Indian sprachbund is a philological hypothesis. The time has come for further detailed evaluation by scholars of this sprachbund. Meluhha (mleccha) is attested as a spoken language in ancient Indian texts.
Moving away from the polemics of Aryan Invasion/Migration or Out of India theories to explain the evolution and formation of languages of the sprachbund, an alternative approach is to start with the hypothesis of a sprachbund for the region of Ancient Near East which was witness to and participating region of intense interactions in an extensive contact area of civilizations starting circa 4th millennium BCE. One key is provided by the metalware and associated words in languages of the interaction area of ancient Near East.
Determination of the direction of 'borrowings' from among the substratum words of a linguistic area is governed by faith of the investigator. Even Emeneau who has done remarkable work with Burrow in compiling a Dravidian Etymological Dictionary and Toda etyma refers to Aryan Invasion Theory as a 'linguistic doctrine', to explain many cognate lexemes in language streams of India. The polemics of the invasion or migration or of directions of migration or invasion need not detain us here. To start with, the focus can be on identifying 'substratum' words of Indian sprachbund. Such words can be identified in one or more of the ancient Indian languages which are recorded in comparative lexicons of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian and in Munda etyma. See: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~reid/Combined%20Files/A40.%201996.%20Current%20SE%20Asia%20linguistic%20research--rev%2011-07-09.pdf The Current State of Linguistic Research on the Relatedness of the Language Families of East and Southeast Asia (1996).
Such substratum words could be hypothesised to constitute lexemes of 'Indus language'.
Such substrtum words are likely to have been retained in more than one language of the Indian sprachbund, irrespective of the language-family to which a particular language belongs. This is the justification for the identification, in comparative lexicons, of sememes with cognate lexemes from languages such as Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Santali, Munda or Toda or Kota. The underlying assumption is that the substratum words were absorbed into the particular languages either as borrowings or as morphemes subjected to phonetic changes over time. There is no linguistic technique available to 'date' a particular sememe and relate it to the technical processes which resulted in naming, for example, the metalware or furnaces/smelters used to create metals and cast the metals or alloys and forge them. It is remarkable, indeed, that hundreds of cognate lexemes have been retained in more than one language to facilitate rebus readings of hieroglyphs.
An example can be cited to elucidate the point made in this argument. The word attested in Rigveda is ayas, often interpreted as 'metal or bronze'. The cognate lexemes are ayo 'iron' (Gujarati. Santali) ayaskāṇḍa 'excellent quantity of iron' (Panini), kāṇḍā 'tools, pots and pans of metalware' (Marathi). अयोगूः A blacksmith; Vāj.3.5. अयस् a. [इ-गतौ-असुन्] Going, moving; nimble. N. (-यः) 1 Iron (एति चलति अयस्कान्तसंनिकर्षं इति तथात्वम्; नायसोल्लिख्यते रत्नम् Śukra 4.169. अभितप्तमयो$पि मार्दवं भजते कैव कथा शरीरिषु R.8.43. -2 Steel. -3 Gold. -4 A metal in general. Ayaskāṇḍa 1 an iron-arrow. -2 excellent iron. -3 a large quantity of iron. –क_नत_(अयसक_नत_) 1 ‘beloved of iron’, a magnet, load-stone; 2 a precious stone; ˚मजण_ a loadstone; ayaskāra 1 an iron-smith, blacksmith (Skt.Apte) ayas-kāntamu. [Skt.] n. The load-stone, a magnet. Ayaskāruḍu. n. A black smith, one who works in iron. ayassu. N. ayō-mayamu. [Skt.] adj. made of iron (Te.) áyas— n. ‘metal, iron’ RV. Pa. ayō nom. Sg. N. and m., aya— n. ‘iron’, Pk. Aya— n., Si. Ya. AYAŚCŪRṆA—, AYASKĀṆḌA—, *AYASKŪṬA—. Addenda: áyas—: Md. Da ‘iron’, dafat ‘piece of iron’. ayaskāṇḍa— m.n. ‘a quantity of iron, excellent iron’ Pāṇ. Gaṇ. Viii.3.48 [ÁYAS—, KAA ́ṆḌA—]Si.yakaḍa ‘iron’.*ayaskūṭa— ‘iron hammer’. [ÁYAS—, KUU ́ṬA—1] Pa. ayōkūṭa—, ayak m.; Si. Yakuḷa‘sledge —hammer’, yavuḷa (< ayōkūṭa) (CDIAL 590, 591, 592). Cf. Lat. Aes , aer-is for as-is ; Goth. Ais , Thema aisa; Old Germ. E7r , iron ;Goth. Eisarn ; Mod. Germ. Eisen. aduru native metal (Ka.); ayil iron (Ta.) ayir, ayiram any ore (Ma.); ajirda karba very hard iron (Tu.)(DEDR 192). Ta. Ayil javelin, lance, surgical knife, lancet.Ma. ayil javelin, lance; ayiri surgical knife, lancet. (DEDR 193). Aduru = gan.iyinda tegadu karagade iruva aduru = ore taken from the mine and not subjected to melting in a furnace (Ka. Siddhānti Subrahmaṇya’ Śastri’s new interpretation of the AmarakoŚa, Bangalore, Vicaradarpana Press, 1872, p.330); adar = fine sand (Ta.); ayir – iron dust, any ore (Ma.) Kur. Adar the waste of pounded rice, broken grains, etc. Malt. Adru broken grain (DEDR 134). Ma. Aśu thin, slender;ayir, ayiram iron dust.Ta. ayir subtlety, fineness, fine sand, candied sugar; ? atar fine sand, dust. அய.ர³ ayir, n. 1. Subtlety, fineness; நணசம. (த_வ_.) 2. [M. ayir.] Fine sand; நணமணல. (மலசலப. 92.) ayiram, n. Candied sugar; ayil, n. cf. ayas. 1. Iron; 2. Surgical knife, lancet; Javelin, lance; ayilavaṉ, Skanda, as bearing a javelin (DEDR 341).Tu. gadarů a lump (DEDR 1196) kadara— m. ‘iron goad for guiding an elephant’ lex. (CDIAL 2711).
