Mirror: http://tinyurl.com/ousoon5
This can be seen as a pilgrimage, a journey of Meluhha artisans/sea-faring merchants in Eurasia, during the Bronze Age, along the Maritime Tin Road from Hanoi, Vietnam to Haifa, Israel.
This journey also explains why many Proto-Indo-Aryan words like those present in Mitanni Treaty occur on Indus Script Corpora which is a veritable catalogus catalogurm of metalwork by metalcasters in the tradition of Tvaṣṭr̥, Tuisto.
Cambodian Brahma or Triśiras? Paris Museum.How Tvaṣṭr̥ forged discus of Viṣṇu, Triśūla of Śiva and other weapons of divinities from solar disc, Sun divinity
Links with metalwork are clear from the meanings provided in Samskritam which extend from workman to copper to creative power: tvāṣṭra त्वाष्ट्र a. Belonging or coming from त्वष्टृ; त्वाष्ट्रं यद् दस्रावपिकक्ष्यं वाम् Rv.1.117.22. -ष्ट्रः Vṛitra; येनावृता इमे लोकास्तमसा त्वाष्ट्रमूर्तिना । स वै वृत्र इति प्रोक्तः पापः परमदारुणः ॥ Bhāg.6.9.18;11.12.5. -ष्ट्री 1 The asterism Chitra. -2 A small car. -ष्ट्रम् 1 Creative power; तपःसारमयं त्वाष्ट्रं वृत्रो येन विपाटितः Bhāg.8.11.35. -2 Copper. tvaṣṭṛ त्वष्टृ m. [त्वक्ष्-तृच्] 1 A carpenter, builder, workman, त्वष्ट्रेव विहितं यन्त्रम् Mb.12.33.22. -2 Viśvakarman, the architect of the gods. [Tvaṣtṛi is the Vulcan of the Hindu mythology. He had a son named Triśiras and a daughter called संज्ञा, who was given in marriage to the sun. But she was unable to bear the severe light of her husband, and therefore Tvaṣtṛi mounted the sun upon his lathe, and carefully trimmed off a part of his bright disc; cf. आरोप्य चक्रभ्रमिमुष्णतेजास्त्वष्ट्रेव यत्नो- ल्लिखितो विभाति R.6.32. The part trimmed off is said to have been used by him in forming the discus of Viṣṇu, the Triśūla of Śiva, and some other weapons of the gods.] पर्वतं चापि जग्राह क्रुद्धस्त्वष्टा महाबलः Mb.1.227. 34. -3 Prajāpati (the creator); यां चकार स्वयं त्वष्टा रामस्य महिषीं प्रियाम् Mb.3.274.9. -4 Āditya, a form of the sun; निर्भिन्ने अक्षिणी त्वष्टा लोकपालो$विशद्विभोः Bhāg.3.6.15. आदित्य a. [अदितेरपत्यं ण्य P.IV.1.85.] A son of Aditi; a god, divinity in general. (The number of Ādityas appears to have been originally seven, of whom Varuṇa is the head, and the name Āditya was restricted to them (देवा आदित्या ये सप्त Rv.9.114.3.). In the time of the Brāhmaṇas, however, the number of Ādityas rose to 12, representing the sun in the 12 months of the year; धाता मित्रो$र्यमा रुद्रो वरुणः सूर्य एव च । भगो विवस्वान् पूषा च सविता दशमः स्मृतः ॥ एकादशस्तथा त्वष्टा विष्णुर्द्वादश उच्यते ।); आदित्यानामहं विष्णुः Bg.1.21; Ku. 2.24. (These 12 suns are supposed to shine only at the destruction of the universe; cf. Ve.3.8; दग्धुं विश्वं दहनकिरणैर्नोदिता द्वादशार्काः).(Samskritam. Apte)
Meluhha of the Indian sprachbund, is the spoken form of chandas, the prosody of Rigveda. Tvaṣṭr̥ is the metal artificer par excellence, who forges the vajra (thunderbolt) weapon for Indra, a narrative celebrated in exquisite metaphors of Rigvedic chandas.
"King Shaushtatar (ruled c. 1430) extended the boundaries of Mitanni through the conquest of Alalakh, Nuzi, Assur, and Kizzuwatna. Egypt, under Tuthmosis III (1479-1425 BCE), defeated the Mitanni at Aleppo after a long period of contention over control of the region of Syria. Later Egyptian dynasties entered into pacts and treaties with Mitanni and the daughter of the Mitanni King Tushratta, the princess Taduhepa, was given in marriage to Amenhotep III (1391-1353 BCE) as part of a treaty which balanced power between the two nations.This treaty was put to the test during a power struggle in Washukanni between Tushratta and a relative of the previous king, Shuttarna, known as Artatama II. Egypt backed Tushratta in this conflict while the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I backed Artatama II. Tushratta seemed poised to succeed when Egypt, fearing the growing power of the Hittites, withdrew its support. Suppiluliuma I, tired of diplomacy and now free to do as he pleased without fear of Egyptian reprisal, led his forces on Washukanni and sacked it. Tushratta was assassinated by his son, perhaps in an effort to save the city. Following this conquest, Mitanni was ruled by Hittite kings."http://www.ancient.eu/Mitanni/ The name Tushratta may also be a phonetic variant of Tvaṣṭr̥, Tuisto. Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni is postulated.
"In a treaty between the Hittites and the Mitanni (between Suppiluliuma and Shattiwaza, ca. 1380 BC), the deities Mitra, Varuna, Indra, and Nasatya (Ashvins) are invoked.Kikkuli's horse training text (circa 1400 BC) includes technical terms such as aika (Vedic Sanskrit eka, one), tera (tri, three), panza (pañca, five), satta (sapta, seven), na (nava, nine), vartana (vartana, round). The numeral aika "one" is of particular importance because it places the superstrate in the vicinity of Indo-Aryan proper (Vedic Sanskrit eka, with regular contraction of /ai/ to [eː]) as opposed to Indo-Iranian or early Iranian (which has *aiva; compare Vedic eva "only") in general. Another text has babru(-nnu) (babhru, brown), parita(-nnu) (palita, grey), and pinkara(-nnu) (pingala, red). Another text has babru(-nnu) (babhru, brown), parita(-nnu) (palita, grey), and pinkara(-nnu) (pingala, red). Their chief festival was the celebration of the solstice (vishuva) which was common in most cultures in the ancient world. The Mitanni warriors were called marya (Hurrian: maria-nnu), the term for (young) warrior in Sanskrit as well;[1] note mišta-nnu (= miẓḍha,~ Sanskrit mīḍha) "payment (for catching a fugitive)" (Mayrhofer II 358). Sanskritic interpretations of Mitanni names render Artashumara (artaššumara) as Arta-smara "who thinks of Arta/Ṛta" (Mayrhofer II 780), Biridashva (biridašṷa, biriiašṷa) as Prītāśva "whose horse is dear" (Mayrhofer II 182), Priyamazda (priiamazda) as Priyamedha "whose wisdom is dear" (Mayrhofer II 189, II378), Citrarata as citraratha "whose chariot is shining" (Mayrhofer I 553), Indaruda/Endaruta as Indrota "helped by Indra" (Mayrhofer I 134), Shativaza (šattiṷaza) as Sātivāja "winning the race price" (Mayrhofer II 540, 696), Šubandhu as Subandhu 'having good relatives" (a name in Palestine, Mayrhofer II 209, 735), Tushratta (tṷišeratta, tušratta, etc.) as *tṷaišaratha, Vedic Tveṣaratha "whose chariot is vehement" (Mayrhofer I 686, I 736). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Aryan_superstrate_in_Mitanni
See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2015/06/tvastr-is-metaphor-for-veneration-of.html Tvaṣṭr̥ is a metaphor for veneration of metalwork artificers, Bhāratam Janam, in Rigveda
Tvaṣṭṛ is sometimes associated or identified with deities,such as Savitṛ, Prajāpatī, Viśvakarman and Puṣan. He is the father of Saraṇyū, who twice bears twins to Vivasvat (RV 10.17.1), Yama and Yami, also identified as the first humans to be born on Earth. He is also the father of Viśvarūpa or Triśiras who was killed by Indra, in revenge Tvaṣṭṛ created Vrtra a fearsome dragon. Tvaṣṭṛ is a solar deity in the epic of Mahābhārata and the Harivaṃśa. He is mentioned as the son of Kāśyapa and Aditi, and is said to have made the three worlds with pieces of the Sun god Surya. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tvastar
Invocation to Tvaṣṭr̥.![]()
RV 1.113.10 I invoke the chief and multiform Tvas.t.r. (= Vis'vakarma_); may he be solely ours. Sayana explains: Tvas.t.a_ = Vis'vakarma_, artificer of the gods, the fabricator of the original sacrificial vase or ladle. tvas.t.a_ vai pas'u_na_m mithuna_na_m ru_kakr.t---iti s'ruteh (Taittiri_ya.Sam.hita_ 6.1.8.5): Tvas.t.a_ forms in animals in pairs. This remarkable elucidation seems to anticipate the characteristic hieroglyphic multiplex forms -- particularly antithetical, pairs -- of composite animals used repeatedly in Indus Script Corpora. This characteristic pairing seems to be reflected in the explanation for the cognate word Tuisto in Germania -- as derived from tvai 'two':
Tvastar, Tuisto, Ymir. According to Tacitus's Germania (98 CE), Tuisto is the divine ancestor of the Germanic peoples...Tuisto, is commonly connected to the Proto-Germanic root tvai ("two") and its derivative tvis ("twice"; "doubled")...Jacob argues that the Germanic Tuisto (assuming a connection with Tvastr) must originally have been the grandfather of Ymir (cognate to Yama). Incidentally, Indian mythology also places Manu (cognate to Germanic Mannus), the Vedic progenitor of mankind, as a son of Vivaswān, thus making him the brother of Yama/Ymir.(Jacob, Alexander (2005). Ātman: A Reconstruction of the Solar Cosmology of the Indo-Europeans. Georg Olms Verlag., p.232)...According to Rives (1999), the fact that the ancient Germanic peoples claimed descent from an earth-born god was used by Tacitus to support his contention that they were an indigenous population: the Latin word indigena was often used in the same sense as the Greek autochthonos, meaning literally '[born from] the earth itself' (from χθών – chthōn "earth").(Rives, J. B. (1999) (Trans.) Tacitus' Germania. Oxford University Press, pp. 111-112.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuisto
Portrait of Tuisco (or Tuisto), identified by Tacitus as the ancestor of the Germans, after an illustration in Wolfgang Lazius' De aliquot gentium migrationibus. https://www.flickr.com/photos/58558794@N07/7725732342
Tacitus wrote:"In ancient lays, their only type of historical tradition, they celebrate Tuisto, a god brought forth from the earth. They attribute to him a son, Mannus, the source and founder of their people, and to Mannus three sons, from whose names those nearest the Ocean are called Ingvaeones, those in the middle Herminones, and the rest Istvaeones. Some people, inasmuch as antiquity gives free reign to speculation, maintain that there were more sons born from the god and hence more tribal designations- Marsi, Gambrivii, Suebi, and Vandilii- and that those names are genuine and ancient." (2.2) loc. cit. http://celto-germanic.blogspot.in/2014/04/tuisto-god-tiwaz.html
Richard North notes that tuisto may be 'two-standing' or 'standing twice'. Mannu is the son of Tuisto who is 'born from the earth'. (North, Richard, 1997, Heathen gods in old English literature, Cambridge University Press, pp.27, 270).
Týr (/ˈtɪr/; Old Norse: Týr [tyːr]) is a god associated with law and heroic glory in Norse mythology... If a warrior carved the rune Tîwaz on his weapon he would be dedicating it to Týr and strengthen the outcome of a battle to be in his favor. After a warrior has dedicated his weapon to Týr he should not lose it or break it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BDr
The identification with metalsmiths provides a possible link of Tyr to Tvaṣṭr̥, Tuisto.
Surya with consorts Saranyu (Sanjna) and Chhaya. Saranyu is the daughter of TvastarSaranya (Saraṇyū) or Saraniya (also known as Saranya, Sanjna, or Sangya) is the consort of Surya, and the divinity of clouds in Hindu tradition. She marries Vivasvat and is mother of Revanta, the twin Asvins, Manu, the twins Yama and Yami. Saraṇyū is the female form of the adjective saraṇyú, meaning "quick, fleet, nimble", used for rivers and wind in the Rigveda. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saranyu
10.017.01 Tvas.t.a_ celebrates the marriage of his daughter; therefore, the whole world is assembled; but the mother of Yama, the newly-married wife of the mighty Vivasvat, disappeared. [Deity Saran.yu_: The legend: Saran.yu_, the daughter of Tvas.t.a_, was given in marriage to Vivasvat, and had by him Yama and Yami_. Intimidated by his ardour, she substituted another female, her shadow, Cha_ya_, for herself, and going to Uttarakuru, changed herself to a mare. Vivasvat begot Manu by Cha_ya_, when, finding his error, he set off to look for his wife. Discovering her disguise, he transformed himself to a horse, and had by his wife the two As'vins].
10.017.02 The gods concealing the immortal (Sarn.yu_) for th esake of mortals and having formed her, gave her to Vivasvat. She bore the two As'vins when this had happened and then Saran.yu_ gave birth to two twins. [For the sake of mortals: maryebhyah = manus.yebhyas tadutpattyartham, for men, i.e. that men might be born. Manu was the offspring of Vivasvat and the woman resembling Saran.yu_ and all men are descended from Manu; the two twins: Yama and Yami_, but dva_ mithuna_, may mean two pairs of twins, Yama and Yami_, the first pair and the As'vins the second].
10.017.03 May the discriminating Pu_s.an, whose cattle are never lost, the protector of all beings, transfer you hence (to a better world); may he give you to these Pitr.s; may Agni (give) you to the beneficent gods. [This and the following three r.cas are to be recited at the funeral rites of a man who has been duly initiated, di_ks.ita].
10.017.04 May the all-pervading Va_yu protect you, may Pu_s.an (preserve) you, (going) first on the excellent path (to heaven); may the divine Savita_ place you, where the virtuous abide, whither they have gone. [a_yu = Va_yu].
10.017.05 Pu_s.an knows all these regions severally; met him conduct us by (the path) that is most free from peril; let him precede us, who is the giver of prosperity, endowed with radiance, accompanied by all pious men, ever vigilant, and knowing our (deserts).
10.017.06 Pu_s.an has been born on the best path of paths, on the best path of heaven on the best path of earth, he goes forward and backward over both (worlds), the assemblies longed for by all, discriminating (the merits of the dead). [Pu_s.an has been born: i.e., manifested in order to conduct men after death to their destination, according to their merits; he goes forward: i.e., favourably to the virtuous to show the fruit of good owrks, backward, i.e., he walks adversely to the wicked; discriminating the merits: i.e., he walks adversely to the wicked].
10.017.07 The devout invoke Sarasvati_; they worship Sarasvati_ at the strewn sacrifice; the virtuous call upon Sarasvati_; may Sarasvati_ bestow blessings upon the donor (of the oblation).
10.017.08 Divine Sarasvati_, who rides in the same chariot with the Pitr.s, and delighted (along with them) by the (sacrificial) viands, seated on the sacred grass gratified (by our offering, and grant us wholesome food.
10.017.09 Sarasvati_, whom the Pitr.s invoke when circumambulating sacrifice on the right, bestow upon the worshippers at this sacrifice a portion of food fit for thousands, and increase of riches.
10.017.10 May the maternal waters, purify us; may the shedders of water purify us with the effusion; for the divine (waters) bear away all sin; I come away from them purified (to heaven). [Shedders of water...with effusion: ghr.tena no ghr.tapvah punantu: waters which purify others by water; ghr.ta = effused water; ghr.tapvah = divinities presiding over effused water; or, ghr.ta = oiled butter (Yajus. 4.2); udemi = I go to heaven (S'atapatha Bra_hman.a3.1.2.11)].
10.017.11 The Soma has risen to the earthly and heavenly (worlds), both this visible world, and that which (existed) before (it); I offer that Soma flowing through the common region (of heaven and earth) after the sacrifice (offered by the) seven (officiating priests). [drapsam = a name of the Sun (S'atapatha Bra_hman.a: 8.4.1.20); hotra_h = ditah, which are seven: zenith, nadir, centre and four cardinal points].
10.017.12 Soma, which escapes (from the hide), your filaments which let fall from the hands (of the priest escape) from the vicinity of the planks (of the press), or (from the hand) of the Adhvaryu, or from the filter; I offer it all with my mind (to Agni) with the word vas.at.
10.017.13 Your juice and your filaments, (Soma), which escape, and which fall from the ladle on this side or on that; may this divine Br.haspati sprinkle it for our enrichment.
10.017.14 (Waters)! the plants flourish by means of water my prayer is effectual through water; the essence of water is vigorous through water; purify me with it. [payasvat = having water; or, sa_ravat, having pith or vigour; being vigorous b\y means of water in the shape of rain].
10.017.02 The gods concealing the immortal (Sarn.yu_) for th esake of mortals and having formed her, gave her to Vivasvat. She bore the two As'vins when this had happened and then Saran.yu_ gave birth to two twins. [For the sake of mortals: maryebhyah = manus.yebhyas tadutpattyartham, for men, i.e. that men might be born. Manu was the offspring of Vivasvat and the woman resembling Saran.yu_ and all men are descended from Manu; the two twins: Yama and Yami_, but dva_ mithuna_, may mean two pairs of twins, Yama and Yami_, the first pair and the As'vins the second].
10.017.03 May the discriminating Pu_s.an, whose cattle are never lost, the protector of all beings, transfer you hence (to a better world); may he give you to these Pitr.s; may Agni (give) you to the beneficent gods. [This and the following three r.cas are to be recited at the funeral rites of a man who has been duly initiated, di_ks.ita].
10.017.04 May the all-pervading Va_yu protect you, may Pu_s.an (preserve) you, (going) first on the excellent path (to heaven); may the divine Savita_ place you, where the virtuous abide, whither they have gone. [a_yu = Va_yu].
10.017.05 Pu_s.an knows all these regions severally; met him conduct us by (the path) that is most free from peril; let him precede us, who is the giver of prosperity, endowed with radiance, accompanied by all pious men, ever vigilant, and knowing our (deserts).
10.017.06 Pu_s.an has been born on the best path of paths, on the best path of heaven on the best path of earth, he goes forward and backward over both (worlds), the assemblies longed for by all, discriminating (the merits of the dead). [Pu_s.an has been born: i.e., manifested in order to conduct men after death to their destination, according to their merits; he goes forward: i.e., favourably to the virtuous to show the fruit of good owrks, backward, i.e., he walks adversely to the wicked; discriminating the merits: i.e., he walks adversely to the wicked].
10.017.07 The devout invoke Sarasvati_; they worship Sarasvati_ at the strewn sacrifice; the virtuous call upon Sarasvati_; may Sarasvati_ bestow blessings upon the donor (of the oblation).
10.017.08 Divine Sarasvati_, who rides in the same chariot with the Pitr.s, and delighted (along with them) by the (sacrificial) viands, seated on the sacred grass gratified (by our offering, and grant us wholesome food.
10.017.09 Sarasvati_, whom the Pitr.s invoke when circumambulating sacrifice on the right, bestow upon the worshippers at this sacrifice a portion of food fit for thousands, and increase of riches.
10.017.10 May the maternal waters, purify us; may the shedders of water purify us with the effusion; for the divine (waters) bear away all sin; I come away from them purified (to heaven). [Shedders of water...with effusion: ghr.tena no ghr.tapvah punantu: waters which purify others by water; ghr.ta = effused water; ghr.tapvah = divinities presiding over effused water; or, ghr.ta = oiled butter (Yajus. 4.2); udemi = I go to heaven (S'atapatha Bra_hman.a3.1.2.11)].
