http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/01/aratta-as-lata.html Araṭṭa as Lāṭa The following notes provide further evidence and arguments to support the identification of Araṭṭa as Lāṭa (ancient Gujarat). The location of Araṭṭa has baffled many researchers who have located the region in a wide area ranging from Armenia (Ararat or Urartu mountain) to Afghanistan (as the source of lapis lazuli stone).
To make some progress in resolving the problem of locating Araṭṭa, some archaeological evidences are presented.
Chanhu-daro, Dholavira, Tin road
Evidence for Chanhu-daro as the Sheffield of ancient India and Dholavira as the port-town with trade links which could have extended through the Persian Gulf and through Mari to the Fertile Crescent (evidenced by the finds of cire perdue arsenic-bronze artifacts at Nahal Mishmar) and the Tin road through Assur and Kanish (Anatolia) (evidenced by over 20,000 merchants' letters found on cuneiform tablets), it is becoming clear that -- together with tin ore and the technique of lost-wax metal casting -- gold and precious stones came from Afghanistan and Gujarat (evidenced by the Queen Pu-abi tomb finds.
If Gandhara was Afghanistan, Araṭṭa also mentioned in Baudhāyana śrautasūtra was Gujarat (Rann of Kutch or northern part of Lāṭa).
Pu-abi had the title "nin" or "eresh", a Sumerian word which can denote a queen or a priestess.)
Puabi's 25 pieces of jewellery constituting the diadem and other ornaments from the Royal Cemetery of Ur in Mesopotamia discovered by Leonard Woolley.
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Polished beads found in the tomb of Queen Puabi Puabi or Shab'ad "The Sumerian princess" : Jewelry and headdress of gold and imported precious stones such as carnelian and lapis lazuli from India and Afghanistan. From the Royal Cemetery of Ur. Early Dynastic, ca. 2400 BC. The National Museum of Iraq - Baghdad. The headdress of gold, lapis lazuli, and carnelian includes a frontlet with beads and pendant gold rings, two wreaths of poplar leaves, a wreath of willow leaves and inlaid rosettes, and a string of lapis lazuli beads, discovered on Queen Puabi’s body in her tomb at the Royal Cemetery of Ur, ca 2550 BCE. The rosette is safflower hieroglyph read rebus in Meluhha: करडी [karaḍī] f (See करडई) 'safflower' (Prakrit) Rebus: करडा [karaḍā] ' Hard from alloy--iron, silver &c.' (Marathi) [Note: अकीक [akīka] m ( A) A cornelian (Marathi). वैडूर्य [vaiḍūrya] n (Properly वैदूर्य S) A turquois or lapis lazuli.] The hieroglyph safflower was chosen because it also denoted the fire-god करडी [karaḍī] (Remo) Carnelian beads of Puabi could not have come from Afghanistan. The safflower hieroglyph shown on Tukulti-Ninurta altar is also found on flower ornament of jewellery :  Middle Assyrian, Ashur, wall painting fragments of Palace of Tukulti Ninurta  Kunal, silver ornaments. Safflower-shaped hieroglyph is shown on the top left. |
Enmerkar’s campaign to Aratta
Places mentioned in the Enmerkar Epics
Enmerkar sends an envoy along with his specific threats to destroy Aratta if Aratta does not pay him the tributes, highlighting that Enmerkar was reared on the soil of Aratta. The king of Aratta replies that submission to Uruk is out of the question, because Inanna herself had chosen him to his office. The envoy responds that Inanna has been installed as queen at E-ana and has even promised Enmerkar to make Aratta bow to Uruk. Enmerkar actually sends the barley to Aratta as demanded by the king of Aratta, along with the herald and makes another demand to send even more precious stones.
What more information is needed to locate Aratta? Aratta was a region which could supply precious stones.
Gujarat was well known as the repository of the carnelian precious stones. It was also a trade entrepot handling lapis lazuli acquired from Gandhara (Afghanistan).
