-- From Meluhha to Sumer, reinterpreting movements of Meluhha Bhāratam Janam (RV 3.53.12) into Sumer
-- Both 1) R̥gveda chandas mantra and 2) songs of Sumerian gala 'temple priests' are veneration of ancestors
-- Mohenjo-daro ziggurat (so-called stupa) may have provided the architectural model for the ziggurat of Mari
“Many of the complex and sometimes massive structures at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa would have been important for organizing trade, economic could have been elite residences, centralized administrative structures or even temples, but later disturbances obscured their primary function and the lack of appropriate excavation and recording techniques makes it impossible to reinterpret these structures.” (Kenoyer, JM, 1994, The Harappan State: Was it or was it not? in: Kenoyer, JM, ed., From Sumer to Meluhha: Contributions to the archaeology of South and West Asia in memory of George F. Dales Jr., Wisconsin Archaeological Reports Vol. 3, pp. 71 to 80; p.76)
https://www.harappa.com/sites/default/files/pdf/Kenoyer1
This monograph suggests a new look at the comment made by Jonathan Mark Kenoyer on 'massive structures' at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa.
SumerSumer was first permanently settled between c. 5500 and 4000 BCE. Bhirrana-Kunal and Mehrgarh date to 8th m. BCE.
I have suggested a rebus reading of the curious flagpost carried in a procession by a priest of Mari. The reading is based on Meluhha linguistics (Indian sprachbund'language union' words. This clearly shows that Meluhha people had moved into Mari and celebrated their competence in metalwork signified by the one-horned young bull: khonda 'holcus sorghum' khonda 'young bull' rebus: kond 'kiln', kundar, 'turner' kundana 'fine gold' PLUS karba 'stalk of millet' (holcus sorghum) rebus: karba 'iron'. The proclamation message of the procession is that the gold workers have started working with iron,another metalwork wealth category.
Frieze of a mosaic panel Circa 2500-2400 BCE Temple of Ishtar, Mari (Tell Hariri), Syria Shell and shale André Parrot excavations, 1934-36 AO 19820 panel depicts proclamation of metalwork competence of konda, 'one-horned young bull' (rebus kō̃daकोँद 'potter's kiln') from Tell Hariri, ancient Mari, Temple of Ishtar -- graduating from gold to iron. The contacts with Meluhha (Sarasvati_Sindhu Civilization area) during the mature phase of the civilization are suggested by the date of the mosaic panel, ca. 2500 BCE.
I suggest that the priest shown on the Mari frieze mosaic panel is sanga 'priest' a word derived from Gujarati word sanghvi. saṅgin ʻ attached to, fond of ʼ MBh. [
Substrate sanga'priest' in Sumerian is from sangvi'priest' (Gujarati)“Sumerian words with a pre-Sumerian origin are:professional names such as simug ‘blacksmith’ and tibira ‘copper smith’, ‘metal-manufacturer’ are not in origin Sumerian words.Agricultural terms, like engar ‘farmer’, apin ‘plow’ and absin ‘furrow’, are neither of Sumerian origin.Craftsman like nangar ‘carpenter’, agab ‘leather worker’Religious terms like sanga ‘priest’Some of the most ancient cities, like Kish, have names that are not Sumerian in origin.These words must have been loan words from a substrate language. The words show how far the division in labor had progressed even before the Sumerians arrived.”(http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/meso/meso.htm – No longer available)
Jerald Jack Starr Nashville, Tennessee has set up a http://sumerianshakespeare.com portal to establish that the people of Mari of ca. 3rd millennium BCE and the Sumerians are the same people.
The trade contacts of Meluhha with Sumer is firmly anchored by the decipherment of the Susa pot Indus Script hypertexts.
Indus Script hieroglyphs painted on the jar are: fish, quail and streams of water;
aya 'fish' (Munda) rebus: aya 'iron' (Gujarati) ayas 'metal' (Rigveda)
baTa 'quail' Rebus: baTa 'furnace'.
kāṇḍa 'water' Rebus: kāṇḍa 'implements'.
Thus, read together, the proclamation on the jar by the painted hieroglyphs is: baTa ayas kāṇḍa 'metal implements out of the furnace (smithy)'.
Sargon (2334-2279 BCE) founded the Akkad dynasty which saw inter-regional trade routes, from Dilmun and Magan to Susa and Ebla. Later Naram-Sin (c. 2254-2218 BCE) conquered the cities of Mari and Ebla. Agade of Sargon boasted of gold, tin and lapis lazuli brought from distant lands. A description (Kramer, Samuel Noah, 1958: History Begins at Sumer (London: Thames & Hudson, 289-290) reads:
When Enlil had given Sargon, king of Agade,
Sovereignty over the high lands and over the low lands
...
under the loving guidance of its divine patron Inanna.