10.017.11 The Soma has risen to the earthly and heavenly (worlds), both this visible world, and that which (existed) before (it); I offer that Soma flowing through the common region (of heaven and earth) after the sacrifice (offered by the) seven (officiating priests). [drapsam = a name of the Sun (S'atapatha Bra_hman.a: 8.4.1.20); hotra_h = ditah, which are seven: zenith, nadir, centre and four cardinal points].
10.017.12 Soma, which escapes (from the hide), your filaments which let fall from the hands (of the priest escape) from the vicinity of the planks (of the press), or (from the hand) of the Adhvaryu, or from the filter; I offer it all with my mind (to Agni) with the word vas.at.
10.017.13 Your juice and your filaments, (Soma), which escape, and which fall from the ladle on this side or on that; may this divine Br.haspati sprinkle it for our enrichment.
10.017.14 (Waters)! the plants flourish by means of water my prayer is effectual through water; the essence of water is vigorous through water; purify me with it. [payasvat = having water; or, sa_ravat, having pith or vigour; being vigorous b\y means of water in the shape of rain].
List_of_languages_by_first_written_accountsc. 2900 BC Sumerian "proto-literate" period from about 3500 BC
c. 2700 BC Egyptian "proto-hieroglyphic" from about 3300 BC (2nd Dynasty, Narmer Palette)
c. 2400 BC Akkadian from about 2800 BC.[probably the 1st extensive use of writing]
c. 2400 BC Eblaite - They love not commenting this 1. [Proto-Ugaric, Hittite, Canaanite-ish]
c. 2250 BC Elamite - [Most closely related to Indo-Iranian group, developed east of mesopotamia in Susa]
c. 2000 BC Hurrian - fragmentary, known only from a few glosses in Hittite texts
c. 1800 BC Luwian - hieroglyphs [closely tied to Hittite]
c. 1700's BC Minoan archival documents written in Cretan hieroglyphs c. 1625 BC:
c. 1650 BC Hittite Various cuneiform texts and Palace Chronicles written during the reign of Hattusili I
c. 1500 BC Canaanite-Proto-Sinaitic alphabet
Map of the Near East ca. 1400 BCE showing the Mitanni kingdom at its greatest extent https://en.wiki2.org/wiki/Mitanni
Šauštatar's royal seal
http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/ranghaya/hittites.htm Hittites. Rulers of Hatti, Asia Minor 1900-800 BCE Katpatuka/Cappadocia, KE Eduljee: Hittite's Aryan Connections
The Hittites were the people who ruled the central Anatolian kingdom of Hatti from c. 1900 - 800 BCE. They formed the earliest known Anatolian civilization and employed an advanced system of government based on an established legal system. Their military was well trained, well equipped, and employed chariots that were the lightest and fastest of their time.
Site map of Anatolia. /Asia Minor, the Hittite Hatti heartland occupied land in the centre of this map. Microsoft Encarta
Together with their southern neighbours, the Mitanni, the Hittites acknowledged Aryan (Indo-Iranian) deities such as Mitra, Varuna, Indra and used names with Aryan roots. Both apprear on the historical stage in the Upper Euphrates basin, the Hittites to the north of the Euphrates and the Mitanni to the south. At different periods, they were allies or rivals. The land of the Hittites was called Katpatuka (Cappadocia) during Persian Achaemenian times (675 - 330 BCE). Strabo in the first century ACE, noted that the magi of Cappadocia "... have Pyraetheia (fire-houses), noteworthy enclosures...", the first record of Zoroastrian fire temples. Katpatuka / Cappadocia - the old Hittite land - could have been the western extent of Ranghaya, the sixteenth and last Aryan land in the Vendidad - the last land mentioned before the Avestan canon was closed.
While the Hittites may have been immigrants to the land of Hatti, they peacefully adapted to the language, custom and religion of the aboriginal Hattians with whom they enjoyed a mutually profitable and amicable relationship. They brought with them various technologies including Metal Age manufacturing methods such as the smelting and casting of iron. History
Hittites first appear in the historical stage (though we use the word 'first' cautiously as this relates only to archaeological evidence) as rulers of the city of Kussara in south-eastern Anatolia somewhere between Nesa (Central Turkey today, see map below) and Aleppo (Northern Syria). The earliest known member of a Hittite speaking dynasty, Pithana, was based in Kussara. Pithana conquered the town of Nesa (or Nesha), near present-day Kayseri in central Turkey, and the city which the Hittites considered their city of origin. Shortly after 1800 BCE Pithana's son Anitta extended these conquests, capturing Hattusa, near present-day Bogazkale (Boğazkale, formerly Bogazköy) in north-central Turkey. Under subsequent kings of the Old Kingdom, Hattusa would become the future Hittite capital. Anitta, left records indicating his achievements, but he does not appear to have created an empire or to have founded a dynasty. The period after him was characterized by power struggles. It was the Hittite king Labarna, or Tabarna, (r. 1680-1650 BCE) who established what some call the Old Kingdom (c. 1680 - 1400 BCE), and from the time of its establishment, the Hittite kingdom rapidly grew in size. The establishment of the kingdom and the dynasty are chronicled in the Proclamation of Telepenus (c. 1525-1500 BCE). The Proclamation states that King Labarna consolidated power among the disparate Hittite city states and then proceeded to conquer nearly all of central Anatolia up to its shores. His successor Labarna II also known as Hattusili I (c. 1650-1620 BCE) continued to consolidate the kingdom as well as a dynastic line. Hattusilis' (adopted son or grandson?) successor, Mursili I (r. 1620-1590 BCE), further extended Hittite rule by conquering Aleppo (what is Halab today) in Assyria, and then went on to raid, but not rule, Babylon c.1595 BCE.
The consolidation and expansion of the Hittite kingdom into an empire (sometimes known as the New Kingdom or Empire c. 1400 - 1180 BCE) took place during the reign of Prince Suppiluliuma (r. c.1380-1346 BCE), a reputed usurper of the Hittite throne. Suppiluliuma rebuilt the capital at Hattusa and reorganized the government. He built on his military successes by defeating the Mitanni King Tusratta with whom his relations had become advesarial. In Tusratta's place, he installed his Mitanni ally Prince Shattiwaza, who had fled Mitanni and sought sanctuary in Hatti. The two kings concluded a treaty c. 1380 BCE, which we know as the Suppiluliuma-Shattiwaza Treaty, the result of which gave Suppiluliuma control over various Mitanni vassal states including parts of Assyria. With his acquisition of Assyrian lands, Hattusa's empire now rivalled the power of Egypt under pharaoh Amenhotep IV, or Akhenaton, as well as that of Babylonia and Assyria. During the 15th and 14th centuries BCE, subsequent Hittite kings extended the extent of their empire westward to the Aegean Sea, eastward into Armenia, south-eastward into upper Mesopotamia, and southward as far as the mouth of the Litani River (a territory known as Amqu) in present-day Lebanon.
The Hittite king Hattusili III (r. 1289-1265 BCE) concluded a treaty of peace and alliance with Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses and gave Ramses his daughter in marriage. In c.1200 BCE the Hittite Empire fell to invaders called the Sea Peoples in Egyptian records, and shrank to collection of Neo-Hittite city states such as Carchemish and Milid (present-day Malatya). Sources of Information
Information about the Hittites comes from a 1906 discovery of the Hittite's royal archives during excavations at Boğazkale. Another source is Egyptian records. The Hittites may also be mentioned in the Jewish scriptures as the sons of Heth, but this theory is disputed. Hittite Languages
The royal Hittite archives at Bogazkale contain over 10,000 tablets whose cuneiform inscriptions are written in eight different languages:
1. Hittite (most of the texts were written in the Hittite language which the authors called Nesili (or Kanesili). The earliest examples of Nesili were found in the Hittite settlement of Nesa, also known as Kanesh (near Kültepe and about 20 km southwest of modern Kayseri) in the record of trade between Assyrian merchants and the 'land of Hatti'), 2. Mitanni,
3. Native Hurrian (the native language of neighbouring Mitanni. Significantly, the Hurrian language was used for non-official texts to a far greater extent than native Hattian, Luwian or Palaic, leaving the impression that native Hattian was used only for religious purposes in the same manner Sanskrit and Avestan are used today),
4. Native Hattian (the native language of the Hittite lands, Hatti, and a language completely different from Hittite. It was used for religious texts only),
5. Akkadian (the international language of the region that was used for treaties and state letters),
6. Luwian (also spelt Luvian - a language closely related to Hittite and spoken in Arzawa and Kizzuwatna to the southwest of Hatti - an area called Luwia and later Lydia. By the end of the Hittite Empire, the population of most of the Hittite Empire spoke Luwian dialects),
7. Palaic (Palaumnili - language of the people of Pala who appear to have lived to the west of the Hittite core area between modern Kayseri and Sivas), and 8. Sumerian.
Online pages for information:
The use of eight different languages spoken throughout the region is significant and indicate the intended readership of both local and international visitors to the Hittite capital. Of the eight languages, for their official documents, the Hittite kings used only the Nesili Hittite and Akkadian.
In multi-lingual texts found in Hittite locations, passages written in the Hittite language are preceded by the phrase "in Nesumnili ( i.e. language of the people of Neša, otherwise called Nesili, Nasili or Nisili)". In one case, the label is "in Kanisumnili (i.e. language of the people of Kanesh)". The religious native Hattian texts are introduced with the phrase "in Hatilli (i.e. language of the people of Hatti).
Satellite view of the ruins of the Hittite capital Hattusa next to the modern town of Bogazkale. Google Earth.
Aerial view of Lower Hattusa (a) looking south. Upper Hattusa is in the background. Bogazkale (Bogazkoy) town is to right (west). Image at hattuscha.de
Aerial view of Upper Hattusa looking east. Bogazkale (Bogazkoy) is to the left (north). Image at hattuscha.de
Hoyuk or tepe, a mound on a plain caused by soil covering a buried site. Also called a tel in archaeology. Image at Anatolia External link: Hittite/Hurrian MythologyIn the Boğazkale archives, native Hurrian is used frequently for a wide range of non-official texts such as those on rituals and even the Epic of Gilgamesh - more so than native Hattian. Native Hurrian texts have been found throughout the region. One such text dated to 1750 BCE was found at Tell Hariri (ancient Mari), a Middle Euphrates site, and another at Ras Shamra (Ugarit) on the Syrian coast indicating Hurrian i.e. Mitanni influence in the region preceded the rise of Hittite power under Suppiluliuma. A similar language to Hurrian is the language of Urartu located to the west of the Hittite lands at the headwaters of the Euphrates and around Lake Van. According to the literature (cf. The Hittites by O. R. Gurney, Penguin Books 1981), The Hurrians were migrants to the Upper Euphrates and Habur basin from the Elburz Mountains east across the Taurus Mountains from about 2300 BCE onwards.
For a script, the Hittites used the cuneiform system and hieroglyphs. The cuneiform Hittites texts were written on clay tablets that were discovered during excavations at the end of the 19th century CE. Identification of the language had to wait until 1915 when Czech linguist Bedřich Hrozný, after examining tablets that had been brought to Vienna from the Istanbul Museum, identified the language of the Hittite tablets as Indo-European. He published his findings in a 1917 book titled Die Sprache der Hethiter. In 1951 a comprehensive Hittite grammar was presented in a book titled A Comparative Grammar of the Hittite Language by Edgar H. Sturtevant.
As evidenced by the records discovered, the Hittites had a highly developed literature consisting of stories, religious texts, historical records, legal system and legal documents.
In the Hittite system of governance, the Hittite king acted as the supreme priest, military commander, and chief judge of the land. In the early years of the empire, the king was assisted by the pankus, an advisory council of nobles. The different provinces of the empire were administered by provincial governors. Certain states at the edge of the empires were ruled by vassal kings under terms of a formal treaty. Governance
In their legal code, the Hittites rarely resorted to the death penalty or to bodily mutilation as punishment for breaking the law - penalties that were frequently used by other ancient Middle Eastern kingdoms. Rather than relying on retribution or vengeance, the principle for redressing transgressions was restitution. For instance, the penalty for theft was restoration of the stolen property and payment of an additional recompense. In due course, restitution in kind was gradually replaced by payment of money. Economy
The Hittite economy was based on agriculture, trade and manufacture. The mineral resources that they processed were copper, lead, silver, and iron. Their metallurgical techniques were advanced for the time and parallel the metallurgical advances by Indo-Iranians in Central Asia.
Hittite weapons were made from bronze. Iron was so rare and precious that it was employed only for the manufacture of prestigious goods. Correspondence with other governments indicate international demand for Hittite iron goods. The evidence of iron tool production dates back at least as far as the 20th century BCE.
One example of Hittite technology skills is their skill in building and using chariots.
Hattusa - Hittite Capital (near Bogazkale). The ruins of the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa (known as Hattus in Hattic), capital of the Old Hittite Kingdom, can be found next to the village of Bogazkale (formerly Bogazköy), in Çorum Province and some 87 km. southwest of the city of Çorum. Bogazkale (Bogazköy) is located at the southern end of the Budaközü River valley, at an elevation of 300 metres, and where the northern plains enter a valley surrounded by rock outcrops.
Evidence of a settlement at Hattusa predates Hittite presence by thousands of years goes back to the sixth millennium BCE, when it was inhabited by the native Hatti people. The Hittite's initial capture of the city was destructive. A carbonized layer in the excavations that is dated at c. 1700 BCE, indicates a burning of the city - a burning credited to the Hittite king King Anitta who was then based in southern city of Kushar. After destroying the city, Anitta left behind an inscription stating, "At night I took the city by force. I have sown weeds in its place. Should any king after me attempt to resettle Hattush (the city's name in Hittite), may the Storm God of Heaven strike him down." This inscription known as the Proclamation of Anitta is the earliest text found at Hattusa and the earliest known text composed by a Hittite king.
A subsequent Hittite king, Labarna II (c. 1650-1620 BCE) seems to have ignored Anitta's curse and returned to the site to resettle Hattusa and make it his capital. He called himself Hattusili I.
Evidence in the form of cuneiform tablets, shows that in the 19th and 18th centuries BCE, merchants (apparently from Ashur (Assur) in Assyria), established a trading post and separate living quarters in Lower Hattusa. Among the goods they traded were tin, wool, foodstuffs, spices, and woven fabrics. Assyrian trading colonies in Anatolia were called kârum and the largest known karum and the centre of Hatti's trade network was at the ancient settlement of Kanesa (or Kanesh) - commonly contracted to Nesa (or Nesha) and located near the modern village Kültepe in Kayseri Province. Kültepe is about 200 km. southeast of Hattusa.
Upper Hattusas is about a kilometer square in size and was developed during the 13th century BCE. It was surrounded by a wall with several gates. A large part of the upper city consisted of temples and ritual areas. Excavations at Hattusa, Bogazkale
After Charles Dexter examined the ruins in 1834 and evoked interest in the significance of the ruins, Sayce made the first connection between with the ruins and the Hittite state. Until then, the Hittites were thought to have been based Syria. In 1882, Carl Human and Otto Puchstein visited Bogazkale with the intention of making a comprehensive study of the site. It was not until the years 1893-1894 that Ernest Chantre dug some explorative trenches.
In 1905-06 excavations of Hattusa were conducted under the supervision of Hugo Winckler and Theodor Makridi, members of Deutsche Orientgesellschaft (the German Oriental Society). These two archaeologists were joined in the following year by Otto Puchstein, and their work continued until 1912. After a hiatus due to the First World War, excavations were resumed in 1931 under the direction of Kurt Bittel - excavations that were again interrupted and resumed after the Second World War.
In 1917, the German excavators removed a sphinx from Hattusa and sent it to Germany. The Turkish Government has been unsuccessful in seeking its return and the sphinx remains on display in Berlin's Pergamon Museum.Sakje-Geuzi
Excavations conducted at the undisturbed tepe at Sakje-Geuzi revealed evidence of a continuous culture which began to flourish before 3000 BCE. Discovered buried in a lower layer were Neolithic Age yellow-painted pottery with black geometric designs. The painted design on the pottery resembles the design on painted fabrics found in Turkestan by the Pumpelly expedition, as well as the design on artefacts found at great distances from one another - at sites in Susa and its vicinity by De Morgan, in the Balkan peninsula by Schliemann, in a First Dynasty tomb at Abydos in Egypt by Petrie, and in the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age (Minoan) strata of Crete by Evans.
The similarity in design could be more than coincidental and could be the result of trade and other connections between nations from Egypt to Central Asia - nations that were on the Aryan trade roads.
Tushratta's letter to Amenhotep III of Egypt AmarnaDespite Tusratta's problems, he was not beyond offering his daughter Tadukhipa in marriage to the King Amenhotep III of Egypt for a large quantity of gold. The tablet seen to the right is a letter from Tusratta to Amenhotep in which he asks for "gold in very great quantity" as a bride price, supporting his request with the comment, "Gold is as dust in the land of my brother...The beleaguered Tusratta was then murdered by his son in a palace coup. Tusratta's other son, Prince Shattiwaza, fled Mitanni and was eventually given sanctuary by the Hittite King Suppiluliuma with whom he concluded a treaty c. 1380 BCE, which we know as the Suppiluliuma-Shattiwaza Treaty (discovered in 1907 CE in Hattusa, near present-day Bogazkale (Boğazkale, formerly Bogazköy) in north-central Turkey. In the treaty, the Hittite King Suppiluliuma agreed to assist Shattiwaza gain the Mitanni throne and invaded Mitanni. The Hittites captured the Mitanni capital Wassukanni after a second attempt and installed Shattiwaza as a vassal king...The Suppiluliuma-Shattiwaza Treaty is a source of considerable information about the Mitanni. In addition, it gives us some astonishing information about the religious practices of the Mitanni for it invokes the Indo-Iranian pantheon of asuras and devas Mitras(il) (Mitra), Uruvanass(il) (Varuna), Indara (Indra) and the Nasatianna (Nasatyas) (Ashwins)...Famed Charioteers
note wheels with spokes
Mitanni ChariotThe Mitanni were famed charioteers. They are reported to have spearheaded the development of the light war chariot with wheels that used spokes rather than solid wood wheels like those used by the Sumerians. The Mitanni name for chariot warriors was maryanna or marijannina, a form of the Indo-Iranian term marya meaning 'young man," used in the Rig Veda when referring to the celestial warriors assembled around the Vedic deity Indra...Expertise in Horse Training
The Hittite archives of Hattusa, near present-day Bogazkale contained what is the oldest surviving horse training manual in the world. The elaborate work was written c. 1345 BCE on four tablets and contains 1080 lines by a Mitanni horse trainer named Kikkuli. It begins with the words, "Thus speaks Kikkuli, master horse trainer of the land of Mitanni" and uses various Indo-Iranian words for horse colours, numbers and names. Examples are:
assussanni a form of the Sanskrit asva-sani meaning 'horse trainer',
aika wartanna meaning one turn (cf. Vedic Sanskrit ek vartanam),
tera wartanna meaning three turns (cf. Vedic Sanskrit tri vartanam),
panza wartanna meaning five turns (cf. Vedic Sanskrit panca vartanam),
satta wartanna meaning seven turns (cf. Vedic Sanskrit sapta vartanam), and
navartanna meaning nine turns (cf. Vedic Sanskrit nava vartanam).
[Regrettably, writers do not mention the Old Iranian equivalents.]
A Hurrian text from Yorgan Tepe also uses Indo-Iranian words to describe the colour of horses, words such as babru for brown, parita for grey, and pinkara for a reddish hue.
The Kikkuli manual for training chariot horses highlights the links between the Mitanni and Hittites. Even though they were rivals at times, the two groups also collaborated frequently. The fact that the Hittites employed a Mitanni as a master trainer of horses may indicate that it was the Mitanni who were the regional experts in horse training especially for military purposes (in a manner similar to the Sogdians in the East) and that the Mitanni in turn had brought the expertise with them in their migration westward.