"The lord of Aratta, in a fit of pride, refuses and instead asks Enmerkar to deliver to him these precious stones himself. Upon hearing this, Enmerkar spends ten years preparing an ornate sceptre, then sends it to Aratta with his messenger. This frightens the lord of Aratta, who now sees that Inanna has indeed forsaken him, but he instead proposes to arrange a one-on-one combat between two champions of the two cities, to determine the outcome of the still-diplomatic conflict with Enmerkar. The king of Uruk responds by accepting this challenge, while increasing his demands for the people of Aratta to make a significant offering for the E-ana and the abzu, or face destruction and dispersal. To relieve the herald who, beleaguered, can no longer remember all the messages with which he is charged, Enmerkar then resorts to an invention: writing on tablets. The herald again traverses the "seven mountains" to Aratta, with the tablets, and when the king of Aratta tries to read the message, Ishkur, the storm-god, causes a great rain to produce wild wheat and chickpeas that are then brought to the king. Seeing this, the king declares that Inanna has not forsaken the primacy of Aratta after all, and summons his champion." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enmerkar_and_the_Lord_of_Aratta
Arguing for locating Aratta in Iran, Samuel Noah Kramer notes:“A problem arises, however, in trying to locate Aratta in relation to Anshan. Is it to be sought north of Anshan in the direction of Lake Urmia and the Caspian Sea, or to the east in the direction of Bauchistan and India, or to the south in the direction of Laristan and the Persian Gulf? Once again, it is a Sumerian epic tale which may give us the answer. This poem, which may be entitled ‘Lugalbanda and Mount Hurum’, remained largely unintelligible until 1955, when a large six-column tablet from the Hilprecht Collection of the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena became availale; it tells the following story. Enmerkar, the lord of Erech, has decided to journey to Aratta in order to make it a vassal state. Accompanied by a vast host of Erechites under the command of seven unnamed heroes and Lugalbanda, who, to quote the words of the poem, ‘was their eight’, he arrives at Mount Hurum. Then and there Lugalbanda falls ill. His brothers and friends do all they can to revive him, but to no avail. Taking for dead, they decide that they will leave his corpse on Mount Hurum, proceed on their journey to Aratta, and on their return from the campaign, pick up his body and carry it back to Erech. But Lugalbanda is not dead. Abandoned and forsaken, he prays to the gods of the sun, moon, ad the Venus star, and they restore his health. He wanders all over the highland steppe, ad there we must leave him for the present, since our available texts break off at this point. It is clear from this poem that Mount Hurum was situated between Erech and Aratta, and since it is not unreasonable to assume that Mount Hurum was the original home of the Hurrian people from the neighborhood of Lake Van, we may conclude that Aratta lay in the vicinity of Lake Urmia or perhaps even farther east.”(Kramer, Samual N., The Sumerians, p.275) http://people.ucls.uchicago.edu/~cjuriss/ModernWorld/Documents/Jurisson-UNIT-2-Kramer-The-Sumerians-Legacy.pdf
Ancient names of the region of Gujarat (which supplied carnelian stones)
Lāṭa or Lāḍa (cf. Biddhasālabhanjikā) was the ancient name of Gujarat and the northern Konkan (Marco Polo, Vol. II, p. 302n.). The name is also mentioned in Vātsyāyana’s Kāmasūtra. Dhauli inscription calls it Lāthikā. Girnar inscription of Asoka calls it Rāsthikā (Risthika).
Lāḍa is cognate with Rāḍha of Bengal. (Mahavamsa). The link of Rāḍha with Lāḍa may also be seen in the narrative that Prince Sihabahu had left his maternal grand father's kingdom in Vanga and founded Sihapura in Lata Rashtra.(Mahavamsa 6.34).
Lāṭa was also called Ollā.(Rajasekhara’s Viddhasalābhanjikā, Acts II and IV). Ollā is a phonetic variant of Ballabhi or Balabhi (now called Wallay or Walā).
The region south of Mahi or Narmada upto river Purva (or as far as Daman) was called Lāṭa and ‘it corresponded roughly with southern Gujarat’. (cf.Gauuda P., ch. 55; Dowson’s Classical Dictionary of Hindu mythology; Dr. Bhandarkar’s Hist. of the Dekkan, see XI, p 42).