The rebus reading is provided by the fish hieroglyph which reads in Munda languages:
A beginning has been made presenting over 8000 semantic clusters of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and Munda words in a comparative Indian Lexicon. http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/sarasvati/html/indlexmain.htmTo these clusters, a Tocharian cluster may also have to be incorporated since the recognition of Tocharian as an Indo-European language. Pinault identifies ancu 'iron' in Toharian and compares it with amśu which is a synonym of soma in early texts of Indian tradition, starting with the Rgveda. http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/09/decipherment-of-soma-and-ancient-indo.html Identification of Soma and notes on lexeme corpora of ancient Indian languages.
The 4th millennium BCE heralded the arrival of a veritable revolution in technology -- the making of tin bronzes to complement arsenical bronzes. Contemporaneous with this metallurgical revolution was the invention of writing systems which evolved from early tokens and bullae to categorise commodities and provide for their accounting systems using advanced tokens with writing as administrative devices.
Remarkable progress has been made ever since Kuiper identified a stunning array of glosses which were found in early Samskrtam and which were not explained by Indo-Aryan or Indo-European language evolution chronologies. This is noted by Witzel in http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/savifadok/112/1/AryanandnonAryan_1999.pdf While Witzel presents some examples drawn from Kuiper in the context of a time-period from 2nd millenium BCE, it is likely that many of the words in Indian sprachbund may relate to substratum words of earlier millennia, in particular, the millennia which saw the emergence of the bronze-age and metallurgical repertoire of revolutionary proportions requiring long-distance trade involving sea-faring merchants from Meluhha, the Ancient Near East and the Levant. On meluhha-mleccha, see: http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.3800 Indus script corpora, archaeo-metallurgy and Meluhha (Mleccha) Cuneiform texts attest to the presence of Meluhha settlements. http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/04/bronze-age-writing-in-ancient-near-east.html
On Munda lexemes in Sanskrit see: [F.B.J. Kuiper, Proto-Munda Words in Sanskrit, Amsterdam, Verhandeling der Koninklijke Nederlandsche Akademie Van Wetenschappen, Afd. Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks Deel Li, No. 3, 1948]
Proto-Indian in harosheth hagoyim (S.Kalyanaraman 2012)
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Shape of a token representing one ingot of metal, Susa, Iran, ca. 3300 BCE. Many such shapes are found on miniature tablets with Indus writing. Miniature tables account for over 9% of Indus writing corpora. Many miniature tablets are of the size of a human thumbnail.![]()
Three miniature tablets, measure about 1.25 inches long by 0.5 inches wide are shown on this image.
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Altyn-tepe seals compare with an inscription on a miniature tablet, Text 4500 (Harappa. Incised miniature tablet; not illustrated). Line 2 of inscription: A pair of ‘harrows’ glyph: dula ‘pair’; rebus dul ‘cast (metal)’; aḍar ‘harrow’; rebus: aduru ‘native metal’. Thus, the duplicated ‘harrow’ glyph read rebus: cast native metal. Glyph: svastika; rebus: jasta ‘zinc’ (Kashmiri). Glyph ‘three liner strokes’: kolmo ‘three’; rebus: kolami ‘smithy’. Line 1 of inscription: Ligatured glyph: cunda ‘musk-rat’; rebus: cundakāra ‘ivory turner’; kolmo ‘three’; rebus: kolami ‘smithy’. Thus the Text 4500 on an incised miniature tablet read rebus: ivory turner smithy’; cast native metal, tin, smithy.
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h337, h338 Texts 4417, 4426 with two glyphs each on leaf-shaped, miniature Harappa tablets.Glyph; goḍe a rat’s hole (DEDR 1660). Pk. kōḍara -- , kōla°, kōṭa°, koṭṭa° n. ʻ hole, hollow ʼ; Or. koraṛa ʻ hollow in a tree, cave, hole ʼ; H. (X *khōla --2) khoḍar m. ʻ pit, hollow in a tree ʼ, khoṛrā m.; Si.kovuḷa ʻ rotten tree ʼ (< *kōḷalla -- with H. Smith JA 1950, 197, but not < Pa. kōḷāpa -- ). (CDIAL 3496).
Rebus: खोट [khōṭa] ‘ingot, wedge’; A mass of metal (unwrought or of old metal melted down). (Maratthi) khoṭf ʻalloy (Lahnda) Hence खोटसाळ [khōṭasāḷa] a (खोट & साळ from शाला) Alloyed--a metal. (Marathi) Bshk. khoṭ ʻ embers ʼ, Phal. khūṭo ʻ ashes, burning coal ʼ; L. khoṭā ʻ alloyed ʼ, awāṇ. khoṭā ʻ forged ʼ; P. khoṭ m. ʻ base, alloy ʼ M.khoṭā ʻ alloyed ʼ, (CDIAL 3931)Kor. (O.)
gaṇḍa‘four’ (Santali); rebus: ‘furnace, kaṇḍ fire-altar’
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Moving away from the polemics of Aryan Invasion/Migration or Out of India theories to explain the evolution and formation of languages of the sprachbund, an alternative approach is to start with the hypothesis of a sprachbund for the region of Ancient Near East which was witness to and participating region of intense interactions in an extensive contact area of civilizations starting circa 4th millennium BCE. One key is provided by the metalware and associated words in languages of the interaction area of ancient Near East.
