kund opening in the nave or hub of a wheel to admit the axle (Santali) Rebus: kunda ‘turner’ kundār turner (A.); kũdār, kũdāri (B.); kundāru (Or.); kundau to turn on a lathe, to carve, to chase; kundau dhiri = a hewn stone; kundau murhut = a graven image (Santali) kunda a turner's lathe (Skt.)(CDIAL 3295). 

arká1 m. ʻ flash, ray, sun ʼ RV. [√arc] Pa. Pk. akka -- m. ʻ sun ʼ, Mth. āk; Si. aka ʻ lightning ʼ, inscr. vid -- äki ʻ lightning flash ʼ.(CDIAL 624) அருக்கன் arukkaṉ, n. < arka. Sun; சூரி யன். அருக்க னணிநிறமுங் கண்டேன் (திவ். இயற். 3, 1).(Tamil) agasāle ‘goldsmithy’ (Kannada) అగసాలి [ agasāli ] or అగసాలెవాడు agasāli. n. A goldsmith. కంసాలివాడు. (Telugu) erka = ekke (Tbh. of arka) aka (Tbh. of arka) copper (metal); crystal (Kannada) cf. eruvai = copper (Tamil) eraka, er-aka = any metal infusion (Ka.Tu.); erako molten cast (Tulu) Rebus: eraka = copper (Ka.) eruvai = copper (Ta.); ere - a dark-red colour (Ka.)(DEDR 817). eraka, era, er-a = syn. erka, copper, weapons (Ka.) erka = ekke (Tbh. of arka) aka (Tbh. of arka) copper (metal); crystal (Kannada) akka, aka (Tadbhava of arka) metal; akka metal (Te.) arka = copper (Skt.) erako molten cast (Tulu)  

करडी [ karaḍī ] f (See करडई) Safflower: also its seed.

Rebus: karaḍa 'hard alloy' of arka 'copper'. 

Photograph of excavation site. Shows three culd stands in situ in Room 6 of Ishtar temple of Tukulti-Ninurta I at Ashur. Courtesy: Vorderaslatisches Museum.

Andrae, 1935, 57-76, pls. 12, 30 1. Jakob-Rust, in Vorderaslatisches Museum 1992, 160, no. 103; Andrae, 1935, 16, figs. 2,3.

करंडा [karaṇḍā] A clump, chump, or block of wood. 4 The stock or fixed portion of the staff of the large leaf-covered summerhead or umbrella. करांडा [ karāṇḍā ] m C A cylindrical piece as sawn or chopped off the trunk or a bough of a tree; a clump, chump, or block.

Rebus: fire-god: @B27990.  #16671. Remo <karandi>E155  {N} ``^fire-^god''.(Munda)

[quote]Description: Although the cult pedestal of the Middle Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta mentions in its short inscription that it is dedicated to the god Nuska, the relief on the front that depicts the king in a rare kind of narrative, standing and kneeling in front of the very same pedestal was frequently discussed by art-historians. More strikingly on top of the depicted pedestal there is not the lamp, the usual divine symbol for the god Nuska, but most likely the representation of a tablet and a stylus, symbols for the god Nabû. (Klaus Wagensonner, University of Oxford)[unquote] http://cdli.ox.ac.uk/wiki/doku.php?id=pedestal_tukulti_ninurta

No, it is not a representation of a tablet and a stylus, but a chump, a block of wood, karaṇḍā read rebus: karandi 'fire-god' (Munda). Thus, the chump is the divine symbol of fire-god.

The hieroglyphs on the fire-altar confirm the link to metallurgy with the use of 'spoked-wheel' banner carried on one side of the altar and the 'safflower' hieroglyph flanking the altar worshipped by Tukulti-Ninurta. It is rebus, as Sigmund Freud noted in reference to the dream. 'I have revealed to Atrahasis a dream, and it is thus that he has learned the secret of the gods.' (Epic of Gilgamesh, Ninevite version, XI, 187.)(Zainab Bahrani, 2011, The graven image: representation in Babylonia and Assyria, Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, p. 185).

Cylinder seal with kneeling nude heroes, ca. 2220–2159 b.c.; Akkadian  Mesopotamia Red jasper H. 1 1/8 in. (2.8 cm), Diam. 5/8 in. (1.6 cm)  Metropolitan Museum of Art - USA 

Four flag-posts(reeds) with rings on top held by the kneeling persons define the four components of the iron smithy/forge.  

The key hieroglyph is the hood of a snake seen as the left-most hieroglyph on this rolled out cylinder seal impression. I suggest that this denotes the following Meluhha gloss: paṭam , n. < phaṭa. ‘cobra's hood’  phaṭa n. ʻ expanded hood of snake ʼ MBh. 2. *phēṭṭa -- 2. [Cf. phuṭa -- m., °ṭā -- f., sphuṭa -- m. lex., °ṭā -- f. Pañcat. (Pk. phuḍā -- f.), sphaṭa -- m., °ṭā-- f., sphōṭā -- f. lex. and phaṇa -- 1. Conn. words in Drav. T. Burrow BSOAS xii 386]1. Pk.  phaḍa -- m.n. ʻ snake's hood ʼ, °ḍā -- f., M. phaḍā m., °ḍī f.2. A. pheṭ,  phẽṭ. (CDIAL 9040). Rebus: ‘sharpness of iron’: padm (obl.padt-) temper of iron (Kota)(DEDR 3907); patam‘sharpness, as of the edge of a knife’ (Tamil) Alternative complementary reading: <naG bubuD>(Z)  {N} ``^cobra''.  |<naG> `?'.  ^snake.  *IA<naG>.  ??is IA form <naG> or <nag>?  #23502. nāgá1 m. ʻ snake ʼ ŚBr. 2. ʻ elephant ʼ BhP. [As ʻ ele- phant ʼ shortened form of *nāga -- hasta -- EWA ii 150 with lit. or extracted from nāga -- danta -- ʻ elephant tusk, ivory ʼ < ʻ snake -- shaped tusk ʼ].

1. Pa. nāga -- m. ʻ snake ʼ, NiDoc. nāǵa F. W. Thomas AO xii 40, Pk. ṇāya -- m., Gy. as. nâ JGLS new ser. ii 259; Or. naa ʻ euphem. term for snake ʼ; Si. nay, nā,nayā ʻ snake ʼ. -- With early nasalization *nāṅga -- : Bshk. nāṅg ʻ snake ʼ. -- Kt. Pr. noṅ, Kal. nhoṅ ʻ name of a god < nāˊga -- or ← Pers. nahang NTS xv 283. 2. Pa. nāga -- m. ʻ elephant ʼ, Pk. ṇāya -- m., Si. nā. śiśunāka -- . (CDIAL 7039) Rebus: nāga2 n. ʻ lead ʼ Bhpr. [Cf. raṅga -- 3] Sh. naṅ  m. ʻ lead ʼ  (< *nāṅga -- ?), K. nāg m. (< *nāgga -- ?).(CDIAL 7040) cf. annaku, anakku 'tin' (Akkadian) நாகம் nākam  Black lead; காரீயம். (பிங்.) 9. Zinc; துத்தநாகம். (பிங்.) 10. A prepared arsenic; பாஷாணவகை (Tamil).

