Caste System: There was large gene flow between the early indo aryan steppe people and the aboriginal people of India at that time. The gene flow stopped sometime in the 1st millenium BC. Tony Joseph describes this in his book The First Indians

https://caravanmagazine.in/science/after-harappans-influx-steppe-dna-south-asia-vagheesh-narasimhan

Are the IVC the Dasa of the Rig Veda? Are the Dasa the Asuras and they are present day sudra - which absorbed all the aboriginals - note- papalo posits aryan wave 1 = dasa aryan wave 2 proto vedic (sauma aryans - from after bmac-1 bmac 2 break

Are the Agamas particularly the sakta agamas IVC mohenjo Daro derived?

http://www.iitkgpsandhi.org/Indus%20Valley%20Civilization_Vedic%20&%20Buddhist.pdf

Buddhist texts[edit]

Words related to dasa are found in early Buddhist texts, such as dāso na pabbājetabbo, which Davids and Stede translate as "the slave cannot become a Bhikkhu".^[39] This restriction on who could become a Buddhist monk is found in Vinaya Pitakam i.93, Digha Nikaya, Majjhima Nikāya, Tibetan Bhiksukarmavakya and Upasampadajnapti.^[39][40

History[edit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India

Vedic period (1500–1000 BCE)[edit]

During the time of the Rigveda, there were two varnas: arya varna and dasa varna. The distinction originally arose from tribal divisions. The Vedic tribes regarded themselves as arya (the noble ones) and the rival tribes were called dasa, dasyu and pani. The dasas were frequent allies of the Aryan tribes, and they were probably assimilated into the Aryan society, giving rise to a class distinction.^[88] Many dasas were however in a servile position, giving rise to the eventual meaning of dasa as servant.^[89]

The Rigvedic society was not distinguished by occupations. Many husbandmen and artisans practised a number of crafts. The chariot-maker (rathakara) and metal worker (karmara) enjoyed positions of importance and no stigma was attached to them. Similar observations hold for carpenters, tanners, weavers and others.^[90]

Towards the end of the Atharvaveda period, new class distinctions emerged. The erstwhile dasas are renamed Shudras, probably to distinguish them from the new meaning of dasa as slave. The aryas are renamed vis or Vaishya (meaning the members of the tribe) and the new elite classes of Brahmins (priests) and Kshatriyas (warriors) are designated as new varnas. The Shudras were not only the erstwhile dasas but also included the aboriginal tribes that were assimilated into the Aryan society as it expanded into Gangetic settlements.^[91] There is no evidence of restrictions regarding food and marriage during the Vedic period.^[92]

Later Vedic period (1000–600 BCE)

Reading much about Mahavira, chanakya, chandragupta Maurya, mahavira( mathematician), Vikram Sara Bhai ( founding father of ISRO) , acharya Vidyasagar (Brahmin Jain, one of the most revered digambara monk of present age whose work is now Part of Phd curriculum in BHU), patron bhamashah and artists like bhuarao patil, or shri v. Shantaraman ji, I realized that this philosophy has always maintained versatility and thus remained boundless to any specific caste, region, or profession.

Dravidian Religious belief[edit]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidian_people

See also: Dravidian folk religion, Hinduism, Śramaṇa, Jainism, Buddhism, Charvaka, Ājīvika, and Indus Valley Civilization

Ancient Dravidian religion constituted of a non-Vedic form of Hinduism in that they were either historically or are at present Āgamic. The Agamas are non-Vedic in origin ^[78] and have been dated either as post-Vedic texts ^[79] or as pre-Vedic compositions.^[80] The Agamas are a collection of Tamil and Sanskrit scriptures chiefly constituting the methods of temple construction and creation of murti, worship means of deities, philosophical doctrines, meditative practices, attainment of sixfold desires and four kinds of yoga.^[81] The worship of tutelary deities, sacred flora and fauna in Hinduism is also recognized as a survival of the pre-Vedic Dravidian religion.^[82]

Chapter 8

Hindu Chronology

There are gaps in our understanding of Hindu history as the information is not complete. Current evidence places the Indus Valley Civilisation between 3,300–1700 BCE, which is contemporaneous with the Sumerian Civilisation. It is estimated that the vedic age was during the period of 2,500 BCE to 1,500 BCE, about one millenium antecedent to IVC and Sumeria. Prior to that was Mehgarh at 5,500 BCE. Even prior was Dvaraka at 9,000 BCE. While all of these sites shows evidences of Hinduism, there are gaps in between.

We know little of the period from 1,500 BCE to 500 BCE, the birth of Buddha. There is a gap between the vedic age to that of the shad dharsanas of post 500 BCE. We are still unable to read the Indus script and tie it to the vedas. There is another gap between the vedic age and the Indus Valley Civilisation. There is yet another gap between the Indus Valley and Mehgarh.

The Jain tirthankara Rsabhadeva, the first tirthankara, who was worshipped, is mentioned in the vedas. The Padma Purana says Rama built a temple and worshipped Muniswrathanath, the 20th Jain tirthankara. So it is quite silly to say that the agamas antecedent the vedas. They were contemporaneous, or the agamas were anterior.

Tolkappiam precedes Astadhyayi by 2-3 centuries may have some merit as Agastya was the guru of Tolkappiar. Agastya wrote several rig vedic, agamic and tamil works. So he and Tolkappiar couldn't have been late. Besides the Cheras were already ruling in full tolkappiar culture. And for sure Agamas were pre-buddhist and pre-Nebuchadnezzar, 950 BCE.

But common sense tells us that sanskrit and the vedic age could not have sprung all of a sudden in much developed form in 1,500 BCE. Surely the language, religion and culture must have been preceded by at least a millennium of development. It would be logical to presume that there was a pre-vedic age, with origins in the Sumerian and IVC. Prakrits (including tamil) precedes sanskrit. How could a well formed language suddenly appear out of nowhere. Samskrta is well formed prakrits. Prevedic texts cannot be overlooked anymore.

"Sanskrit is not the Vedic language but was evolved out of the dead vedic Aryan and the then regional languages of India called Prakrits which included Tamil and Dravidian. The term Prakrit means 'previously created' and Sanskrit means 'perfectly created', thus the very name Sanskrit suggests its posteriority to the Prakrits in origin. A study of Tolkappiam and Paninis' Astadhyayi shows that Tolkappiam is anterior to Paniniam by 2 or 3 centuries."

http://www.intamm.com/linguistics/primary.htm

"I feel that the history of Indian philosophies must begin from Sumerian where as I have shown you find the central elements of even Buddhism and Jainism in the Gilgamesh Epic. Samkhya and Yoga are present quite visibly in many Sumerian texts. Right now I am studying the Solar Cosmology in the Sumerian Kinglist and which is with us through Rig Veda, etc. While Sumerian is definitely Archaic Tamil, and the whole Sangam culture of the Tamils is a continuation of the Sumerian, it is not clear to me how they came to settle in the South and Sri Lanka.,

The language of Vedas is also a variant of Archaic Tamils as Raghavan is also trying to show. The metaphysical insights of Rig Veda are certainly developments from the Sumerian. As I explore it, I notice that almost all the basic trends in later Indian philosophies are presaged in Sumerian philodophical and cosmological thinking so much so that we can say the Indian is simply a footnote to the Sumerian and which is Dravidian if we go by the language.

Noting that Yoga practices are widely prevalent, it may be that the Samkhya System may be one of the earliest philosophical systems of the Hindu mind. The Purusha-Prakirti of the Samkhya may actually beAn-Inanna or even Enki-Ninsikilla, the dancing gods of the Paradise Tilmun. In the Sirbiyam of En Hudu Anna, it is said that it is An who gives all powers to In-Anna and who because of it, keeps on movimg tirelessly all the time. Here we can see that it is In-Anna of the Sumerians, the Woman who keeps on giving birth tirelessly who is the Prakirti, that which keeps on moving on its own. It may be possible that the Samkhya System was in fact the Siva-Sakti dance demythologized and made into a rigorous philosophical system.

Dr. Loganathan

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akandabaratam/

The pasupatas were the earliest of Hindu sampradayas going back into the BCE era. Tagare says pasupata saivism is vedic and is the earliest Hindu sampradaya among six shaiva sampradayas, and survives till present times. (see G.V.Tagare, "Saivism: Some Glimpses", Delhi, 1996, p. 3). Gautama and Kanada, founders of Nyaya and Vaisheshika schools respectively, were Pasupatas (see Prof. R.K. Siddhantashastri, "Saivism Through the Ages", Delhi, 1975, p. 99).