Determination of the direction of 'borrowings' from among the substratum words of a linguistic area is governed by faith of the investigator. Even Emeneau who has done remarkable work with Burrow in compiling a Dravidian Etymological Dictionary and Toda etyma refers to Aryan Invasion Theory as a 'linguistic doctrine', to explain many cognate lexemes in language streams of India. The polemics of the invasion or migration or of directions of migration or invasion need not detain us here. To start with, the focus can be on identifying 'substratum' words of Indian sprachbund. Such words can be identified in one or more of the ancient Indian languages which are recorded in comparative lexicons of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian and in Munda etyma. See: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~reid/Combined%20Files/A40.%201996.%20Current%20SE%20Asia%20linguistic%20research--rev%2011-07-09.pdf The Current State of Linguistic Research on the Relatedness of the Language Families of East and Southeast Asia (1996).
Such substratum words could be hypothesised to constitute lexemes of 'Indus language'.
Such substrtum words are likely to have been retained in more than one language of the Indian sprachbund, irrespective of the language-family to which a particular language belongs. This is the justification for the identification, in comparative lexicons, of sememes with cognate lexemes from languages such as Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Santali, Munda or Toda or Kota. The underlying assumption is that the substratum words were absorbed into the particular languages either as borrowings or as morphemes subjected to phonetic changes over time. There is no linguistic technique available to 'date' a particular sememe and relate it to the technical processes which resulted in naming, for example, the metalware or furnaces/smelters used to create metals and cast the metals or alloys and forge them. It is remarkable, indeed, that hundreds of cognate lexemes have been retained in more than one language to facilitate rebus readings of hieroglyphs.
An example can be cited to elucidate the point made in this argument. The word attested in Rigveda is ayas, often interpreted as 'metal or bronze'. The cognate lexemes are ayo 'iron' (Gujarati. Santali) ayaskāṇḍa 'excellent quantity of iron' (Panini), kāṇḍā 'tools, pots and pans of metalware' (Marathi). अयोगूः A blacksmith; Vāj.3.5. अयस् a. [इ-गतौ-असुन्] Going, moving; nimble. N. (-यः) 1 Iron (एति चलति अयस्कान्तसंनिकर्षं इति तथात्वम्; नायसोल्लिख्यते रत्नम् Śukra 4.169. अभितप्तमयो$पि मार्दवं भजते कैव कथा शरीरिषु R.8.43. -2 Steel. -3 Gold. -4 A metal in general. Ayaskāṇḍa 1 an iron-arrow. -2 excellent iron. -3 a large quantity of iron. –क_नत_(अयसक_नत_) 1 ‘beloved of iron’, a magnet, load-stone; 2 a precious stone; ˚मजण_ a loadstone; ayaskāra 1 an iron-smith, blacksmith (Skt.Apte) ayas-kāntamu. [Skt.] n. The load-stone, a magnet. Ayaskāruḍu. n. A black smith, one who works in iron. ayassu. N. ayō-mayamu. [Skt.] adj. made of iron (Te.) áyas— n. ‘metal, iron’ RV. Pa. ayō nom. Sg. N. and m., aya— n. ‘iron’, Pk. Aya— n., Si. Ya. AYAŚCŪRṆA—, AYASKĀṆḌA—, *AYASKŪṬA—. Addenda: áyas—: Md. Da ‘iron’, dafat ‘piece of iron’. ayaskāṇḍa— m.n. ‘a quantity of iron, excellent iron’ Pāṇ. Gaṇ. Viii.3.48 [ÁYAS—, KAA ́ṆḌA—]Si.yakaḍa ‘iron’.*ayaskūṭa— ‘iron hammer’. [ÁYAS—, KUU ́ṬA—1] Pa. ayōkūṭa—, ayak m.; Si. Yakuḷa‘sledge —hammer’, yavuḷa (< ayōkūṭa) (CDIAL 590, 591, 592). Cf. Lat. Aes , aer-is for as-is ; Goth. Ais , Thema aisa; Old Germ. E7r , iron ;Goth. Eisarn ; Mod. Germ. Eisen. aduru native metal (Ka.); ayil iron (Ta.) ayir, ayiram any ore (Ma.); ajirda karba very hard iron (Tu.)(DEDR 192). Ta. Ayil javelin, lance, surgical knife, lancet.Ma. ayil javelin, lance; ayiri surgical knife, lancet. (DEDR 193). Aduru = gan.iyinda tegadu karagade iruva aduru = ore taken from the mine and not subjected to melting in a furnace (Ka. Siddhānti Subrahmaṇya’ Śastri’s new interpretation of the AmarakoŚa, Bangalore, Vicaradarpana Press, 1872, p.330); adar = fine sand (Ta.); ayir – iron dust, any ore (Ma.) Kur. Adar the waste of pounded rice, broken grains, etc. Malt. Adru broken grain (DEDR 134). Ma. Aśu thin, slender;ayir, ayiram iron dust.Ta. ayir subtlety, fineness, fine sand, candied sugar; ? atar fine sand, dust. அய.ர³ ayir, n. 1. Subtlety, fineness; நணசம. (த_வ_.) 2. [M. ayir.] Fine sand; நணமணல. (மலசலப. 92.) ayiram, n. Candied sugar; ayil, n. cf. ayas. 1. Iron; 2. Surgical knife, lancet; Javelin, lance; ayilavaṉ, Skanda, as bearing a javelin (DEDR 341).Tu. gadarů a lump (DEDR 1196) kadara— m. ‘iron goad for guiding an elephant’ lex. (CDIAL 2711).