There is a possibility that the hieroglyph was intended to convey the message of an alloying metal like lead or tin or zinc which had revolutionised the bronze age with tin-bronzes, zinc-copper brass and other alloys to substitute for arsenical copper to make hard weapons and tools.  It is instructive that zinc was called tuthunāg which might have referred to the sublimate of zinc and calamine collected in the furnaces in Zawar. See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/02/metallurgists-of-mewad-meluhha.html
The phrase tuthunāg as a synonym for zinc or pewter indicates that the gloss nāg meant 'alloying mineral' to create a hard bronze -- a substitute for arsenical bronze which was in short supply in the Ancient Near East and in Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization. And, hence, the recurring hieroglyph of a serpent on hundreds of cylinder seals and artifacts including those with Indus writing -- to denote an alloying mineral to create bronzes.

At Ahed excavation site statues of the Gods of both Hindu and Jain religion are found. Of particular importance is the statue of Parvati a deity of importance to Dravidians. Also the Nag- Nagini statue indicates the presence of Naga people around Ahed those days. 

          May notice the image of fish on the top of the figure which probably is the symbol of Bhil Meena tribe.

Thanks to DMR Sekhar from whose blogpost I have obtained this image. 

I suggest that the fish hieroglyph on the top register of the Nag-Nagini statue is ayo 'fish' (Munda) Rebus: aya = iron (G.); ayah, ayas = metal (Skt.)

Naga and Nagini are also hieroglyphs. 

Hieroglyph: nāgá1 m. ʻ snake ʼ ŚBr. 2. ʻ elephant ʼ BhP. [As ʻ ele- phant ʼ shortened form of *nāga -- hasta -- EWA ii 150 with lit. or extracted from nāga -- danta -- ʻ elephant tusk, ivory ʼ < ʻ snake -- shaped tusk ʼ]. 1. Pa. nāga -- m. ʻ snake ʼ, NiDoc. nāǵa F. W. Thomas AO xii 40, Pk. ṇāya -- m., Gy. as. nâ JGLS new ser. ii 259; Or. naa ʻ euphem. term for snake ʼ; Si. nay, nā, nayā ʻ snake ʼ. -- With early nasalization *nāṅga -- : Bshk. nāṅg ʻ snake ʼ. -- Kt. Pr. noṅ, Kal. nhoṅ ʻ name of a god < nāˊga -- or ← Pers. nahang NTS xv 283. 2. Pa. nāga -- m. ʻ elephant ʼ, Pk. ṇāya -- m., Si. nā. śiśunāka -- .(CDIAL 7039). నాగము [ nāgamu ] nāgamu. [Skt. from నగ a hill.] n. Lit: That which pertains to a mountain. A serpent, పాము. Particularly, a cobra. An elephant, ఏనుగు. నాకిని a female supernatural being, a goddess, దేవతాస్త్రీ. నాకులు nākulu. n. The celestials, the gods. R. v. 35. 176. నాకేశుడు nāk-ēsuḍu. n. A name of Indra. நாகர்¹ nākar

, n. < nāka. Celestials; தேவர். வழுத்த வரங்கொடுப்பர் நாகர் (நான்மணி. 62).

 (Tamil) నాగు, నాగులు, నాగువు or నాగుబాము nāgu. n. A cobra. నాగము.(Telugu) நாகம்² nākam
, n. < nāga. 1. Cobra. See நல்லபாம்பு. நன்மணியிழந்த நாகம் போன்று (மணி. 25, 195). 2. Serpent; பாம்பு. (பிங்.) ஆடுநாக மோட (கம்பரா. கலன்காண். 37).
Rebus: நாகம்² nākam , n. < nāga.  A prepared arsenic; பாஷாணவகை;  Black lead; காரீயம். (Tamil) nāga2 n. ʻ lead ʼ Bhpr. [Cf. raṅga -- 3] Sh. naṅ m. ʻ lead ʼ (< *nāṅga -- ?), K. nāg m. (< *nāgga -- ?).(CDIAL 7040). నాగసింధూరము [ nāgasindhūramu ] nāga-sindhūramu. [Skt.] n. A red calx of lead. (Telugu) cf. anakku 'tin' (Akkadian), an alloying ore to create tin-bronzes.

The semantics of nāga as 'arsenic' or 'lead' are instructive in the context of the Ayad river image of Naga-Nagini and fish hieroglyphs. Arsenic or lead are alloying ores with copper to create ayas 'alloy metal'. Thus, ayas may have denoted arsenical copper or tin-bronze or zin-brass.

A hypothesis can be posited that nāga or anakku connoted such an alloying metal (tin or zinc or even lead or nickel -- until the distinctive nature of the alloying mineral was recognised) to take the bronze age with the revolution of alloys to harden copper in minerals such as the copper sulfides, chalcopyrite and chalcocite, copper carbonates, azurite and malachite and the copper oxide mineral cuprite.

The leftmost hieroglyph shows ingots in a conical-bottom storage jar (similar to the jar shown on Warka vase, delivering the ingots to the temple of Inanna). Third from left, the overflowing pot is similar to the hieroglyph shown on Gudea statues. Fourth from left, the fish hieroglyph is similar to the one shown on a Susa pot containing metal tools and weapons. (Picture credit for the Susa pot with 'fish' hieroglyph: Maurizio Tosi).

This is an announcement of four shops, पेढी (Gujarati. Marathi). पेंढें‘rings’ Rebus: पेढी‘shop’.āra ‘serpent’ Rebus; āra ‘brass’. karaḍa 'double-drum' Rebus: karaḍa 'hard alloy'.

Specific materials offered for sale/exchange in the shop are: hard alloy brass metal (ayo, fish); lokhaṇḍ (overflowing pot)‘metal tools, pots and pans, metalware’; arka/erka  ‘copper’; kammaṭa (a portable furnace for melting precious metals) ‘coiner, mint’  Thus, the four shops are: 1. brass alloys, 2. metalware, 3. copper and 4. mint (services).

erãguḍu bowing, salutation (Telugu) iṟai (-v-, -nt-) to bow before (as in salutation), worship (Tamil)(DEDR 516). Rebus: eraka, eṟaka any metal infusion (Kannada.Tulu) eruvai‘copper’ (Tamil); eredark red (Kannada)(DEDR 446).

puṭa Anything folded or doubled so as to form a cup or concavity; crucible. Alternative: ḍhālako = a large metal ingot (G.) ḍhālakī = a metal heated and poured into a mould; a solid piece of metal; an ingot (Gujarati)

Allograph: ढाल [ 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. ढालकाठी [ ḍhālakāṭhī ] f ढालखांब m A flagstaff; esp.the pole for a grand flag or standard. 2 fig. The leading and sustaining member of a household or other commonwealth. 5583 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.WPah.kṭg. (kc.) ḍhāˋl f. (obl. -- a) ʻ shield ʼ (a word used in salutation), J. ḍhāl f. (CDIAL 5583).