Its houses filled with gold, silver, copper, tin, lapis lazuli;
...
The Martu (Amorites) came there, that nomadic people from the west,
'who know not wheat' but who bring oxen and choice sheep;
The folk from Meluhha came, 'the peole of the black lands',
Bearing their exotic products;
The Elamites came and the Sabareans, peoples from the East and the North,
With their bundles like 'beasts of burden'...
In this narrative, Meluhha folk from the black lands were those who required a translator. (Se Shu-ilishu cylinder seal of an Akkadian translator).
See:
Decipherment of Indus Script Inscription on a Louvre Cylinder seal, made in Meluhha, of śrēṣṭhin 'guild-master' https://tinyurl.com/y2f72xda
Unfortunately, archaeological work has not been done on the so-called Stupa at Mohenjo-daro. I suggest that this is a ziggurat and compares with the ziggurat at the ancient city of Mari.
Ruins of ziggurat in ancient city of Mari. Mari, Syria - a ziggurat near the palace. "Mari was an ancient Semitic city in modern-day Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located 11 kilometers north-west of Abu Kamal on the Euphrates river western bank, some 120 kilometers southeast of Deir ez-Zor. It flourished as a trade center and hegemonic state between 2900 BCE and 1759 BCE. As a purposely-built city, the existence of Mari was related to its position in the middle of the Euphrates trade routes; this position made it an intermediary between Sumer in the south and the Levant in the west."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gala_(priests)
I suggest that this Ziggurat of Mari is derived from the Ziggurat of Mohenjo-daro (referred to as 'stupa'). Both the Ziggurat of Mari and the stupa of Mohenjo-daro compare with the stepped pyramid shown on Sit Shamshi bronze.
Mohenjo-daro ziggurat.https://tinyurl.com/yaueghjn
This is an addendum to:
Mohenjo-daro śikhara and puṣkariṇī (video 8:57) signify kole.l, 'Hindu temple' rebus kole.l 'smithy, forge', a ziggurat veneration of the Sun and ancestors https://tinyurl.com/y6w5e954
Ziggurat in Hindu idiom is a śikhara, 'tower' and a place to offer prayers, water ablutions to the Sun and the ancestors. The processes of offering water ablutions in front of a stepped tower are vividly presented in the bronze model Sit Shamshi (Elamite bronze model of a temple in the Louvre, Paris) as prayers to the Sun.
A Buddhist stupa in the center of the largest Indus city may actually be a monument from Indus times. If so, it will force Indus scholars to rethink the religious and political nature of the civilization, long thought to lack grand temples and palaces. "Verardi further argues that the coins found dated to Kushana period might have been buried later and therefore of little value in dating the structure. Michael Jansen does NOT find any Kushan shards at the mound site. Verardi suggests that the original structure may have been a series of platforms,perhaps similar to the Ur ziggurat in Mesopotamia build around 2100 BCE. This date is significant because this is the Mature Period of Sarasvati Civilization. Ziggurat-like structures were seen in many sites from Mesopotamia to Turkmenistan during 3rd millennium BCE."
https://andrewlawler.com/website/wp-content/uploads/Science-2008-Lawler-Buddhist_Stupa_or_Indus_Temple-1280.pdf
![Image result for sit shamshi]()
Sit Shamshi, Louvre - Model of a temple, called the Sit-shamshi, made for the ceremony of the rising sun 12th century BCE Tell of the Acropolis, Susa Bronze J. de Morgan excavations, 1904-05 Sb 2743
Such a temple is comparable to a ziggurat of 3rd millennium BCE. "A ziggurat (/ˈzɪɡəræt/ ZIG-ə-rat; Akkadian: ziqqurat, D-stem of zaqāru "to build on a raised area") is a type of massive stone structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It has the form of a terraced compound of successively receding stories or levels. Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah, the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near Baghdad, the now destroyed Etemenanki in Babylon, Chogha Zanbil in Khūzestān and Sialk."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziggurat
Model of a temple, called the Sit-shamshi, made for the ceremony of the rising sun 12th century BCE Tell of the Acropolis, Susa Bronze J. de Morgan excavations, 1904-05 Sb 2743
"The Gala (Sumerian: 𒍑𒆪 gala, Akkadian: kalû) were priests of the Sumerian goddess Inanna, significant numbers of the personnel of both temples and palaces, the central institutions of Mesopotamian city states, individuals with neither male nor female gender identities. Originally specialists in singing lamentations, gala appear in temple records dating back from the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE. According to an old Babylonian text, Enki created the gala specifically to sing "heart-soothing laments" for the goddess Inanna."