The rebus reading is provided by the fish hieroglyph which reads in Munda languages:
<ayu?>(A) {N} ``^fish’’. #1370. <yO>\\<AyO>(L) {N} ``^fish’’. #3612. <kukkulEyO>,,<kukkuli-yO>(LMD) {N} ``prawn’’. !Serango dialect. #32612. <sArjAjyO>,,<sArjAj>(D) {N} ``prawn’’. #32622. <magur-yO>(ZL) {N} ``a kind of ^fish’’. *Or.<>. #32632. <ur+Gol-Da-yO>(LL) {N} ``a kind of ^fish’’. #32642.<bal.bal-yO>(DL) {N} ``smoked fish’’. #15163. Vikalpa: Munda: <aDara>(L) {N} ``^scales of a fish, sharp bark of a tree’’.#10171. So<aDara>(L) {N} ``^scales of a fish, sharp bark of a tree’’. Indian mackerel Ta. Ayirai, acarai, acalai loach, sandy colour, Cobitis thermalis; ayilai a kind of fish. Ma. Ayala a fish, mackerel, scomber; aila, ayila a fish; ayira a kind of small fish, loach (DEDR 191)
A beginning has been made presenting over 8000 semantic clusters of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and Munda words in a comparative Indian Lexicon. http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/sarasvati/html/indlexmain.htmTo these clusters, a Tocharian cluster may also have to be incorporated since the recognition of Tocharian as an Indo-European language. Pinault identifies ancu 'iron' in Toharian and compares it with amśu which is a synonym of soma in early texts of Indian tradition, starting with the Rgveda. http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/09/decipherment-of-soma-and-ancient-indo.html Identification of Soma and notes on lexeme corpora of ancient Indian languages.
The 4th millennium BCE heralded the arrival of a veritable revolution in technology -- the making of tin bronzes to complement arsenical bronzes. Contemporaneous with this metallurgical revolution was the invention of writing systems which evolved from early tokens and bullae to categorise commodities and provide for their accounting systems using advanced tokens with writing as administrative devices.
Remarkable progress has been made ever since Kuiper identified a stunning array of glosses which were found in early Samskrtam and which were not explained by Indo-Aryan or Indo-European language evolution chronologies. This is noted by Witzel in http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/savifadok/112/1/AryanandnonAryan_1999.pdf While Witzel presents some examples drawn from Kuiper in the context of a time-period from 2nd millenium BCE, it is likely that many of the words in Indian sprachbund may relate to substratum words of earlier millennia, in particular, the millennia which saw the emergence of the bronze-age and metallurgical repertoire of revolutionary proportions requiring long-distance trade involving sea-faring merchants from Meluhha, the Ancient Near East and the Levant. On meluhha-mleccha, see: http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.3800 Indus script corpora, archaeo-metallurgy and Meluhha (Mleccha) Cuneiform texts attest to the presence of Meluhha settlements. http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/04/bronze-age-writing-in-ancient-near-east.html
On Munda lexemes in Sanskrit see: [F.B.J. Kuiper, Proto-Munda Words in Sanskrit, Amsterdam, Verhandeling der Koninklijke Nederlandsche Akademie Van Wetenschappen, Afd. Letterkunde, Nieuwe Reeks Deel Li, No. 3, 1948]
http://www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/sarasvati/dictionary/9MUNDA.HTM Kuiper's brilliant exposition begins: "Some hundred Sanskrit and Prakrit words are shown to be derived from the Proto-Munda branch of the Austro-Asiatic source. The term 'Proto-Munda' is used to indicate that the Munda languages had departed considerably from the Austro-Asiatic type of language as early as the Vedic period... a process of 'Dravidization' of the Munda tongues... contributing to the growth of the Indian linguistic league (sprachbund)." This concept of sprachbund is elaborated further in Emeneau, Masica and Southworth and in the following links:
Emeneau, Murray B., The Indian linguistic area revisited, International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics 3, 1974, 92-134
Gonda, J. Old Indian. Leiden-Köln:Brill 1971
Grierson, G. Linguistic Survey of India. Calcutta: Office of the superintendent of
government printing, India 1903-22.
Kuiper, F.B.J., The Genesis of a Linguistic Aera. IIJ 10, 1967, 81-102.
Masica, Colin P. Defining a Linguistic Area. South Asia. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press 1971
Mayrhofer, M. Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen. Heidelberg 1956-
1976. (KEWA)
Pinault, G. Reflets dialectaux en védique ancien. In: Colette Caillat (ed.), Dialects dans les
littératures indo-aryennes. Paris : Institut de Civilisation Indienne 1989, 35-96.
Pinnow, Heinz-Jürgen. Untersuchungen zu den altindischen Gewässernamen. [PhD Diss.]
Freie Universität Berlin 1951.
Salomon, Richard. The Three Cursed Rivers of the East, and their Significance for the
Historical Geography of Ancient India. Adyar Library Bulletin 42, 1978, 31-60
Shaffer, R. Nahåli, A linguistic study in paleoethnography. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
5, 1940, 346-371
Sircar, D.C. Indian Epigraphical Glossary. Delhi 1966
Southworth, Franklin, 2004, Linguistic Archaeology of South Asia
A hypothesis which governs the identification of Indus script cipher is that metallurgical lexemes found in languages of the Indian sprachbund are traceable to the 'Indus language' which is found in the evidence of hieroglyphs of Indus writing which used the substratum sounds of words of the metallurgical civilization.