They are four Glyphs: paṭākā ‘flag’ Rebus:pāṭaka, four quarters of the village.

kã̄ḍ reed Rebus: kāṇḍa ‘tools, pots and pans, metal-ware’. 

1. Pk. kamaḍha -- , °aya -- m. ʻ bamboo ʼ; Bhoj. kōro ʻ bamboo poles ʼ. 2. N. kāmro ʻ bamboo, lath, piece of wood ʼ, OAw.  kāṁvari ʻ bamboo pole with slings at each end for carrying things ʼ, H. kã̄waṛ, °ar, kāwaṛ, °ar f., G. kāvaṛf., M. kāvaḍ f.; -- deriv. Pk. kāvaḍia -- , kavvāḍia -- m. ʻ one who carries a yoke ʼ, H. kã̄waṛī, °ṛiyā m., G. kāvaṛiyɔ m. 3. S. kāvāṭhī f. ʻ carrying pole ʼ, kāvāṭhyo m. ʻ the man who carries it ʼ. 4. Or. kāmaṛā, °muṛā ʻ rafters of a thatched house ʼ; G. kāmṛũ n., °ṛī f. ʻ chip of bamboo ʼ, kāmaṛ -- koṭiyũ n. ʻ bamboo hut ʼ. 5. B. kāmṭhā ʻ bow ʼ, G. kāmṭhũ n., °ṭhī f. ʻ bow ʼ; M. kamṭhā, °ṭā m. ʻ bow of bamboo or horn ʼ; -- deriv. G. kāmṭhiyɔ m. ʻ archer ʼ. 6. A. kabāri ʻ flat piece of bamboo used in smoothing an earthen image ʼ. 7. kã̄bīṭ, °baṭ, °bṭī,  kāmīṭ, °maṭ, °mṭī,  kāmṭhī, kāmāṭhī f. ʻ split piece of bamboo &c., lath ʼ.(CDIAL 2760). kambi f. ʻ branch or shoot of bamboo ʼ lex. Pk. kaṁbi -- , °bī -- , °bā -- f. ʻ stick, twig ʼ, OG. kāṁba; M. kã̄b f. ʻ longitudinal division of a bamboo &c., bar of iron or other metal ʼ. (CDIAL 2774). कंबडी [ kambaḍī ] f A slip or split piece (of a bamboo &c.)(Marathi)

The rings atop the reed standard: पेंढें [ pēṇḍhēṃ ] पेंडकें [ pēṇḍakēṃ ] n Weaver's term. A cord-loop or metal ring (as attached to the गुलडा of the बैली and to certain other fixtures). पेंडें [ pēṇḍēṃ ] n (पेड) A necklace composed of strings of pearls. 2 A loop or ring. Rebus: पेढी (Gujaráthí word.) A shop (Marathi)Alternative:koṭiyum [koṭ, koṭī  neck] a wooden circle put round the neck of an animal (Gujarati) Rebus: ācāri koṭṭya = forge, kammārasāle (Tulu)

Six curls shown on the hairstyle of carriers of flagposts:

Allograph: The six curls on the kneeling person’s head denote an copper-brass smelter:

erugu = to bow, to salute or make obeisance (Telugu) Rebus: eraka ‘copper’.

Glyphs: six (numeral) + ring of hair: आर [ āra ] A term in the play of इटीदांडू,--the number six. (Marathi) आर [ āra ] A tuft or ring of hair on the body. (Marathi) Rebus:  arā ‘brass’.

मेढा mēḍhā A twist or tangle arising in thread or cord, a curl or snarl. (Marathi) Rebus: meḍ ‘iron’ (Ho.) bhaṭa ‘six (hair-curls)’ Rebus: bhaṭa  ‘furnace’.  

saman = to offer an offering, to place in front of; front, to front or face (Santali) Rebus: samṛobica, stones containing gold (Mundari)samanom = an obsolete name for gold (Santali) [bica‘stone ore’ (Munda): meṛed-bica = iron stone ore, in contrast to bali-bica, iron sand ore (Munda]

  

Shamash. Relief image on the Tablet of Shamash, British Library room 55. Found in Sippar (Tell Abu Habbah), in Ancient Babylonia ; it dates from the 9th century BC and shows the sun god Shamash on the throne, in front of the Babylonian king Nabu-apla-iddina (888-855 BC) between two interceding deities. The text tells how the king made a new cultic statue for the god and gave privileges to his temple.

Šamaš ';Sun' (Akkadian) (As shown in the cuneiform text on Sit Shamshi bronze). Cognates in Meluhha --Indian sprachbund:

शुष्णः [शुष्-नः कित् Uṇ.3.12] 1 The sun. -2 Fire. शुष्मन् m. 1 Fire; Śi.14.22; सार्धं तेनानुजेनाप्रतिहतगतिना मारुतेनेव शुष्मा Śiva B.2.68; ऋतुशुष्ममहोष्मभिः N.17.168. 1Strength, prowess. -2 Light, lustre. (Sanskrit) شعاعه s̱ẖuœā-œaʿh, s.f. (3rd) (from شع) Light, splendor, lustre, rays of the sun, radiance, sunshine, etc. Pl. يْ ey. پلوشه palos̱ẖaʿh, s.f. (3rd) A ray of light, as of the sun, a lamp, etc. Pl. يْ ey. (Pashto)

Mohenjo-daro seal. M428b The ‘rays of the sun’ hieroglyph of this Mohenjodaro seal also recurs on early punch-marked coins of India. Rebus reading: arka ‘sun’; agasāle ‘goldsmithy’ (Ka.) erka = ekke (Tbh. of arka) aka (Tbh. of arka) copper (metal); crystal (Ka.lex.) cf. eruvai = copper (Ta.lex.) eraka, er-aka = any metal infusion (Ka.Tu.); erako molten cast (Tulu) Rebus: eraka = copper (Ka.) eruvai = copper (Ta.); ere - a dark-red colour (Ka.)(DEDR 817). eraka, era, er-a = syn. erka, copper, weapons (Ka.)

Thus, the four flag-posts may be read rebus denoting -- in Meluhha hieroglyphs -- the repertoire and stock-in-trade of bronze-age artisans of Ancient Near East -- dealing in metalware, copper tools and weapons, alloys and ingots.

Rebus readings (from l. to r.):

ḍhālako = a large metal ingot (Gujarati)
uṛu ʻ boatman ʼ (Oriya)
lokhãḍ ‘metalware, tools, pots and pans’(Gujarati)
ayo ‘metal, alloy’ (Gujarati)

These rebus readings of hieroglyphs are consistent with the reading of the hieroglyphs on Tukulti Ninurta altar: prayers to fire-god  karandi (Hieroglyph: करडी [karaḍī]'safflower'); and arka'copper metal' (Hieroglyph: eraka, 'nave of wheel').