According to Prof. Buhler, Lāṭa is central Gujarat, the district between Mahi and Kim rivers and its chief city was Broach. (cf. Additional notes. It-sing’s Records of the Buddhist religion by Takakusu, p. 217; Alberuni’s India, I, p. 205).
Copper plate inscription found at Baroda names Lāṭeyvara to be Elapur (v. II) also with the genealogy of the kings of Lāṭesvara (JASB, vol. VIII, 1839, p. 292).
Lāṭa has been identified with Central and Southern Gujarat in the Rewah stone inscription of Karna.
Lāṭarāṣṭra or Lāṭaviṣaya had the capital city of Sihapura according to Dipavamsa. Upon the death of Sihabahu of Sinhapura (Lala Rattha = Lata Rashtra = Latadesa = Gujarat), his son Summita became king of Lata. He married a Madra princess by whom he had three sons. (Mahavamsa, Trans Geiger, p 62.)
Śaktisangam Tantra locates Lāṭa to the west of Avanti and to the northwest of Vidarbha.
The appearance of the terms Rathika, Ristika (Rashtrika) or Lathika in conjunction with the terms Kambhoja and Gandhara in some Ashokan inscriptions of 2nd century BCE from Mansera and Shahbazgarhi in North Western Frontier Province (present day Pakistan), Girnar (Saurashtra) and Dhavali (Kalinga) and the use of the epithet "Ratta" in many later inscriptions has prompted a claim that the earliest Rashtrakutas (ca. 6tth-7th centuries) were descendants of the Arattas, natives of the Punjab region from the time of Mahabharata, who later migrated south and set up kingdoms there. (Hultzsch in Reu 1933, p2). The term "Ratta" is implied in Maharatta ruling families from modern Maharashtra region. (Altekar, 1934, pp. 20-21).
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“Uttarakāṇḍa of the Rāmāyaṇa, Ch. 100, verse10) refers to Vāhīka who were also known as Jarttikā (Jāt?) and Araṭṭa (Araṭṭa were the Arattai of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, p. 41) and that their capital was Śākala (Sialkot). Another portion of the same passage suggests that in the Araṭṭa countries religion was in disrepute; it was thus an impure region, and the Aryans of mid-India were forbidden to go there. This is also reflected in the Vārttikā of Pāṇini by Kātyāyana who derives the word Vāhīka from ‘vahi’ or ‘bahi’ meaning ‘outside’, -- suggesting those who were outside the pale of Aryandom. According to Pāṇini and his scholiast Patañjali, Vāhīka was another name for the Punjab (IV, 2, 117; V, 3,114; Ind. Ant., I, 122).”(Law, Bimala Churn, 1943, Tribes in Ancient India, Poona, Meharchand Munshiram). This points to the possibility that Araṭṭa people of Baudhāyana śrautasūtra migrated further southwards from the Punjab, just as Uttaramādra migrated beyond the Himalayas.
Note: Jarttikā (Jāt?) and Araṭṭa as Vāhīka could relate to the eastern and south-western location of the people in present-day as Jāt in Rajasthan and as Araṭṭa (Gurjara) in Gujarat.
Jean Przylusky notes that Bahlika (Balkh) was an Iranian settlement of the Madras who were known as Bahlika-Uttaramadras.(An Ancient People of Panjab, The Udumbras, Journal Asiatique, 1926, p 11).
Note: Jarttikā (Jāt?) and Araṭṭa as Vāhīka could relate to the eastern and south-western location of the people in present-day as Jāt in Rajasthan and as Araṭṭa (Gurjara) in Gujarat.
Indian sprachbund or linguistic argument for Araṭṭa as Lāṭa
In the course of a search for the cipher for Meluhha hieroglyphs (aka Indus script), it has been noted that Meluhha (Mleccha) was the lingua franca, the proto-Prakrit vernacular, as distinct from Sanskrit which was a literary version of speech.
There is a philological rule in Indian sprachbund: "ralayorabhedaH"
(This means that there is abheda meaning there is maitri 'friendship' between
"ra" and "la") in pronunciation of words.
"ra" and "la") in pronunciation of words.