The methods used in the Kikkuli method enabled horses to be trained without injury. The text detailed a 214-day training regime using interval training and sports medicine techniques such as the principle of progression, peak loading systems, electrolyte replacement, fartlek training, intervals and repetitions and was directed at horses with a high proportion of slow-twitch muscle fibres. the Kikkuli horses were stabled, rugged, washed down with warm water and fed oats, barley and hay at least three times per day.
Kikkuli's interval training technique stressed the leading of horses at a trot, canter and gallop, before subjecting them to the weight bearing stress of a rider, driver or chariot. Workouts sometimes numbered three a day with scheduled rest days. Kikkuli's interval training contained three stages - the first two for developing strong legs and a strong cardio-muscular system, and the third for increasing neuromuscular conditioning. His workouts included brief recoveries to lower the heart rate. Swimming was also included in intervals of three to five sessions, with rest periods after each session. The horses were also subject to warming down periods and the method's example of cantering included intermediate pauses to lower the heart rate partially and as the training advanced the workouts included intervals at the canter. Mitanni Indo-Iranian Names
The names of the Mitanni kings and their capital city were of Indo-Iranian origin. For instance, Tueratta was a form of the Indo-Iranian Tvesa-ratha meaning 'Possessor of a Chariot'. The name S'attuara was a form of Satvar meaning 'warrior' and the name of the Mitanni capital Wassukanni, was a form of Vasu-khani meaning 'wealth-mine'.
The names of proto-Indo-Iranian dieties are also found to form the names of the Kassite rulers of Babylonia. Arta
Several Mitanni names contained the Old Persian term arta, a derivative of asha via arsha, meaning cosmic order and truth (arta transforms to the Sanskrit r'ta). Arta is found used in Old Persian Achaemenian names (e.g. Artakhshassa c.450 BCE) and in the Sogdian Avesta as well. Asha is the central ethical concept of the Avesta.
Philologists trace the Mitanni names to the Vedic equivalents. For instance, they note that the royal name Artatama was a form of the Indo-Iranian R'ta-dhaanman meaning 'the abode of rta', and the name Artas's'umara was a form of Rta-smara meaning 'remembering r'ta'.However, for some reason, none of the writers that we have come across link the name to their Old Iranian or Old Persian equivalents - equivalents that will be closer to the Mitanni names as we have demonstrated with the use of arta above...According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "glass was produced on a large scale for the first time around 1600 BCE, perhaps in the Mitanni state of northern Mesopotamia."Trade. Trade in the Euphrates-Tigris basin was conducted using the extensive river network and the Mitanni controlled the river trade routes down the River Habur to Mari and from there up the River Euphrates to Carchemish. They also controlled trade along the upper Tigris River and its headwaters at Nineveh, Arbil, Ashur and Nuzi. "
Suppiluliuma (Hittite) -Shattiwaza (Mitanni) Treaty Excerpts
Source: Beckman Indo-Iranians of Asia Minor c. 1475-1275 BCE Zoroastrian Heritage, KE Eduljee:
"Mitanni's north-western border with the Hattian kingdom of the Hittites was fluid and constantly subject to aggression except when the two rivals concluded a peace treaty - one that invoked the Indo-Iranian pantheon of Mitra, Varuna, Indra and the Nasatyas - but also one that marked the decline of the Mitanni kingdom and a decrease in size. The Mitanni and Hittites were closely related. The Hittites used the Hurrian language extensively in their inscriptions. They also shared in the development of the light chariot whose wheels used spokes.The Hurrian lands are today a part of Greater Kurdistan...The name Washukanni is similar to the Kurdish word bashkani, bash meaning good and kanî meaning well or source (Kurdish has the same name, kani, for well and source). The Luwian word vasu also means good. The name is similar to the Sanskrit word vasukhani meaning 'mine of wealth'. "
from Tell el-Amarna. Housed at British Museum WAA 29791
KBo 1 1
A Obv. 1-16: When My Majesty, Suppiluliuma, Great King, Hero, King of Hatti, Beloved of the Storm God, and Artatama, king of the land of Hurri, made a treaty with one another, at that time, Tushratta, king of the land of Mitanni, called for attention from the Great King, King of Hatti, Hero. And I, Great King, King of Hatti, Hero, turned my attention to Tushratta, king of the land of Mitanni: I plundered the lands of the west bank of the River [Euphrates] and I annexed Mount Lebanon...
A Rev 35-53: the Storm-god, Lord of Heaven and Earth, the Moon-god and the Sun-god, the Moon-god of Harran, heaven and earth, the Storm-god, Lord of the kurinnu of Kahat, the Deity of Herds of Kurta, the Storm-god, Lord of Uhušuman, Ea-šarri, Lord of Wisdom, Anu, Antu, Enlil, Ninlil, the Mitra-gods, the Varuna-gods, Indra, the Nasatya-gods, Lord of Waššukanni, the Storm-god, Lord of the Temple Platform (?) of Irrite, Partahi of Šuta, Nabarbi, Šuruhi, Ištar, Evening Star, Šala, Belet-ekalli, Damkina, Išhara, the mountains and rivers, the deities of heaven and the deities of earth.
That is, Mithra, Varuna, Indra and the twin Nasatyas. The Hittite kings also invoked the Sun-god.
State Archives of the Hittite Empire presents in Boghaz-keui in modern Turkey, a treatise on chariot racing. The manual uses Sanskrit words such as "Aikavartana=One Turn, Teravartana=Three Turns, Panchavartana=Five Turns, Sattavartana=Seven Turns."
El-Amarna excavations resulted in the discovery that ca. 2nd millennium BCE, names of rulers of the region (of modern Syria) were: Artamanya, Aryavirya, Yashodatta, Suttarna. These names are clearly Bharatiya names. Mitanni name Shuwardatta evokes Surya worshipped as Suryash by Kassites. Artatama ruled Mitanni kingdom of Upper Euphrates river; His daughter was married to Egyptian emperor Menkheperura or Thutmose the IV. Dushratta, the grandson of Artatama wrote a letter to Akhnaton referring to the request made six times by Thotmose IV. Source: http://www.salagram.net/VWHAfrica.html Vrin Parker, 1999, Vedic Africa.
RV 7.63![]()
7.063.01 The auspicious Su_rya rises, the eye of all, the common (parent) of men; the divine eye of Mitra and Varun.a, who breaks through the glooms as through (investing) skin.
7.063.02 The animator of men arises, the great rain-shedding banner of Su_rya rolling on the universal wheel, which the white steeds yoked to his car drag along. [Great rain-shedding: maha_n ketur arn.avah su_ryasya, the banner or emblem of Su_rya is Su_rya; su_ryasya = suryah].
7.063.03 Delighted by the praises (of his worshippers), the radiant sun rises from the lap of the dawns; that divine sun gratifies my desires, who limits not the lustre that is common (to all).
7.063.04 The bright and glorious sun rises from the firmament far-going, traversing (the heavens), diffusing light; verily all beings animated by Su_rya proceed and execute their assigned labours.
7.063.05 He travels the path which the immortals have prepared for his course, darting along like a hawk; we worship you, Mitra and Varun.a, when the sun has risen, with praises and oblations.
7.063.06 May Mitra, Varun.a and Aryaman grant affluence to us and to our posterity; may all paths be easy of access to us, and do you ever cherish us with blessings.
Two views of Mitanni Storm Divinity, Teshub. Axe (paras'u) in his upraised right hand and a vajra (thunderbolt) in his left hand. The trident is also pictured in Mitanni seals. He wears a short fringed tunic with a wide belt. His horned helmet is reminiscent of the bull figures often associated with him. The photo on the left is from the Hittite capital in Turkey. Teshub was the divinity of the sky, weather and storms (Hurrian).
Hittite cities in Turkey
Hittites (Hebrew Hittim), ancient people of Asia Minor and the Middle East, inhabiting the land of Hatti on the central plateau of what is now Anatolia, Turkey, and some areas of northern Syria. The Hittites, whose origin is unknown, spoke an Indo-European language. They invaded the region, which became known as Hatti, about 1900 BC and imposed their language, culture, and rule on the earlier inhabitants, a people speaking a non-Indo-European agglutinative language. The first town settled by the Hittites was Nesa, near present-day Kayseri, Turkey. Shortly after 1800 BC they conquered the town of Hattusas, near the site of present-day Boðazkale. Nothing more is known of Hittite history until, in the 17th century BC, the so-called Old Hittite Kingdom was founded by the Hittite leader Labarna (reigned about 1680-1650 BC), or Tabarna, and Hattusas became its capital. Labarna conquered nearly all of central Anatolia and extended his rule to the sea. His successors extended Hittite conquests into northern Syria. Mursili I (reigned about 1620-1590 BC), the second ruler after Labarna, conquered what is now Aleppo, Syria, and raided Babylon about 1595 BC. Mursili’s assassination was followed by a period of internal strife and external weakness that ended during the reign of King Telipinu (reigned about 1525-1500 BC). To ensure the stability of the kingdom, he issued strict rules governing the royal succession. The law code may also have been compiled during his reign. Of Telipinu’s successors only the names are known.
Text from Microsoft Encarta
Bogazkoy
Yazilikaya
storage area and jars
http://www.maravot.com/Hittite_Treaties.html
Mitanni Seals of Teshub(from http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/contacts/mitanni.htm)
Cylinder Seal impression of Ithi-tess'up, son of Kipi-te's'up, from Nuzi, Iraq. Concerning a property decree, "Ithi-Teshub, son of Kip-Teshub, king of Arrapha (Kirkuk), rolls out this seal on a legal decision about fields and houses. Forevermore let no one break (the tablet). 5.1 cm; (D. Stein; Collon, 1987, Fig. 269). The moon crown with the solar cross recalls the Celtic cross. Instead of holding a trident the god, standing upon a lion, holds a two-pronged staff.
Winged standard of the Sun-god. The two dieties might be theNasatyas in the Treaty of Mitanni.
Cylinder seal impression of S'uttarna, son of Kirta (Collon, 1975), tel Atchana (Alalakh IV), Turkey. "Suttarna, son of Kirta, King of Maittani. The symbol with the solar disk with wings is the Aedicula, a symbol of Hittite royalty. In Hittite inscriptions it is supported by two pillars. Note the two eagles perched on the backs of the two lions. The symbol of the winged sun mounted on a pillar appears to be the prototype of the caduceus, Latin, Heralds staff, a symbol of Hermes, the messenger of the gods. This symbol got wrapped with snakes and became the emblem of the medical profession (caduceus). Note a snake appears adjacent to the Aedicula.
Seal, Marduk standing on the back of Tiamat "The invincible weaponry given to Marduk is common to the magic weaponry given to Indra, in the Rig Veda, and Achilles, in theIlliad. The master craftsman of the gods in the Rig Veda was Tvastar and in the Illiad Hephaistes (Vulcan in Roman mythology). The fearsome image that no one could bear to look upon is also in the Greek Gorgons, of whom Medusa's snake dressed head was used on the shield of Achilles. Anyone looking upon her image would be turned immediately to stone." http://www.maravot.com/Hittite_Treaties.html
Seal of Assyrian origin found in the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) shipwreck between 1984-1994. See http://ina.tamu.edu/ub_main.htm; Uluburun, Turkey. Another seal with the sickel-armed warrior in company with the winged monster was found on the wreck.
Was Nefertiti, An Aryan Princess?
by K. Gajendra Singh![Bookmark and Share]()
by K. Gajendra Singh
(In Search of Wassukkani – Capital of Pre-Vedic Aryan Kingdom of Mitannis from 1500 BC to 1200 BC in Upper Mesopotamia)
During the 1993 Navruj (spring) cease-fire by Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan's PKK, then fighting a savage war since 1984 against cultural discrimination in south-east Turkey, I decided to renew my knowledge of the region, known as Mesopotamia, Assyria, the Fertile Crescent in history. Home of over 40 civilizations, known as Asia minor and Anatolia in the past, Turkey has more Greek sites than Greece and more Roman monuments than Italy.
From its capital Ankara I made my night halt 700 kms away in S at Antakya (Antioch), capital of Selucus Nikator's empire, Alexander's infantry commander against Porus in India, but when he tried to reclaim Alexander's domains he was defeated and fobbed off with 500 elephants by Chandra Gupta Maurya. Next day I reached Urfa 300 kms east, where and at nearby Harran in the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, Patriarch Abraham had halted on his way from Ur (in Iraq) to Hebron in Canaan (Palestine). Local legend has it that he was born here making it a centre of pilgrimage.
Located at a strategic pass linking Anatolia to Mesopotamia, this ancient city was renamed Edessa by the Macedonians on way to Gaugamela where Alexander inflicted the final defeat on Darius III in 331 BC, terminating the Persian Achaemenean Empire.
Edessa, along with Antioch was one of the first major centers of Christianity, latter going over to the Monophysite heresy. Persecuted by Western Christians and then Muslim Arabs and Persians, many migrations took place from Edessa and the region to the Malabar coast specially in 4th, 5th and 9th centuries AD spreading the Christain Orthodox Church in Kerala. The relationship, though complicated by the arrival of the Portuguese, Dutch and the British, still continues between Kerala and east of Edessa in the Tur Abdin region, with Mardin, Midyat and Cizre dotted with old Churches and monasteries where Suryani, akin to Aramaic spoken by Jesus Christ, is still being taught . But now in the grip of Kurdish Turkish strife the numbers of Christians is fast dwindling. For centuries Mar Zaffran near Mardin was the seat of the Orthodox Church, now located in Syria.
In Urfa, ancient works and Greek classics, the basis of Western civilization, were translated into Aramaic and Syriac which when the Arabs came over, were translated into Arabic. After the Crusaders took over the city, they were retranslated and 'recovered' for Europe, where they had been destroyed by barbarian invasions. Edessa survived many rulers and wars but like other cities it never recovered from the Mongol destruction.
Just south of Urfa is Harran of bee-hive houses, centre of the Moon cult, human sacrificing Sabbians and ancient Carrhae, where tablets inscribed with parts of the legends of Gilgamesh were discovered. Nearby the Parthians had captured Roman Emperor Crassus. It was the stomping ground of prophets like Elijah, Job, Shuyab and Jacob with the well where Rebecca gave him water. From Mardin, an ancient city at the edge on the hills one can see the immense Mesopotamian plains spread southwards to the Gulf . A series of hydro-electric projects, on the Euphrates, now under construction in the region will once again bring wealth and prosperity to upper Mesopotamia but the water diversion and implied threat of strategic flooding does not amuse the Syrians.
But I was not looking for Abraham's transit halt, nor Guagamela or even Noah's tomb at Cizre (at the junction of Iran, Iraq and Turkish borders), but Wassukkani which between 1500 BC to 1200 BC was the capital of the Kingdom of Mitannis. They were an Indo-Aryan people, experts in chariot warfare, who worshipped the pre-Vedic Aryan Gods Indra, Natasya, Mitra and Varuna and used pre-Vedic Sanskrit.
Not that I expected to find Wassukkani. That I shall leave to archaeologists and their benefactors, but if it were located and diggings started in my life time, it would be a matter of great satisfaction. For, unfortunately, none of the sites of the Mitanni Kingdom itself has been located and knowledge about them is based on sites in El Amarna Egypt and Bogazkoy in north-west Turkey.
Wassukkanni was once thought to be Rais el Ain in Syria, just 80 kms east across from Harran, nowadays bristling with minefields and hostile sentries. But the Akkadian cuneiform tablets found at Amarna, when subjected to tests did not match. Wassukkanni is now believed to be up north in between Mardin, and 90 km up north from Diyarbakir (ancient Amida) now (culturally) a Kurdish city, an area I travelled up and down.
The upper Mesopotamia region around the middle reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris was rich agriculture land and therefore, much sought after. Throughout history, because of its excellent location, for caravans bringing goods from India and the east, for connecting the Arabian desert to the Mediterranean and Asia Minor, it was much fought over. It is now divided between Turkey, Syria and Iraq with Iran not far away. But during 16th to 13th century BC, the dynasty of Mitannis flourished in the rich grain growing valleys of the rivers Balikh and Khabur, tributaries of the Euphrates, with mostly adversarial relations with Indo-European Hittites in Bogazkoy and generally close relations with the Egyptian Pharaohs. Mitannis perhaps came to this region through the Caucasus and had splintered off in the Eurasian Steppes from the main stream which continued on to Iran and India. They became the ruling aristocracy among the confederation of Hurrian, Hanigalbat and other states of the region which extended from the Zagros mountains in Iran through Assyria, upper Mesopotamia and Syria to the Mediterranean.
Information on Mitannis and their Kingdom first surfaced at the end of the 19th century when letters from the Mitanni King sent to his Pharaoh son-in-law were discovered at El Amarna and deciphered. The Egyptians called the Mitannis Naharinas. The other extensive and important source material was discovered in early 20th century at Bogazkoy 250 Km north east of Ankara, the stronghold of Hittites. Among the documents discovered were treaties between the Hittites and Mitannis in which reference was made to the Indo-Iranian gods Indra, Natasya, Mitra and Varuna and a treatise on horse training and chariotry in Hittite written by Kikkuli, a Mitanni who used ancient Vedic Sanskrit technical terms, thus also confirming Mitannian superiority in matters of horsemanship.
The Egyptian Pharaohs had requested the Mitannis time and again for horses and chariots.
Other places where cuneiform documents in Akkadian and other languages throw light on Mitannis are Arraphka, Nuzi (near Kirkuk), Alalakh, a river port on Orontes (on the Turkish -Syrian border near Antioch), Ugarit (Ras Shamra in Syria) on the Mediterranean, Mari on the river Euphrates. Ugarit was perhaps one of the greatest international sea ports of that time; for, owing to its location, it controlled trade between Syria, its hinterland and the East with the Aegean and the Mediterranean, with merchants and sailors from Egypt, Cyprus, Crete, Mycene and other places mingling here for trade and commerce. Documents from Nuzi describe certain social and religious traditions which are reflected in Hebrew legends recorded in the Old Testament.
The fact that the gods in the Treaties are Hindu Vedic Daivya gods, Indra and Natasya along with Assura Iranian gods Mitra and Varuna, shows that the Aryan division into Iranians and Indians had yet not taken place; later on most of Daivya worshipping Aryans continued on to India and most of Assura worshipping Aryans stayed behind in Iran. Limiting the use of Indo-Aryan gods to the Treaties perhaps indicates that only the rulers were of Indo-Aryan origin. There is also evidence that the Royals were cremated. The chariot riding shock troops were called Marijannina linked with old Indian Vedic i.e. Marya=youngman, old Avestan= a member of a group. Later this land owning aristocratic group became hereditary, i.e. even without chariots. The technical terms used in horse training and chariotry like aika wartanna, navartanna etc (one turn, nine turns ) are like ek vartanam, nava vartanam as in Vedic Sanskrit. A Hurrian text from Yorgan Tepe uses Indo-Aryan words to describe the colour of horses, i.e. babru (brown) parita (grey), pinkara (reddish) etc. The beginnings of the Mitannis arrival are shrouded in mystery, but it seems that they took advantage of the collapse of the Empire established by Hammurabi (who gave the first code in human history, i.e. to protect the weak against the strong). There are reasons to believe that the Kings of the Ashur between 1500 BC to 1360 BC were the vassals of the Mitannis. The Mitannis also crossed the Euphrates and exercised influence over the Amorites and Canaanites in the South.
The first and most important Mitanni king was Saustatar (1450 BC to 1440 BC). The others were Artatama (1440-1420),Vedic rta -dhaman= whose abode is the Rta, Shutarna (1420 to 1395), Artashumara (1395 to 1385), Tushratta = Vedic Tvesh- ratha, one whose chariot moves forward violently and Sattiwaza; in old Indo-Aryan sati-vaja = acquiring booty, old Vedic vaja -sati. While the etymology of names of all Mitanni kings has not been done, they are very different from Hurrian names. Rulers with similar names ruled in South Syria and Palestine.