This consistency in semantics between sacredness and smithywork is exemplified by the Kota language (Meluhha) gloss: kole.l with two meanings: smithy, temple.

So, I suggest Tukulti Ninurta I was offering prayers to the fire-god karandi and announcing the technological contributions made to the bronze-age evolution by using the 'nave of wheel' hieroglyph to denote eraka'nave of wheel' Rebus: arka, eraka'moltencast copper' traded across the Tin Road from Assur to Kanesh.

The semantic structure of two metalwork temples is vividly displayed on Sit-Shamshi Bronze Model with an Akkadian inscription.  SeeAnnex:Significance of linga and 4 spheres on Sit Shamshi bronze and Meluhha hieroglyphs on Candi Sukuh linga The morning ablutions offered to the Sun Divinity are signified in front of two ziggurat images flanked by eight globules on either side.In my view, the bronze model is a narrative of metallurgical work in a smithy/forge by artisans who were governed by an ancient thought of the divine, represented in a temple with hieroglyphs/hypertexts expressed in Meluhha (Ancient Indian sprachbund, speech union)..

 

 

Ziggurat of Ur

Shape of lingam found at Harappa is like the summit of Mt. Kailas, Himalayas. Plate X(c), Lingam in situ in trench Ai (MS Vats, 1940, Exxcavations at Harappa, Vol. II, Calcutta). In trenches III and IV two more stone lingams were found. (MS Vats, opcit., Vol. I, pp. 51-52). 

Photograph from Malleret, L., L'archaeologie du delta du Mekong, Paris, 1959

Ekamukhalinga from Vat Sak Sampou

 

Why is a 'dancing girl' glyph shown on a potsherd discovered at Bhirrana? Because, dance-step is a hieroglyph written as hypertext cipher.viśvakarma tradition which created this exquisite cire perdue bronze statue of Mohenjo-daro lives on in many of India even today. The bronzes of Nataraja śiva as a cosmic dancer attest to this tradition.

Forge scene stele.  Forging of a keris or kris (the iconic Javanese dagger) and other weapons. The blade of the keris represents the khaNDa. Fire is a purifier, so the blade being forged is also symbolic of the purification process central theme of the consecration of gangga sudhi specified in the inscription on the 1.82 m. tall, 5 ft. dia.  lingga hieroglyph, the deity of Candi Sukuh. 

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2015/01/sekkizhar-periya-puranam-candi-sukuh.html

The sculptural of Candi Sukuh narrative depicts Bhima as the blacksmith in the left forging the metal holding a steel sword on his right hand, Ganesha in the center with a dance-step (med 'dance step' rebus: meD 'iron'), and Arjuna in the right operating bellows

Ganesa as dancer on a Candi Sukuh sculpture in the context of smelting processes to produce steel swords.

karibha 'elephant's trunk' rebus: karba 'iron' ibha 'elephant' rebus: ib 'iron' PLUS meD 'step' rebus: meD 'iron, metal, copper'.

 

Candi Cetho. Lingga shows a pair of balls at the top of the penis -- to be read rebus as Meluhha hieroglyph composition: lo-khaNDa, penis + 4 balls; Rebus: iron, metalware.

The four balls of the penis are also clearly shown on a 6 ft. tall linga inscribed with 1. a sword; and 2. inscription in Javanese, referring to 'inauguration of the holy ganggasudhi...'

THE ARTEFACTS UNEARTHED include pottery and potsherds, an ivory comb, bone points and chert blades. THE EXCAVATION OF 2003-04 yielded inscribed copper celts.  

 "Thor Heyerdahl included in his Ra and Ra 2 Evidence the fact that pyramids had been discovered on the Canary Islands, a discovery he had a hand in. This is one of the half-dozen remaining pyramids at Guimar on the big island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, off the NW coast of Africa. It may belong to the very old terraced-pyramid tradition also represented by Cuicuilco, below.These all seem to be broad low staged structures with Kivas (Circular pits and not "Houses") at the top."

One of the Mayan "Serpent Balustrades": the same idea occurs at Angkor Wat using the local         7-headed Nagas.

Tiruvanamala, India

In Peru this could include possibly the pyramid at Tiahuanaco (also resting on some indefinite dates). However, beginning with the Olmecs, the more usual temple mounds started to be built, and therefore in a culture already suspected to have Indian connections. By this time also, Mayan pyramids had started but in this case also, they were low mounds like mastabahs rather than really pyramids (since 2500-3000 BCE.

Ziggurat (Stupa?) Mohenjo-daro

Maize in Pre-Columbian India

Carl L. Johannessen and Anne Z. Parker, "Maize Ears Sculptured in 12th and 13th Century A.D. India as Indicators of Pre-Columbian Diffusion,"Economic Botany 43 , 1989, 164-80, argue that stone carvings of maize ears exist in at least three pre-Columbian Hoysala stone block temples near Mysore, Karnataka state, India. Their article provides 16 photographs of a few of the sculptures in question.
Johannessen has now made three large-scale color photographs available online at http://geography.uoregon.edu/carljohannessen/research.html (new URL, 10/06), with a brief discussion. These photos reveal considerable detail that is lost in the reduced scale black and white reproductions that appeared in the journal article. His photos are the source of the thumbnails on appearing this site, and may be viewed full size by clicking below:



Further photographs appear in his 1998 article, "Maize Diffused to India before Columbus Came to America" (see references below).
In his 1998 article "Pre-Columbian American Sunflower and Maize Images in Indian Temples: Evidence of Contact between Civilizations in India and America" (see references below), Johannessen goes on to cite several appearances of the sunflower, another New World crop, in pre-Columbian Indian temple sculptures. To view Figure 1 from that article, enlarged and in color on his website, click on the thumbnail below:

The following review has been published in theMidwest Epigraphic Journal, vol. 12/13, 1998-99, pp. 43-44.
An earlier version appeared in 1998 on the newsgroup sci.archaeology.

"Much later watercraft depicted at Angkor seem to be of the same conformation with the extremely steep bow and stern. This would be a smaller craft for rowing and not sailing: I imagine Sundaland craft utilised both methods as necessary."http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/search/label/Angkor%20Wat

                                              
   Above is a photograph of a carved panel from a Hindu-Buddhist temple in India, depicting the "Tree of Life" with probable encoded mushrooms, and a symbol very similar in shape to a the Maya glyph for Venus.
                   