Mleccha (Meluhha) would frequently interchange r- and l- sounds as evidenced in the name of Lāṭa which could also be pronounced as Rāṭa, a derivation from rāṣṭra (Sanskrit).
The following are variants of the Sanskrit gloss: rāṣṭrá n. ʻ kingdom, country ʼ RV., ʻ people ʼ Mn. Pa. Pk. raṭṭha -- n. ʻ kingdom, country ʼ; Ku. rāṭh ʻ faction, clan, separate division of a joint -- family group ʼ; Si. raṭa ʻ country, district ʼ, Md. ra ʼ (abl. rařuṅ). -- See rāḍhā (CDIAL 10721). rāṣṭrakūṭa m. ʻ name of a people ʼ inscr. (orig. or by pop. etym. ʻhead of the kingdomʼ). S. rāṭhoṛu m. ʻ a caste of Rajputs, bold hardy man ʼ; H. rāṭhaur m. ʻ a tribe of Rajputs (a caste name) ʼ, G. rāṭhɔṛ m. -- Poss. hypochoristic in L. rāṭh m. ʻ title of Jats, Gujjars, and Ḍogras, cruel hardhearted man ʼ; P. rāṭh m. ʻ gentleman, noble -- hearted fellow ʼ rather than < rāṣṭrín (CDIAL 10722). 10724 rāṣṭrín ʻ possessing a kingdom ʼ ŚBr., rāṣṭrika -- m. ʻ governor ʼ Hariv. Pa. raṭṭhika -- m. ʻ governor ʼ, Pk. raṭṭhiya -- m., OSi. raṭiya. -- L. P. rāṭh see rāṣṭrakūṭa (CDIAL 10724).
The Pali, Prakrit form raṭṭha is instructive and means a region ruled by a ruler. A region without such a ruler, say, a janapada could have been called a-raṭṭha or Araṭṭa.
It is not mere coincidence that the following etyma occur and could perhaps be related to the products produced in (like the bead necklace of Puabi in Ur): K. lar f. ʻ string of necklace ʼ; L. laṛī f. ʻ strand of cord ʼ, mult. laṛ m., P. laṛī f.; Ku. laṛ ʻ garland, string ʼ, laṛo ʻ cord ʼ, laṛi ʻ garland, string of beads ʼ; N. lari, lariyā ʻ skein of cotton removed after spinning ʼ; Mth. lar ʻ strand of rope ʼ; OAw. larī f. ʻ string of pearls ʼ, H. laṛ, laṛī f., OMarw. laṛa f., M. laḍ, laḍī f.(CDIAL 10921). lāḍ m. ʻ act of caressing ʼ, lāḍo m. ʻ bride- groom ʼ, lāḍī f. ʻ bride ʼ, lāḍak m. ʻ best man ʼ.(CDIAL 11012).
Considering that Lāṭa consistently refers to Gujarat region in many early epigraphs, it is reasonable to assume that some areas of the region which did not have a ruler and was a janapada (trans. republic) -- at some point of time as we traverse the mists of the past -- could have been called Araṭṭa.
The horse argument for locating Araṭṭa
Smt. Jayasree Saranathan has provided me the following guidance:
I think Aratta lies to west of river Indus and is known for horse breeding. Please refer Mahabharata sources where Aratta horses were mentioned to have been used in wars. Aratta was also known for irreligious and matriarchal culture. A place with a combination of all these -breeding of war-horses, matriarchy and unchaste women - to be the location of Aratta which was ruled by Sindhu kings in Mahabharata times. I am even tempted to connect it to Susa. I am giving below the Mahabharata sources.
The horse argument for locating Araṭṭa
Smt. Jayasree Saranathan has provided me the following guidance:
I think Aratta lies to west of river Indus and is known for horse breeding. Please refer Mahabharata sources where Aratta horses were mentioned to have been used in wars. Aratta was also known for irreligious and matriarchal culture. A place with a combination of all these -breeding of war-horses, matriarchy and unchaste women - to be the location of Aratta which was ruled by Sindhu kings in Mahabharata times. I am even tempted to connect it to Susa. I am giving below the Mahabharata sources.