There is evidence for reconstructing the 'Indus language' from references in ancient texts both in cuneiform archives and in Samskrtam to Meluhha-mleccha as spoken languages of one group of people called dahyu (concordant daha -- Old Iranian). http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dahyu- DAHYU (OIr. dahyu-), attested in Avestan dax́iiu-, daŋ́hu- “country” (often with reference to the people inhabiting it.
A clue to the intensity of interactions in the Ancient Near East domain is found in two cognate words: harosheth, 'smithy of nations' (Hebrew) and kharoṣṭī, name of an early writing system. http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/proto-indian-in-harosheth-hagoyim.html
Proto-Indian in harosheth hagoyim (S.Kalyanaraman 2012)
That Indus writing continued as a legacy in kharoṣṭī and brāhmī writing systems is an unfinished hypothesis. (cf. the work of Subhash Kak on Indus script-brāhmī link and BV Subbarayappa on numeral systems of writing). One view is that kharoṣṭī writing system is evolved from Phoenian-Aramaic in the context of trade in civilization contact areas of Ancient Near East. Some work is in progress on kharoṣṭī documents of ancient Bauddham texts. See the note by Richard Salomon at http://wordpress.tsadra.org/?p=291 The University of Washington – Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project: Rediscovering the Worlds’ Oldest Buddhist Manuscripts.
Susa was a settlement which was founded around 4000 BCE and had yielded a number of tablets inscribed in Proto-Elamite writing with apparent cuneiform script. Based on the evidence of cuneiform records of contacts with Meluhha, Magan and Dilmun, and the context of the evolving bronze-age, it is possible to evaluate Indus writing in Susa and provide a framework for deciphering Indus writing using the underlying Meluhha language. Judges 4:16 reads: "Now Barak chased the chariots and the army all the way to Harosheth Hagoyim. Sisera's whole army died by the edge of the sword; not even one survived!" The reason for the use of the phrase harosheth hagoyim ‘smithy of nations’ is possibly, a widespread presence of smithy in many bronze- and iron-age settlements, some of which might have produced metallic war-chariots. Indus writing which starts ca. 3500 BCE was a sequel to the system of using tokens and tallies to record property transactions. There is evidence for the presence of Meluhhan settlements in Susa and neighboring regions. Susa finds of cylinder seals and seal impressions, bas-relief of spinner and a ritual basin with hieroglyphs of Indus writing can be consistently interpreted in the Meluhhan language in the context of the evolving bronze-age trade ransactions.kharoṣṭī (cognate with harosheth) was a syllabic writing system with intimations of contacts with Aramaic writing system. Though early evidences of kharoṣṭī documents are dated to ca. early 5th century BCE, it is likely that some form of contract documentation using a proto-form of kharoṣṭī was perhaps used by artisans and traders, across a vast interaction area which covered a wide geographic area from Kyrgystan (Tocharian) to Haifa (Israel, Seaport on Mediterranean Ocean) – across Sarasvati-Sindu river-basins, Tigris-Euphrates doab, Caspian Sea, and Mediterranean Ocean – of three civilizations Indus, Mesopotamia and Egypt. The evidence of about 6000 Indus script inscriptions provides the details of products traded in this harosheth hagoyim, a smithy of nations, indeed.
Susa was a settlement which was founded around 4000 BCE and had yielded a number of tablets inscribed in Proto-Elamite writing with apparent cuneiform script. Based on the evidence of cuneiform records of contacts with Meluhha, Magan and Dilmun, and the context of the evolving bronze-age, it is possible to evaluate Indus writing in Susa and provide a framework for deciphering Indus writing using the underlying Meluhha language. Judges 4:16 reads: "Now Barak chased the chariots and the army all the way to Harosheth Hagoyim. Sisera's whole army died by the edge of the sword; not even one survived!" The reason for the use of the phrase harosheth hagoyim ‘smithy of nations’ is possibly, a widespread presence of smithy in many bronze- and iron-age settlements, some of which might have produced metallic war-chariots. Indus writing which starts ca. 3500 BCE was a sequel to the system of using tokens and tallies to record property transactions. There is evidence for the presence of Meluhhan settlements in Susa and neighboring regions. Susa finds of cylinder seals and seal impressions, bas-relief of spinner and a ritual basin with hieroglyphs of Indus writing can be consistently interpreted in the Meluhhan language in the context of the evolving bronze-age trade ransactions.kharoṣṭī (cognate with harosheth) was a syllabic writing system with intimations of contacts with Aramaic writing system. Though early evidences of kharoṣṭī documents are dated to ca. early 5th century BCE, it is likely that some form of contract documentation using a proto-form of kharoṣṭī was perhaps used by artisans and traders, across a vast interaction area which covered a wide geographic area from Kyrgystan (Tocharian) to Haifa (Israel, Seaport on Mediterranean Ocean) – across Sarasvati-Sindu river-basins, Tigris-Euphrates doab, Caspian Sea, and Mediterranean Ocean – of three civilizations Indus, Mesopotamia and Egypt. The evidence of about 6000 Indus script inscriptions provides the details of products traded in this harosheth hagoyim, a smithy of nations, indeed.
Shape of a token representing one ingot of metal, Susa, Iran, ca. 3300 BCE. Many such shapes are found on miniature tablets with Indus writing. Miniature tables account for over 9% of Indus writing corpora. Many miniature tablets are of the size of a human thumbnail.
Three miniature tablets, measure about 1.25 inches long by 0.5 inches wide are shown on this image.
Iravatham Mahadevan compares writing on a miniature tablet with the writing in Sulur dish.