              
  Above is a limestone carving 1st century B.C. depicting the enlightenment of the Buddha. Note the possibility of what looks like Amanita mushrooms underneath the sacred bodhi-tree. Also note that at the base of the empty throne are the Buddha's footprints. .British Museum, London, Great Britain (from http://www.lessing-photo.com/dispimg.asp?i=03060124+&cr=714&cl=1 

Pretty Ladies and Indus Script

Sarasvati civilization, Mauryan images

Tukulti Ninurta Altar with Indus Script hieroglyphs related to metalwork catalogue. http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/12/meluhha-hieroglyphs-of-assur-assur.html

Annex

Significance of linga and 4 spheres on Sit Shamshi bronze and Meluhha hieroglyphs on Candi Sukuh linga

Mirror: https://www.academia.edu/10359858/Significance_of_linga_and_4_spheres_on_Sit_Shamshi_bronze_and_Meluhha_hieroglyphs_on_Candi_Sukuh_linga 

The message of Sit Shamshi bronze, consistent with the Akkadian inscription is viewed as a metalwork catalog by bronze workers celebrating a gangga sudhi 'water purification' puja, a consecration also referred to on Candi Sukuh linga inscription.The gloss sudhi also indicates that the consecration is related to veneration of ancestors. Water purification is a metaphor for purification processes in metalwork, removing impurities from minerals to produce pure metal and also alloy metals. See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/ancient-near-east-bronze-age-legacy_6.html

Depicting water ablutions on sunrise or sunset in front of the four-step ziggurat: Susa. Sit-Shamshi (Musée du Louvre, París). 

See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/ancient-near-east-ziggurat-and-related.html

kolmo ‘three’ (Mu.); rebus: kolami ‘smithy’ (Te.) मेंढा [ mēṇḍhā ] A crook or curved end (of a stick, horn &c.) and attrib. such a stick, horn, bullock. मेढा [ mēḍhā ] m A stake, esp. as forked. meḍ(h), meḍhī f., meḍhā m. ʻ post, forked stake ʼ.(Marathi)(CDIAL 10317) Rebus: mẽṛhẽt, meḍ ‘iron’ (Mu.Ho.) Together: kolami meḍ 'smithy iron'. A pair of linga + 4 spheres is dula 'pair' Rebus: dul 'cast metal'. Thus the reading: dul kolami meḍ 'iron casting smithy'. 

Two devotees offer water ablutions to the Sun divinity at dawn and dusk. The Sun is symbolized by the Ziggurat temple flanked on either side by a linga-s and 4 spheres.

What is the significance of the pair of linga and 4 spheres flanking a dagoba, ziggurat?  लोखंड [ lōkhaṇḍa ] 'metalwork' [Hieroglyphs: (lo + gaṇḍa) 'phallus + four, swelling'; Rebus: loh 'copper, metal' + kāṇḍa ‘tools, pots and pans and metal-ware’ (Marathi)]

The sword hieroglyph, khaNDa reinforces the rebus reading as kanda 'fire-trench' used by metalcasters. Fire-trench PLUS smelter furnace constitute the tools of trade of metalcasters and are denoted by the hieroglyphs: membrum virile and kuThi, pudendum mulibre in Candi Sukuh, Central Java; read rebus: kanda 'fire-trench'; kuThi 'smelter'.

The word dagoba is cognate with dhatu garbha, denoting the smelting of minerals (dhatu) in a smelter as a metaphor for the bearing of a child in month's womb (garbha). This imagery becomes the central presentation of an ancient Hindu kole.l temple; koil, 'temple' (Tamil), as a metaphor of creation in a cosmic dance. Hence, the hieroglyphs of linga + 4 spheres flank the ziggurat, dagoba. dhatu garba lit. means 'the womb of minerals (the earth)'. The Sit Shamshi bronze is a representation of the cosmic dance repeated on the earth with the work on dhatu, minerals yielding metals, pots and pans, tools and weapons. The metaphor of the divine as paramaatman, 'supreme divine' is born.

The  imagery of linga and 4 spheres is paralleled on a 1.82m. tall linga of Candi Sukuh temple together with an inscription in Javanese and hieroglyphs of: kris sword-blade flanked by hieroglyphs of sun and crescent-moon. 

The 1.8 metre lingga of Candi Sukuh has four such balls and also has an inscription (representing the vein of the phallus) that reads: ‘Consecration of the Holy Gangga sudhi in … the sign of masculinity is the essence of the world’. 

See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2015/01/sekkizhar-periya-puranam-candi-sukuh.html

Three stakes on Sit-Shamshi bronze.

Glyph: मेंढा [ mēṇḍhā ] A crook or curved end (of a stick, horn &c.) and attrib. such a stick, horn, bullock. मेढा [ mēḍhā ] m A stake, esp. as forked. meḍ(h), meḍhī f., meḍhā m. ʻ post, forked stake ʼ.(Marathi)(CDIAL 10317) Rebus: mẽṛhẽt, meḍ ‘iron’ (Mu.Ho.) Vikalpa: khuṇṭ ‘stump’. Rebus: khũṭ ‘community, guild’ (Mu.) Thus, three jagged sticks on the Sit Shamshi bronze may be decoded as khũṭ kolami ‘smithy guild’ or, meḍ kolami 'iron (metal) smithy'. 'Iron' in such lexical entries may refer to 'metal'.

The Candi Sukuh temple fortification on Mt. Lawu in Central Java is comparable to one of the 16  pyramids in Greece dated to 2720 BCE called Pyramid in Hellenicon, Greece (Fig. 7).

 http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2015/01/meluhha-hieroglyphs-and-candi-sukuh.html

Photo 1: “True” pyramids on Gizeh plateau (Egypt): Cheops, Khefren and Mikeren pyramids are three out of 130 pyramids built in ancient Egypt; perfect orientation North-South, East-West	Photo 2: Mayan pyramid in Tikal (Northern Guatemala), the highest pyramidal structure in Central America
Photo 3: Candi Sukuh, Java, Indonesia, pyramidal temple	Photo 4: Step stone pyramid in Mel, Mauritius
Photo 5: Model of step Pyramid of Akapana in Bolivia, granite blocks were used in construction	Photo 6: Step circular pyramid in Andon, Korea (one of three stone pyramids in Korea)
Photo 7: Pyramid in Hellenicon, Greece, 2720 B.C.(one of the 16 pyramids in Greece)	Photo 8: Pyramid in Sicily (one of five locations among the ancient pyramids in Italy)
Photo 9: Guimar pyramid, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, one of six step stone pyramids in Guimar; dozens of pyramidal structures in Tenerife and La Palma have been destroyed by modern civilization	Photo 10: Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico, 1858, completely covered by soil and vegetation
Photo 11: Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico, 1985, after the excavation	Photo 12: Pyramid - Han Yang Ling Mausoleum, Xian, China, completely covered by soil and vegetation
Photo 13: Pyramid - Han Yang Ling Mausoleum, Xian, China, Model of the pyramid in Museum, perfect orientation North-South, East-West	Photo 14: Step pyramid in Kavachi region, Southern Peru, orientation towards the cardinal points, (total of 34 pyramids in this area, and 250 Tucume pyramids on the North)
Photo 15: Step pyramid in Saqqara, Egypt	Photo 16: Nubian pyramids in Northern Sudan (total of 224 stone pyramids were built)
Photo 17: Mahalatea step pyramid in Tahiti	Photo 18: Red Pyramid in Egypt
Photo 19: Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun, Visoko, Bosnia-Herzegovina, with it’s height of 220 meters - tallest pyramidal structure of the ancient World; preliminary report on the rectangular base: 440x660 meters

http://www.cerchinelgrano.info/piramidi_bosnia.htm

On top of the Mt.Lawu fortification of Candi Sukuh stood this 1.82m. tall linga.