Mbh.6.86.4544 | |
Mbh.6.91.4754 | And smiling the while, several warriors on thy side, with a large number of steeds consisting of the best of the Kamvoja breed as also of those born in the country of the Rivers, and of those belonging to Aratta and Mahi and Sindhu, and of those of Vanayu also that were white in hue, and lastly those of hilly countries, surrounded the Pandava army |
Mbh.7.23.1157 | Mighty steeds of gigantic size, of the Aratta breed, bore the mighty-armed Vrihanta of red eyes mounted on his golden car, that prince, viz, who, rejecting the opinions of all the Bharatas, hath singly, from his reverence for Yudhishthira. |
Mbh.7.191.10590 | Kritavarman, O king, also fled away, borne by his swift steeds, and surrounded by the remnant of his Bhoja, Kalinga, Aratta, and Valhika troops. |
Mbh.8.45.2428 | In former days a chaste woman was abducted by robbers hailing from Aratta. |
In ancient texts, there are references to both Araṭṭa horses and Saindhava horses. It should be noted that Rann of Kutch is on the mouth of Sindhu and Sarasvati rivers.
Not far from Dholavira is a site called Surkotada. Surkotada site contains horse remains dated to ca. 2000 BCE, which is considered a significant observation with respect to Indus Valley Civilisation. Sándor Bökönyi (1997), on examining the bone samples found at Surkotada, opined that at least six samples probably belonged to true horse.During 1974, Archeological Survey of India undertook excavation in this site and J.P.Joshi and A.K.Sharma reported findings of horse bones at all levels (cira 2100-1700 BCE).
Sources:
Bökönyi, Sándor (1997), "Horse remains from the prehistoric site of Surkotada, Kutch, late 3rd millennium B.C.", South Asian Studies 13 (1): 297
Singh, Upinder (2008). A history of ancient and early medieval India: from the stone age to the 12th century: New Delhi: Pearson Education. p. 158.
Cf. Meadow, R. H. and Patel, 1997.
Archeological Survey of India. Indian Archeology 1974-75.
Edwin Bryant, Edwin Fransic Bryant. The Quest for Origins of Vedic Culture:The Indo Aryan Migration Debate. Oxford University Press. 2001 Page 171.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surkotada#Horse_remains
MBh also locates Araṭṭas in the region where 5 rivers + Sindhu flow: There where forests of Pilusstand, and those five rivers flow, viz, the Satadru, the Vipasa, the Iravati, the Candrabhaga, and the Vitasa and which have the Sindhufor their sixth, there in those regions removed from the Himavat, are the countries called by the name of the Arattas. (Mbh.8.44.2385)
S. Kalyanaraman
Not far from Dholavira is a site called Surkotada. Surkotada site contains horse remains dated to ca. 2000 BCE, which is considered a significant observation with respect to Indus Valley Civilisation. Sándor Bökönyi (1997), on examining the bone samples found at Surkotada, opined that at least six samples probably belonged to true horse.During 1974, Archeological Survey of India undertook excavation in this site and J.P.Joshi and A.K.Sharma reported findings of horse bones at all levels (cira 2100-1700 BCE).
Sources:
Bökönyi, Sándor (1997), "Horse remains from the prehistoric site of Surkotada, Kutch, late 3rd millennium B.C.", South Asian Studies 13 (1): 297
Singh, Upinder (2008). A history of ancient and early medieval India: from the stone age to the 12th century: New Delhi: Pearson Education. p. 158.
Cf. Meadow, R. H. and Patel, 1997.
Archeological Survey of India. Indian Archeology 1974-75.
Edwin Bryant, Edwin Fransic Bryant. The Quest for Origins of Vedic Culture:The Indo Aryan Migration Debate. Oxford University Press. 2001 Page 171.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surkotada#Horse_remains
MBh also locates Araṭṭas in the region where 5 rivers + Sindhu flow: There where forests of Pilusstand, and those five rivers flow, viz, the Satadru, the Vipasa, the Iravati, the Candrabhaga, and the Vitasa and which have the Sindhufor their sixth, there in those regions removed from the Himavat, are the countries called by the name of the Arattas. (Mbh.8.44.2385)
S. Kalyanaraman
Sarasvati Research Center
January 26, 2014