Mahabharata mentions Krishna's initiation into Pashupatism (Anushasana-parvan, 14.379-380). In the same chapter Yajnavalkya and Vyasa are said to have been Pashupata-shaivas. But it is hardly surprising that these sages were pasupatas as Yagnavalkya does assert that only by chanting the Sri Rudram does one gets knowledge and moksha. We can see that most of the ancient sampradayas were Pasupathas, Nandinathas or Adinathas. The latter two simply go by the name of natha swamis today.

To have a balanced view of Hinduism we have to know of a fuller list of the main personages who shaped it and the texts by them. Here, we have an approximate Hindu Chronology of personages, texts and sampradayas:

PreVedic (Sumerian) Period

3000 BCE Suruppak, NeRi

2300 BCE Enhudu Anna, Exaltations of In-Anna Kes Temple Hymns,

2000 BCE Sulgi, Hymn B

1800 BCE Hammurabi's Legal Code

1800 BCE Many Incantation Texts

Vedic/Agamic Period

2500-1500 BCE > 420 rishis, Vedas and Agamas

PostVedic

1000 BCE Pasupata monastic orders

700 BCE Kapalika monastic orders

700 BCE Kalamukha monastic orders

600 BCE Kanada, Vaisisekha

600 BCE Bhoga Rishi

600 BCE Agastya

600 BCE Lopamudra (or Kausitaki), Lalita Sahasranama

500 BCE Kaundinya, Panchartha Bhasya

500 BCE Kapila, Samhkya

400 BCE Vyasa

300 BCE Jaimini, Purva Mimamsa

250 BCE Nandinatha, Nandikesvara Kasika

200 BCE Tirumular, Tirumantiram

200 BCE Patanjali, Yoga Sutras

200 BCE Gautama, Nyaya Sutras

200 BCE Tiruvalluvar, Tirukural

100 CE Auvaiyar I, Purananuru poems

200 CE Lakulisa, Pasupatha sutras, Karavana Mahatmya

200 CE Kusika

200 CE Garghya

200 CE Maitreya

600 CE Appar, Sundarar

675 CE Guhavasi Siddha

775 CE Rudrasambhu

800 CE Vasugupta, Siva Sutras

800 CE Adi Shankara, Sambandhar

850 CE Kallata, Spanda Sastra

850 CE Somananda, Siva Drishti

850 CE Ugrajyoti

850 CE Sadyojyoti

900 CE Utpaladeva, Pratyabijna Sutras

950 CE Manickavasagar, Nammalvar

975 CE Abinavagupta, Tantraloka

900 CE Matsyendranatha

1000 CE Gorakhsanatha, Siddha Siddhanta Paddhati,

1056 CE Srikumara, Tatparyadipika

1100 CE Basavanna, Vacanas, Sakthi Visishadvaitha

1100 CE Allama Prabhu, Mantra Gopya

1200 CE Aghorasiva

1200 CE Ramanuja

1300 CE Auvaiyar II, Aathicoodi

1300 CE Meykandar

1300 CE Nimbarka

1300 CE Madhva

1500 CE Vallabha

1500 CE Chaitanya

1600 CE Appaya Dikshitar, Sivarkamani Dipika

We see a gravitational paradigm powershift in the global picture of Hinduism, where the vedas are no longer the epicentre but a point on the continuous path of Agamism, and where the Sumerian origins which has been partly attested with linguistic evidences and archealogical artifacts, has found a foundational position now firmly in place. A culmination of sorts. This view corrects a lopsided view and the history of the Hindus that has long been erroneously presented.

From article on Shakti

It is believed that the cosmic grand design is theoretically a triangular structure of equal sides. The three points of the triangle or the "trine structure of macrocosmic system" are occupied by three ultimate manifestations of the trinity: Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra. The central point or the ultimate gravitational presence of the trine structure is occupied by "Shakti" which is self-born, and is unable to be created or destroyed by any other existence in the cosmos which motivates the trinity from the ultimate center. This ultimate indestructible gravity known as "Shakti" in its three transformative forms (Tridevi) is connected to the trinity separately. She is connected to Brahma through her creative motherly form with Rajas Guna; to Rudra through her destructive elderly form with Tamas Guna and to Vishnu through her neutral meditating form through her Sattva Guna. Brahma, by the grace of her creative force creates. Rudra, by the strength of her destructive force destroys. Vishnu, by the unbiased intellectual force sustains.

One of the oldest representations of the goddess in India is in a triangular form. The Baghor stone, found in a Paleolithic context in the Son River valley and dating to 9,000-8,000 years BCE,^[7] is considered an early example of a yantra.^[8] Kenoyer, part of the team that excavated the stone, considered that it was highly probable that the stone is associated with Shakti.^[9]

Baghor, and the Shiva Shrine

https://www.harappa.com/sites/default/files/pdf/Kenoyer1983_An%20Upper%20Palaeolithic%20Shrine%20in%20India.pdf

Clark

We also did some extremely interesting work at Upper Paleolithic sites, two at a place called Baghor. Baghor I was Upper Paleolithic, late Upper Paleolithic, and Baghor II was Mesolithic. These were excavated two of the seasons. Mark Kenoyer actually did Baghor I. Baghor II was excavated by Carol Sussman and Bill MacCormack, who lives in Lafayette. You will meet him; they're

― 248 ―

coming to that cocktail party. Mark Kenoyer is at Madison, Wisconsin, now.

One of the most interesting things we found there was what I think almost certainly was a shrine dating to about 10,000 years ago. The Paleolithic site looked rather like it was in northern Iraq, an industry known as the Zarzian, and it looked a bit like that. Rather refined. But what we found was a circle, I suppose it was probably about nearly a meter across, of stones, natural stones, all put down in the circle. In the middle, there was lying flat, with one or two pieces broken from it, a curious natural triangular piece of sandstone from on top of the escarpment. The confirmation of the layers was sort of triangular, and it would sort of split off like that. So that in the middle, you'd just get a hollow sort of triangle.

Troy

This was a surface site, or how far down was this?

Clark

It was probably maybe a meter below the surface, something like that.

Well, it was a good primary context site. We probably wouldn't have thought much more about it if we hadn't been to visit a shrine that I think those peasant sheep herders visited from time to time, and was a shrine that was kept up by some of the local villagers, not all that far from Baghor I. We visited that. Again stones had been put around like that, and there were one or two of those triangular stones there. There was a little sort of platform, if I remember rightly. And with it as well, there were--I can't remember whether they were fired or unfired clay figurines. I think they were animals, maybe humans, I don't know. And then every so often, somebody would put flowers on the thing. We went into all that; that's all published.

And the interesting thing is, that was the shrine of the earth goddess associated with Shiva, I think. Then when we looked into it a little more carefully, we found in point of fact several of these villages had these kinds of shrines, and one in particular looked very much like ours, in association with trees as well, quite often put at the foot of a tree. The local people, workers and so on, said, "Yes, this is obviously related. But why did you break the stone?" Well, we never did break the stone. There it was. We made a full photographic recording of all of that.

Troy

And you explained that the stone had broken itself, a natural break, or had been broken for some time.

― 249 ―

Clark

Exactly. I think when we left that the local villagers had put a wall around it, and had started to preserve it again. They recognized it as being a shrine, and that was 10,000 years old.

Troy

When you explained to them that it was that old, did they comprehend that time?

Clark

Not really, I don't think. Very few of us can appreciate what 10,000 years represents. But that was extremely interesting. We published it in Antiquity. We should publish a good deal more of it, I think, really.

Troy

There's a lot that you did that was not published?

Clark

Well, the full second-year report wasn't published. And of course, to photograph those sites, the only way you could get any decent photograph was to climb up a ladder and photograph from about thirty feet up. We got the local people to cut down a couple of lengths of bamboo, and they made a ladder out of this. We had ropes from it, and about half a dozen people on the end of each rope, I think it was. Must have been--yes. I would climb up it to photograph. It felt a little precarious on top, but you did get good results from that.

Troy

Well, you're a hell of a camera man.

Clark

One had to do all that kind of thing in those days.

Troy

Hot and humid and jungly? What was it like there at those sites?

Clark

It was somewhat humid, yes.

There were crocodiles in the river. Muggers, as they're called. That's I suppose the Hindi word for a crocodile. There was also the gavial, you see. That was another kind of crocodile that had the very narrow jaws. They were all right, the crocodiles. You wanted to check that there weren't too many of those around.