Shaustatar ruled around the same time as Pharaoh Thuthmosis III. In fact he made Thuthmosis's drive to conquer Syria, by supporting the small states there, very difficult leading to respect for each other. Later the Mitannis signed a peace treaty with the Pharaohs in order to counteract the Hittite threat from the North West . This was cemented with a Mitanni princess being married to a Pharaoh, but only after 7 requests. Shaustatar's son Artatama sent his daughter Mutema as wife to Pharaoh Thuthmosis IV, grandson of Thutmosis III Artatarna's successor Shutarna's daughter Gilukhepa was married to Amun hotep III . She went to her husband in style with 317 Mitannian maidens. Next, Tushratta gave his daughter Tadukhepa to Amun hotep IV, who also married Gilukhepa, youngest in his father's harem.
It is generally believed that Gilukhepa was no other than the beautiful and famous Nefertiti. It is known that Nefertiti fully supported her husband' s efforts to bring in monotheism.
It was from Egypt, where Moses was born and brought up that he led out the Jews with the idea of one God Jehovah.
The last semi-independent King was Mattiuzza, who was installed on the throne following a palace coup after the murder of Tushratha. He became a vassal of the Hittite king Shuppiluliuma who gave his daughter Mursil in marriage to Mattiuza. Thus the Mitanni dynasty came to be connected with both the Pharaohs and the Hittites. But after the alliance with the Hittites, the Mitannis were reduced to a smaller state with limited independence. As the Mitanni power decreased relations with the Pharaohs withered away. Some of its later kings were Shattwara and Wasasatta. Small Mitanni states lingered on for years.
The Assyrians took advantage of the situation to assert their independence. They even raided the Mitanni capital Wassukkanni and took back the golden and silver gates which the Mitannis had brought from Assyria 200 years ago. Assyrian king Ashur Uballit I (1365 BC to1338 BC) ended the Mittani independence completely by defeating Shuttarna II. Over 14000 Mitannis were blinded. After this defeat, the Mitannis either got absorbed in the region or some of them went up north to form part of the Urartu Kingdom. Something like that had perhaps also happened to another Indo Aryan people the Kassites, who ruled earlier over Assyria for nearly 5 centuries, but apart from 300 words of their language and 30 odd gods not much is known about them.
In the Kingdom of Mitannis, also known that of Hurrians, the latter probably formed the majority, i.e. the other backward classes of those days. The Hurrians, whose language is neither Indo-European nor Semitic, were a non-Indo-European people and are believed to have come from Armenia and present day north east of Turkey. They were well distributed in the region, even in the Hittite areas. They were culturally well developed and their religion and other practices were adopted by the Hittites. The Hurrians also transmitted the Assyrian culture to the Hittites. Perhaps it was too early for the castes to emerge, but the Mitannis certainly appeared to be like the Kshatriyas; a word which comes from ratharias - charioteers, having superimposed themselves over the Hurrians. The Mitannis used Hurrian language but inducted into it Indo-Aryan vocabulary, as the Turks did in Persia, India in a way and elsewhere, i.e. using the language of the subjects, but retaining the military terms.
The Hittites were an Indo-European people, the first to break away from the proto Indo-Europeans, who probably originated from the Black Sea coast of Russia and Ukraine. They had reached Asia Minor at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC via the straits of the Bosphorous and established a magnificent and impregnable capital at Hattusa, i.e. Bogazkoy next to Cappadocia (with its mysterious honeycombed underground cities and lunar landscape with eerie tall chimneys, where the earliest Christian communities built their churches).
The name Hittites (referred as such in the Bible) is taken from Hattis, an indigenous people, whom the Hittites displaced and who then formed the lower substrata. The Hittites called themselves Nes and their language Nesiti. The Hittite King Hattusilis (reign 1650 to 1620 BC) consolidated the Kingdom and extended its control over most of Asia Minor and Northern Syria. His grandson Mursilis I raided down along the Euphrates river and destroyed the Amorite dynasty of Babylon, then one of the most cosmopolitan, rich and cultured cities. The austere highlanders felt out of place and far away from Hattussa and returned to their capital. Then for some time they got embroiled in their own affairs and re-emerged as the new Empire in the 14th century BC. Under Suppililumas I it reached the height of its power, extent and culture. Tusharatta, the last independent Mitanni King, defeated the Hittites first time around, but Suppililuimas I then went north and east, taking Wassukkanni by surprise. Tushratta escaped to Carchemish, but the Mitanni power was broken and its glory came to an end. Suppliliumas put his sons as kings of Aleppo and Carchemish. Hittite king Muwatallis (1320 to 1294BC) fought at Kadesh (in Syria) one of the greatest battles of ancient times against Pharaoh Ramses II. It was probably indecisive, even though the latter claimed a victory. Later a peace treaty was signed and a marriage alliance concluded. The Hittites were tolerant in their religious outlook and their polytheism contained indigenous Anatolian, Syrian and Hurrian divinities. The Hittite King, deputy of the storm god, was also the commander in chief, chief judge and after death became a god.
The earliest Indo-Aryan writing in India occurs around 300 BC on Ashoka pillars, but it is really Prakrit. The ancient Sanskrit of Vedas, though transmitted orally was probably written down by 6th century BC. Thus the earliest written archaic Indo-Aryan/Indo-Iranian language has been found in Asia Minor and Syria. The Hittite language is the earliest known extinct form of Indo-European Language and the older Hittite texts (from 1650 BC to 1595 BC ) are the earliest texts found so far. In the later forms (1400 BC to 1190 BC) are to be found the Treaties and Treatise mentioned earlier, which are now on display at the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul along with other historical treasures, literally a sweep through time and history. But for a full and authentic account of the times and lives of the Mitannis and pre-Vedic Aryans, we have to wait till Wassukkanni is located, dug and its findings deciphered.
K Gajendra Singh, Indian ambassador (retired), served as ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies.
Copy right with the author*. E-mail: Gajendrak@hotmail.com
13-May-2007 - See more at: http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=763#sthash.wpo16TRe.dpufDuring the 1993 Navruj (spring) cease-fire by Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan's PKK, then fighting a savage war since 1984 against cultural discrimination in south-east Turkey, I decided to renew my knowledge of the region, known as Mesopotamia, Assyria, the Fertile Crescent in history. Home of over 40 civilizations, known as Asia minor and Anatolia in the past, Turkey has more Greek sites than Greece and more Roman monuments than Italy.
From its capital Ankara I made my night halt 700 kms away in S at Antakya (Antioch), capital of Selucus Nikator's empire, Alexander's infantry commander against Porus in India, but when he tried to reclaim Alexander's domains he was defeated and fobbed off with 500 elephants by Chandra Gupta Maurya. Next day I reached Urfa 300 kms east, where and at nearby Harran in the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, Patriarch Abraham had halted on his way from Ur (in Iraq) to Hebron in Canaan (Palestine). Local legend has it that he was born here making it a centre of pilgrimage.
Located at a strategic pass linking Anatolia to Mesopotamia, this ancient city was renamed Edessa by the Macedonians on way to Gaugamela where Alexander inflicted the final defeat on Darius III in 331 BC, terminating the Persian Achaemenean Empire.
Edessa, along with Antioch was one of the first major centers of Christianity, latter going over to the Monophysite heresy. Persecuted by Western Christians and then Muslim Arabs and Persians, many migrations took place from Edessa and the region to the Malabar coast specially in 4th, 5th and 9th centuries AD spreading the Christain Orthodox Church in Kerala. The relationship, though complicated by the arrival of the Portuguese, Dutch and the British, still continues between Kerala and east of Edessa in the Tur Abdin region, with Mardin, Midyat and Cizre dotted with old Churches and monasteries where Suryani, akin to Aramaic spoken by Jesus Christ, is still being taught . But now in the grip of Kurdish Turkish strife the numbers of Christians is fast dwindling. For centuries Mar Zaffran near Mardin was the seat of the Orthodox Church, now located in Syria.
In Urfa, ancient works and Greek classics, the basis of Western civilization, were translated into Aramaic and Syriac which when the Arabs came over, were translated into Arabic. After the Crusaders took over the city, they were retranslated and 'recovered' for Europe, where they had been destroyed by barbarian invasions. Edessa survived many rulers and wars but like other cities it never recovered from the Mongol destruction.
Just south of Urfa is Harran of bee-hive houses, centre of the Moon cult, human sacrificing Sabbians and ancient Carrhae, where tablets inscribed with parts of the legends of Gilgamesh were discovered. Nearby the Parthians had captured Roman Emperor Crassus. It was the stomping ground of prophets like Elijah, Job, Shuyab and Jacob with the well where Rebecca gave him water. From Mardin, an ancient city at the edge on the hills one can see the immense Mesopotamian plains spread southwards to the Gulf . A series of hydro-electric projects, on the Euphrates, now under construction in the region will once again bring wealth and prosperity to upper Mesopotamia but the water diversion and implied threat of strategic flooding does not amuse the Syrians.
But I was not looking for Abraham's transit halt, nor Guagamela or even Noah's tomb at Cizre (at the junction of Iran, Iraq and Turkish borders), but Wassukkani which between 1500 BC to 1200 BC was the capital of the Kingdom of Mitannis. They were an Indo-Aryan people, experts in chariot warfare, who worshipped the pre-Vedic Aryan Gods Indra, Natasya, Mitra and Varuna and used pre-Vedic Sanskrit.
Not that I expected to find Wassukkani. That I shall leave to archaeologists and their benefactors, but if it were located and diggings started in my life time, it would be a matter of great satisfaction. For, unfortunately, none of the sites of the Mitanni Kingdom itself has been located and knowledge about them is based on sites in El Amarna Egypt and Bogazkoy in north-west Turkey.
Wassukkanni was once thought to be Rais el Ain in Syria, just 80 kms east across from Harran, nowadays bristling with minefields and hostile sentries. But the Akkadian cuneiform tablets found at Amarna, when subjected to tests did not match. Wassukkanni is now believed to be up north in between Mardin, and 90 km up north from Diyarbakir (ancient Amida) now (culturally) a Kurdish city, an area I travelled up and down.
The upper Mesopotamia region around the middle reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris was rich agriculture land and therefore, much sought after. Throughout history, because of its excellent location, for caravans bringing goods from India and the east, for connecting the Arabian desert to the Mediterranean and Asia Minor, it was much fought over. It is now divided between Turkey, Syria and Iraq with Iran not far away. But during 16th to 13th century BC, the dynasty of Mitannis flourished in the rich grain growing valleys of the rivers Balikh and Khabur, tributaries of the Euphrates, with mostly adversarial relations with Indo-European Hittites in Bogazkoy and generally close relations with the Egyptian Pharaohs. Mitannis perhaps came to this region through the Caucasus and had splintered off in the Eurasian Steppes from the main stream which continued on to Iran and India. They became the ruling aristocracy among the confederation of Hurrian, Hanigalbat and other states of the region which extended from the Zagros mountains in Iran through Assyria, upper Mesopotamia and Syria to the Mediterranean.
Information on Mitannis and their Kingdom first surfaced at the end of the 19th century when letters from the Mitanni King sent to his Pharaoh son-in-law were discovered at El Amarna and deciphered. The Egyptians called the Mitannis Naharinas. The other extensive and important source material was discovered in early 20th century at Bogazkoy 250 Km north east of Ankara, the stronghold of Hittites. Among the documents discovered were treaties between the Hittites and Mitannis in which reference was made to the Indo-Iranian gods Indra, Natasya, Mitra and Varuna and a treatise on horse training and chariotry in Hittite written by Kikkuli, a Mitanni who used ancient Vedic Sanskrit technical terms, thus also confirming Mitannian superiority in matters of horsemanship.
The Egyptian Pharaohs had requested the Mitannis time and again for horses and chariots.
Other places where cuneiform documents in Akkadian and other languages throw light on Mitannis are Arraphka, Nuzi (near Kirkuk), Alalakh, a river port on Orontes (on the Turkish -Syrian border near Antioch), Ugarit (Ras Shamra in Syria) on the Mediterranean, Mari on the river Euphrates. Ugarit was perhaps one of the greatest international sea ports of that time; for, owing to its location, it controlled trade between Syria, its hinterland and the East with the Aegean and the Mediterranean, with merchants and sailors from Egypt, Cyprus, Crete, Mycene and other places mingling here for trade and commerce. Documents from Nuzi describe certain social and religious traditions which are reflected in Hebrew legends recorded in the Old Testament.
The fact that the gods in the Treaties are Hindu Vedic Daivya gods, Indra and Natasya along with Assura Iranian gods Mitra and Varuna, shows that the Aryan division into Iranians and Indians had yet not taken place; later on most of Daivya worshipping Aryans continued on to India and most of Assura worshipping Aryans stayed behind in Iran. Limiting the use of Indo-Aryan gods to the Treaties perhaps indicates that only the rulers were of Indo-Aryan origin. There is also evidence that the Royals were cremated. The chariot riding shock troops were called Marijannina linked with old Indian Vedic i.e. Marya=youngman, old Avestan= a member of a group. Later this land owning aristocratic group became hereditary, i.e. even without chariots. The technical terms used in horse training and chariotry like aika wartanna, navartanna etc (one turn, nine turns ) are like ek vartanam, nava vartanam as in Vedic Sanskrit. A Hurrian text from Yorgan Tepe uses Indo-Aryan words to describe the colour of horses, i.e. babru (brown) parita (grey), pinkara (reddish) etc. The beginnings of the Mitannis arrival are shrouded in mystery, but it seems that they took advantage of the collapse of the Empire established by Hammurabi (who gave the first code in human history, i.e. to protect the weak against the strong). There are reasons to believe that the Kings of the Ashur between 1500 BC to 1360 BC were the vassals of the Mitannis. The Mitannis also crossed the Euphrates and exercised influence over the Amorites and Canaanites in the South.
The first and most important Mitanni king was Saustatar (1450 BC to 1440 BC). The others were Artatama (1440-1420),Vedic rta -dhaman= whose abode is the Rta, Shutarna (1420 to 1395), Artashumara (1395 to 1385), Tushratta = Vedic Tvesh- ratha, one whose chariot moves forward violently and Sattiwaza; in old Indo-Aryan sati-vaja = acquiring booty, old Vedic vaja -sati. While the etymology of names of all Mitanni kings has not been done, they are very different from Hurrian names. Rulers with similar names ruled in South Syria and Palestine.
Shaustatar ruled around the same time as Pharaoh Thuthmosis III. In fact he made Thuthmosis's drive to conquer Syria, by supporting the small states there, very difficult leading to respect for each other. Later the Mitannis signed a peace treaty with the Pharaohs in order to counteract the Hittite threat from the North West . This was cemented with a Mitanni princess being married to a Pharaoh, but only after 7 requests. Shaustatar's son Artatama sent his daughter Mutema as wife to Pharaoh Thuthmosis IV, grandson of Thutmosis III Artatarna's successor Shutarna's daughter Gilukhepa was married to Amun hotep III . She went to her husband in style with 317 Mitannian maidens. Next, Tushratta gave his daughter Tadukhepa to Amun hotep IV, who also married Gilukhepa, youngest in his father's harem.
It is generally believed that Gilukhepa was no other than the beautiful and famous Nefertiti. It is known that Nefertiti fully supported her husband' s efforts to bring in monotheism.
It was from Egypt, where Moses was born and brought up that he led out the Jews with the idea of one God Jehovah.
The last semi-independent King was Mattiuzza, who was installed on the throne following a palace coup after the murder of Tushratha. He became a vassal of the Hittite king Shuppiluliuma who gave his daughter Mursil in marriage to Mattiuza. Thus the Mitanni dynasty came to be connected with both the Pharaohs and the Hittites. But after the alliance with the Hittites, the Mitannis were reduced to a smaller state with limited independence. As the Mitanni power decreased relations with the Pharaohs withered away. Some of its later kings were Shattwara and Wasasatta. Small Mitanni states lingered on for years.
The Assyrians took advantage of the situation to assert their independence. They even raided the Mitanni capital Wassukkanni and took back the golden and silver gates which the Mitannis had brought from Assyria 200 years ago. Assyrian king Ashur Uballit I (1365 BC to1338 BC) ended the Mittani independence completely by defeating Shuttarna II. Over 14000 Mitannis were blinded. After this defeat, the Mitannis either got absorbed in the region or some of them went up north to form part of the Urartu Kingdom. Something like that had perhaps also happened to another Indo Aryan people the Kassites, who ruled earlier over Assyria for nearly 5 centuries, but apart from 300 words of their language and 30 odd gods not much is known about them.
In the Kingdom of Mitannis, also known that of Hurrians, the latter probably formed the majority, i.e. the other backward classes of those days. The Hurrians, whose language is neither Indo-European nor Semitic, were a non-Indo-European people and are believed to have come from Armenia and present day north east of Turkey. They were well distributed in the region, even in the Hittite areas. They were culturally well developed and their religion and other practices were adopted by the Hittites. The Hurrians also transmitted the Assyrian culture to the Hittites. Perhaps it was too early for the castes to emerge, but the Mitannis certainly appeared to be like the Kshatriyas; a word which comes from ratharias - charioteers, having superimposed themselves over the Hurrians. The Mitannis used Hurrian language but inducted into it Indo-Aryan vocabulary, as the Turks did in Persia, India in a way and elsewhere, i.e. using the language of the subjects, but retaining the military terms.
The Hittites were an Indo-European people, the first to break away from the proto Indo-Europeans, who probably originated from the Black Sea coast of Russia and Ukraine. They had reached Asia Minor at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC via the straits of the Bosphorous and established a magnificent and impregnable capital at Hattusa, i.e. Bogazkoy next to Cappadocia (with its mysterious honeycombed underground cities and lunar landscape with eerie tall chimneys, where the earliest Christian communities built their churches).
The name Hittites (referred as such in the Bible) is taken from Hattis, an indigenous people, whom the Hittites displaced and who then formed the lower substrata. The Hittites called themselves Nes and their language Nesiti. The Hittite King Hattusilis (reign 1650 to 1620 BC) consolidated the Kingdom and extended its control over most of Asia Minor and Northern Syria. His grandson Mursilis I raided down along the Euphrates river and destroyed the Amorite dynasty of Babylon, then one of the most cosmopolitan, rich and cultured cities. The austere highlanders felt out of place and far away from Hattussa and returned to their capital. Then for some time they got embroiled in their own affairs and re-emerged as the new Empire in the 14th century BC. Under Suppililumas I it reached the height of its power, extent and culture. Tusharatta, the last independent Mitanni King, defeated the Hittites first time around, but Suppililuimas I then went north and east, taking Wassukkanni by surprise. Tushratta escaped to Carchemish, but the Mitanni power was broken and its glory came to an end. Suppliliumas put his sons as kings of Aleppo and Carchemish. Hittite king Muwatallis (1320 to 1294BC) fought at Kadesh (in Syria) one of the greatest battles of ancient times against Pharaoh Ramses II. It was probably indecisive, even though the latter claimed a victory. Later a peace treaty was signed and a marriage alliance concluded. The Hittites were tolerant in their religious outlook and their polytheism contained indigenous Anatolian, Syrian and Hurrian divinities. The Hittite King, deputy of the storm god, was also the commander in chief, chief judge and after death became a god.
The earliest Indo-Aryan writing in India occurs around 300 BC on Ashoka pillars, but it is really Prakrit. The ancient Sanskrit of Vedas, though transmitted orally was probably written down by 6th century BC. Thus the earliest written archaic Indo-Aryan/Indo-Iranian language has been found in Asia Minor and Syria. The Hittite language is the earliest known extinct form of Indo-European Language and the older Hittite texts (from 1650 BC to 1595 BC ) are the earliest texts found so far. In the later forms (1400 BC to 1190 BC) are to be found the Treaties and Treatise mentioned earlier, which are now on display at the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul along with other historical treasures, literally a sweep through time and history. But for a full and authentic account of the times and lives of the Mitannis and pre-Vedic Aryans, we have to wait till Wassukkanni is located, dug and its findings deciphered.
