ayas Vedic gloss in hieroglyph modifiers of Indus script, indicators of semantics of soma as a metallurgical process
Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/pbdq672
The meaning of 'ayas' in Rigveda has been uncertain and conjectures have been made from the texts as exemplified by the succinct presentation by
Arthur Anthony Macdonell, and Arthur Berriedale Keith:
Source: Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, Volume 1 Arthur Anthony Macdonell, Arthur Berriedale Keith Motilal Banarsidass Publisher, 1995A more precise understanding of the gloss 'ayas' comes from the frequent use of a hieroglyph on Indus Script inscriptions. A Munda gloss for fish is 'aya'. Read rebus: aya 'iron' (Gujarati) ayas'metal' (Vedic). The script inscriptions indicate a set of modifiers or ligatures to the hieroglyph indicating that the metal, aya, was worked on during the early Bronze Age metallurgical processes -- to produce aya ingots, aya metalware, aya hard alloys.    Fish hieroglyph in its vivid orthographic form is shown in a Susa pot which contained metalware -- weapons and vessels.  Context for use of ‘fish’ glyph. This photograph of a fish and the ‘fish’ glyph on Susa pot are comparable to the ‘fish’ glyph on Indus inscriptions. Read on the arguments at: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2011/11/decoding-fish-and-ligatured-fish-glyphs.html The modifiers to the 'fish' hieroglyph which commonly occur together are: slanted stroke, notch, fins, lid-of-pot ligatured as superfix:  For determining the semantics of the messages conveyed by the script. Positional analysis of ‘fish’ glyphs has also been presented in: The Indus Script: A Positional-statistical ApproachBy Michael Korvink, 2007, Gilund Press.Table from: The Indus Script: A Positional-statistical ApproachBy Michael Korvink, 2007, Gilund Press. Mahadevan notes (Para 6.5 opcit.) that ‘a unique feature of the FISH signs is their tendency to form clusters, often as pairs, and rarely as triplets also. This pattern has fascinated and baffled scholars from the days of Hunter posing problems in interpretation.’ One way to resolve the problem is to interpret the glyptic elements creating ligatured fish signs and read the glyptic elements rebus to define the semantics of the message of an inscription. karaṇḍa ‘duck’ (Sanskrit) karaṛa ‘a very large aquatic bird’ (Sindhi) Rebus: करडा [karaḍā]Hard from alloy--iron, silver &c. (Marathi) Rebus: fire-god: @B27990. #16671. Remo <karandi>E155 {N} ``^fire-^god''.(Munda) Rebus:. kharādī ‘ turner’ (Gujarati)  The 'parenthesis' modifier is a circumfix for both 'fish' and 'duck' hieroglyphs, the semantics of () two parenthetical modifiers are: kuṭilá— ‘bent, crooked’ KātyŚr., °aka— Pañcat., n. ‘a partic. plant’ [√kuṭ 1] Pa. kuṭila— ‘bent’, n. ‘bend’; Pk. kuḍila— ‘crooked’, °illa— ‘humpbacked’, °illaya— ‘bent’DEDR 2054 (a) Ta. koṭu curved, bent, crooked; koṭumai crookedness, obliquity; koṭukki hooked bar for fastening doors, clasp of an ornament. A pair of curved lines: dol ‘likeness, picture, form’ [e.g., two tigers, two bulls, sign-pair.] Kashmiri. dula दुल । युग्मम् m. a pair, a couple, esp. of two similar things (Rām. 966). Rebus: dul meṛeḍ cast iron (Mundari. Santali) dul ‘to cast metal in a mould’ (Santali) pasra meṛed, pasāra meṛed = syn. of koṭe meṛed = forged iron, in contrast to dul meṛed, cast iron (Mundari.) Thus, dul kuṭila ‘cast bronze’. The parenthetically ligatured fish+duck hieroglyphs thus read rebus: dul kuṭila ayas karaḍā 'cast bronze ayas or cast alloy metal with ayas as component to create karaḍā ''hard alloy with ayas'.  Ligatures to fish: parentheses + snout dul kuṭila ayas 'cast bronze ayas alloy with tuttha, copper sulphate' Modifier hieroglyph: 'snout' Hieroglyph: WPah.kṭg. ṭōṭ ʻ mouth ʼ.WPah.kṭg. thótt tutthá n. (m. lex.), tutthaka -- n. ʻ blue vitriol (used as an eye ointment) ʼ Suśr., tūtaka -- lex. 2. *thōttha -- 4. M. totā m.(CDIAL 5855) Ka. tukku rust of iron; tutta, tuttu, tutte blue vitriol. Tu. tukků rust; mair(ů)suttu, (Eng.