The ghosts of Adichanallur: Artefacts that suggest an ancient Tamil civilisation of great sophistication Her features weren’t well defined but her body conveyed a symbolism. Her large hips were emphasised by what appeared to be a skirt or perhaps an oddiyanam — a belt-like jewellery. Her breasts were prominent and the long, dangling earrings she wore seemed typical of the Tirunelveli region of Tamil Nadu.Adichanallur in southern Tamil Nadu has been an active playground of archaeologists and anthropologists for more than 150 years. M. Kalyanaraman reports on the possible implications of recent research on skeletal remains and artefacts that suggest an ancient Tamil civilisation of great sophistication and antiquity

The palm-sized bronze figurine came from the archaeological site at Adichanallur, located along the Tamirabarani river in Thoothukudi district, says C. Maheswaran, the retired curator for anthropology at the Department of Museums. “It likely represents a mother goddess who stood for fertility,” he adds. “The artefact is primitive but is circa 1,500 BC,” surmises T. Satyamurthy. As superintending archaeologist at the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), he had led the fourth excavation — fifth, as per some records — in Adichanallur in 2004-05.

For nearly a hundred years, the Mother Goddess has been lying safely inside a vault at the Egmore Museum. Now the figurine, as well as other artefacts, including gold diadems (gold jewellery tied with a string on the forehead) will join hundreds of other Adichanallur artefacts for display at a revamped gallery in the museum, says Kavitha Ramu, Director, Department of Museums.

Digging to the Sangam era

At the site in Adichanallur, abutting the sleepy hamlet called Karungulam, there is little, if any, sign of past grandeur. On a recent Sunday evening, as the sun set over the Tamirabarani river, the grassy knoll on the river bank became a grazing ground for cattle. Bisected by the Tirunelveli-Tiruchendur road, two rusty signboards of the ASI give little information on the significance of the site but warn vandals of punishment.

A group of women waiting for the bus motioned to this correspondent. One of them said in Tamil, “If you climb up the mound, you will see what you are searching for.” To the untrained eye, there is nothing extraordinary on top of the hummock, except for a view of two temples of recent origin. But right here, the four excavations in Adichanallur — by a German, a Frenchman, the British, and finally by Indians — have unearthed hundreds of burial urns, most likely several thousands of years old, along with skeletal remains and thousands of iron and bronze artefacts, including weapons and gold jewellery. These remains were shipped to Chennai, Kolkata, Berlin and Paris. A recently constructed building for an on-site museum in Adichanallur waits for the remains to return.

Among Tamil enthusiasts, heritage lovers, and advocates of Dravidian ideology, there has been a resurgence of interest in Adichanallur, following the recent discovery of an urban settlement in Keezhadi, in Sivaganga district, dating back to the Sangam era (300 BC to 300 AD). Many of them have charged the Centre with wilfully stalling the excavations at Keezhadi, contending that the ASI was baulking at the prospect of digging out an extensive, ancient Tamil civilisation that was independent of Vedic Hinduism.

Sangam literature, especially the earlier works, has been a touchstone for the Dravidian movement. The poetry of the Sangam canon evokes the inner world of feelings and the outer world of activity, but is largely silent on religious practices or even God. Many scholars aver that there is no trace of Vedic Hinduism in the verses, and almost nothing of the caste system or Brahmins. To many proponents of the Dravidian movement, the early Sangam era represents an ideal non-Brahmin, non-caste past, and gives them their separate identity. “If just the burial site can throw up so many things, imagine what a full-fledged excavation in Adichanallur might unearth,” says R. Mathivanan, who served as the Director the State government’s Tamil Etymological Dictionary project.

The skeletal remains excavated at Adichanallur also did not quite match the biological structure of the contemporary Tamil people. For instance, the jaws of many of the skulls were protruding, and appeared to match those of Australian aborigines or Black Africans rather than a typical Tamil or south Indian. The shape and size of the eye sockets resembled those of the Caucasoid, Far Eastern or even African races. A receding forehead was yet another indicator of foreign originor many decades, experts assumed that the site was 3,000 to 4,000 years old, and had concluded that the skulls belonged to primitive races that were the ancestors of today’s Tamils. Some sought to link them to the people of the Indus Valley, which has been recognised by some scholars as proto-Dravidian (‘proto’ would mean ‘original, primitive or the earliest’). Adichanallur was the missing link in time between the Tamils and the Indus Valley people, they felt.

But in the most recent research, P. Raghavan, a physical anthropologist, has surmised that the remains belong to the 500 BC to 200 BC period, by which time the contemporary Tamil population had formed. He has concluded that the foreign-looking skeletal remains were indeed those of foreigners. But what were these foreigners doing in Adichanallur thousands of years ago?

Date with the past

The most recent Adichanallur excavations in 2004-05, led by Mr. Satyamurthy, showed that Adichanallur, besides being an Iron Age burial site, was also a ‘habitation site’ where ancient people lived. In several reports in The Hindu and Frontline published at that time, journalist T.S. Subramanian explained what was excavated during that dig.

A research paper published in 2010 in the Indian Journal of History of Sciencesaid that Adichanallur was also an ancient centre for mining and metalwork. A mineral sample from a burial urn containing copper artefacts was dated to 1,500 BC, plus or minus 700 years, by Raj Kishore Gartia of Manipur University.

“At Adichanallur, arsenic was deliberately added to copper so that the alloy could be work-hardened over a wide range of temperatures without fear of embrittlement. Among the ancients in India, this technique has been found only in the Indus Valley, besides Adichanallur,” says B. Sasisekaran, who was serving as a scientist at the National Institute of Ocean Technology when he did the research as part of the team. He adds that at the nearby Krishnapuram too, an ancient mining site was found, indicating that this was not an isolated activity. The experts concluded that metal artefacts were made here until the 8th century AD.

The dating method used has, however, drawn criticism. In the Thermo-luminescence (TL) and Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating (OSL) methods adopted, the last time the mineral was heated (probably for its manufacture) is detected. Critics say that carbon dating is more appropriate for Adichanallur.

Mr. Sasisekaran counters that OSL is indeed the standard for dating minerals, as carbon dating is used more for organic material. He adds that OSL had successfully dated findings by marine archaeologists at the Gulf of Khambat. But some archaeologists insist that radio carbon dating at three reputed institutes would settle the issue and also reduce the error margin in the OSL dating.

Diversity of the remains

For quite some time now, Adichanallur has been the playground of contentious theories voiced across the world. These theories have dealt with some of the biggest questions concerning the history of not just India but the entire human race.

Starting in Chennai, or Madras, as it was known then, the Adichanallur findings have exercised bright minds in Kolkata, Berlin, Paris, London, Australia and Ithaca in New York State, home to Cornell University.

“Adittanallur (Adichanallur) skeletal data have come to be regarded as the keystone for many theories of race formation, which were based upon the tenets of an earlier anthropological preoccupation called racial paleontology,” said Kenneth Kennedy, former professor of physical anthropology at Cornell, in his essay, “Hauntings at Adichanallur: An anthropological ghost story”, published in 1986.

Adichanallur’s international links began with the arrival of German antiquarian and Berlin resident of Russian descent Friedrich (Fedor) Jagor in the 19th century. Germany during Jagor’s time was a late entrant to the imperialist game that still fancied its chances. The Germans believed that they could use ethnography to understand the native populations they were encountering in Asia and Africa. This resulted in a race among German cities to boost their cosmopolitan status and catch up with other cities on the continent by enhancing the ethnological collections of their museums. Jagor, a resident of Berlin, was a prominent player in this race.

Between 1857 and 1893, Jagor made three trips to Asia. During his second expedition in 1876, he excavated “upwards of fifty kinds, of baked earthenware, utensils of all sizes and shapes, a considerable number of iron weapons and implements… and a great quantity of bones and skulls”, wrote the District Gazetteer. Jagor shipped his finds to the Ethnological Museum of Berlin.

Jagor has left detailed chronicles of his travels, but not of Adichanallur. “Jagor brought back some 10,000 artefacts in all. The Indian artefacts were first stored at the Ethnological Museum and in 1963 weThe ghosts of Adichanallur: Artefacts that suggest an ancient Tamil civilisation of great sophisticationre brought to the newly established Department of Indian Art, now a part of the Museum of Asian Art next to the Ethnological Museum,” says Roland Platz, curator for South/Southeast Asia at the Berlin Ethnological Museum.