The Lingga discovered at Candi Sukuh on the slopes of Mt. Lawu in Central Java and now in the  National Museum in Jakarta; note the keris. (from c.j. van der Vlis report of 1843).

Candi Cetho. Lingga shows a pair of balls at the top of the penis -- to be read rebus as Meluhha hieroglyph composition: lo-khaNDa, penis + 4 balls; Rebus: iron, metalware.

The four balls of the penis are also clearly shown on a 6 ft. tall linga inscribed with 1. a sword; and 2. inscription in Javanese, referring to 'inauguration of the holy ganggasudhi...'

See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2015/01/sekkizhar-periya-puranam-candi-sukuh.html Histoire ancienne des Etats hindouises along the Tin Road from Haifa to Hanoi. NaMo, Obama, announce United Indian Ocean States.

lo 'penis' Rebus: loh 'copper, metal'

Hieroglyphs: gaṇḍa 'swelling' gaṇḍa 'four' gaṇḍa 'sword'

Rebus: kāṇḍa ‘tools, pots and pans and metal-ware’ (Marathi)

Together, hieroglyphs: lo + gaṇḍa. Rebus: लोखंड [ lōkhaṇḍa ] 'metalwork'

Metaphor: Sh. K.ḍoḍ. lō m. ʻ light, dawn ʼ; L. awāṇ. lō ʻ light ʼ; P. lo f. ʻ light, dawn, power of seeing, consideration ʼ; WPah. bhal. lo f. ʻ light (e.g. of moon) ʼ.(CDIAL 11120). + kaṇṭa 'manliness'. Metaphorical rendering of the effulgence (sun and moon) associated with the pillar of light yielding the imagery of an representation of a fiery pillar with unfathomable beginning, unreachable end, thus of infniity of Mahadeva representing the paramaatman for the aatman in search of nihs'reyas (moksha), from Being to Becoming, the way earth and stones transmute into metal in the smelter and smithy, kole.l 'smithy, temple'.

Bharatiyo, 'metalcasters' (Gujarati) are awestruck by this parallel with the cosmic energy replicated in the energies of the smelter, fire-altar and smithy. Hence, the veneration of the linga + 4 spheres as the essence of every phenomenon on cosmos, on the globe, of the world. These hieroglyphs and related metaphors thus yield the gestalt of Bharatiyo, 'metalcasters' (Meluhha). This enduring metaphor finds expression in sculptures on many Hindu temples of Eurasia.

The gloss gaṇḍu 'manliness' (Kannada); 'bravery, strength' (Telugu) is a synonym of the expression on Candi Suku linga inscription: 'sign of masculinity is the essence of the world'. Thus, the gloss lokhaṇḍa which is a direct Meluhha speech form related to the hieroglyph composition on Candi Suku inscription is the sign of masculinity. The rebus renderings of khandoba or kandariya mahadeva are elucidations of the rebus gloss: kaṇḍa, 'mahadeva S'iva or mahes'vara.' The hieroglyphs deployed on the 1.82m. tall stone sculpture of linga with the inscription and hieroglyphs of sword, sun, moon and four balls deployed just below the tip of the phallus are thus explained as Meluhha speech: lokhaṇḍa. The rebus rendering of the phrase is: lo 'light' and kaṇṭa 'manliness'. These attributes constitute the effulgence of the linga as the fiery pillar, skhamba venerated in Atharva Veda Skhamba sukta as the cosmic effulgence as the cosmic essence.

gaṇḍa -- m. ʻ four' (Munda) गंडा[ gaṇḍā ] m An aggregate of four (cowries or pice). (Marathi) <ganDa>(P)  {NUM} ``^four''.  Syn. <cari>(LS4), <hunja-mi>(D).  *Sa., Mu.<ganDa> `id.', H.<gA~Da> `a group of four cowries'.  %10591.  #10511.<ganDa-mi>(KM)  {NUM} ``^four''.  |<-mi> `one'.  %10600.  #10520. Ju<ganDa>(P)  {NUM} ``^four''.  gaṇḍaka m. ʻ a coin worth four cowries ʼ lex., ʻ method of counting by fours ʼ W. [← Mu. Przyluski RoczOrj iv 234]S. g̠aṇḍho m. ʻ four in counting ʼ; P. gaṇḍā m. ʻ four cowries ʼ; B. Or. H. gaṇḍā m. ʻ a group of four, four cowries ʼ; M. gaṇḍā m. ʻ aggregate of four cowries or pice ʼ.(CDIAL 4001)

gaṇḍa -- m. ʻswelling, boil, abscessʼ(Pali)

Rebus: kaṇḍ 'fire-altar' (Santali) kāṇḍa ‘tools, pots and pans and metal-ware’ (Marathi) खंडा [ khaṇḍā ] m A sort of sword. It is straight and twoedged. खांडा [ khāṇḍā ] m A kind of sword, straight, broad-bladed, two-edged, and round-ended. खांडाईत [ khāṇḍāīta ] a Armed with the sword called खांडा. (Marathi)

लोखंड [ lōkhaṇḍa ] n (लोह S) Iron.लोखंडकाम [ lōkhaṇḍakāma ] n Iron work; that portion (of a building, machine &c.) which consists of iron. 2 The business of an ironsmith.

लोखंडी [ lōkhaṇḍī ] a (लोखंड) Composed of iron; relating to iron.

 

Glosses
ulkāˊ f. ʻ meteor, fire falling from heaven ʼ RV., ʻ fire- brand ʼ ŚBr.Pa. ukkā -- f. ʻ torch ʼ, Pk. ukkā -- f ʻ meteor, fire -- ball ʼ; B. ūk, ukā ʻ torch ʼ; Or. uka ʻ torch, flash of fire, meteor ʼ, ukiā ʻ sun's rays ʼ; Mth. ūk ʻ torch ʼ; H. ūk m. ʻ torch, blaze, meteor ʼ.(CDIAL 2362). Rebus: ukku 'steel' (Telugu) Ta. uruku (uruki-) to dissolve (intr.) with heat, melt, liquefy, be fused, become tender, melt (as the heart), be kind, glow with love, be emaciated; urukku (urukki-) to melt (tr.) with heat (as metals or congealed substances), dissolve, liquefy, fuse, soften (as feelings), reduce, emaciate (as the body), destroy; n. steel, anything melted, product of liquefaction; urukkam melting of heart, tenderness, compassion, love (as to a deity, friend, or child); urukkiṉam that which facilitates the fusion of metals (as borax). Ma. urukuka to melt, dissolve, be softened; urukkuka to melt (tr.); urukkam melting, anguish; urukku what is melted, fused metal, steel. Ko. uk steel.  Ka.urku, ukku id. Koḍ. ur- (uri-) to melt (intr.); urïk- (urïki-) id. (tr.); ukkï steel. Te. ukku id. Go. (Mu.) urī-, (Ko.) uṛi- to be melted, dissolved; tr. (Mu.) urih-/urh-(Voc. 262). Konḍa (BB) rūg- to melt, dissolve. Kui ūra (ūri-) to be dissolved; pl. action ūrka (ūrki-); rūga (rūgi-) to be dissolved. Kuwi (Ṭ.) rūy- to be dissolved; (S.)rūkhnai to smelt; (Isr.) uku, (S.) ukku steel. (DEDR 661)