Source: http://www.harappa.com/arrow/megalithic-inscription.html The text on Harappa miniature tablet can be seen on h351A, B, C tablet three sides shown on Indus writing corpora. http://docs5.chomikuj.pl/76090809,PL,0,0,Iravatham-Mahadevan---A-Megalithic-Pottery-Inscription-and-a-Harappa-Tablet-A-case-of-extraordinary-resemblance---figures.pdf
See the text on Altyn-tepe seal which is comparable to a text on Harappa miniature tablet Text 4500 on an incised Harappa miniature tablet.
Altyn-tepe seals compare with an inscription on a miniature tablet, Text 4500 (Harappa. Incised miniature tablet; not illustrated). Line 2 of inscription: A pair of ‘harrows’ glyph: dula ‘pair’; rebus dul ‘cast (metal)’; aḍar ‘harrow’; rebus: aduru ‘native metal’. Thus, the duplicated ‘harrow’ glyph read rebus: cast native metal. Glyph: svastika; rebus: jasta ‘zinc’ (Kashmiri). Glyph ‘three liner strokes’: kolmo ‘three’; rebus: kolami ‘smithy’. Line 1 of inscription: Ligatured glyph: cunda ‘musk-rat’; rebus: cundakāra ‘ivory turner’; kolmo ‘three’; rebus: kolami ‘smithy’. Thus the Text 4500 on an incised miniature tablet read rebus: ivory turner smithy’; cast native metal, tin, smithy.కండె [ kaṇḍe ] kaṇḍe. [Tel.] n. A head or ear of millet or maize. జొన్నకంకి. Mth. kã̄ṛ ʻstack of stalks of large milletʼ(CDIAL 3023). Rebus: kaṇḍ‘furnace, fire-altar, consecrated fire’. Rebus: khāṇḍā‘tools, pots and pans, and metal-ware’.
h337, h338 Texts 4417, 4426 with two glyphs each on leaf-shaped, miniature Harappa tablets.Rebus: खोट [khōṭa] ‘ingot, wedge’; A mass of metal (unwrought or of old metal melted down). (Maratthi) khoṭf ʻalloy (Lahnda) Hence खोटसाळ [khōṭasāḷa] a (खोट & साळ from शाला) Alloyed--a metal. (Marathi) Bshk. khoṭ ʻ embers ʼ, Phal. khūṭo ʻ ashes, burning coal ʼ; L. khoṭā ʻ alloyed ʼ, awāṇ. khoṭā ʻ forged ʼ; P. khoṭ m. ʻ base, alloy ʼ M.khoṭā ʻ alloyed ʼ, (CDIAL 3931)Kor. (O.)
gaṇḍa‘four’ (Santali); rebus: ‘furnace, kaṇḍ fire-altar’
Glyph: kolom‘cob’; rebus: kolmo‘seedling, rice (paddy) plant’ (Munda.)
A miniature, incised tablet from Harappa h329A has a fish-shaped tablet with two signs: fish + arrow (which combination was also pronounced as ayaskāṇḍa on a bos indicus seal Kalibangan032).
The dotted circle (eye) is decoded rebus as kaṇ‘aperture’ (Tamil); kāṇũ hole (Gujarati) (i.e. glyph showing dotted-circle); kāṇa ‘one eye’ and these glyphs may have been interpreted as the ‘fish-eyes’ or ‘eye stones’ (Akkadian IGI-HA, IGI-KU6) mentioned in Mesopotamian texts. ayo ‘fish’ 9Mu.); rebus: aya = iron (G.); ayah, ayas = metal (Skt.) kaṇi ‘stone’ (Kannada) கன்¹ kaṉ Copper (Tamil) கன்² kaṉ , n. < கல். stone (Tamil) खडा (Marathi) is ‘metal, nodule, stone, lump’. kaṇi‘stone’ (Kannada) with Tadbhava khaḍu. khaḍu, kaṇ‘stone/nodule (metal)’. . Ga. (Oll.) kanḍ, (S.) kanḍu (pl. kanḍkil) stone (DEDR 1298). These could be the substratum glosses for kāṇḍa in ayaskāṇḍa‘excellent iron’ (Pan.) ‘metal tools, pots and pans and metal-ware’. h329A has a fish-shaped tablet with two signs: fish + arrow (which has been decoded as ayaskāṇḍa on a bos indicus seal). The ‘fish-eye’ is a reinforcement of the gloss kāṇḍ‘stone/nodule (metal)’. The dotted circle (eye) is decoded rebus as kaṇ‘aperture’ (Tamil); kāṇũ hole (Gujarati) (i.e. glyph showing dotted-circle); kāṇa ‘one eye’ and these glyphs may have been interpreted as the ‘fish-eyes’ or ‘eye stones’ (Akkadian IGI-HA, IGI-KU6) mentioned in Mesopotamian texts. The commodities denoted may be nodules of mined stones/nodules of chalcopyrite. See Annex. ‘Eye stones’ elucidating, based on textual and archaeological contexts, that ‘fish-eyes’ do NOT refer to pearls. While one surmises that they refer to agate stones, it can be evidenced that the glyphs of ‘dotted circles’ denoting ‘fish-eyes’ or ‘antelope-eyes’, refer to ‘stone/nodules of mineral (perhaps, chalcopyrite)’ or ‘tools, pots and pans and metal-ware’, decoded rebus as kāṇḍ as in ayaskāṇḍa‘excellent iron’.
Combination of ‘fish’ glyph and ‘four-short-linear-strokes’ circumgraph also pronounced the same text ayaskāṇḍa on another bos indicus seal m1118. This seal uses circumgraph of four short linear strokes which included a morpheme which was pronounced variantly as gaṇḍa‘four’ (Santali).
Thus, the circumgraph of four linear strokes used on m1118 Mohenjo-daro seal was an allograph for ‘arrow’ glyph used on h329A Harappa tablet.