Jagor may not have written about Adichanallur but his treasures were becoming well known in Europe, noted Kennedy. Louis Lapicque, a French neuroscientist who believed in race theories, landed in Adichanallur in 1903. Kennedy added that Lapicque dug out one skull that, according to Lapicque, constituted evidence of a primitive Negroid race. This skull was “proudly displayed” at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris, according to Kennedy, who noted that many other experts of that time were also weighing in on the skeletal remains.

Meanwhile, Alexander Rea, the superintending archaeologist of the ASI in Madras, had started his own excavation at the turn of the 20th century. In all he excavated 14 skeletal remains, and many of the artefacts he dug out were put on display at the Egmore Museum in Chennai.

In 1930, Solly Zuckerman, a research anatomist, did a measurement-based study of two Adichanallur skulls. He found the first to be somewhat Australoid but didn’t think it was too different from being Dravidian. The second, he said, was likely female, and remarkably similar to the Old Woman of Grimaldi, one of two Stone Age skeletal remains found in Italy.

The Grimaldi finds were thought to support the ‘Out of Europe’ theory which was later discredited. The Grimaldis were supposed to be examples of darker-skinned Europeans who gave rise to Black Africans and, probably for Zuckermann, Dravidians too.

In 1963, Indian anthropologists B.K. Gupta and P. Chatterjee published a study based on more advanced skeletal evaluation techniques in which they said the skeletons showed a medley of “primitive” features that belonged to Veddoid-Australoid and Mediterranean races. These races had “contributed to the formation of Dravidian speakers”, they said.

‘Vedda’ is a tribe that is still found in today’s Sri Lanka. In Tamil, ‘Vedda’ stands for the hunter tribe. As per the folklore, the most popular deity in the State, Murugan, comes from that tribe.

The two Indian anthropologists noted that the Australoid and the Mediterranean skeletal remains had also been found in Indus Valley Civilisation, thus establishing a link with Adichanallur.

Reviewing these studies, Kennedy concluded in his essay that the Adichanallur remains found until then were quite diverse. On that basis, he called for more conclusive excavations and analysis so that the ghosts of Adichanallur could be put to rest.

The Aussie connection

By 2014, the ‘Out of Africa’ theory had become the scientific consensus on the origin of man, and Australia had embarked on a project that would show that the aborigines in that country were descendants of ‘Out of Africa’ migrants living in South and Southeast Asia during the Ice Age. The Australoids had reportedly pushed towards Australia through sea and land routes — apparently, Australia was attached to the mainland then.

Among the scientists working in that project was P. Raghavan, who was born to Indian Tamil parents in Jaffna but left the island nation in the late 1970s due to the ethnic strife there. He and his sister Gayatri Pathmanathan moved to Chandigarh as researchers. Raghavan later moved to Australia.

In December 2004, he was on a visit to Chennai for his research on the link between aborigines and South India. A hotel receptionist, after asking about his profession, informed him that some ancient skeletons had been unearthed at Adichanallur. “Adichanallur became my passion...” says Mr. Raghavan.

While physical anthropologists before him saw Adichanallur in isolation, Mr. Raghavan, assisted by his sister, saw it in the context of Korkai, some 15 km from Adichanallur, and the Sangam references to it as a port involved in sea trade and pearl fishing. Radio carbon dating had found that a sample from Korkai was circa 800 BC. At that time (2,500 years ago) the sea might have been at least 6-7 km inland, he says.

After research using advanced software and databases, and scrutiny of the fossil and semi-fossil records in the area, he testifies to the foreign origin of the people whose skeletal remains were found. He says they date to 2,500-2,200 BC. “Many of the Adichanallur skulls were that of people from the Middle East, the Mediterranean region, Southeast Asia and the Far East, including what is today Vietnam, Cambodia, China and Japan. The skulls had abnormalities and nutritional deficiencies of the kind typically suffered by seafarers and deep-sea divers. They probably came in through the silk trade route, and the burial ground excavated was probably an exclusive cemetery for foreigners,” Mr. Raghavan says. The skull remains pointed to sexually transmitted diseases, which was again was a prevalent aspect of seafarers, he adds.

Some of the skulls had mysterious, well margined cavities just above the eyebrows. Mr. Raghavan says that they were probably caused by non-cancerous (benign) tumors (also known as Pott’s Puff Tumors) and related to excessive sinuses. They were likely caused by certain bacteria that often attack sailors and deep sea divers, he adds.

The Egmore Museum gallery seeks to highlight the sea trade aspect. “The revamped Adichanallur gallery in Egmore Museum will give visitors a feel of ancient Tamil life and their maritime activities through the use of virtual and augmented reality,” says K. Pandiarajan, Tamil Nadu Minister for Tamil Official Language and Tamil Culture.“We hope to draw in Central as well as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds for the overall museum revamp project,” he adds.

“The State government has sanctioned ₹30 lakh for refurbishing the Adichanallur gallery, which will be completed by March-April,” says Kavitha Ramu of the Department of Museums.

Awaiting closure

Mr. Raghavan says that of the nearly 170 skeletal remains studied, Caucasoid constituted 35%, Mongoloid 30%, Negroid 14%, Australoid 5%, Dravidian 8%, and mixed traits 8%. He says that the Australoid were likely contemporary Australian aborigines who were known to have had seafaring qualities.

Modern anthropologists frown upon any significance being attached to race, save for the purposes of reconstructing history. The present belief is that there are four races: Australoid, Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongoloid. But these are statistical constructs that do not determine or describe culture, behaviour or ability. No one is purely of any race and the races are not closed genetic systems.

“In any case, India is an admixture of all the four races. The extent of the mix may vary from region to region,” says Mr. Raghavan, adding that Dravidian and Aryan are linguistic and not racial entities.

Dravidianists argue that as long as there are caste-based inequalities and concentration of power in the upper castes, empowerment politics based on race and identity are both relevant and necessary.

When marriage across caste boundaries becomes commonplace, such politics won’t be required, they say. They hope that an extensive excavation will conclusively establish a glorious Tamil civilisation along the Tamirabarani. “Less than 10% of the site has been excavated. There is scope for much more work there,” says Mr. Satyamurthy.

Mr. Raghavan’s finding offers closure to at least one aspect, however. Fedor Jagor came looking for the remains of a primitive people to exhibit in a Berlin museum so that the city could present itself as more cosmopolitan. Little would he have known that he was digging up an ancient cosmopolitan cemetery, if not the burial place of an entire cosmopolitan community.

Haplogroup L-M20 has a high frequency in the Indus Valley. McElreavy & Quintana-Murci (2005) note that "both the frequency distribution and estimated expansion time (~7,000 YBP) of this lineage suggest that its spread in the Indus Valley may be associated with the expansion of local farming groups during the Neolithic period."^{[62][note 6]}

The Indus Script

https://www.harappa.com/script/maha2.html

The Coming of the Aryans

Parpola proposes a new theory about when, from where and how the Aryans came into the Indian sub-continent and the identity of the Dasas (Dasyus) who were their traditional enemies. According to this theory, the Rigvedic Aryans were preceded by another wave of Indo-European speaking invaders who called themselves the Dasas and who penetrated further to the east than did the Rigvedic Aryans.

The new theory is based on textual-linguistic re-interpretation of the Vedic evidence in the light of the recent remarkable discoveries made by Soviet archaeologists of a previously unknown Bronze Age civilization in Bactria (North Afghanistan) and Margiana (in Turkmenistan). The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) had two distinct cultural periods, the first between 1900 and 1700 BCE and the second between 1700 and 1500 BCE.

Token from Harappa

According to Parpola a small wave of Aryan-speaking nomads from the northern steppes arrived in this region in BMAC-I period and adopted the local non-Aryan culture while retaining their own Aryan language. Parpola identifies their name as Dasa from Old Persian inscriptions and Greek and Latin sources. The presence of the horse and evidence for the practice of chariot warfare by the ruling elite appearing at this time in Bactria confirm the Indo-European origin of the Dasas. The fortified palace at Dashly-3 with three concentric circular walls belonging to this period is identified by Parpola typologically as tripura, 'triple fort' of the Dasas in Vedic mythology.

Parpola suggests that the Dasa-Aryans from BMAC arrived in South Asia via Baluchistan during the time of the Late Harappan cultures, as evidenced by the typically BMAC graves and cenotaphs at Mehrgarh and other sites on the Kachi plain near the Bolan Pass. According to him these early 'Indian Dasas' are likely to have become the ruling elite in the Late Harappan cultures: the Cemetery-H culture of the Punjab, the Jhukar culture of Sind, and the Ochre Coloured Pottery culture of the Ganga-Yamuna Doab.