-Tu. Dict.) mairůtuttu blue vitriol. Te. t(r)uppu rust; (SAN) trukku id., verdigris. / Cf. Skt. tuttha- blue vitriol (DEDR 3343). Fish, aya‘metal’ Fish + scales, aya ã̄s(amśu) ‘metallic stalks of stone ore’. Vikalpa: badhoṛ‘a species of fish with many bones’ (Santali) Rebus: baḍhoe‘a carpenter, worker in wood’; badhoria‘expert in working in wood’(Santali) Fish + sloping stroke, aya ḍhāḷ‘metal ingot’  This indication of the occurrence, together, of two or more 'fish' hieroglyphs with modifiers is an assurance that the modifiers ar semantic indicators of how aya 'metal' is worked on by the artisans. ayakāṇḍa‘’large quantity of stone (ore) metal’ or aya kaṇḍa, ‘metal fire-altar’. ayo, hako'fish'; ãs = scales of fish (Santali); rebus: aya‘metal, iron’ (G.); ayah, ayas = metal (Skt.) Santali lexeme, hako ‘fish’ is concordant with a proto-Indic form which can be identified as ayo in many glosses, Munda, Sora glosses in particular, of the Indian linguistic area. beḍa hako (ayo)‘fish’ (Santali); beḍa‘either of the sides of a hearth’ (G.) Munda: So. ayo`fish'. Go. ayu `fish'. Go <ayu> (Z), <ayu?u> (Z),, <ayu?> (A) {N} ``^fish''. Kh. kaDOG `fish'. Sa. Hako `fish'. Mu. hai (H) ~ haku(N) ~ haikO(M) `fish'. Ho haku `fish'. Bj. hai `fish'. Bh.haku `fish'. KW haiku ~ hakO |Analyzed hai-kO, ha-kO (RDM). Ku. Kaku`fish'.@(V064,M106) Mu. ha-i, haku `fish' (HJP). @(V341) ayu>(Z), <ayu?u> (Z) <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) 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)  Note on (amśu) ‘metallic stalks of stone ore’. An uncertain meaning of soma in Rigveda though the entire samhita holds the processing of soma in a nutshell, can be resolved in the context of modifers to 'fish' hieroglyph to denote 'fins or scales'. The vedic texts provide an intimation treating amśu as a synonym of soma. George Pinault has found a cognate word in Tocharian, ancu which means 'iron'. I have argued in my book, Indian alchemy, soma in the Veda, that Soma was an allegory, 'electrum' (gold-silver compound). See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/10/itihasa-and-eagle-narratives.html for Pinault's views on ancu, amśu concordance. The link with the Tocharian word is intriguing because Soma was supposed to come from Mt. Mujavant. A cognate of Mujavant is Mustagh Ata of the Himalayan ranges in Kyrgystan. Is it possible that the ancu of Tocharian from this mountain was indeed Soma? The referemces to Anzu in ancient Mesopotamian tradition parallels the legends of śyena 'falcon' which is used in Vedic tradition of Soma yajña attested archaeologically in Uttarakhand with a śyenaciti, 'falcon-shaped' fire-altar. http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/syena-orthography.html śyena, orthography, Sasanian iconography. Continued use of Indus Script hieroglyphs. Comparing the allegory of soma and the legend of Anzu, the bird which stole the tablets of destiny, I posit a hypothesis that the tablets of destiny are paralleled by the Indus writing corpora which constitute a veritable catalog of stone-, mineral- and metal-ware in the bronze age evolving from the chalcolithic phase of what constituted an 'industrial' revolution of ancient times creating ingots of metal alloys and weapons and tools using metal alloys which transformed the relation of communities with nature and resulted in the life-activities of lapidaries transforming into miners, smiths and traders of metal artefacts. I suggest that ayas of bronze age created a revolutionary transformation in the lives of people of these bronze age times. Maybe, Tocharian ancu had the same meaning as Rigvedic gloss, amśu. If so, ancu might have denoted electrum, 'gold-silver compound' which was subjected to reduction, by oxidation of impurities, by incessant firing for five days and nights to create the shining wealth of gold. The old Egyptian gloss for electrum was assem, cognate soma. The importance of the decipherment of Indus script in unraveling the semantics of soma, a key processing in Vedic corpora is clear. Vedic tradition, which lives on as Hindu tradition is coterminus with the Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization traditions of metalwork exemplified by the hieroglyphs of Indus script. The metalwork tradition of the civilization also lives on in Bharatam. One is attested by Vedic texts, the other is attested by Indus script inscriptions. S. Kalyanaraman Sarasvati Research Center September 21, 2014. |