K Gajendra Singh, Indian ambassador (retired), served as ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan from August 1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to Jordan, Romania and Senegal. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies.
Copy right with the author*. E-mail: Gajendrak@hotmail.com
Turkic Languages: Their Contribution
in the Development of Hindustani by K. Gajendra Singh![Bookmark and Share]()
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The term Hindustan has been used consciously so as to include Pakistan in it, by which name the Sub-continent was known before its partition in 1947. This paper concentrates mainly on languages as spoken by the masses, with their natural variations and not so much the written and the literary forms. We will consider the two major languages, Hindi and Urdu, which are widely spoken in Hindustan, although claims have been made that Urdu evolved out of Hindi and that Hindi is only Urdu written inDevanagari script. But the fact of the matter is that both Urdu and Hindi have evolved from the same colloquial base of Hindustani which was the lingua franca of Hindustan till its partition. As the well- known scholar and outspoken historian Khushwant Singh says, since then the Indians have made Hindi moreSanskritized and Pakistanis Urdu more Persianized, with the result that it is difficult for a common man to understand either Hindi or Urdu, specially their Radio and TV broadcasts. However, in spite of politically motivated and necessary corrective measures which new ruling elites usher in to change the complexion of the official language, if not the language itself, as has happened both in India as well as in Pakistan, the lingua-franca spoken by the common man in Hindustan, specially those who are illiterate or semi-literate has not changed that much since 1947. The best proof of this is the language employed in Hindustani films made in Bombay (India) which really represents the spoken language of the masses in most of India, and which also remains equally popular in Pakistan. Whenever the film language became too Sanskritized, the films have not been very popular. At the same time, when a film on 'Razia' (a Turkish Queen of Delhi) utilized too Persianized Urdu, its lack of popularity could in some ways be attributed to the difficulty of the masses in understanding it. Hindustani with its vast vocabulary, form and literary variety provides the lyric and dialogue writer all the richness, elegance and nuances to express himself. Incidentally, according to Encyclopedia Britannica (1990 Edition), more than 35 million Indians declared Urdu as their mother-tongue while in Pakistan the number was less than one- fifth i.e. 6.7 million. (The compilation is old and estimates conservative.) Various forms of Hindustani are spoken or understood by over 70% of Indian population. The Bombay films have played a major role in spreading Hindustani in non-Hindi/Urdu speaking areas of South India and North-East.
The name Hindustani written as Hindoostanee was coined by an Englishman, Mr. J. B. Gilchrist (1759-1841), who was the first President of the Fort Christian College, Calcutta which trained British Civil Servants for service in India. Mr. Gilchrist also wrote a dictionary of Hindustani and its grammar. As mentioned earlier, from Hindustani have emerged two literary languages, Hindi in Devanagari script with literary and vocabulary borrowings from Sanskrit and Urdu in modified Arabic script with borrowings from Persian. Hindustani is much older form than Hindi or Urdu and many times it referred rather to the region and not so much to the race or religion. As a matter of fact before the advent of Muslims and others in India, the languages spoken in Hindustan were known as various Bhashas or Bakhas. Hindustani evolved out of a score of dialects which are inter-related among themselves and to it. Some of these dialects and languages are Hindi, Khariboli, Brij Bhasha, Awadhi, Bagheli, Chhatisgari, Bundeli, Kanauji, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Gujari, Rajsthani and when it was spoken in South it was known as Deccani That these languages are dialects of Hindi as claimed by some is not strictly true. Brij Bhasha was an important literary medium in 15th to 17th century. Both Brij Bhasha and many other dialects are genetically of different Prakritic origin than Khariboli. All earlier Hindi literature is in dialects other than Khariboli which became standardised and popular by the end of the 17th century and language of literature only in 19th century. Brij Bhasha continued as a medium of poetry till late 19th century. Thus, strictly speaking, the language of modern Hindi literature is different from that employed in earlier period. The same can be said about the Urdu which came to be written in the present form from 19th century onwards, although Urdu poetry flourished much earlier.
One of the earlier writers of Hindustani was Amir Khusarao (1253-1325) a remarkable scholar of Persian and Arabic but of Turkish origin. He is claimed both by the Hindi as well as Urdu protagonists. His dictionary, Khaliq-bari, in verse, of, Persian, Arabic and Hindi words helped spread Persian and Arabic words and development of Hindustani. In recent times, writers like Premchand have been claimed both by Hindi protagonists as well as Urdu spokesmen. The only difference was that the same writer wrote some times in modified Arabic (Persian) script and some times in Devanagari script. In this paper we would use the word Hindustani to include Hindi, Urdu and the other forms like Khariboli, Hindi, etc.
The general perception is that Hindustani and its earlier forms evolved out of interaction, since 11th century AD, between Muslim invaders, rulers, traders and religious men and others who had come and settled in Hindustan from the north-west and the local Indian population. Persian was then the language brought by sophisticated Muslim ruling elite from abroad, which was used for administration, courtly intercourse, etc. Thus the main interaction was between Persian and the Apbhramsa variation of Prakrit in North and West India, in particular the Suraseni variety spoken around Delhi and later with the Dravidian languages in Deccan, out of which Hindustani evolved and developed slowly and unevenly. Many of the books on the evolution and development of Hindustani were written by the Englishmen in 18th/ 19th century, who learnt and used it for administration as officers of the East India Company and the British Empire. It is doubtful if any of them knew Turkish as by the time they arrived on the scene, the pre-ponderence of Persian during the latter stages of Mughal empire was well established, although some Turkish was still taught in some Medrasas and households. Persian and Arabic continued to be taught at universities and schools during the British rule. Therefore, no credit at all except for some vocabulary is given to Turkish languages in the history of development of Urdu, Hindi or Hindustani. It is, of course, conceded that the word Urdu (Ordu in Turkish) itself is of Turkish origin and it means army or military establishment, which was inducted into Persian by 9l -Khanid historians and accepted in India by Sayyed ruler Khizr Khan for use by his army and the Court, under the Timurid influence. By 17th century, during the Mughal rule, the term, Urdu was generally applied to the imperial camp. The language Urdu/Lashkar Bhasha/Hindustani perhaps started developing seriously as a means of communication from end-12th century AD between the incoming Muslim rulers, soldiers, traders etc. and local population, for use in administration, for trading with native shop-keepers, in harems, where women and attendants were mostly of Hindustani origin. While Turks yielded to Persian words in matters of administration, poetry and social intercourse, they retained many Turkish words for military titles, weapons, military commands and organizations. Turkish derivations also exist in the hunt and hunting, also in terms expressing relationships and conduct in court among the ruling classes. We must not overlook the role played by Sufi saints in spreading Islam among the masses by using the new evolving Hindustani. Even today, tombs of Sufi saints are revered equally among Hindus. The objective of the paper is to advance the view that the Turkic languages apart from vocabulary, have contributed much more than is acknowledged, both in the basic structure as well as in the development of Hindustani languages.
The vast stretch of area comprising Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, north-west Hindustan, Anatolian Turkey, Northern Iraq etc. has seen intermingling of various races, cultures and languages throughout history. At least since the days of Mauryan Empire in India (4th century BC) many rulers with their capital in Hindustan had Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia in their domains. Therefore, the language of these rulers and their religion spread into Afghanistan, Central Asia and Eastern Iran. Mauryan Emperor Ashoka and others sent Buddhist preachers up to Central Asia and many of the tribes there became Buddhists. Turkic and Indo-Aryan tribes like Sakas, Kushanas, when they settled on India's borders and inside it also adopted languages and religions of Hindustan. They also adopted Indian scripts which were also transferred to Central Asia, specially Eastern Turkistan. The way for exchanges was well-known, through the valley of Kabul river, Peshawar, Jalalabad and through well known routes to Tarim basin. As a matter of fact this area provided links for commercial, cultural and political exchanges between China on one hand and India, Central Asia and Western Asia on the other, where intermingling of people with diverse culture, race, ethnicity, religion such as Indians, Turks and others took place. In this area, Buddhist stupas and shrines, a large number of Buddhist writings in Prakrit and writings in Sanskrit as well as in local languages of Central Asia, in Indian scripts like Brahmi and Devanagari have been discovered, apart from a large number of secular documents, written on wooden tablets, leather, paper and silk. There are also translations from Sanskrit in Kharosti script. Translations include astronomical and medicinal subjects. Documents discovered in 10th & 11th century from Turfan region which can be seen in Berlin cover subjects like medicines & calendar based on Indian sources. Of course, the Turkish in these documents is quite different from the present day Turkic languages (Uighur and Cagtai group) spoken in Eastern Turkistan i.e Kazakhstan, Kyrghystan, Uzbekistan and the Sinkiang region of China. As many philosophical, spiritual and religious terms of Bhudhism and even Hinduism did not exist, they were inducted from Pali & Sanskrit into Turkish. Thus Turkish acquired many words of Pali and Sanskrit origin, some of which have even gone into other languages; Ratan becoming Ardhani is an example. An example how words change is illustrated from the Buddhist word Dhyan (meditation), which became Jhan in Chinese and Zen in Japanese.
Although the influence of the Turkic languages on Indian languages began in all seriousness from 11th century AD onwards to which we will come to later, various Turkic tribes began their interaction with Hindustan much earlier than that. After the collapse of Mauryan Empire in 3rd century BC, a number of Central Asian Turkic tribes, known as Sakas in India and Scythians in West, came to Hindustan and settled down there. Sakas were actually forced towards Hindustan by Central Asian tribes, Yueh-chih, who also later entered Hindustan. Sakas ruled from Mathura (South East of Delhi) and their well-known Kings in 1st century BC were Rajuvala and Sodasa. They then shifted west to Rajasthan and Malwa. Yueh-chih's chief, Kujula-kara Kadphises conquered North India in 1st century AD. He was succeeded by his son Vima, after whom came famous Kanishka. Kanishka's tribe is known as Khushanas in Indian history. Their kingdom based with Peshawar as capital extended as far as Sanchi in Central India and Varanasi in East and also included large parts of Central Asia. Not surprisingly, administrative and political terms from north and west India influenced similar terms in Central Asia. Kushanas became Budhists and Kanishka spread this religion in Central Asia and elsewhere. Other major tribe which entered later in 6th Century AD were Huns, a branch of Hephthalis or white Huns, whose first king came to be known as Toramana in early 6th century and whose son Mihirakula was a patron of Shavism, a branch of Hinduism. It has been said that these and other tribes which had come earlier moved into Western and Central India i.e. in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Western Madhya Pradesh, especially after the break-up of the Gupta Empire. Many historians claim that by virtue of their valor and other qualities, these tribes were able to get themselves incorporated into the hierarchy of the Hindu caste system i.e. Khatriyas and are known as Rajputs (sons of Kings). It is no wonder that the Mongols and other Turkic speaking people were able to form relationships with Rajputs so very easily. It is possible that some words of Turkic languages might have been then absorbed in dialects or languages spoken in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Central India, where these tribes settled. A common word is 'kara' which in Turkish means 'black' and used for the same color in West India and as 'Kala' in the rest of the country. It is a moot point whether the word 'bai' which is written in Turkish as 'baci' and pronounced as 'baji' which means sister or elder woman has persisted from those days. But it was in areas of Rajasthan and nearby, closer to Delhi where the seeds for the development of Hindustani languages were sown.
After the expansion of Islam into Iran this religion soon spread to Central Asia. The Turks as they advanced towards Anatolia and Hindustan via Iran and Afghanistan were also Islamised. Being a simple but hardy people from the Eurasian steppes, where life was austere and without frills, once the Turks acquired kingdoms, they also acquired along with it symbols and ways of culture and civilization, including the use of more sophisticated Persian (and Arabic), the language of the people they conquered. (To begin with Omayands had also taken over Byzantine system lock stock and barrel in Damascus). It is noteworthy that except in Central Asia, which remains the home of Turks and Anatolia i.e. Republic of Turkey (and Azeri areas), in most of the other areas they ruled, the Turks adopted the language of the ruled, albeit they introduced some of their own vocabulary and influenced the grammar of the language of their subjects.
In the medieval history of Hindustan, the Turkic tribes played a major role among the Muslim conquers and rulers who came and made India their home. The Turkic raids began in the first half of 11th century starting with Sabuktgin and the process of establishment of their kingdoms in North & West of Hindustan started from late 12th century. Although Sindh was conquered by the Arabs, soon after the establishment of the Abbassid Khalifate in 8th Century AD, this played directly only a marginal role in influencing the culture and civilisation of Hindustan. It is interesting that in Malayalam (language of Kerala), Hindustani is known as Tuluk Bhasha and the word Tulukan used for Muslims and Tulukachi for Muslim woman. The languages spoken by the people of Turkey is called Tuluk Bhasha. This is interesting because the relations between the Kerala coast and the Arab world predate Islam and there has been constant interaction between the Malabar coast of Kerala and the Arab world but still the word for a Muslim is Tulukan.
The impact and embedding of Islam and Islamic and Turkish culture into Hindustan took place during the Turco-Afghan period of India's history from end-12th century to early l6th century (and continued during the Mughal period). Even if some of the Sultans and rulers claimed Arabic or Afghan descent, the majority of the elite consisted of people of Turkic & Turanian origins ( not many of these tribes and individuals came from the Rumi Seljuk or Ottoman territories.) Many of them came as simple soldiers and some period chieftains. From the very early days of the Islamic history (second half of Abbassid period), many non-Turkish kings and Sultans maintained Turkish households of slaves brought over from Central Asia which provided them loyal soldiers and military leaders. Many of them rose by hard work and merit and reached the top ranks of the ruling elite and King makers. Some even became Sultans.
Some of the prominent names of Turkish rulers in Hindustan are Mahmud of Ghazni, Muhammad Gori, Kutubuddin Aybak, Iltutmish, Balban, and of course, Khiljis (known as Halach, in Turkish kh becomes h) and Tughlaks. According to some estimates, the Turks comprised up to 60% or more of the ruling elite during the medieval period of Indian history. It should also be noted that Timurid King, Babar, founder of the Mughal dynasty, was a Cagtai Turk and wrote his Babarname in Ca tai and not in Persian. So did his sons Humayun and Kamran write poet in Turkish. However, by the time of Akbar's reign the percentage of Turkish chieftains in the ruling elite had been reduced to one-fourth. It was a conscious political decision, as Turks and specially Mongols, nomad by life style, are more independent by nature and believe in equality and freedom. The Turanian/Mongolian concept of rulership is vested in the family and not in an individual. Humayun and Akbar had great trouble in subduing and disciplining their Turanian/Mongol origin nobles. Preference was given to Persians, Afghans & converts.
It has been rightly claimed by many scholars in South India that a considerable process of development and even preservation of Hindustani took place in Deccan where it came to be known as Deccani, although the seeds of the birth of the language had been sown in North India from where it was taken to Deccan by Muslims conquers starting with Turkish Khilji (Halac) rulers and later Tughlak (again Turkish) rulers; Muhammed Tughlak even shifted his capital to the South for some time. Later a large number of kingdoms by Turkic tribes, in which they formed a fairly large proportion of the elite, were established in South India, i.e Bijapur, Golcunda, etc. When Allaudin Khilji conquered Deccan, the appointed Turks as chiefs for each villa e to look after its security, safety and administration. Most of them called their relatives to assist them. Thus both in the beginning of the evolution of Hindustani in the North and later in its further development in Deccan, a majority of the elite was of Turkic origin who while using Persian for administration must have used Turkish at inter-personal level and thus helped continue evolution of Hindustani in its various forms. The Deccani period also saw influx into Hindustani of not only Dravadian words but also its influence on its grammar and syntax and vice versa. We might even say that the Deccani period probably saved Hindustani from becoming totally Persianised as perhaps happened to it at many places in North India.
It has been estimated that Hindustani and Turkish have thousands of words in common, mostly from Persian and Arabic, Some estimates put them around three to four thousand, with over five to six hundred words of Turkish origin in Hindustani. The comparison is basically with the Republic of Turkey's Turkish (of Oguz family), which since 1930s has been purged of many Arabic and Persian words. Perhaps the number of common words between Hindustani and Turkish as spoken in East, i.e. Uzbekistan and East (Uighur and Cagtai family) could, perhaps, be more. Some examples of Turkish words in Hindustani are: Top, Tamancha, Barood, Nishan, Chaku, Bahadur, Begum, Bulak, Chadar, Chhatri, Chakachak, chikin (embroidery), Chamcha, Chechek, Dag, Surma, Bavarchi, Khazanchi, Bakshi (accountant), Coolie, Kanat, Kiyma, Kulcha, Korma, Kotwal, Daroga, Koka, Kenchi, Naukar, etc. Obviously, the number of Turkish words in Hindustani is not as large as that of Persian and Arabic, because, the latter was the language of the Holy Koran (although Seljuk Turk rulers in Asia Minor and Iran had discouraged use of Arabic except for religion), which exercised influence over all believers and the former was the language of administration and aristocracy. I presume studies on the influence of Turkish on the Persian language and Arabic, have been done.
Hindustani has surprising similarity in Grammar and Syntax structure with Turkish, though origins of both the languages are from different language families. For example, normally both in Hindustani and in Turkish first comes the subject, then the object etc. and finally the verb, i.e. SOV order unless emphasis is to be given, with somewhat similar stem endings. There are considerable resemblances in the declensions of the verb in Turkish and Hindustani. But, Turkish has only one gender while Hindustani has two. As I know soma Arabic, I can say that there appears no similarity at all between Hindustani and Arabic syntax and grammar. I know little Sanskrit or Persian grammar, but both languages belong to the same family of Indo-Iranian group and my feeling is that their syntax is also closer to Hindustani. While Persian like Turkish has one gender, Sanskrit has three, i.e. male, female and neuter. Sanskrit also allows more flexibility in the placing of subject, object, etc. It may be admitted that human beings while evolving speech patterns did not have much choice in shuffling subject, object, verb, etc. Still that Sanskrit/Persian syntax is somewhat similar to Turkish, is a somewhat strange coincidence, the latter belonging to the Ural-Altay group of languages. With Hindustani the similarity is further accentuated. It may also be noted that the areas from where Turkish and Indo-European languages emerged in Central Asia were not far from each other. Some similarities with Sanskrit are: dvihyrdaya (carrying two hearts, pregnant), in Turkish "iki canli" means, the same, two lives. In Hindi/Sanskrit, we have Chitrakar (painter), Murtikar. In Turkish we have "Sanatkar" (Artist), Curetkar (courageous). Sun in Sarhskrit/Hindi is Dinesha, while in Turkish it is "Gunes." First segment in both "din" and "gun" means day - perhaps linked with sunrise in cold climate. We may also note that the syntax of Germanic languages is quite different from Sanskrit and Persian, which are supposed to belong to the same family of Indo-European languages. We may now look at more similarities between Hindustani and Turkish. (Please note that in Turkish C is pronounced as J and C as Ch, G is silent when placed between vowels, which it accentuates. H: stands for Hindustani and T: for Turkish.)
There are no articles or declensions in Turkish or Hindustani; the relationship of the words are expressed through 'case endings' as well as post-positions. (It would be interesting to study if Turkish helped speedy change-over from declensions to post-positions from Apbhramsh to Hindustani). The infinite noun functions as nominative and as indefinite. The accusative has thus two forms: the definite (with accusative ending) and the indefinite (the same as the nominative). Thus, "call a girl" - H: "ek larki bulao" T: "bir kiz çagir" but "call my servant", H: "mere naukar ko bulao"- T: "Benim hizmetciyi çagir". The word order in Turkish and Hindustani is same (This is also so in the following examples).