Parpola also proposes that a second wave of Indo-European speakers from the northern steppes swept over the Bactria-Margiana region in about 1700 BC. Evidence for this comes from the distinct break between the cultures of BMAC I and II at this time. Parpola identifies the newcomers as 'Sauma-Aryans' from their ritual of Soma drinking which the 'Dasa-Aryans' did not practice. Evidence for Ephedra (identified as the Soma plant) has been discovered in the residues of liquid in ritual vessels found in the temple-forts of Togolok-21 and Gonur-I in Margiana dating from the BMAC-II phase.

The Sauma-Aryans too would have largely adopted the local culture, but also transforming the cult of the Asura-worshiping Dasas into the Deva-worshiping cult involving the Soma ritual.

After the fusion of the two peoples, one group of the unified Proto-Indo-Aryans migrated eastwards into the Swat valley founding the Proto-Rigvedic culture.

Parpola's new hypothesis will have to be examined in detail by specialists in South Asian history and Indo-European linguistics. So far as the Indus Civilization is concerned the main implication of the new theory seems to be that the Aryan-Dasa conflict recorded in the earliest portions of the Rigveda is the story of the hostilities and eventual fusion of two Aryan tribes, which took place before their entry into the Indian sub-continent and has thus no relevance to the demise of the mature phase of the Indus Civilization.

Sumer: During the middle of the third millennium BC, Sumerian society became more urbanized.^{[7]:178–179} As a result of this, Sumerian deities began to lose their original associations with nature and became the patrons of various cities.^[7]:179 Each Sumerian city-state had its own specific patron deity,^[7]:179 who was believed to protect the city and defend its interests.^[7]:179 Lists of large numbers of Sumerian deities have been found. Their order of importance and the relationships between the deities has been examined during the study of cuneiform tablets.^[16]

During the late 2000s BC, the Sumerians were conquered by the Akkadians.^[7]:179 The Akkadians syncretizedtheir own gods with the Sumerian ones,^[7]:179 causing Sumerian religion to take on a Semitic coloration.^[7]:179Male deities became dominant^[7]:179 and the gods completely lost their original associations with natural phenomena.^{[7]:179–180} People began to view the gods as living in a feudal society with class structure.^{[7]:179–181}Powerful deities such as Enki and Inanna became seen as receiving their power from the chief god Enlil.^[7]:179–

^{A view on Vedic and Tantric Shaevite}

https://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/08/3-ways-to-view-the-ancient-history-of-yoga/

3 Ways to View the Ancient History of Yoga.

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Indian civilization was born about 11,000 years ago, during or shortly after Neolithic farming settlements were established in the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East, during the period referred to as the cradle of civilization.

Recent research into this important period of history has revealed that India was, in so many ways, also the cradle of human civilization, not just geographically and culturally, but also spiritually.

For South Asia, including India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, were one of the first areas on the planet where people settled to farm and create urbanized city complexes on a considerable scale. In Mehrgarh, for example, an area in today’s Pakistan, wheat, barley and eggplant were cultivated, sheep and cattle were domesticated, and people lived in cities as early as nine thousand years ago (7000 BCE).

India was also the birthplace of the world’s first great religions, Buddhism and Jainism. More significantly, long before the birth of Buddha (500 BCE), India had already developed the sophisticated sciences of yoga, meditation, Ayurvedic medicine, and the world’s most advanced and sacred language, namely Sanskrit.

While there is general agreement among scholars regarding the antiquity of India’s civilization, there is less agreement about how and when it developed its sophisticated culture and sacred traditions. There are currently three main theories on ancient Indian history:

• • 1. Most Western and Indian academics hold the view that India was invaded by Vedic Aryan settlers around 1900 BCE. These Aryans worshiped the sun god Suria and brought with them their Rigvedic religion based on sacrifices and rituals offered to “placate and please the Gods, [and] to force them to fulfill wishes and demands.”

These patriarchal and martial Aryans soon conquered northern India and destroyed the great Indus Valley civilization, where yoga was already practiced by Tantric (Shaeva) ascetics. They massacred populations and reduced the surviving Dravidian shudras to slavery (dasyu) without regard for rank or learning.

This conflict has been described in the famous epics Mahabharta and the Ramayana. Over time, India became a blended civilization—par Aryan Vedic, part Dravidian Shaeva, with a liberal admixture of Jain and Buddhist traditions—and this blended culture is what we today know as Hindu civilization.

• • 2. Western yoga scholars, including Georg Feuerstein and David Frawley, as well as some Indian writers, especially within the fundamentalist Hindutva movement, subscribe to the theory that there was never an Aryan invasion around 1900 BCE and that Yoga comes solely from the Vedic tradition.

This “One River Theory” proclaims that the Indus Valley was not destroyed by Aryan warriors but instead by climatic changes. According to these writers, the Aryans are indigenous to India and represent everything that is noble about Indian culture. In their book In Search of the Cradle of Civilization, Feuerstein and Frawley outline 17 points for why the invasion never took place. In one of these points, however, they reflect on the possibility that the Aryan settlers arrived in India at a much earlier date.

• • 3. This last option brings us to my own “Two River Theory,” that the history of Yoga represents a blend of the Tantric and Vedic traditions of India.

According to Puranic history as well as recent genetic science discoveries, the Vedic Aryans arrived in India at an early age, most likely as early as 7-5000 BCE. Therefore the blending of the Vedic and Tantric (Shaeva) cultures of India had already matured by the time the Indus Valley civilization was destroyed and depopulated around 2000 BCE.

Not long after, around 1500 BCE, India produced the world’s first coherent philosophy and cosmology, namely sage Kapila’s Tantric-inspired Samkhya philosophy, which today is popularly known as the philosophy of Ayurveda, India’s ancient medical science.

About 700 years after Kapila, some of the greatest spiritual literature the world has ever witnessed, namely the oral teachings in the epic Mahabharata, the Vedantic Upanishads, the spiritual teachings of the Gita, and the historical mythology of the Ramayana were written down for the first time.

And around 200 BCE, sage Patanjali wrote his Yoga Sutras and codified the oral teachings of the Tantric yogis for the first time in the form of Asthanga, or Raja Yoga.

While these three versions of Indian history may seem entirely at odds, there are important overlapping agreements, and the theories do in many ways compliment each other.

The first theory has dated the Aryan invasion rather late (1900 BCE) and does not reflect the genetic research of Dr. Spencer Wells, who claims the invasion started much earlier—about 7-5000 BCE.

As suggested as a possibility by Feuerstein and Frawley—proponents of theory number two—this migration started when the Rig Vedic Aryans arrived via the Russian steppes and the deserts of Iran more than 3000 years before the Indus Valley eventually was abandoned.

Indeed, in Feuerstein’s new version of his book The Yoga Tradition, he suggests the Indo-European Aryans arrived in India as early as 6500 BCE, which is exactly what genetic science has concluded. Looking for better pastures for their cattle, and for other riches, these skilled warrior nomads arrived in successive raids and migrations over a period of several millennia.

Genetic science and archeology have determined they arrived in an already inhabited land, and its peoples—the Dravidians, Mongolians and Austrics—had already developed a sophisticated, urban culture, and the art and science of Tantric Yoga was already in practice among them.

In other words, by the time the Indus Valley was finally abandoned around 1900 BCE, the indigenous Indians and the invading Aryans had already experienced 3000 years of conflict and gradual integration.

Hence these peoples, representing different civilizations, cultures and outlooks—one we may term Vedic/Priestly, and one we may term Tantric/Yogic—gradually formed what we today know as the Indian, or Hindu Civilization. Of these two rivers, the Vedic is primarily ritualistic and religious, while the Tantric is primarily empirical and spiritual, while Hinduism represent a blend of these two traditions.

Together these two traditions have also influenced and formed the foundation of what we practice as yoga today. But Tantra has by far been the most influential in shaping the practice of both physical and meditative yoga.

In the words of Swami Satyananda Saraswati:

“The yoga we know today was developed as part of the tantric civilization which existed in India…more than 10,000 years ago. In archeological excavations made in the Indus Valley at Harappa and Mohenjodaro, now in modern Pakistan, many statues have been found depicting deities resembling Lord Shiva and Parvati performing various asanas and practicing meditation.