Go<luGguj>(Z) [lUGguy']  {NB} ``male ^genitals, ^penis, ^scrotum''.(Munda etyma)

Hieroglyph: loe 'penis' (Ho.) Rebus: loh 'copper, iron, metal' (Indian sprachbund, Meluhha)






Hieroglyph: ``^penis'':So. laj(R)  ~ lij  ~ la'a'j  ~ laJ/ laj  ~ kaD `penis'.Sa. li'j `penis, esp. of small boys'.Sa. lO'j `penis'.Mu. lOe'j  ~ lOGgE'j `penis'.  ! lO'jHo loe `penis'.Ku. la:j `penis'.@(C289) ``^penis'':Sa. lOj `penis'.Mu. lOj `penis'.KW lOj@(M084) <lO?Oj>(D),,<AlAj>(L)//<lAj>(DL)  {N} ``^penis''.  #43901. <ului>(P),,<uluj>(MP)  {NB} ``^penis, male organ, male^genitals''.  Cf. <kOlOb>(P),<susu>(M) `testicle'; <kuLij>(M), <kuRij>(P) `vulva'.  *Sa., MuN<lO'j>, MuH, Ho<lo'e>,So.<laj-An>, U.Tem.<lo'> ??. %33271.  #33031.So<lO?Oj>(D),,<AlAj>(L)//<lAj>(DL)  {N} ``^penis''.
<lohosua>(D)  {NI} ``^dance''.  #20141. 
Rebus: lōká1 m.ʻ free space, world ʼ RV., ʻ space, territory ʼ, ŚBr., ʻ people ʼ Mn.Pa. lōka -- m. ʻ world ʼ; Aś.top. loke ʻthe people ʼ, shah. ia -- lokaṁ,jau. hida -- logaṁ ʻ this world ʼ; KharI. loo ʻplace ʼ; Pk. lōga -- , lōa -- m. ʻ world, people ʼ; Wg. lō ʻwide open ground ʼ; S. lou m. ʻ tribe, family ʼ, loi f.ʻ place of residence, lover's village ʼ; L.khet. lō ʻ village ʼ; OB. loa plural affix; OAw. loi m. ʻ people ʼ, H. loe, loī m.; OG. loi m. ʻ the world ʼ, Si. lov, lev (< nom. *lovi), lō.(CDIAL 11119)
Rebus: <loha>(BD)  {NI} ``^iron''.  Syn. <luaG>(D).  *@.  #20131)  laúha -- ʻ made of copper or iron ʼ Gr̥Śr., ʻ red ʼ MBh., n. ʻ iron, metal ʼ Bhaṭṭ. [lōhá -- ] Pk. lōha -- ʻ made of iron ʼ; L. lohā ʻ iron -- coloured, reddish ʼ; P. lohā ʻ reddish -- brown (of cattle) ʼ.lōhá 11158 lōhá ʻ red, copper -- coloured ʼ ŚrS., ʻ made of copper ʼ ŚBr., m.n. ʻ copper ʼ VS., ʻ iron ʼ MBh. [*rudh -- ] Pa. lōha -- m. ʻ metal, esp. copper or bronze ʼ; Pk. lōha -- m. ʻ iron ʼ, Gy. pal. li°, lihi, obl. elhás, as. loa JGLS new ser. ii 258; Wg. (Lumsden) "loa"ʻ steel ʼ; Kho.loh ʻ copper ʼ; S. lohu m. ʻ iron ʼ, L. lohā m., awāṇ. lōˋā, P. lohā m. (→ K.rām. ḍoḍ. lohā), WPah.bhad. lɔ̃u n., bhal. lòtilde; n., pāḍ. jaun. lōh, paṅ. luhā, cur. cam.lohā, Ku. luwā, N. lohu, °hā, A. lo, B. lo, no, Or. lohā, luhā, Mth. loh, Bhoj. lohā, Aw.lakh. lōh, H. loh, lohā m., G. M. loh n.; Si. loho, lō ʻ metal, ore, iron ʼ; Md.ratu -- lō ʻ copper ʼ.WPah.kṭg. (kc.) lóɔ ʻ iron ʼ, J. lohā m., Garh. loho; Md. lō ʻ metal ʼ. (CDIAL 11172).
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.WPah.kṭg. (kc.) lhwāˋr m. ʻ blacksmith ʼ, lhwàri f. ʻ his wife ʼ, Garh. lwār m. (CDIAL 11159).lōhaghaṭa 11160 *lōhaghaṭa ʻ iron pot ʼ. [lōhá -- , ghaṭa -- 1]Bi. lohrā, °rī ʻ small iron pan ʼ.*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 11160)lōhala ʻ made of iron ʼ W. [lōhá -- ]G. lohar, lohariyɔ m. ʻ selfwilled and unyielding man ʼ.(CDIAL 11161).*lōhaśālā ʻ smithy ʼ. [lōhá -- , śāˊlā -- ]Bi. lohsārī ʻ smithy ʼ. (CDIAL 11162).lōhahaṭṭika 11163 *lōhahaṭṭika ʻ ironmonger ʼ. [lōhá -- , haṭṭa -- ] P.ludh. lōhṭiyā m. ʻ ironmonger ʼ.†*lōhahala -- ʻ ploughshare ʼ. [lōhá -- , halá -- ]WPah.kṭg. lhwāˋḷ m. ʻ ploughshare ʼ, J. lohāl ʻ an agricultural instrument ʼ; rather < †*lōhaphāla -- .(CDIAL 11163).
Kur. kaṇḍō a stool. Malt. kanḍo stool, seat. (DEDR 1179) Rebus: kaṇḍ 'fire-altar' (Santali) kāṇḍa ‘tools, pots and pans and metal-ware’ (Marathi) खंडा [ khaṇḍā ] m A sort of sword. It is straight and twoedged. खांडा [ khāṇḍā ] m A kind of sword, straight, broad-bladed, two-edged, and round-ended. खांडाईत [ khāṇḍāīta ] a Armed with the sword called खांडा. (Marathi)
kole.l 'temple' Rebus: kole.l 'smithy' (Kota)

लोखंड [ lōkhaṇḍa ] n (लोह S) Iron. लोखंडाचे चणे खावविणें or चारणें To oppress grievously. 
लोखंडकाम [ lōkhaṇḍakāma ] n Iron work; that portion (of a building, machine &c.) which consists of iron. 2 The business of an ironsmith.
लोखंडी [ 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. Examples follow.
लोखंडी [ lōkhaṇḍī ] f (लोखंड) An iron boiler or other vessel. 2 A large scandent shrub, Ventilago Maderaspatana. Grah.
लोखंडी काव [ lōkhaṇḍī kāva ] f A red ochre or earth.
लोखंडी चुना [ lōkhaṇḍī cunā ] m A term for strong and enduring chunam-work.
लोखंडी छाप [ lōkhaṇḍī chāpa ] m (Iron type.) A term, according to popular apprehension, for Leaden types and for Printing; in contrad. from दगडछाप Lithography.
लोखंडी जर [ lōkhaṇḍī jara ] m (लोखंड & जर) False brocade or lace; lace &c. made of iron.