I suggest that the Sumerian gala and Akkadian kalû are relatable to कल m. pl. a class of manes MBh. and cognate with the substrate words of Indian sprachbund 'language union' (Meluhha, mleccha): कल, कला,
कल low , soft (as a tone) , emitting a soft tone , melodious (as a voice or throat) R. BhP. Vikr. &c; m. (scil. स्वर) a low or soft and inarticulate tone (as humming , buzzing &c ); कला (in prosody) a syllabic instant; a low and sweet tone (बालरामायण) >
The 'gala' priests of Sumer could be compared with a quarter in Srinagar, Kashmir called bhaṭṭārikāmaṭha. This quarter had bhaṭṭāra and bhaṭṭa who were bards and panegyrists. bhāˋṭ was a poet and singer, ʻmember of a brahman caste, priestʼ (WPah.)
गलका galakā m Clamor or vociferation; a hubbub or uproar.गलगल galagala f Clamor, uproar, outcry. गलगलाट galagalāṭa m (Intens. of गलगल) A loud clamor or vociferation: also a full and deep buzzing or humming.(Marathi)
In drama, a king is addressed as a worshipful one, bhaṭṭāraya (Pkt.).Leading a chorus is called bhaṭyāunu. A bhaṭṭāra भट्टार means 'a noble lord (= पूज्य)" honourable " , N. of various men (राजतरंगिणी); the word is derived from R̥gveda bhara (√ भृ) 'bearing , carrying , bringing.' భట్టారకుడు bhaṭṭārakuḍu. [Skt.] n. A sage, a siant. ముని. The Sun, సూర్యుడు. Also, a theatrical phrase for 'a king,'రాజు.
भट्ट according to दशरूप ii , 64, is a title of respect used by humble persons addressing a prince but also affixed or prefixed to the names of learned Brahmans , e.g. केदार- , गोविन्द-भ्° &c , or भट्ट-केदार &c , below , the proper name being sometimes omitted e.g. भट्ट = कुमारिल-भ्° ; also any learned man = doctor or philosopher) (राजतरंगिणी); name of a particular mixed caste of hereditary panegyrists , a bard , encomiast(Monier-Williams). This is a common surname among the Tuluva Brahmins, Goud Saraswat Brahmins and Havyaka Brahmins of Karnataka. அத்தியயனபட்டர் attiyayaṉa-paṭṭar n. < adhyayana +. See
Bhaṭṭa is a ब्राह्मण brāhmaṇa, "with last syllable showing a Vedic accent, used as a noun as "m. (having to do with Brahman or divine knowledge), one learned in the Veda, theologian, priest, Brāhman, man of the first four castes"; and definition of ब्राह्मण brāhmaṇa, with only first syllable showing a Vedic accent, used as an adjective as "a. (i) belonging to a Brāhman, Brāhmanic", see: Macdonell 1924, p. 199.
acc. sg. m. ʻ husband ʼ; NiDoc. bhaṭara, ǵ ʻ master ʼ, bhaṭariyae gen. sg. f. ʻmistressʼ; Pk. bhattu -- , ˚ti -- , bhaṭṭu -- , ˚ṭi -- m. ʻ husband, master ʼ, bhaṭṭiṇī -- f. ʻ mistress, non -- anointed queen ʼ, bhaṭṭāraya -- m. ʻ worshipful one, (in drama) king ʼ, bhaḍāraya -- with abnormal change of -- ṭṭ -- in term of address (> K. brôru m. ʻ god, esp. Śiva ʼ, brörü f. ʻ goddess ʼ); K. baṭa m. ʻ a Brahman ʼ; Ḍ. bitṓr, pl. ˚tāˊra ʻ husband ʼ, S. bhatāru m., Ku. A. bhatār, OB. bhatāra, B. bhātār, Bi. bhatār, Aw.lakh. bhatarā; H. bhatār m. ʻ husband, master ʼ. -- Addenda: bhártr̥ -- : WPah.kṭg. (kc.) bhāˋṭ m. ʻ member of a brahman caste, priest ʼ, J. bhāṭ m. ʻ term for a brahman ʼ; A. bhatarā ʻ uncastrated bull ʼ AFD 204.(CDIAL 9402)![From Sumer to Meluhha]()
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