”

The Agamas:

Tantra in Ancient Times

Tantra in Archaic India

Indus Valley Culture

Mystery of the Seals

Shiva "Lord of Beasts"

Mohenjodaro Dancing Girls

Tantra Matriarch Figure

TANTRA IN ARCHAIC INDIA

(extracted from "SPIRITUAL SEX: Secrets of Tantra from the Ice Age to the New Millennium," by Nik Douglas, © copyright 1996. All rights reserved)

The majority of India's indigenous tribal people are Dravidian, a linguistic group that includes Tamil, Telegu, Khond and Oraon languages. They are of "Australoid" racial stock, related to the aborigines of Australia who first migrated there from India at least 60,000 years ago. The territory controlled by Dravidian tribes once extended from Southern Iran to Australia. Originally, in the distant archaic past, these people must have migrated out of Africa.

As in Africa, the culture of ancient India was largely matriarchal. Its people celebrated the spiritual mysteries of birth, the seasons and lunar cycles, renewal, rebirth and transcendence. The diverse dark-skinned Indian aboriginal tribes worshipped spiritual powers associated with fertility, virility and the after-life. They have done so since the dawn of history.

For thousands of years, India's tribal people used anthropomorphic images or "idols" in their spiritual rites. They used selected herbs, flowers and trees in their rituals and plant-drugs to help induce trance states. Worship was accompanied by mystic phrases, diagrams and gestures, and by sexual acts. Like most tribal people world-wide, they believed in the efficacy of spells, charms and amulets.

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THE ANCIENT INDUS VALLEY OR "HARAPPAN" CULTURE

The remains of the ancient Indus Valley culture were "discovered" in the 1920s, following some initial finds towards the end of the 19th century. The brick built city of Harappa, located near the Ravi river in Punjab, Pakistan, was the first site to attract attention, followed by Mohenjodaro and Chanhudaro, further South on the river Indus. The close resemblance between objects from the Indus Valley sites and those from ancient Sumeria, in Southern Iraq, dateable between the third and fourth millennium B.C.E was soon apparent.

Initially the term "Indo-Sumerian" was used to describe antiquities from the same period in the Indus Valley and Southern Iraq. Since the 1920s numerous other Indus Valley or "Harappan culture" sites have come to light, covering an area of more than 1.3 million square kilometers, larger than any other archaic civilization. Very recently, as a result of analysis of landsat imagery and studies in earth sciences, it has been shown that a now-dried-up greater river system, referred to as the Saraswati, was integrated with the Indus river system in the same period, with numerous archaic settlements scattered along it.

People of the Harrapan culture, which was well established by the end of the fourth millennium B.C.E. , were expert potters and worked with steatite, ivory and other exotic materials. They used copper, gold, and semi-precious stones and had large ships which they used for trade. Their religion was essentially pagan, "animistic", and included tree and animal worship as well as the use of sexual symbols such as the penis and vulva.

Harappans used a pictographic language comprising about 370 separate glyphs of which about 135 are frequently occurring basic signs. Their pictographs were read from right to left and had syllabic values. The complete absence of any long documents in Harappan writing suggests that these people generally used perishable materials such as bark, palm-leaves, cotton or leather to write on. Unfortunately no-one has yet been able to satisfactorily decipher the short inscriptions which have survived on seals, engraved copper or on pottery.

The city of Mohenjodaro covered at least one square mile and is better preserved than Harappa. Both of these principal cities were well planned, with streets laid out in a regular grid pattern and oriented to the cardinal directions. Street widths and brick sizes were standardized. Most houses were served by a built-in drainage system and had chutes for garbage disposal. The main street at Mohenjodaro was more than half a mile in length and about thirty-three feet wide. Perhaps as many as 40,000 persons lived there and were involved in industry and trade. The most spectacular features of Mohenjodaro are the Great Bath and the Granary. There were no large temples. Small sepulcher shrines, very much like the samadhi shrines of modern Hindu sadhus or Yogis were quite common in Indus Valley culture.

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THE MYSTERY OF THE SEALS AND INDIAN TANTRA

Approximately 2500 small but exquisitely made intaglio seals of the ancient Harappan or "Saraswati-Indus" river culture are known. Most were recovered from excavations at the ruined cities of Harappa, Mohenjodaro and Chanhudaro. Others were found at Kalibangan in Rajasthan, the now landlocked ancient port of Lothal, North of Bombay, and elsewhere.

Most seals were carved from blocks of light-colored, fine-grained steatite, and after carving, the surface was coated with a glaze and fired. Harappan seals are carefully composed and reveal great artistry in the manner of treating their subject. About half of the surviving examples depict a male animal shown in a heraldic way, generally with a line or two of pictographic "text". About 2% of the seals depict humans engaged in different kinds of ceremonial activities.

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SHIVA AS "LORD OF BEASTS"

The best known Harappan seal is one identified by archaeologist Sir John Marshall as Shiva Pashupati, the Yogic "Lord of Beasts". This seal is often cited as evidence that people of the Indus Valley culture knew Yoga and practiced Tantra. It is, however, not the only known example of this subject from this culture. There are several others, of which four are particularly significant.

The "Marshall" Shiva seal depicts a buffalo-horned masked male figure seated on a throne in a version of the cross-legged "lotus" posture of Hatha Yoga. The Yogi's penis is erect, with both testicles prominently visible. The precise placement of both heels under the scrotum is an advanced Tantric Yoga technique known as bandha, meaning knot or "lock". It is normally used to sublimate and redirect sexual energy and can endow the practitioner with spiritual powers.

On the Marshall seal the Yogi sits on a type of throne or bed which is supported by an object resembling the hour-glass shaped double drum (known in Hindu ritual as the damaru) normally associated with Shiva and with shamanistic rituals throughout Asia. The top and bottom of this drum takes the shape of horns, tying-in to the horned headdress.

The Yogi's hands are both shown placed on the knees, in a typical meditational gesture which aids energy circulation. His chest is covered by a five-tiered "V" pattern formed by ten stripes. Both arms are divided into stripes, as if intended as a notational device; four small stripes are followed by a fifth larger one and then the sequence repeats. A total of thirty distinct stripes are drawn on the body of the Yogi; ten on each arm and ten over the chest. Some type of calendrical lunar-oriented notation seems to be represented here, indicating days in a month. Many Harappan seals have notched markings on horns, branches, arms or on the bodies of animals, reminiscent of Paleolithic-period notational marks commemorating calendrical data.

Shiva's horned headdress is also divided into stripes; twelve on each horn, plus eight evolving into a sort of crown, echoing the "V" pattern over the chest, for a total of 32 stripes. A possible 33rd stripe can be seen at the central uppermost part of the crown. Immediately above this is a pictograph, also horn-like with two stripes at each side and a central divided circle.

A large tiger rears upwards by the Yogi's right side, facing him. This is the largest animal on the seal, shown as if intimately connected to the Yogi; the stripes on the tiger's body, also in groups of five, emphasize the connection.

Three other smaller animals are depicted on the "Marshall" Shiva seal. It is most likely that all the animals on this seal are totemic or "heraldic" symbols, indicating "tribes", "people" or geographic areas. The heroes of the Mahabharata, the Hindu epic, had animal symbols on their battle standards. The ancient Egyptians and Sumerians both used animal symbols to distinguish people from different areas. Known as neters or "cosmic visions" in Egyptian culture, these totemic symbols remained unchanged throughout the entire historical period. Many indigenous tribal people of India still have animal totems which signify their different "families" and the geographical zones to which they are connected. On the Shiva seal, the tiger, being the largest, represents the Yogi's people, and most likely symbolizes the Himalayan region. The elephant probably represents central and Eastern India, the bull or buffalo South India and the rhinoceros the regions West of the Indus river.

Immediately beneath the throne, as if decorating it, are two mountain goats (one mostly missing, due to the break, but enough has survived to restore the complete composition). These goats are symmetrically placed, mirroring each other. They are separate from and smaller than the other animals shown and are "vehicles" or "magical allies" of the seated Yogi; emblems of his authority or origin "in the wild mountains" of the North.

This Shiva seal is a carefully contrived glyph loaded with meaning. It would, of course, be helpful to be able to read the single line of pictographs. Understanding an unknown pictographic-derived script in an unknown language is extremely difficult. But until there is certainty about the language spoken by the inhabitants of the Indus Valley region, and the evolution of their script, we must focus on the precise iconographic or "heraldic" information easily accessible to us.

Pictographs or ideograms are supposed to be understood by reading the parts which make up their whole, and by the overall "composition" and impact. The saying that a "picture is worth a thousand words" is particularly true for the intricate and carefully designed Harappan seals, which reveal most of their secrets without the necessity of reading the brief inscriptions.