The hieroglyphic use of ‘fish’ glyph on Indus writing resolves the transactions related ‘fish-eyes’ traded between Ur and Meluhha mentioned in cuneiform texts as related to ayas ‘fish’ and khoṭf ʻalloyed metal’:
A ‘hole’ or a ‘diotted-circle’ glyph may denote a word which was pronounced khoṭf ʻalloyed metal’.
खोट [ khōṭa ] f A mass of metal (unwrought or of old metal melted down); an ingot or wedge. Hence खोटसाळ [ khōṭasāḷa ] a (खोट & साळ from शाला) Alloyed--a metal. (Marathi) Bshk. khoṭ ʻembersʼ, Phal. khūṭo ʻashes, burning coalʼ; L. khoṭf ʻalloy, impurityʼ, °ṭā ʻalloyedʼ, awāṇ. khoṭā ʻforgedʼ; P. khoṭ m. ʻbase, alloyʼ M.khoṭā ʻalloyedʼ (CDIAL 3931)
Kor. (O.) goḍe a rat’s hole (DEDR 1660). Pk. kōḍara -- , kōla°, kōṭa°, koṭṭa° n. ʻ hole, hollow ʼ; Or. koraṛa ʻ hollow in a tree, cave, hole ʼ; H. (X *khōla -- 2) khoḍar m. ʻ pit, hollow in a tree ʼ, khoṛrā m.; Si.kovuḷa ʻ rotten tree ʼ (< *kōḷalla -- with H. Smith JA 1950, 197, but not < Pa. kōḷāpa -- ). (CDIAL 3496).
Thus, the ‘dotted circle’ glyph may be distinguished from a ‘wort’ glyph (which is a blob or small lump). The dotted circle denotes: khaṇḍa‘tools, pots and pans and metal-ware’
[quote] The suggestion that ‘fish-eyes’ (IGI.HA, IGI-KU6), imported through Ur, may have been pearls has been advanced by a number of scholars. ‘Fish-eyes’ were among a number of valuable commodities (gold, copper, lapis lazuli, stone beads) offered in thanksgiving at the temple of the Sumerian goddess Ningal at Ur by seafaring merchants who had returned safely from Dilmun and perhaps further afield. Elsewhere they are said to have been bought in Dilmun. Whether ‘fish-eyes’ differed from ‘fish-eye stones’ (NA4 IGI.HA, NA4 IGI-KU6) and from simply ‘eye-stones’ is not entirely clear. The latter are included among goods imported from Meluhha (NA4 IGI-ME-LUH-HA) ca. 1816-1810 BCE and ca. 1600-1570 BCE. Any pearls from Meluhha – probably coastal Baluchistan-Sind – would have been generally inferior to those from Dilmun itself. It has been strongly argued that ‘fish-eyes’, ‘fish-eye stones’ and ‘eye-stones’ in Old Babylonian and Akkadian texts were not in fact pearls, but rather (a) etched cornelian beads, imported from India and/or (b) pebbles of banded agate, cut to resemble closely a black/brown pupil and white cornea. The nearest source of good agate is in northwest India, which would accord with supplies obtained from Meluhha. ‘Eye-stones’ of agate were undoubtedly treasured: some were inscribed and used as amulets, others have been found in votive deposits. Perhaps pearls were at times included among ‘fish-eyes,’ if not ‘fish-eye stones’. More likely, however, the word for ‘pearl’ is among the ‘more than 800 terms in the lexical lists of stones and gems [that] remain to be identified.[unquote] (Donkin, R.A., 1998, Beyond price: pearls and pearl-fishing: origins to the age of discoveries, Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, Memoir Volume 224, pp.49-50)Full text at http://tinyurl.com/y9zpb5n Note 109. For Sumerian words, see Delitzch, 1914: pp.18-19 (igi, eye), 125 (ku, fish), 195 (na, stone); and cf. Chicago Assyrian Dictionary I/J: 1960: pp.45 (iga), 153-158 (Akk. i_nu), N(2), 1980: p.340 (k), ‘fish-eye stones’.Note 110. A.L. Oppenheim, 1954: pp.7-8; Leemans, 1960b: pp.24 f. (IGI-KU6). Followed by Kramer, 1963a: p.113, 1963b: p.283; Bibby, 1970: pp.189, 191-192: Ratnagar, 1981: pp.23-24,79, 188; M. Rice, 1985: p.181.Note 111. A.L. Oppenheim, 1954: p.11; Leemans, 1960b: p.37 (NA4 IGI-KU6, ‘fish-eye stones’).Note 112. Leemans, 1968: p.222 (‘pearls from Meluhha’. Falkenstein (1963: pp.10-11 [12]) has ‘augenformigen Perlen aus Meluhha’. (lit. shaped eyes beads from Meluhha).
Examples of miniature tablets which are an expansion of the token shapes of ancient Near East may be seen with Indus writing on the following 7 clusters of images. The writing deploys hieroglyphs. On one stream of evolution, the wedge-shape becomes a glyphic component of cuneiform writing; on another stream of evolution, the token-shapes get deployed with Indus writing. That this deployment is closely related to the bronze-age revolution of tin- and zinc-bronzes and other metal alloys has been demonstrated by the cipher using rebus readings of hieroglyphs with the underlying sounds of lexemes evidenced from lexemes of Indian sprachbund:
Most of the hieroglyphs on these tablets have been read rebus using the underlying sounds of substratum lexemes in Indian sprachbund languages which are veritable substratum meluhha/mleccha lexemes. Further language studies on the sprachbund will help identify the cluster of glosses related to metalware starting from ca. 4th millennium BCE in the linguistic area. It has been demonstrated in the context of HARP discoveries that the tablets could have been used to document metallurgical accounting transactions from furnace/smelter to working platforms and from working platforms into the warehouse for further documentation on seals and documentation of jangaḍ 'entrustment articles' transactions through jangaḍiyo 'couriers, military guards who accompany treasure into the treasury' (Gujarati).