The genitive comes before the agent e.g. 'the son of the teacher' T: 'ustanin oglu' H: 'ustad ka beta'. The genitive also expresses possession: 'whose house is this?' T. "Bu ev kimindir?", H: 'Woh ghar kiska hai?'. If a noun is in present, it goes into the genitive. It must therefore be constructed as: 'the man(he) has a house', T: "Adamin bir evi var", H: "Adami ka ek ghar hai". Also 'to have' as incidental possession is similarly expressed: "I have a book", T: 'Ben de bir kitab var', H: 'mere pas ek kitab hai'. The ablative is also used to express the comparative case: 'the elephant is larger than the horse' T: 'Fil attan buyuktur', H: 'Hathi ghore se bara hai'. For emphasis both languages use the Arabic adverb 'ziada' - for more. 'In addition it can be rendered as in T: 'daha' or in H: 'bhi'. The adjective is before the active or passive voice and does not change except in the case of (in H) adjectives ending with a. "The/a good girl, T: "iyi kiz", H: Achhi lardki". The adjective can be strengthened in both languages through simple repetition as well as through the adverb "very much " T:( pek çok); H:( bahut).In H:' Ahista ahista' (slowly), T:' yavas yavas'. Quickly becomes, T: "çabuk çabuk", H: 'Jaldi Jaldi'( not used in Arabic and Sanskrit perhaps). Sometimes alliteration is used, for example, H: 'ulta multa' mixed up. The alliterations are found especially in the passive or active voice (substantive) e.g.;. H: "kitab mitab" - books and suchlike and "bartan wartan"- dishes and suchlike, "Hara bhara"(Green), "Chota mota"(small). In Turkish, 'kötu mötu' (so-so), 'çocuk mocuk' (children etc), 'tabak mabak', (plates and suchlike). Popular in both languages are doubled substantives: Turn by turn or "again and again", becomes in T: "dizi dizi" and in H: 'bari bari'.
Distributive are also thus expressed: "each man", T: "bir bir (or tek tek) adam," H: "ek ek adami", the interrogative further contains the meaning of the indefinite: "whoever", T: "kim kim", H: "jo jo". With number it is, T: "iki defa" H: "do dafa" (twice); 40 doors, in H: "Chalis darwaza", T: kirk kapi. In both languages numbers are preferably expressed without 'and/or' e.g. 'five or ten', H: panch das, T: bes on. Post positions are characteristic in both languages; 'for the dog' in H: 'kutte ke vaste', T: 'köpek için'; and towards the house', H: 'ghar ke taraf', T: 'evin tarafina'. As mentioned earlier, the verb is always found at the end of the sentence. The normal sentence structure SOV is illustrated as follows: 'I give this thick book with pleasure to that good child', T: ben sevincle, o iyi çocuga bu kalin kitabi veriyorum, H: 'main khushi se us ache bacche ko yeh moti kitab deta hun'. In Turkish, verbs are often used with a Substantive or Participle e.g. 'etmek' to make and 'olmak' to be, in H: 'karna'- to do, and 'hona' -being. For 'search' T: 'telaÿ etmek', H: 'talas karna'. Or 'be present', T: 'dahil olmak' H: 'dakhil hona'. Factual verbs are also similarly constructed. H: 'bana' (made), 'banana' (make), 'banwana' (have it made); in T: 'Yapmak' (make), 'yaptirmak' (have it made), ;yapilmak' (to bo made); H: 'Badalna' (to change oneself), 'badlana' (changing), badalwana (to have it changed) becomes in T: 'degismek' (to change onself), 'degistirmek' (to change) and 'degistirtmek (to have it changed).
Indirect speech is made direct 'tell him to come here', H: 'Idhar ao usko bolo', T: 'buraya gelsin diye ona söyleyin'. The verb root ending - ip in Turkish and the simple verb root in Hindustani attached to the principal verb show the order of occurrence of an event. For example, 'they saw the thief and held him fast', H: 'chor ko dekh umon ne usko pakra', T: 'Hirsizi group yakaladilar'. The constructed verbal form (in Turkish)- arak and (Hindustani)-kar, -arke serves in the rendering of Subordinate or dependant clauses - 'in which, during' e.g. 'taking a vessel, he went to the well' H: 'bartan lekar kuan par gaya, T: 'Canak alarak kuyuya gitti'. Also common adverbial expressions such as 'he came running', T: 'Kosarak geldi', H: 'daurkar aya'. As in Turkish the twice repeated verb root plus e shows repeated or continuous action, as does the twice repeated verb of the present participle, H: 'main tairte tairte thak gaya', T: 'Yuze yuze yoruldum'. Both languages have a number of vowel compositions, (in Hindustani) as when the root as well as the (in Turkish) root plus a are set together with the declenated infinitive e.g. 'to be able to speak' T: 'konusabilmek', H: 'bol sakna', 'he began to say' H: 'woh bolne laga', T: 'Söylemege basladi'. Some similarities in idiomatic expressions are: the showing of suffering is pointed out through the expression of 'eating'- e.g. H: 'lakri or mar khana'; T: 'Sopa yemek'– to eat the stick - to get a beating. Endure suffering or to grieve, becomes in T: 'Gam yemek', H: 'gham khana'. (Note: Many of the above mentioned examples have been taken from a 1955 article by Otto Spies on the subject - the only paper on the subject I have come across since I published my earlier paper on 1.6.1994.)
The examples quoted above on the similarities of syntax, vocabulary, etc. Between Turkish and Hindustani are based on comparison with the Ottoman and the present- day Turkish i.e. Oguz branch as spoken in the Republic of Turkey. Syntax etc. of Turkish is quite similar to Eastern Turkish i.e. Uighur branch although there are variations. But certainly the Eastern Turkish must be closer to Hindustani as most of the Turkic tribes who came to Hindustan belonged to that area. It may also be mentioned that of the common words in Turkish and Hindustani, whether of Turkish origin or otherwise, 20% have quite different meanings and nuances when used in Hindustani. This, of course is, true of even languages which have developed and evolved in separate regions and are influenced by the environment and other factors and become quite different from the original. Even in Turkic countries, the same words have different meaning e.g. in Turkey or say in Sinkiang, Kazakhstan or Kyrghystan. It is for this reason that the Turkic governments have set up Commissions consisting of scholars from Turkic speaking countries of Central Asia, Turkey and Azerbaijan to prepare a comparative dictionary and grammar. (last such attempt was made by Mahmud AI Kashghari in the 11th century AD.) The newly independent countries in Central Asia feel that they must harmonize the syntax, grammar and vocabulary of their languages. This has been the objective of many get-togethers of Turkic people, scholars and academicians, which have started taking place. Perhaps some Sanskrit, Hindustani and Persian scholars could also join and discover further resemblance between Turkish and Hindustani languages.
We will leave it to linguists and philologists to work out how Hindustani languages evolved and developed but to a layman it is clear that people learn or try to learn the ruler's language or of a dominating power. It is for this reason that we see the dominance of English and French in their former colonies and the lasting influence of these languages on the languages of the latter. And it is for this reason alone that English continues to dominate international communications, earlier because of the British influence and now on account of the USA. I believe that even when languages were imposed, it is not as such the movement of races, as claimed, but only of the powerful elites; military, political or economic. There were Copts and Berbers in North Africa when the Arabs came and Byzantine Christians when Turks entered Asia Minor. Turkey sent over 1.5 million Christians to Greece in 1920s out of a population of over 11 million, in exchange for Muslim Turks; this was after 6 centuries of Islamisation and Turkification. (Ironically, these included many thousand Christian Turks, who had come to Asia Minor earlier than the Muslim Turks and had remained Christians.) Moldova's Turks called Gagaoz are Christians. Thus the languages and religions of the ruled do not change quickly and continue to interact and affect each other. So was the case in Hindustan and elsewhere.
According to linguists the evolution of Hindustani or any other language is a result of contact situation in which more than two languages interact on the basis of belonging to the ruler and the ruled. The socio-linguistic forces give power and prestige to the languages of the ruler with the result that it begins to exercise linguistic influence on the language of the ruled. First in the field of vocabulary and later on in some vulnerable areas of syntax. But linguistic resemblance, apart from common parentage, can also be based on geographical and physical proximity. Essentially different but geographically and physically proximate languages are often known to exhibit shared linguistic features. This probably explains similarities in Sanskrit and Turkish as these languages originated around Central Asia. This also explains the similarities between Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages or Persian, Turkish and Hindustani. This feature was studied in detail by Mr. Emeneau, which led him to develop the concept of linguistic areas. Perhaps Central Asia, Anatolia, lran, Afghanistan and North Hindustan could be said to belong to overlapping linguistic areas, where languages belonging to different families have acquired common traits following interaction, as a result of which, this vast area shows shared linguistic features like word-order, reduplication, inter-relations, negations, compound words etc. This also explains similarities between Deccani Hindi and Telgu in certain areas of syntax.
It is noteworthy that except for some inscriptions near Orhon river, which are in Turkish Rhunic script, which itself was derived from Aramaic (a fact contested by many experts), the mother script of Semitic languages, Turkish has been mostly written in the script of the ruled people. Brahmi, Kharoshti and Devanagri scripts, though not of the ruled, are perhaps the earliest of scripts used for writing Turkish as spoken by Uighur Turks in Eastern Turkistan. They were used in spite of many difficulties in expressing the Turkish vowels (not easier to write in Persian or Arabic script either) which do not exist in Hindustani languages. Brahmi script is of Indian origin; it might have been inspired by the Aramaic script, but is not related to it and was used widely in Hindustan even before the Buddhist era and was used by Mauryan King Ashoka for inscriptions in India and elsewhere. It was taken to Central Asia and other neighboring countries. Out of Brahmi have evolved most other North Indian scripts like Devanagari, Bengali, Gujarati etc. Apart from the modified Arabic script, the other scripts used for writing Turkish are Cyrillic, introduced by the Russians in what are now Central Asian Republics, although at one time it was written in the Latin script. This change-over to Cyrillic perhaps took place both because the Turkish Republic had adopted it in early 1930s and for reasons of state, i.e. maintaining a scriptal cohesiveness. The Russians wanted its citizens in Central Asia to use the same script as of the dominant Russian language for easy switch over. It has been alleged that during the Soviet days, differences in meanings of Turkish words in different republics were encouraged. Thus Turkic languages have evolved differently in Eastern Turkistan, i.e. Uzbekistan, Kyrghystan Kazakhstan etc. Sinkiang Turkish with reduced contacts has perhaps developed peculiarities of its own. To remedy the situation, the Government of Turkey has granted tens of thousands of scholarships to students and teachers from Turkic Republics. A large number of Turkish teachers have also gone to teach at schools and universities in these countries. Students coming from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrghystan, etc. take a few months before they can fully master the Turkish as spoken in the Turkish Republic. The Turkic Republics have considered the question of change over from the Cyrillic to the Latin script. Azerbaijan has already done so after adding three more alphabets to the script used by Turkey. Turkmenistan had decided to switch over to the Latin script with some modifications from 1st January 1995. Others have not decided yet. The choice is not easy as switch-over to Latin script while opening a window to Turkey and all that Turkey has done through translations and assimilation of knowledge from the West, would cut these Republics from their immediate past, written in the Cyrillic script. Switch over to the Arabic script would be a political decision, as it will make access to the Persian-Arab Islamic world easier. Those responsible for the decision for the change-over have to consider political, cultural, religious, economic and other ramifications.
It would appear that the Turkic rulers were much more statesmen-like and liberal in interaction with those whom they ruled. They did not insist on their language being imposed on the new subjects, notwithstanding the fact that the languages of some of the ruled were much more developed than Turkish. (For beautiful, like, love; for example, Turkish has very few synonymous, unlike say Persian, Sanskrit, Arabic, etc.) It has also been suggested that many Turkish rulers became Muslim for political and state-reasons. It automatically combined the powers of the Sultan and the Khalifa, thus making it easier to rule the domains. Of course, as regards Turkish expansion of Ottoman Empire and into Hindustan, being a Gazi provided great incentive and booty. Some have even raised doubts whether Ertugrul, father of Osman who established the Ottoman (Osmanli) dynasty in Asia Minor (Anatolia) was Muslim by birth. It has been suggested that he converted to Islam when he married the daughter of a powerful Islamic Sheikh to strengthen his position. But there is no conclusive proof for this, notwithstanding the fact that many Turks like Gagaoz and others have remained Christians. Some suggestions have been made recently (Prof. Julian Raby of Oxford has done a PhD thesis on this subject) that Fetih, the Conqueror of Constantinpole, seriously considered in 1450s embracing Orthodox Christianity, as Westwards the population was mostly Christian and even in Asia Minor a fairly large percentage of population might still have been Christian. lt was nearly 15% in as late as 1920s. The generosity of the Turkish rulers and their political wisdom and acumen is proved by the fact that they allowed people of other religions i.e. Christians, Jews, Armenians to have their own millets. As long as they paid their taxes, they were allowed to run their own affairs and even contribute to the economic well-being of the state. As regards Turkey, then known as Asia Minor, it was part of the Byzantine Empire and the Turkish blood (if one can measure it?) among the residents of the present day Turkey may not be more than 20%. It may be recalled that the Ottoman rulers themselves used the slave households system called Devsirme, through which, for hundreds of years, they recruited young non-Muslim Christian boys, mostly from Balkans. Out of them emerged the Janissary corps and high level military and civilian leaders, including grand veziers. Only one-third of grand veziers could claim Turkish descent. Barring a few, mothers of most of the Ottoman Sultans were non-Turkish, a large number of them Christians. The former were allowed to have their religious entourage and many Ottoman princes were brought up almost as Christians. These examples have been given to state that Empires did not change their religious, ethnic or linguistic character suddenly. There were long periods of interaction between various religions, races, languages and cultures, one affecting the other. No wonder, in Istanbul, Ankara and elsewhere in Turkey, many resemble the peoples of Balkans and Yugoslavia who dominated the Ottoman elite. In fact, anthropologists have counted more than 20 ethnic groups in Turkey.
Similarly in India, once the Turks had decided to settle down, they started inter-mingling and inter-mixing. Allaudin Khilji and his sons married daughters of Hindu Kings and from the earliest period set an example. Hindus occupied positions of power in his court. The practice of marriages with families of Hindu Kings, especially in Rajasthan became very common after Mughal Emperor Akbar. Akbar and his descendents gave full honor and positions to their in-laws. Many of them were Mughal Commander-in-Chiefs and high officials. Accountants and many Veziers like Birbal were Hindus. If Mehmet, the Conqueror, thought of embracing Christianity, Akbar conversed with the sages of all religions, of which his populace consisted of and even evolved a new religion 'Din-e-Elahi'. In contrast, Aurangzeb following fanatic policies virtually destroyed the empire, built up by his forefathers. The inter-mixing and respect for others' languages, religions and culture co-existed with some equality and were able to influence each other.
The objective of this paper is to start discussions and further research on the question of influence of Turkic languages on Hindustani languages, especially on Hindi and Urdu and their various forms. Except from late 18th century till first half of 20th century there was constant exchange and interaction between the peoples of Hindustan and Central Asia. (After India's independence, she was able to maintain cultural and other contacts with Turkic people in the former Soviet Union.) Now that, after the break-up of the Soviet Union, countries in Central Asia like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrghystan, Kazakhastan, have become independent, more contacts and cultural and literary interaction can and should be established. The new era provides an opportunity not only to discover old historical and cultural relationships between the peoples of Hindustan and Turkic Republics and others, based on archives available in newly emerged Turkic Republics and elsewhere and those lying unutilized and unread in the Hindustan; but also to build on them further.
(K Gajendra Singh, served as Indian Ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan in 1992-96. Prior to that, he served as ambassador to Jordan (during the 1990-91 Gulf war ), Romania and Senegal. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies.
E-Mail.gajendrak@hotmail.com)
11-May-2003 - See more at: http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=762#sthash.oUu1kMvK.dpuf
in the Development of Hindustani by K. Gajendra Singh
The term Hindustan has been used consciously so as to include Pakistan in it, by which name the Sub-continent was known before its partition in 1947. This paper concentrates mainly on languages as spoken by the masses, with their natural variations and not so much the written and the literary forms. We will consider the two major languages, Hindi and Urdu, which are widely spoken in Hindustan, although claims have been made that Urdu evolved out of Hindi and that Hindi is only Urdu written inDevanagari script. But the fact of the matter is that both Urdu and Hindi have evolved from the same colloquial base of Hindustani which was the lingua franca of Hindustan till its partition. As the well- known scholar and outspoken historian Khushwant Singh says, since then the Indians have made Hindi moreSanskritized and Pakistanis Urdu more Persianized, with the result that it is difficult for a common man to understand either Hindi or Urdu, specially their Radio and TV broadcasts. However, in spite of politically motivated and necessary corrective measures which new ruling elites usher in to change the complexion of the official language, if not the language itself, as has happened both in India as well as in Pakistan, the lingua-franca spoken by the common man in Hindustan, specially those who are illiterate or semi-literate has not changed that much since 1947. The best proof of this is the language employed in Hindustani films made in Bombay (India) which really represents the spoken language of the masses in most of India, and which also remains equally popular in Pakistan. Whenever the film language became too Sanskritized, the films have not been very popular. At the same time, when a film on 'Razia' (a Turkish Queen of Delhi) utilized too Persianized Urdu, its lack of popularity could in some ways be attributed to the difficulty of the masses in understanding it. Hindustani with its vast vocabulary, form and literary variety provides the lyric and dialogue writer all the richness, elegance and nuances to express himself. Incidentally, according to Encyclopedia Britannica (1990 Edition), more than 35 million Indians declared Urdu as their mother-tongue while in Pakistan the number was less than one- fifth i.e. 6.7 million. (The compilation is old and estimates conservative.) Various forms of Hindustani are spoken or understood by over 70% of Indian population. The Bombay films have played a major role in spreading Hindustani in non-Hindi/Urdu speaking areas of South India and North-East.The name Hindustani written as Hindoostanee was coined by an Englishman, Mr. J. B. Gilchrist (1759-1841), who was the first President of the Fort Christian College, Calcutta which trained British Civil Servants for service in India. Mr. Gilchrist also wrote a dictionary of Hindustani and its grammar. As mentioned earlier, from Hindustani have emerged two literary languages, Hindi in Devanagari script with literary and vocabulary borrowings from Sanskrit and Urdu in modified Arabic script with borrowings from Persian. Hindustani is much older form than Hindi or Urdu and many times it referred rather to the region and not so much to the race or religion. As a matter of fact before the advent of Muslims and others in India, the languages spoken in Hindustan were known as various Bhashas or Bakhas. Hindustani evolved out of a score of dialects which are inter-related among themselves and to it. Some of these dialects and languages are Hindi, Khariboli, Brij Bhasha, Awadhi, Bagheli, Chhatisgari, Bundeli, Kanauji, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Gujari, Rajsthani and when it was spoken in South it was known as Deccani That these languages are dialects of Hindi as claimed by some is not strictly true. Brij Bhasha was an important literary medium in 15th to 17th century. Both Brij Bhasha and many other dialects are genetically of different Prakritic origin than Khariboli. All earlier Hindi literature is in dialects other than Khariboli which became standardised and popular by the end of the 17th century and language of literature only in 19th century. Brij Bhasha continued as a medium of poetry till late 19th century. Thus, strictly speaking, the language of modern Hindi literature is different from that employed in earlier period. The same can be said about the Urdu which came to be written in the present form from 19th century onwards, although Urdu poetry flourished much earlier.