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THE MOHENJODARO DANCING GIRLS

The best known artifact from the Indus Valley culture is an approximately four inch high copper figure of a dancing girl. Found in Mohenjodaro, close to a fireplace in one of the rooms of a large structure, this exquisite casting depicts a dark skinned young tribal girl of "aboriginal" type. She is almost naked and her long hair is tied in a bun. Bangles entirely cover her left arm, a bracelet and an amulet or bangle on her upper right arm, and a cowry shell necklace is around her neck. She is posed in a dance posture, her right hand on her hip, her left hand clasped in a traditional Indian dance gesture signifying a lotus bud, symbol of spirituality. Though small, this archaic metal sculpture conveys a lot of information.

Several eminent scholars have taken this casting to represent a temple dancer or sacred harlot, perhaps because of her nakedness, the "come hither" dance-posture, with hand on hip, and the expression of self-assurance on her face. Whatever the sculptor intended her to portray, this small figure confirms that the Harappan people were neither shy of nakedness nor of explicit sensuality. A second metal casting of a dancing girl was also found at Mohenjodaro, but is rarely reproduced in books. Slightly larger than the better known example, it is unfortunately not in such fine condition. The pose is similar, but reversed.

Both these metal castings clearly depict a nubile young woman in the role of sacred dancer and effectively convey feelings of sensuality and spirituality. These two ancient figurines of sacred dancers may be the earliest known representations of dakinis, images of female initiatory power, of paramount importance in Tantric tradition. Together with the several Shiva seals from the same archaic culture, they confirm beyond any doubt that the archaic pre-Vedic Indians had Tantric Adepts among them.

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AN ARCHAIC TANTRA MATRIARCH FIGURE

A large and unique wood-sculpture of a squatting female is one of several enigmatic tribal-style sculptures from greater India, some of which, attributed to the Mehrgarh (7,000 to 5500 B.C.E) and Indus Valley (circa 3300-1300 BCE) cultures, shed light on an early Tantric matriarchy.

Realistically carved, she squats in birthing position lifting her dress to reveal her vagina, stained from offerings. A shawl covers her left shoulder, her right breast bare, hair pulled back and tied in a style favored today by tribeswomen of eastern India. She wears ear-rings and the upper part of her right arm is tied with an amulet of type found on several Harappan sculptures.

Her mouth has tattoos around it, a custom of several archaic cultures and signifying that she represents a matriarch, a married woman who has borne children. Some cultures where mouth-tattooing survives are among Ainu women of Japan; Paiwan tribal women of Taiwan; the Kondhs of Orissa, India; as well as Maori women of New Zealand.

This extraordinary sculpture was likely passed down through a matriarchal tribe. Originally attributed to the historic Shunga period, circa 300 B.C.E., but following a wood test was re-attributed to circa 2400 B.C.E. A more recent radiocarbon test (2012) suggests a more accurate date is the seventeenth century A.C.E. More science may need to be applied to unravel the correct dating, which still leaves us with mysteries of iconography and context.

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The Pleiades in Australian Aboriginal Lore: related to 7 goddesses of sakta and indus

Karatgurk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In the mythology of the Aboriginal people of south-eastern Australia, the Karatgurk were seven sisters who represented the Pleiades star cluster. According to a legend told by the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, in the Dreamtime the Karatgurk alone possessed the secret of fire. Each one carried a live coal on the end of her digging stick, allowing them to cook the yams which the dug out of the ground.

The sisters refused to share their coals with anybody, however they were ultimately tricked into giving up their secret by Crow. After burying a number of snakes in an ant mound Crow called the Karatgurk women over, telling them that he had discovered ant larvae which were tastier than yams. The women began digging, angering the snakes, which attacked. Shrieking, the sisters struck the snakes with their digging sticks, hitting them with such force that the live coals flew off. Crow, who had been waiting for this, gathered the coals up and hid them in a kangaroo skin bag. The women soon discovered the theft and chased him, but the bird simply flew out of their reach, and this fire was brought to mankind.^[1]

Afterwards, the Karatgurk sisters were swept into the sky. Their glowing fire sticks became the Pleiades star cluster.^[2]

https://www.naic.edu/~gibson/pleiades/pleiades_myth.html

DNA studies of 5 ethnic groups living in Harappan Meluhan lands today:

Ror, Jats, Gujjars, Kamboj, and Khatris

https://www.techexplorist.com/haryanas-rors-brought-western-flavor-to-indus-valley/19214/

https://drshyamalavatsa.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/are-shiva-rama-and-krishna-aryan-or-dravidian-deities/

The identification of the ‘Harappan Skeletal Deity' leads directly to the recognition of its evolution as the ‘Emaciated Ascetics' in later Indian mythology and art traditions. Some characteristic examples are considered here.

2.1 Dadhyanca's ribs

Dadhyanca (Dadhica) is mentioned as a divinity in the Rgveda and as a teacher or rshi in the later Vedic literature and the Mahābhārata.19 Two famous myths associated with him are relevant to our study:

(a) Dadhyanca's gift of his own ribs or bones to the gods for making the vajra with which Indra slew ninety-nine Vrtras.

(b) Dadhyanca getting a horse's head by the power of the Asvins. His name and his horse-head connect Dadhyanca with Dadhikra (van), the famous divine steed presented by Mitra-Varuna to the Purus. The etymology of the two names seemingly derived from dadhi ‘curds, buttermilk' has remained inexplicable.

The myths appear to have evolved from the iconography of the Harappan Skeletal Deity remembered as a religious symbol long after its linguistic context was forgotten:

(a) ‘ribs': Dadhyanca's inseperable identification with ‘ribs and bones' suggests that he had a ‘skeletal' body.

(b) ‘horse-head': This myth must have arisen when the symbol of the Harappan Skeletal Deity was later re-interpreted as a ‘horse' with a large ‘head', four ‘legs' (though the actual number varied) and a ‘raised tail'. This interpretation is seemingly plausible when the symbol is viewed in the horizontal position. It is interesting that some modern scholars studying the Indus Script have also interpreted Sign 48 as a ‘horse' (Meriggi: ‘horse'; Misra: ‘Dadhikravan').20 The Soviet scholars have also interpreted the sign as a quadruped, but as the‘buffalo'(presumably because there is no place for the ‘horse' in their theory of the Dravidian origin of the Indus Civilization!)21

(c) The reason why Dadhyanca and Dadhikravan have names apparently derived from dadhi ‘curds' may be explained on the basis of Dravidian etymology, assuming that these are loan-translations:

muci (Ta.): to grow thin, to be emaciated (DEDR 4903).

mucar, mor (Ta.): curds, buttermilk (DEDR 4902).

murutu, muruntu (Ka.): to shrink, shrivel (DEDR 4972).

morata, morana (Skt.): sour buttermilk (connected to Dr. mucar, mor in DEDR 4902).

The Dr. words for ‘emaciated' and ‘curds' were homonymous. The Skt. names Dadhyanca and Dadhikravan appear to be the result of translating the wrong homophone, and thus ‘the emaciated one' became ‘one fond of curds'!

2.2 Bhrngin, the ‘Skeleton Demon'

Among the circle of the bhutaganas attending on Śiva, Bhrngin, the ‘Skeleton Demon', considered to be a form of Andhaka, stands out. Bhrngin got a skeletal body because of Parvati's curse when he insisted on worshipping Śiva alone and not her. Several sculptural representations of Bhrngin are known, depicting him as a mere skeleton (Pl.II).22 His antiquity, identity as a bhuta and his skeletal body indicate the derivation of the myth ultimately from the Harappan Skeletal Deity.

2.3 Bhishma and his ‘bed of arrows'

The story of Bhishma, the great pitamaha of the Kurus, is too well-known to be re-told here. Three legends connected with his deathbed as narrated in the Bhishma-vadha-parvan of the Mahābhārata are relevant to the present study:23

(a) When Bhishma fell in battle, he lay on ‘a bed of arrows' without touching the earth.

If one views the symbol of the Harappan Skeletal Deity (Sign 48) in a horizontal position, it can be interpreted as a person lying on a ‘bed of arrows' without touching the earth.

(b) When Bhishma's head was hanging down, he asked Arjuna for a pillow. Thereupon Arjuna supported Bhishma's head with three arrows shot from his Gandiva.

One of the variant forms of the Harappan Skeletal Deity (Sign 48) in which three projecting lines are seen attached to the back of the head provides the pictorial basis for this myth (See the first sign in the second row in Fig.10).

(c) When Bhishma was lying on his bed of arrows, he asked for water. Arjuna shot an arrow from his Gandiva piericing the earth, and there arose a jet of pure and cold water for Bhishma to drink.