Related links:
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/ancient-near-east-writing-systems.html Ancient Near East writing systems: Indian sprachbund and Indus writing
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/ancient-near-east-jangad-accounting-for.htmlAncient Near East jangaḍ accounting for mercatile transactions-- evidence of Indus writing presented.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/ancient-near-east-bronze-age-legacy_6.htmlAncient Near East bronze-age legacy: Processions depicted on Narmer palette, Indus writing denote artisan guilds
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/ancient-near-east-art-indus-writing.html Ancient near East lapidary guilds graduate into bronze-age metalware
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/indus-writing-in-ancient-near-east-on.html An ancient Near East proto-cuneiform tablet with Indus writing
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/indus-writing-on-dilmun-type-seals.html Indus writing in ancient Near East (Failaka seal readings)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/indus-writing-on-gold-disc-kuwait.html Indus writing on gold disc, Kuwait Museum al-Sabah collection: An Indus metalware catalog
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/did-indus-writing-deal-with-numeration.html Did Indus writing deal with numeration? No. The writing dealt with metalware accounting as technical specs. in bills-of-lading.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/tokens-and-bullae-evolve-into-indus.htmlTokens and bullae evolve into Indus writing, underlying language-sounds read rebus
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/see-httpbharatkalyan97.htmlIndus writing in ancient Near East (Dilmun seal readings)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/bahrain-digs-unveil-one-of-oldest.htmlBahrain digs unveil one of oldest civilisations -- BBC
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/indus-writing-as-metalware-catalogs-and_21.htmlIndus writing in ancient Near East as metalware catalogs and not as agrarian accounting
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/on-perceiving-aryan-migrations-by.htmlOn perceiving aryan migrations by Witzel misquoting vedic ritual texts. Explaining mleccha vācas in Indian sprachbund.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/ancient-ivory-metal-traces-on.htmlIndus writing and ancient Ivory. Metal traces on Phoenician artifacts show long-gone paint and gold
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/functions-served-by-terracotta-cakes-of.htmlFunctions served by terracotta cakes of Indus civilization: Like ANE tokens for counting metal and alloy ingots
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/04/bronze-age-writing-in-ancient-near-east.htmlBronze-age writing in ancient Near East: Two Samarra bowls and Warka vase
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/04/bronze-age-glyphs-and-writing-in.htmlBronze-age glyphs and writing in ancient Near East: Two cylinder seals from Sumer
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/04/indus-writing-in-ancient-near-east.htmlIndus Writing in ancient Near East: Corpora and a dictionary and Akkadian Rising Sun: two new books (April 2013)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/proto-indian-in-harosheth-hagoyim.html Proto-Indian in harosheth hagoyim (S.Kalyanaraman 2012)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/07/between-mesopotamia-and-meluhha-ancient.html Between Mesopotamia and Meluhha: an ancient world of writing
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/05/spinner-bas-relief-of-susa-8th-c-bce.html Spinner bas-relief of Susa, 8th c. BCE -- message of wheelwright guild
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/04/indian-hieroglyphs-indus-script-corpora.html Indian hieroglyphs -- Indus script corpora, archaeo-metallurgy and Meluhha (Mleccha)(S. Kalyanaraman, 2012)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/04/heifer-lathe-hieroglyphs-on-indus-seals.html Young bull + lathe hieroglyphs on Indus seals
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/03/protovedic-continuity-theory.html Protovedic Continuity Theory (Kalyanaraman, 2012)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/03/decrypting-sangar-fortified-settlement.html Decrypting sangar, fortified settlement on Indus script corpora (Kalyanaraman, March 2012)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/03/trefoil-as-indian-hieroglyph.html Trefoil as an Indian hieroglyph: association with veneration of ancestors, sacredness (Kalyanaraman, March 10, 2012)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/02/indian-hieroglyphs-meluhha-and-archaeo.html Indian hieroglyphs, meluhha and archaeo-metallurgy
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/02/dr-s-kalyanaramans-recent-contribution.html Dr. S. Kalyanaraman's recent contribution to archaeo-metallurgy - Jayasree Saranathan
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/12/indus-script-hieroglyphs-composite.html Indus script hieroglyphs: composite animal, smithy
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/12/indus-valley-mystery-and-use-of-tablets.html Indus valley mystery. Archaeology and language: Archaeological context of Indus script cipher.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/12/acarya-hemacandra-1088-1173-ce.html Decoding 'ram' glyph of Indus script, meḍh: rebus: 'helper of merchant'
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/syena-orthography.htmlśyena, orthography, Sasanian iconography. Continued use of Indus Script hieroglyphs.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/assyrian-goat-fish-on-seal-interaction.html Assyrian goat-fish on a seal; compared with crocodile-fish hieroglyphs on Indus Script
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/susa-ritual-basin-decorated-with.html Goat and fish as hieroglyphs of Indus script: Susa-Meluhha interactions. Meluhhan interpreter 'may have been literate and could read the undeciphered Indus script.'
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/indus-script-examples-of-free-hand.html Indus script: examples of free-hand writing. A professional calling card on gold pendant.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/decoding-longest-inscription-of-indus.html Decoding two long inscriptions of Indus Script (Kalyanarman, 2011)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/mohenjo-daro-stupa-great-bath-modeled.html Mohenjo-daro stupa & Great Bath - Modeled after Ziggurat and Sit Shamshi (Kalyanaraman, 2011)
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