One of the earlier writers of Hindustani was Amir Khusarao (1253-1325) a remarkable scholar of Persian and Arabic but of Turkish origin. He is claimed both by the Hindi as well as Urdu protagonists. His dictionary, Khaliq-bari, in verse, of, Persian, Arabic and Hindi words helped spread Persian and Arabic words and development of Hindustani. In recent times, writers like Premchand have been claimed both by Hindi protagonists as well as Urdu spokesmen. The only difference was that the same writer wrote some times in modified Arabic (Persian) script and some times in Devanagari script. In this paper we would use the word Hindustani to include Hindi, Urdu and the other forms like Khariboli, Hindi, etc.
The general perception is that Hindustani and its earlier forms evolved out of interaction, since 11th century AD, between Muslim invaders, rulers, traders and religious men and others who had come and settled in Hindustan from the north-west and the local Indian population. Persian was then the language brought by sophisticated Muslim ruling elite from abroad, which was used for administration, courtly intercourse, etc. Thus the main interaction was between Persian and the Apbhramsa variation of Prakrit in North and West India, in particular the Suraseni variety spoken around Delhi and later with the Dravidian languages in Deccan, out of which Hindustani evolved and developed slowly and unevenly. Many of the books on the evolution and development of Hindustani were written by the Englishmen in 18th/ 19th century, who learnt and used it for administration as officers of the East India Company and the British Empire. It is doubtful if any of them knew Turkish as by the time they arrived on the scene, the pre-ponderence of Persian during the latter stages of Mughal empire was well established, although some Turkish was still taught in some Medrasas and households. Persian and Arabic continued to be taught at universities and schools during the British rule. Therefore, no credit at all except for some vocabulary is given to Turkish languages in the history of development of Urdu, Hindi or Hindustani. It is, of course, conceded that the word Urdu (Ordu in Turkish) itself is of Turkish origin and it means army or military establishment, which was inducted into Persian by 9l -Khanid historians and accepted in India by Sayyed ruler Khizr Khan for use by his army and the Court, under the Timurid influence. By 17th century, during the Mughal rule, the term, Urdu was generally applied to the imperial camp. The language Urdu/Lashkar Bhasha/Hindustani perhaps started developing seriously as a means of communication from end-12th century AD between the incoming Muslim rulers, soldiers, traders etc. and local population, for use in administration, for trading with native shop-keepers, in harems, where women and attendants were mostly of Hindustani origin. While Turks yielded to Persian words in matters of administration, poetry and social intercourse, they retained many Turkish words for military titles, weapons, military commands and organizations. Turkish derivations also exist in the hunt and hunting, also in terms expressing relationships and conduct in court among the ruling classes. We must not overlook the role played by Sufi saints in spreading Islam among the masses by using the new evolving Hindustani. Even today, tombs of Sufi saints are revered equally among Hindus. The objective of the paper is to advance the view that the Turkic languages apart from vocabulary, have contributed much more than is acknowledged, both in the basic structure as well as in the development of Hindustani languages.
The vast stretch of area comprising Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, north-west Hindustan, Anatolian Turkey, Northern Iraq etc. has seen intermingling of various races, cultures and languages throughout history. At least since the days of Mauryan Empire in India (4th century BC) many rulers with their capital in Hindustan had Afghanistan and parts of Central Asia in their domains. Therefore, the language of these rulers and their religion spread into Afghanistan, Central Asia and Eastern Iran. Mauryan Emperor Ashoka and others sent Buddhist preachers up to Central Asia and many of the tribes there became Buddhists. Turkic and Indo-Aryan tribes like Sakas, Kushanas, when they settled on India's borders and inside it also adopted languages and religions of Hindustan. They also adopted Indian scripts which were also transferred to Central Asia, specially Eastern Turkistan. The way for exchanges was well-known, through the valley of Kabul river, Peshawar, Jalalabad and through well known routes to Tarim basin. As a matter of fact this area provided links for commercial, cultural and political exchanges between China on one hand and India, Central Asia and Western Asia on the other, where intermingling of people with diverse culture, race, ethnicity, religion such as Indians, Turks and others took place. In this area, Buddhist stupas and shrines, a large number of Buddhist writings in Prakrit and writings in Sanskrit as well as in local languages of Central Asia, in Indian scripts like Brahmi and Devanagari have been discovered, apart from a large number of secular documents, written on wooden tablets, leather, paper and silk. There are also translations from Sanskrit in Kharosti script. Translations include astronomical and medicinal subjects. Documents discovered in 10th & 11th century from Turfan region which can be seen in Berlin cover subjects like medicines & calendar based on Indian sources. Of course, the Turkish in these documents is quite different from the present day Turkic languages (Uighur and Cagtai group) spoken in Eastern Turkistan i.e Kazakhstan, Kyrghystan, Uzbekistan and the Sinkiang region of China. As many philosophical, spiritual and religious terms of Bhudhism and even Hinduism did not exist, they were inducted from Pali & Sanskrit into Turkish. Thus Turkish acquired many words of Pali and Sanskrit origin, some of which have even gone into other languages; Ratan becoming Ardhani is an example. An example how words change is illustrated from the Buddhist word Dhyan (meditation), which became Jhan in Chinese and Zen in Japanese.
Although the influence of the Turkic languages on Indian languages began in all seriousness from 11th century AD onwards to which we will come to later, various Turkic tribes began their interaction with Hindustan much earlier than that. After the collapse of Mauryan Empire in 3rd century BC, a number of Central Asian Turkic tribes, known as Sakas in India and Scythians in West, came to Hindustan and settled down there. Sakas were actually forced towards Hindustan by Central Asian tribes, Yueh-chih, who also later entered Hindustan. Sakas ruled from Mathura (South East of Delhi) and their well-known Kings in 1st century BC were Rajuvala and Sodasa. They then shifted west to Rajasthan and Malwa. Yueh-chih's chief, Kujula-kara Kadphises conquered North India in 1st century AD. He was succeeded by his son Vima, after whom came famous Kanishka. Kanishka's tribe is known as Khushanas in Indian history. Their kingdom based with Peshawar as capital extended as far as Sanchi in Central India and Varanasi in East and also included large parts of Central Asia. Not surprisingly, administrative and political terms from north and west India influenced similar terms in Central Asia. Kushanas became Budhists and Kanishka spread this religion in Central Asia and elsewhere. Other major tribe which entered later in 6th Century AD were Huns, a branch of Hephthalis or white Huns, whose first king came to be known as Toramana in early 6th century and whose son Mihirakula was a patron of Shavism, a branch of Hinduism. It has been said that these and other tribes which had come earlier moved into Western and Central India i.e. in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Western Madhya Pradesh, especially after the break-up of the Gupta Empire. Many historians claim that by virtue of their valor and other qualities, these tribes were able to get themselves incorporated into the hierarchy of the Hindu caste system i.e. Khatriyas and are known as Rajputs (sons of Kings). It is no wonder that the Mongols and other Turkic speaking people were able to form relationships with Rajputs so very easily. It is possible that some words of Turkic languages might have been then absorbed in dialects or languages spoken in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Central India, where these tribes settled. A common word is 'kara' which in Turkish means 'black' and used for the same color in West India and as 'Kala' in the rest of the country. It is a moot point whether the word 'bai' which is written in Turkish as 'baci' and pronounced as 'baji' which means sister or elder woman has persisted from those days. But it was in areas of Rajasthan and nearby, closer to Delhi where the seeds for the development of Hindustani languages were sown.
After the expansion of Islam into Iran this religion soon spread to Central Asia. The Turks as they advanced towards Anatolia and Hindustan via Iran and Afghanistan were also Islamised. Being a simple but hardy people from the Eurasian steppes, where life was austere and without frills, once the Turks acquired kingdoms, they also acquired along with it symbols and ways of culture and civilization, including the use of more sophisticated Persian (and Arabic), the language of the people they conquered. (To begin with Omayands had also taken over Byzantine system lock stock and barrel in Damascus). It is noteworthy that except in Central Asia, which remains the home of Turks and Anatolia i.e. Republic of Turkey (and Azeri areas), in most of the other areas they ruled, the Turks adopted the language of the ruled, albeit they introduced some of their own vocabulary and influenced the grammar of the language of their subjects.
In the medieval history of Hindustan, the Turkic tribes played a major role among the Muslim conquers and rulers who came and made India their home. The Turkic raids began in the first half of 11th century starting with Sabuktgin and the process of establishment of their kingdoms in North & West of Hindustan started from late 12th century. Although Sindh was conquered by the Arabs, soon after the establishment of the Abbassid Khalifate in 8th Century AD, this played directly only a marginal role in influencing the culture and civilisation of Hindustan. It is interesting that in Malayalam (language of Kerala), Hindustani is known as Tuluk Bhasha and the word Tulukan used for Muslims and Tulukachi for Muslim woman. The languages spoken by the people of Turkey is called Tuluk Bhasha. This is interesting because the relations between the Kerala coast and the Arab world predate Islam and there has been constant interaction between the Malabar coast of Kerala and the Arab world but still the word for a Muslim is Tulukan.
The impact and embedding of Islam and Islamic and Turkish culture into Hindustan took place during the Turco-Afghan period of India's history from end-12th century to early l6th century (and continued during the Mughal period). Even if some of the Sultans and rulers claimed Arabic or Afghan descent, the majority of the elite consisted of people of Turkic & Turanian origins ( not many of these tribes and individuals came from the Rumi Seljuk or Ottoman territories.) Many of them came as simple soldiers and some period chieftains. From the very early days of the Islamic history (second half of Abbassid period), many non-Turkish kings and Sultans maintained Turkish households of slaves brought over from Central Asia which provided them loyal soldiers and military leaders. Many of them rose by hard work and merit and reached the top ranks of the ruling elite and King makers. Some even became Sultans.
Some of the prominent names of Turkish rulers in Hindustan are Mahmud of Ghazni, Muhammad Gori, Kutubuddin Aybak, Iltutmish, Balban, and of course, Khiljis (known as Halach, in Turkish kh becomes h) and Tughlaks. According to some estimates, the Turks comprised up to 60% or more of the ruling elite during the medieval period of Indian history. It should also be noted that Timurid King, Babar, founder of the Mughal dynasty, was a Cagtai Turk and wrote his Babarname in Ca tai and not in Persian. So did his sons Humayun and Kamran write poet in Turkish. However, by the time of Akbar's reign the percentage of Turkish chieftains in the ruling elite had been reduced to one-fourth. It was a conscious political decision, as Turks and specially Mongols, nomad by life style, are more independent by nature and believe in equality and freedom. The Turanian/Mongolian concept of rulership is vested in the family and not in an individual. Humayun and Akbar had great trouble in subduing and disciplining their Turanian/Mongol origin nobles. Preference was given to Persians, Afghans & converts.
It has been rightly claimed by many scholars in South India that a considerable process of development and even preservation of Hindustani took place in Deccan where it came to be known as Deccani, although the seeds of the birth of the language had been sown in North India from where it was taken to Deccan by Muslims conquers starting with Turkish Khilji (Halac) rulers and later Tughlak (again Turkish) rulers; Muhammed Tughlak even shifted his capital to the South for some time. Later a large number of kingdoms by Turkic tribes, in which they formed a fairly large proportion of the elite, were established in South India, i.e Bijapur, Golcunda, etc. When Allaudin Khilji conquered Deccan, the appointed Turks as chiefs for each villa e to look after its security, safety and administration. Most of them called their relatives to assist them. Thus both in the beginning of the evolution of Hindustani in the North and later in its further development in Deccan, a majority of the elite was of Turkic origin who while using Persian for administration must have used Turkish at inter-personal level and thus helped continue evolution of Hindustani in its various forms. The Deccani period also saw influx into Hindustani of not only Dravadian words but also its influence on its grammar and syntax and vice versa. We might even say that the Deccani period probably saved Hindustani from becoming totally Persianised as perhaps happened to it at many places in North India.
It has been estimated that Hindustani and Turkish have thousands of words in common, mostly from Persian and Arabic, Some estimates put them around three to four thousand, with over five to six hundred words of Turkish origin in Hindustani. The comparison is basically with the Republic of Turkey's Turkish (of Oguz family), which since 1930s has been purged of many Arabic and Persian words. Perhaps the number of common words between Hindustani and Turkish as spoken in East, i.e. Uzbekistan and East (Uighur and Cagtai family) could, perhaps, be more. Some examples of Turkish words in Hindustani are: Top, Tamancha, Barood, Nishan, Chaku, Bahadur, Begum, Bulak, Chadar, Chhatri, Chakachak, chikin (embroidery), Chamcha, Chechek, Dag, Surma, Bavarchi, Khazanchi, Bakshi (accountant), Coolie, Kanat, Kiyma, Kulcha, Korma, Kotwal, Daroga, Koka, Kenchi, Naukar, etc. Obviously, the number of Turkish words in Hindustani is not as large as that of Persian and Arabic, because, the latter was the language of the Holy Koran (although Seljuk Turk rulers in Asia Minor and Iran had discouraged use of Arabic except for religion), which exercised influence over all believers and the former was the language of administration and aristocracy. I presume studies on the influence of Turkish on the Persian language and Arabic, have been done.
Hindustani has surprising similarity in Grammar and Syntax structure with Turkish, though origins of both the languages are from different language families. For example, normally both in Hindustani and in Turkish first comes the subject, then the object etc. and finally the verb, i.e. SOV order unless emphasis is to be given, with somewhat similar stem endings. There are considerable resemblances in the declensions of the verb in Turkish and Hindustani. But, Turkish has only one gender while Hindustani has two. As I know soma Arabic, I can say that there appears no similarity at all between Hindustani and Arabic syntax and grammar. I know little Sanskrit or Persian grammar, but both languages belong to the same family of Indo-Iranian group and my feeling is that their syntax is also closer to Hindustani. While Persian like Turkish has one gender, Sanskrit has three, i.e. male, female and neuter. Sanskrit also allows more flexibility in the placing of subject, object, etc. It may be admitted that human beings while evolving speech patterns did not have much choice in shuffling subject, object, verb, etc. Still that Sanskrit/Persian syntax is somewhat similar to Turkish, is a somewhat strange coincidence, the latter belonging to the Ural-Altay group of languages. With Hindustani the similarity is further accentuated. It may also be noted that the areas from where Turkish and Indo-European languages emerged in Central Asia were not far from each other. Some similarities with Sanskrit are: dvihyrdaya (carrying two hearts, pregnant), in Turkish "iki canli" means, the same, two lives. In Hindi/Sanskrit, we have Chitrakar (painter), Murtikar. In Turkish we have "Sanatkar" (Artist), Curetkar (courageous). Sun in Sarhskrit/Hindi is Dinesha, while in Turkish it is "Gunes." First segment in both "din" and "gun" means day - perhaps linked with sunrise in cold climate. We may also note that the syntax of Germanic languages is quite different from Sanskrit and Persian, which are supposed to belong to the same family of Indo-European languages. We may now look at more similarities between Hindustani and Turkish. (Please note that in Turkish C is pronounced as J and C as Ch, G is silent when placed between vowels, which it accentuates. H: stands for Hindustani and T: for Turkish.)
There are no articles or declensions in Turkish or Hindustani; the relationship of the words are expressed through 'case endings' as well as post-positions. (It would be interesting to study if Turkish helped speedy change-over from declensions to post-positions from Apbhramsh to Hindustani). The infinite noun functions as nominative and as indefinite. The accusative has thus two forms: the definite (with accusative ending) and the indefinite (the same as the nominative). Thus, "call a girl" - H: "ek larki bulao" T: "bir kiz çagir" but "call my servant", H: "mere naukar ko bulao"- T: "Benim hizmetciyi çagir". The word order in Turkish and Hindustani is same (This is also so in the following examples).
The genitive comes before the agent e.g. 'the son of the teacher' T: 'ustanin oglu' H: 'ustad ka beta'. The genitive also expresses possession: 'whose house is this?' T. "Bu ev kimindir?", H: 'Woh ghar kiska hai?'. If a noun is in present, it goes into the genitive. It must therefore be constructed as: 'the man(he) has a house', T: "Adamin bir evi var", H: "Adami ka ek ghar hai". Also 'to have' as incidental possession is similarly expressed: "I have a book", T: 'Ben de bir kitab var', H: 'mere pas ek kitab hai'. The ablative is also used to express the comparative case: 'the elephant is larger than the horse' T: 'Fil attan buyuktur', H: 'Hathi ghore se bara hai'. For emphasis both languages use the Arabic adverb 'ziada' - for more. 'In addition it can be rendered as in T: 'daha' or in H: 'bhi'. The adjective is before the active or passive voice and does not change except in the case of (in H) adjectives ending with a. "The/a good girl, T: "iyi kiz", H: Achhi lardki". The adjective can be strengthened in both languages through simple repetition as well as through the adverb "very much " T:( pek çok); H:( bahut).In H:' Ahista ahista' (slowly), T:' yavas yavas'. Quickly becomes, T: "çabuk çabuk", H: 'Jaldi Jaldi'( not used in Arabic and Sanskrit perhaps). Sometimes alliteration is used, for example, H: 'ulta multa' mixed up. The alliterations are found especially in the passive or active voice (substantive) e.g.;. H: "kitab mitab" - books and suchlike and "bartan wartan"- dishes and suchlike, "Hara bhara"(Green), "Chota mota"(small). In Turkish, 'kötu mötu' (so-so), 'çocuk mocuk' (children etc), 'tabak mabak', (plates and suchlike). Popular in both languages are doubled substantives: Turn by turn or "again and again", becomes in T: "dizi dizi" and in H: 'bari bari'.
Distributive are also thus expressed: "each man", T: "bir bir (or tek tek) adam," H: "ek ek adami", the interrogative further contains the meaning of the indefinite: "whoever", T: "kim kim", H: "jo jo". With number it is, T: "iki defa" H: "do dafa" (twice); 40 doors, in H: "Chalis darwaza", T: kirk kapi. In both languages numbers are preferably expressed without 'and/or' e.g. 'five or ten', H: panch das, T: bes on. Post positions are characteristic in both languages; 'for the dog' in H: 'kutte ke vaste', T: 'köpek için'; and towards the house', H: 'ghar ke taraf', T: 'evin tarafina'. As mentioned earlier, the verb is always found at the end of the sentence. The normal sentence structure SOV is illustrated as follows: 'I give this thick book with pleasure to that good child', T: ben sevincle, o iyi çocuga bu kalin kitabi veriyorum, H: 'main khushi se us ache bacche ko yeh moti kitab deta hun'. In Turkish, verbs are often used with a Substantive or Participle e.g. 'etmek' to make and 'olmak' to be, in H: 'karna'- to do, and 'hona' -being. For 'search' T: 'telaÿ etmek', H: 'talas karna'. Or 'be present', T: 'dahil olmak' H: 'dakhil hona'. Factual verbs are also similarly constructed. H: 'bana' (made), 'banana' (make), 'banwana' (have it made); in T: 'Yapmak' (make), 'yaptirmak' (have it made), ;yapilmak' (to bo made); H: 'Badalna' (to change oneself), 'badlana' (changing), badalwana (to have it changed) becomes in T: 'degismek' (to change onself), 'degistirmek' (to change) and 'degistirtmek (to have it changed).
