Since the subject of the paper links Harappan hieroglyphs and suggested decoding by Asko Parpola in the context of the roots of Indian astronomy sought in Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization, I am reproducing the paper in full here for the benefit of those who may not have access to the journal from Trivandrum where it first appeared. Asko Parpola also notes that a short summary of the paper 'Beginnings of Indian and Chinese calendrical astronomy', was presented at the 22nd Annual Meeting of the American Oriental Society in Portland, Oregon, 17 March 2013.
Beginnings of Indian astronomy (Asko Parpola, 2013) With reference to a parallel development in China. in: History of Science in South Asia 1 (2013), pp. 21-78
Abstract
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Beginnings of Indian astronomy (Asko Parpola, 2013) With reference to a parallel development in China. in: History of Science in South Asia 1 (2013), pp. 21-78
Abstract
Hypotheses of a Mesopotamian origin for the Vedic and Chinese star calendars are unfounded. The Yangshao culture burials discovered at Puyang in 1987 suggest that the beginnings of Chinese astronomy go back to the late fourth millennium BCE. The instructive similarities between the Chinese and Indian luni-solar calendrical astronomy and cosmology therefore with great likelihood result from convergent parallel development and not from diffusion.
Read on...
PS: I have gone through the paper. I will leave it to scholars in the study of history of Indian astronomy to react to many segments of the paper by Asko Parpola. I will post addenda in due course, on my refutation of Asko Parpola's prima facie erroneous reading of the Harappan hieroglyphs.
I would like to comment on the following Fig. 16 of Parpola's paper:
Fig. 16 Two-faced tablet from Dholavira, Kutch, Gujarat, suggesting child sacrifice (lower picture) connected with crocodile cult (upper picture). After Parpola 2011: 41 fig. 48 (sketch AP). 'Crocodile in the Indus civilization and later south Asian traditions'. In Linguistics, archaeology and the human past: occasional paper 12, ed. Toshiki Osada & Hitoshi Endo. Pp. 1-58. Kyoto: Indus Project, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature.
To compare the details provided by AP's sketch on this Fig. 16, I reproduce below a photograph of the tablet:
Even assuming that a seated person on the lower sketch figure with raised arms carries 'children' I do not see how Asko Parpola (AP the sketch-maker) can jump to the conclusion of 'suggested child sacrifice'.
Even assuming that a seated person on the lower sketch figure with raised arms carries 'children' I do not see how Asko Parpola (AP the sketch-maker) can jump to the conclusion of 'suggested child sacrifice'.
Dholavira molded terracotta tablet with Meluhha hieroglyphs written on two sides. See my take on the Meluhha readings of the hieroglyphs of the tablet and the context of crocodile hieroglyphs on Ancient Near East and ancient Indian artifacts at http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2014/01/meluhha-hieroglyphs-snarling-iron-of.html Snarling iron, fish, crocodile and anthropomorph Meluhha hieroglyphs of Bronze Age
Some readings:
Pa. kōḍ (pl. kōḍul) horn; Ka. kōḍu horn, tusk, branch of a tree; kōr horn Tu. kōḍů, kōḍu horn Ko. kṛ (obl. kṭ-)( (DEDR 2200) Paš. kōṇḍā ‘bald’, Kal. rumb. kōṇḍa ‘hornless’.(CDIAL 3508). Kal. rumb. khōṇḍ a ‘half’ (CDIAL 3792).
Rebus: koḍ 'workshop' (Gujarati) Thus, a horned crocodile is read rebus: koḍ khar 'blacksmith workshop'. khar ‘blacksmith’ (Kashmiri) kāruvu ‘crocodile’ Rebus: ‘artisan, blacksmith’.
dhokra ‘decrepit woman with breasts hanging down’.
Hieroglyph: krəm backʼ(Khotanese)(CDIAL 3145) Rebus: karmāra ‘smith, artisan’ (Skt.) kamar ‘smith’ (Santali)
Rebus: dhokra kamar 'artisan caster using lost-wax technique'.
Thus, a consistent interpretation is possible in the context of the bronze age artisanal competence instead of resorting to mythical or ethnographic or cult studies, or even astronomical extravaganzas to explain the entire set of corpora of Meluhha hieroglyphs (aka Indus writing), which now reached an impressive count of 7000 epigraphs, ready to be subjected to the minimum needs in cryptography for a cipher text.
I have provided my views on the Dholavira two-faced tablet reading rebus the hieroglyphs of a horned woman with hanging breasts ligatured to the back of a bovine as dhokra kamar. In Fig. 16, Parpola provides a line-drawing sketch of the same tablet. He interprets it: "A tablet from dholavira in Kutch, Gujarat, suggests that the Harappans offered human children in sacrifice to a crocodile god. (Fig. 16). A unique crocodile cult has been preserved until our times in 50 tribal villages of southern Gujarat. In order to get offspring and fulfilment of other wishes, these tribals have an image of ccrocodile or a pair of them made of wood by the priest, who instals the image horizontally upon a wooden pillar which goes through the back part or the middle of the body (Fig. 17). The image is then consecrated in a marriage ceremony and worshipped by daubing it with vermilion and offering it animal victims and strong drink, which are afterwards consumed by the worshippers." (p.60)