शेणामेणाचा [ śēṇāmēṇācā ] a (Of dung and wax.) Weak, feeble, flimsy, slight, superficial, unsubstantial, soft, easy, yea and nay, milk and watery. A colloquialism expressing contempt or slight, and used of buildings, articles, business, animals, men.
शेणामेणालोखंडाचा [ śēṇāmēṇālōkhaṇḍācā ] a (Of dung, of wax, and of iron.) That seems at first soft and easy, empty and unmeaning, and becomes gradually hard, difficult, significant, weighty, grievous, until at length it resembles iron;--as a work or a business, a speech, a treatment. 2 Weak and strong; flimsy and substantial; of which part is earthy, part adamantine; of a mixed character or confused quality;--as a building, a business.

मेणा or ण्या[ mēṇā or ṇyā ] a (मेण) Smeared with a composition of wax, dregs of oil or ghee, ashes of burnt rags and cowdung &c. Used of टोपलें, सूप, पांटी, हरा &c.

लोह  [ lōha ] n S Iron, crude or wrought.

खांडा [ khāṇḍā ] m A kind of sword, straight, broad-bladed, two-edged, and round-ended.

खांडेकरी  [ khāṇḍēkarī ] m A man armed with the sword called खांडा.
खेंड [ khēṇḍa ] f A sort of sword with a rounded and weighty extremity.
खंडोबा [ khaṇḍōbā ] m A familiar appellation of the god खंडेराव. सोळा गुणांचा खं0 (Marathi)

gōla1 m. ʻ ball ʼ BhP., °aka -- m. ʻ ball ʼ BhP., ʻ glans penis ʼ Sāy., °likā -- f. ʻ little ball ʼ SāmavBr. (CDIAL 4321) Rebus: kol ‘working in iron’(Tamil)

*kaṇṭa3 ʻ backbone, podex, penis ʼ. Gy. eur. kanro m. ʻ penis ʼ (or < káṇṭaka -- ); Tir. mar -- kaṇḍḗ ʻ back (of the body) ʼ; S. kaṇḍo m. ʻ back ʼ, L. kaṇḍ f., kaṇḍā m. ʻ backbone ʼ, awāṇ. kaṇḍ, °ḍī ʻ back ʼ; P. kaṇḍ f. ʻ back, pubes ʼ; B. kã̄ṭ ʻ clitoris ʼ(CDIAL 2670).

Rebus: kāṇḍa. Water; sacred water (Samskritam. Tamil)

Go<kanDa>(A)  {N} ``^sword''. Gu<ka~Da>  {N} ``^sword''.  *Des.<kaNDa>(GM) `sword'. Re<khanDa>(B)  {N} ``^sword''.  *Des.<khOnDa:>.<kanDa>(A)  {N} ``^sword''.  #15910. <ka~Da>  {N} ``^sword''.  *De.<kaNDa>(GM) `sword'.  @N0670.  #10791. <khanda>>:.  #16501.<pet = khanda>E145  {N} ``a ^sword worshipped as the symbol of an important local deity''.  @B28440.  #16512.<khanDa>(B)  {N} ``^sword''. *Des.<khOnDa:>.  @B07650.  #16521. Re<paTkaNDa>(F)  {N} ``sacred ^Great_^Sword worshipped in Remo ritual as the symbol of an important local diety''.  Cited also as <pet = khanda>E145.

<kanda>(A)  {N} ``^saddle (between two ^hills)''.  ??in geography list.  #15900.

<kanDuD>(Z)  {NB} ``^vagina, female ^sex_organ''.  *So.<kAnDoD>(Z)/<DoD> `frog'.  #15920.

गंडा[ gaṇḍā ] m An aggregate of four (cowries or pice). (Marathi) <ganDa>(P)  {NUM} ``^four''.  Syn. <cari>(LS4), <hunja-mi>(D).  *Sa., Mu.<ganDa> `id.', H.<gA~Da> `a group of four cowries'.  %10591.  #10511.<ganDa-mi>(KM)  {NUM} ``^four''.  |<-mi> `one'.  %10600.  #10520. Ju<ganDa>(P)  {NUM} ``^four''.  gaṇḍaka m. ʻ a coin worth four cowries ʼ lex., ʻ method of counting by fours ʼ W. [← Mu. Przyluski RoczOrj iv 234]S. g̠aṇḍho m. ʻ four in counting ʼ; P. gaṇḍā m. ʻ four cowries ʼ; B. Or. H. gaṇḍā m. ʻ a group of four, four cowries ʼ; M. gaṇḍā m. ʻ aggregate of four cowries or pice ʼ.(CDIAL 4001)

Psht. guṇḍ ʻ round ʼ, Pers. gunda ʻ ball of leaven ʼ, gund ʻ testicle ʼ < *gr̥nda -- NTS xii 263. -- See also gaḍu -- 1, gaṇḍu -- , *giḍa -- , *gilla -- , kanda -- ]1. Pa. gaṇḍa -- m. ʻ swelling, boil, abscess ʼ; Pk. gaṁḍa<-> m.n. ʻ goitre, boil ʼ, NiDoc. gaṁḍa(CDIAL 3997)

See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/tablet-of-destinies.html 

Ancient Near east Anzu, falcon-shaped fire-altar Uttarakhand, turning aṁśú (Rigveda), ancu (Tocharian) in smithy.

This explains the hieroglyph of eagle in Candi Sukuh sculptures which depict a winged eagle ligatured to a man's body.

Syena-citi: A Monument of Uttarkashi  The first layer of  one kind of śyenaciti or falcon altar described in the Śulbasūtras, made of 200 bricks of six shapes or sizes, all of them adding up to a specified total area. 

Distt.EXCAVATED SITE -PUROLA Geo-Coordinates-Lat. 30° 52’54” N Long. 77° 05’33” E Notification No& Date;2742/-/16-09/1996The ancient site at Purola is located on the left bank of river Kamal. 

Ancient Near east Anzu, falcon-shaped fire-altar Uttarakhand

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/tablet-of-destinies.html