Indirect speech is made direct 'tell him to come here', H: 'Idhar ao usko bolo', T: 'buraya gelsin diye ona söyleyin'. The verb root ending - ip in Turkish and the simple verb root in Hindustani attached to the principal verb show the order of occurrence of an event. For example, 'they saw the thief and held him fast', H: 'chor ko dekh umon ne usko pakra', T: 'Hirsizi group yakaladilar'. The constructed verbal form (in Turkish)- arak and (Hindustani)-kar, -arke serves in the rendering of Subordinate or dependant clauses - 'in which, during' e.g. 'taking a vessel, he went to the well' H: 'bartan lekar kuan par gaya, T: 'Canak alarak kuyuya gitti'. Also common adverbial expressions such as 'he came running', T: 'Kosarak geldi', H: 'daurkar aya'. As in Turkish the twice repeated verb root plus e shows repeated or continuous action, as does the twice repeated verb of the present participle, H: 'main tairte tairte thak gaya', T: 'Yuze yuze yoruldum'. Both languages have a number of vowel compositions, (in Hindustani) as when the root as well as the (in Turkish) root plus a are set together with the declenated infinitive e.g. 'to be able to speak' T: 'konusabilmek', H: 'bol sakna', 'he began to say' H: 'woh bolne laga', T: 'Söylemege basladi'. Some similarities in idiomatic expressions are: the showing of suffering is pointed out through the expression of 'eating'- e.g. H: 'lakri or mar khana'; T: 'Sopa yemek'– to eat the stick - to get a beating. Endure suffering or to grieve, becomes in T: 'Gam yemek', H: 'gham khana'. (Note: Many of the above mentioned examples have been taken from a 1955 article by Otto Spies on the subject - the only paper on the subject I have come across since I published my earlier paper on 1.6.1994.)
The examples quoted above on the similarities of syntax, vocabulary, etc. Between Turkish and Hindustani are based on comparison with the Ottoman and the present- day Turkish i.e. Oguz branch as spoken in the Republic of Turkey. Syntax etc. of Turkish is quite similar to Eastern Turkish i.e. Uighur branch although there are variations. But certainly the Eastern Turkish must be closer to Hindustani as most of the Turkic tribes who came to Hindustan belonged to that area. It may also be mentioned that of the common words in Turkish and Hindustani, whether of Turkish origin or otherwise, 20% have quite different meanings and nuances when used in Hindustani. This, of course is, true of even languages which have developed and evolved in separate regions and are influenced by the environment and other factors and become quite different from the original. Even in Turkic countries, the same words have different meaning e.g. in Turkey or say in Sinkiang, Kazakhstan or Kyrghystan. It is for this reason that the Turkic governments have set up Commissions consisting of scholars from Turkic speaking countries of Central Asia, Turkey and Azerbaijan to prepare a comparative dictionary and grammar. (last such attempt was made by Mahmud AI Kashghari in the 11th century AD.) The newly independent countries in Central Asia feel that they must harmonize the syntax, grammar and vocabulary of their languages. This has been the objective of many get-togethers of Turkic people, scholars and academicians, which have started taking place. Perhaps some Sanskrit, Hindustani and Persian scholars could also join and discover further resemblance between Turkish and Hindustani languages.
We will leave it to linguists and philologists to work out how Hindustani languages evolved and developed but to a layman it is clear that people learn or try to learn the ruler's language or of a dominating power. It is for this reason that we see the dominance of English and French in their former colonies and the lasting influence of these languages on the languages of the latter. And it is for this reason alone that English continues to dominate international communications, earlier because of the British influence and now on account of the USA. I believe that even when languages were imposed, it is not as such the movement of races, as claimed, but only of the powerful elites; military, political or economic. There were Copts and Berbers in North Africa when the Arabs came and Byzantine Christians when Turks entered Asia Minor. Turkey sent over 1.5 million Christians to Greece in 1920s out of a population of over 11 million, in exchange for Muslim Turks; this was after 6 centuries of Islamisation and Turkification. (Ironically, these included many thousand Christian Turks, who had come to Asia Minor earlier than the Muslim Turks and had remained Christians.) Moldova's Turks called Gagaoz are Christians. Thus the languages and religions of the ruled do not change quickly and continue to interact and affect each other. So was the case in Hindustan and elsewhere.
According to linguists the evolution of Hindustani or any other language is a result of contact situation in which more than two languages interact on the basis of belonging to the ruler and the ruled. The socio-linguistic forces give power and prestige to the languages of the ruler with the result that it begins to exercise linguistic influence on the language of the ruled. First in the field of vocabulary and later on in some vulnerable areas of syntax. But linguistic resemblance, apart from common parentage, can also be based on geographical and physical proximity. Essentially different but geographically and physically proximate languages are often known to exhibit shared linguistic features. This probably explains similarities in Sanskrit and Turkish as these languages originated around Central Asia. This also explains the similarities between Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages or Persian, Turkish and Hindustani. This feature was studied in detail by Mr. Emeneau, which led him to develop the concept of linguistic areas. Perhaps Central Asia, Anatolia, lran, Afghanistan and North Hindustan could be said to belong to overlapping linguistic areas, where languages belonging to different families have acquired common traits following interaction, as a result of which, this vast area shows shared linguistic features like word-order, reduplication, inter-relations, negations, compound words etc. This also explains similarities between Deccani Hindi and Telgu in certain areas of syntax.
It is noteworthy that except for some inscriptions near Orhon river, which are in Turkish Rhunic script, which itself was derived from Aramaic (a fact contested by many experts), the mother script of Semitic languages, Turkish has been mostly written in the script of the ruled people. Brahmi, Kharoshti and Devanagri scripts, though not of the ruled, are perhaps the earliest of scripts used for writing Turkish as spoken by Uighur Turks in Eastern Turkistan. They were used in spite of many difficulties in expressing the Turkish vowels (not easier to write in Persian or Arabic script either) which do not exist in Hindustani languages. Brahmi script is of Indian origin; it might have been inspired by the Aramaic script, but is not related to it and was used widely in Hindustan even before the Buddhist era and was used by Mauryan King Ashoka for inscriptions in India and elsewhere. It was taken to Central Asia and other neighboring countries. Out of Brahmi have evolved most other North Indian scripts like Devanagari, Bengali, Gujarati etc. Apart from the modified Arabic script, the other scripts used for writing Turkish are Cyrillic, introduced by the Russians in what are now Central Asian Republics, although at one time it was written in the Latin script. This change-over to Cyrillic perhaps took place both because the Turkish Republic had adopted it in early 1930s and for reasons of state, i.e. maintaining a scriptal cohesiveness. The Russians wanted its citizens in Central Asia to use the same script as of the dominant Russian language for easy switch over. It has been alleged that during the Soviet days, differences in meanings of Turkish words in different republics were encouraged. Thus Turkic languages have evolved differently in Eastern Turkistan, i.e. Uzbekistan, Kyrghystan Kazakhstan etc. Sinkiang Turkish with reduced contacts has perhaps developed peculiarities of its own. To remedy the situation, the Government of Turkey has granted tens of thousands of scholarships to students and teachers from Turkic Republics. A large number of Turkish teachers have also gone to teach at schools and universities in these countries. Students coming from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrghystan, etc. take a few months before they can fully master the Turkish as spoken in the Turkish Republic. The Turkic Republics have considered the question of change over from the Cyrillic to the Latin script. Azerbaijan has already done so after adding three more alphabets to the script used by Turkey. Turkmenistan had decided to switch over to the Latin script with some modifications from 1st January 1995. Others have not decided yet. The choice is not easy as switch-over to Latin script while opening a window to Turkey and all that Turkey has done through translations and assimilation of knowledge from the West, would cut these Republics from their immediate past, written in the Cyrillic script. Switch over to the Arabic script would be a political decision, as it will make access to the Persian-Arab Islamic world easier. Those responsible for the decision for the change-over have to consider political, cultural, religious, economic and other ramifications.
It would appear that the Turkic rulers were much more statesmen-like and liberal in interaction with those whom they ruled. They did not insist on their language being imposed on the new subjects, notwithstanding the fact that the languages of some of the ruled were much more developed than Turkish. (For beautiful, like, love; for example, Turkish has very few synonymous, unlike say Persian, Sanskrit, Arabic, etc.) It has also been suggested that many Turkish rulers became Muslim for political and state-reasons. It automatically combined the powers of the Sultan and the Khalifa, thus making it easier to rule the domains. Of course, as regards Turkish expansion of Ottoman Empire and into Hindustan, being a Gazi provided great incentive and booty. Some have even raised doubts whether Ertugrul, father of Osman who established the Ottoman (Osmanli) dynasty in Asia Minor (Anatolia) was Muslim by birth. It has been suggested that he converted to Islam when he married the daughter of a powerful Islamic Sheikh to strengthen his position. But there is no conclusive proof for this, notwithstanding the fact that many Turks like Gagaoz and others have remained Christians. Some suggestions have been made recently (Prof. Julian Raby of Oxford has done a PhD thesis on this subject) that Fetih, the Conqueror of Constantinpole, seriously considered in 1450s embracing Orthodox Christianity, as Westwards the population was mostly Christian and even in Asia Minor a fairly large percentage of population might still have been Christian. lt was nearly 15% in as late as 1920s. The generosity of the Turkish rulers and their political wisdom and acumen is proved by the fact that they allowed people of other religions i.e. Christians, Jews, Armenians to have their own millets. As long as they paid their taxes, they were allowed to run their own affairs and even contribute to the economic well-being of the state. As regards Turkey, then known as Asia Minor, it was part of the Byzantine Empire and the Turkish blood (if one can measure it?) among the residents of the present day Turkey may not be more than 20%. It may be recalled that the Ottoman rulers themselves used the slave households system called Devsirme, through which, for hundreds of years, they recruited young non-Muslim Christian boys, mostly from Balkans. Out of them emerged the Janissary corps and high level military and civilian leaders, including grand veziers. Only one-third of grand veziers could claim Turkish descent. Barring a few, mothers of most of the Ottoman Sultans were non-Turkish, a large number of them Christians. The former were allowed to have their religious entourage and many Ottoman princes were brought up almost as Christians. These examples have been given to state that Empires did not change their religious, ethnic or linguistic character suddenly. There were long periods of interaction between various religions, races, languages and cultures, one affecting the other. No wonder, in Istanbul, Ankara and elsewhere in Turkey, many resemble the peoples of Balkans and Yugoslavia who dominated the Ottoman elite. In fact, anthropologists have counted more than 20 ethnic groups in Turkey.
Similarly in India, once the Turks had decided to settle down, they started inter-mingling and inter-mixing. Allaudin Khilji and his sons married daughters of Hindu Kings and from the earliest period set an example. Hindus occupied positions of power in his court. The practice of marriages with families of Hindu Kings, especially in Rajasthan became very common after Mughal Emperor Akbar. Akbar and his descendents gave full honor and positions to their in-laws. Many of them were Mughal Commander-in-Chiefs and high officials. Accountants and many Veziers like Birbal were Hindus. If Mehmet, the Conqueror, thought of embracing Christianity, Akbar conversed with the sages of all religions, of which his populace consisted of and even evolved a new religion 'Din-e-Elahi'. In contrast, Aurangzeb following fanatic policies virtually destroyed the empire, built up by his forefathers. The inter-mixing and respect for others' languages, religions and culture co-existed with some equality and were able to influence each other.
The objective of this paper is to start discussions and further research on the question of influence of Turkic languages on Hindustani languages, especially on Hindi and Urdu and their various forms. Except from late 18th century till first half of 20th century there was constant exchange and interaction between the peoples of Hindustan and Central Asia. (After India's independence, she was able to maintain cultural and other contacts with Turkic people in the former Soviet Union.) Now that, after the break-up of the Soviet Union, countries in Central Asia like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrghystan, Kazakhastan, have become independent, more contacts and cultural and literary interaction can and should be established. The new era provides an opportunity not only to discover old historical and cultural relationships between the peoples of Hindustan and Turkic Republics and others, based on archives available in newly emerged Turkic Republics and elsewhere and those lying unutilized and unread in the Hindustan; but also to build on them further.
(K Gajendra Singh, served as Indian Ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan in 1992-96. Prior to that, he served as ambassador to Jordan (during the 1990-91 Gulf war ), Romania and Senegal. He is currently chairman of the Foundation for Indo-Turkic Studies.
E-Mail.gajendrak@hotmail.com)
Also see:
» Ranghaya, Sixteenth Vendidad Nation & Western Aryan Lands
» Mitanni
» Kassites
» Suppiluliuma (Hittite) - Shattiwaza (Mitanni) Treaty
» Lake Urmia & Atur-Patakan (Azerbaijan / Azarbaijan
» Kandovan (Troglodyte) Village
» Early Persian History - The Formation of Persia
Map of India, Iran, Turkiye. The dominant kingdom of Iran has at various times been Balkh (Bactria), Mada (Media), Parsa (Persia), Parthava (Parthia)and then Persia again.
The tree of life, omphalos and Nimrud
Posted by Fredsvenn on June 2, 2015
When ancient Armenians built Portasar about 12,000 years ago there was already some kind of level of sophisticated organization which was surely required to accomplish such a massive undertaken for its time period. Portasar is the old name of what is now called Gobekle Tepe which is a direct translation of Armenian “Portasar” which means Mountain Navel.
Portasar or Gobekli Tepe? Gobekle Tepe is a direct translation of Armenian “Portasar”
The temple was built over 9-11000 years ago, but turkish ethnic groups appeared in Armenian Highlands in 11th century.
When ancient Armenians built Portasar about 12,000 years ago there was already some kind of level of sophisticated organization which was surely required to accomplish such a massive undertaken for its time period. Here I need to mention that Portasar is the old name of what is now called Gobekle Tepe which is a direct translation of Armenian “Portasar” which means Mountain Navel. Ex. Big Hayq; Armenian Kingdom of Kilikia; Urfa(Urha), Last name was Edesia province
When the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923, the Republic of Turkey was established. In its attempts to shroud the Armenian heritage of Turkey, the authorities of the republic began a systematic campaign to alter Armenian placenames. These attempts included the name change of the geographical expression “Armenian plateau” to “Eastern Anatolia.“
Turkey presents Armenian Portasar to the world as a Turkish Stonehenge.
Portasar is a great ritualistic-religious-scientific building, which is situated in the Western Armenia and has 18,500-years-old history. Vachagan Vahradyan, candidate of biological sciences, adviser and chief scientist to the Armenian scientific party of Oxford University’s ‘Stones and Stars’ project, said that the Turks ascribe the establishment of Portasar to themselves. According to Carl Schmidt, in the Armenian highland the haven was divided into constellations even 12-18 thousand years ago.
Vachagan Vahradyan says the Portasar was built in the eon of Scorpion. Griffon was painted on the huge building. This one and other resemblances come to prove that Portasar has a lot in common with Karahunj; the builders belonged to the same culture.
The scientist says the existence of such a monument creates basis for casting doubt on the opinion about the knowledge of the old civilization. Turkey organizes a number of exhibitions, representing the monument as a Turkish one before the world.
Portasar or Gobekli Tepe?
When ancient Armenians built Portasar about 12,000 years ago there was already some kind of level of sophisticated organization which was surely required to accomplish such a massive undertaken for its time period.
Portasar is situated in the South of the Armenian Highlands, 15 km south-east from the old city Urha/Edessa, Urfa/ of Armenian Mesopatamia. The discovery of the cultural layers/three layers/ of Portasar shows that it was a religious-ritual centre for sedentary people for several millenniums. The territory is in Armenian cultural area.
Armenian is one of the oldest languages of the region/Armenian Highlands and surrounding areas, Small Asia/which, according to the recent studies, was a spoken language 8000-9000 years ago. The name Portasar given to the monument means the centre of the Earth and life, navel, mountain. By the way, Portasar was named by people who knew it was a religious-ritual monument. They knew that life existed not only on the Earth, but also in Heaven, they worshiped Anggh/Angel/ as the God who connected these two worlds. And stone pillars/cross statues, stone obelisks, stone icons and later also xachqars/ existed in Armenia all the times. This about 12 thousand year-old monument, discovered in Armenian Mesopotamia, is the archeological proof which, along with comparative linguistics allows to say that Armenia is the cradle of modern civilization.
When the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923, the Republic of Turkey was established. In its attempts to shroud the Armenian heritage of Turkey, the authorities of the republic began a systematic campaign to alter Armenian placenames. These attempts included the name change of the geographical expression “Armenian plateau” to “Eastern Anatolia.”
It’s worth to mention an interesting testimony preserved in Armenian historiography. Pavstos Buzand/V century/, telling about the deeds of the Armenian King Pap/353-374/, writes that he sent a delegation to the Greek king saying. “Cesaria and also ten other cities belonged to us. Give them back. Urha was founded by our ancestors, so if you don’t want disagreement between us, give them back. Otherwise we will wage a war.” (Pavstos Buzand, Armenian History, Yerevan, 1968, page 27, chapter ԼԲ). As it was mentioned above the monument could be named Portasar only by Hay-Armens, who were inhabitants of the region and knew about the religious-ritual nature of it. And the Turks, who appeared in those areas only 8-9 centuries ago, could not know that the mountain was a cultural monument.
So this is enough to conclude that it were Hay-Armens, the ancient inhabitants of the area who gave the name Portasar to the monument. Later, as in most other cases the Turks have simply translated the name and now are trying to introduce the monument to the world with the name Gobekli Tepe. We should note that there are a lot of placenames in Armenia which point the sense and purport of the words like Portasar /Gandzasar-gandz+sar(treasure mountain), Ukhtasar-ukht+sar( Mountain of Covenant), Yerkatasar-yerkat+sar(Iron Mountain). The same is in the case of Portasar.
The assemblage was built some 11,600 years ago dated 10th millennium BC, seven millennia before the Great Pyramid of Giza. It contains the oldest known temple. Indeed, Portasar (Göbekli Tepe) is the oldest known example of monumental architecture—the first structure human beings put together that was bigger and more complicated than a hut. When these pillars were erected, so far as we know, nothing of comparable scale existed in the world.![1521943_10152141493568856_1309762477_n]()
Portasar is located in Western Armenia, in the historic Armenian region of Urha, often referred in Turkish as Urfa or Riha. The letter “F” is very rarely used in the Armenian language, it is speculated that the sound “F” perpetuates is unholy or not a correct sound. By etymology the name “Urha” is Armenian, the word “Hurrian” HUR comes from Armenian “fire”, the Kingdom of Mitanni is considered to be one of several proto-Armenian Kingdom’s. AR, HAR, ER, HER, YER, HOR, KHAR, KHOR, UR, HUR, KHUR have the same meaning. And you have to know that the vocal can change, just the consonant keeps on. Ar, Ur, Er, Ir etc – and that word are made by one consonant and one or two vocals, which can change their place on either side of the consonant. According to a number of scholars, Ar, was a shorter version of Ara or Arar(ich), Creator. The worship of Ar was wide spread amongst early Armenians who worshipped this deity and simply called him the Creator (Ara or Ararich).
The first mentioning of Armenians in the region of Urha, was first mentioned in the epic of Naram Sin, where Naram Sin the Akkadian tyrant went to war against the neighboring Armeni tribes in2254–2218 BCE, whose King Armanum (Aram) had a powerful kingdom in the current day region of South-Eastern Turkey, and Northern Syria, with its heart in the city of Ebla.
The Armenians regard Urha as a holy city, because it is believed that Mesrop Mashtots revived the Ancient Armenian alphabet in this city.
This region has always had an historic Armenian presence, and since the times of historical documentation, whether it be on tablets or scrolls, the Armenians have been recorded more so in this region than any other known ethnic group since the beginning of historical documentation. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Armenians were still the majority as a single ethnic group in the city of Urha. It was only during the genocide, where local Turkish, and Kurdish muslim’s drove out the Armenian populace, and sought out to destroy them. The formation of Neolithic tribes in the Armenian Highland, gave birth to these advanced peoples who had strong national identity, and would later form the Proto-Armenian Kingdoms of the Armenian Highland, being Mitanni, and Ararat (Urartu) in particular.
So Portasar is the oldest name of the monument and truly demonstrates the sense, purport and meaning of this ancient monument of the Armenian Highlands.
Portasar has a direct connection with Karahunj, see https://narinnamkn.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=357&action=edit
Sources:
A number of articles by Anjela Teryan, Joe Rogan, Duncan Trussell, Klaus Schmidt
1. (Archeological Perspectives on the Localization of Naram-Sin’s Armanum, Adelheid Otto, Journal of Cuneiform Studies, Vol. 58, (2006), pp. 1–26).
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