It is interesting that the nearest pictorial depiction of this legend is provided by an Egyptian ideogram (when viewed horizontally) of ‘a man receiving purification from a stream of water' (Fig. 11).24 Perhaps a similar variant form of Sign 48 exists and may still be found.

2.4 Buddha as an ‘Emaciated Ascetic'

Gautama in the course of his wanderings in search of Truth came to Uruvela and practised the severest austerities which reduced him to a mere skeleton; but, failing to attain the goal by mortification of the flesh, he decided to take nourishment just enough to sustain the body. This famous incident in the Buddha's life is splendidly portrayed in a sculpture from Gandhara dated ca. 2-3 cent. AD. (Pl. III)25 According to tradition, the skeletal figure of the Buddha is intended as a warning to others of the futility of excessive austerities. However it is possible to take a more positive view of the depiction of the Buddha as an ‘Emaciated Ascetic in penance' as worthy of adoration. This explanation accounts in a more satisfactory manner for the wide prevalence of the motif of the ‘emaciated ascetics' in BrahmĀnical and Buddhist traditions, ultimately going back to the Harappan prototype.

2.5 Karaikkal Ammaiyar, the pey

Karaikkal Ammaiyar, the earliest of the Tamil Saivaite saints (ca. 5-6 cent. AD.), chose to describe herself in her poems as the pey, which meant originally ‘the departed soul' (from Pkt. peya), but later acquired the pejorative meanings ‘demoness, she-devil'.26 True to her assumed title, she describes Śiva's dance surrounded by ghosts; she views the ghosts as ‘blessed with sympathetic and human hearts'.27 The magnificent Chola bronzes from a later period depict her literally as the pey with a skeletal body, prominent ribcage and squatting on her haunches (Pl.IV).28 The similarity between the Gandharan Buddha and the Chola bronzes of Karaikkal Ammaiyar in the treatment of the emaciated, skeletal body is striking, even though they are wide apart in space and time. This thematic unity spanning the sub-continent and between the Indo-Aryan and Dravidian traditions indicates a common inheritance going back to the Harappan times.

2.6 The Emaciated Ascetics from Harwan

Harwan, near Srinagar in the Kashmir valley, is famous as the site where Kanishka is said to have convened the Fourth Buddhist Council in the 2nd cent. AD. The chaityagrha at this site is embellished with stamped terracotta friezes in the Late Gandharan style (ca. 4-5 cent.AD.). The most prominent among them are the repetitive friezes depicting ‘emaciated ascetics' "who are lean, nude, reduced to a skeleton, shown with their bent backs, legs tucked up, hands placed on knees and with chins resting on their hands"29 (Pl. V).30 Here too, the interpretation that the figures are intended as a warning against excessive austerities is unconvincing, especially when this depiction is the dominant motif at the site. It is more likely that the figures represent the Buddha as the emaciated ascetic. The similarity between the emaciated ascetics of Harwan and the Harappan Skeletal Deity is too close to be missed.

2.7 The Emaciated Ascetics from Paharpur

The Somapura Mahāvihara at Paharpur, Bangladesh, dating from 8th cent. AD. is especially famous for the continuous friezes comprising thousands of stamped terracotta plaques adorning the exterior walls of the plinth and the lower terraces. The plaques are known for their ‘exuberant treatment' of ‘all conceivable subjects of human interest' including divine figures, both BrahmĀnical and Buddhist (many more of the former than the latter). "Ascetics as travelling mendicants, with long beards, their bodies bent and sometimes reduced to skeletons, carrying staff in hand, and their belongings such as bowls hanging from either ends of a pole carried on the shoulder, are one of the most favourite themes" depicted on the plaques.31 Here are two unmistakable motifs ultimately derived from the Harappan, of the ‘emaciated or skeletal body' (Sign 48) and the ‘yoke-bearer' (Signs 12-15). It is significant that the two Indus ideograms are found paired in the Indus Texts (Fig.12).

An extraordinary plaque from Paharpur combines both motifs in one composite figure (Pl. VI),32 reminiscent of the technique of composite signs in the Indus Script. The plaque depicts a naked ascetic reduced to a skeleton with a bent back and exaggeratedly prominent ribcage and backbone and folded legs. He is carrying a ladle in his right hand (cf. the Kalibangan seal described above). He is also carrying a yoke on his shoulders to which are tied at either end a pair of vessels with ropes.

It is possible to interpret the Paharpur plaques depicting sepearately the ‘yoke-bearer' and the ‘skeletal ascetic' in terms of the BrahmĀnical legends of Bharadvaja (lit., ‘the bearer of victuals') and Dadhica (famous for his gift of his own ribs and bones) respectively. This is indeed more likely as the Harappan symbols from which they are ultimately derived would have been long forgotten when these plaques were made. However the extraordinary combination of the two motifs in one composite figure strengthens the hypothesis that they are the survivals of the two related motifs depicted in the Indus ideograms (Nos.15 and 48).

Section III: Identification of the Harappan Skeletal Deity with Dr. *Muruku

3.1 We have so far looked at the pictorial depictions of the ‘Harappan Skeletal Deity' and the ‘Emaciated Ascetics' of the later mythology and art tradition to learn what we can about the external attributes of the deity. An attempt will be made in this section to discover the probable original name and nature of the deity by searching through the Dravidian (Dr.) etyma with the nearest meanings corresponding to the pictorial elements.33

3.2 As seen earlier, the two defining characteristics of the pictorial depictions of the Harappan deity are (a) a skeletal body, and (b) bent and contracted posture. The Dr. etyma with the nearest meanings are as follows.34

(a) ‘To be shrivelled' (DEDR 4972):

Ma. muratuka: to shrivel; muraluka: id., decay.

Ka. muratu, murutu, muruntu: shrink, shrivel.

Tu. muruntu: shrunk, shrivelled.

Nk. mural: to wither.

Kur. murdna: to be dried to excess.

(b) ‘To be contracted' (DEDR 4977):

Ta. muri: to bend; murivu: contracting, fold; muri (nimir): (to stretch by) winding limbs.

Ka. murige: bending, twisting; muruhu: a bend, curve, a crooked object;

Ka. muratu, murutu, muruntu: to be bent or drawn together, state of being contracted.(DEDR 4972).

Tu. muri: curve, twist; murige: twist.

Pa. murg: to be bent; murgal: hunchback.

Ga. murg: to bend; murgen: bent; murug: to bend down.

Go. moorga: humpbacked.

(cf: Pkt. muria: twisted; old Mar. mured: to twist.)

We may infer from the linguistic data summarised in (a) and (b) that PDr. * mur/mur-V is the primitive root from which words with the meanings ‘shrivelled' and ‘contracted' have been derived.

3.3 We may now proceed to apply the technique of rebus to try and discover the Dr. homonyms with the intended meanings.

(c) ‘Strong, fierce, wild, fighting' (DEDR 4971) :

Ta. muratu: ill-temper, wildness, rudeness; muran: fight, battle, fierceness, strength.

Ma. muran: fight, strength.

Ko. mort: violence (of action); mordn: violent man.

Tu. murle: quarrelsome man.

Te. moratu: rude man.

(d) ‘To destroy, kill' (DEDR.4975) :

Ta. murukku: to destroy, kill; murunku : to be destroyed.

Ma. muruka: to cut.

Kol., Nk. murk: to split, break.

Kui. mrupka: to kill, murder.

Kur. murukna: to mangle, mutilate.

Malt. murke: to cut into bits.

(e) ‘Ancient' (DEDR. 4969) :

Ta. murancu: to be old, ancient; muri: antiquity.

Kol., Pa. murtal: old woman.

Nk: murtal : old woman.

Go. mur-: to mature.

The two sets of etyma in (c) and (d) taken together indicate that the original name of the deity was something like * mur/mur-V and that his essential traits were those of a fierce god, destroyer or hunter.

3.4 The legends and myths surrounding the deity have become inextricably mixed up and both sets of etyma in groups (a) to (d) apply to him. In short, the deity was both ‘a departed soul or demon' as indicated by his skeletal body and contracted posture, and also ‘a fierce killer or hunter' as indicated by the Dr. etyma. Furthermore, the linguistic data in (e) can be interpreted to mean that the deity was considered to be ‘ancient' even in Harappan times.

3.5 In the concluding part of the Paper, we shall compare the traits of the Harappan Skeletal Deity as revealed by the pictorial depictions and linguistic data summarised above, with those of muruku (Murukan), the primitive god of the Tamils as recorded in the earliest layers of the Cankam poetry.35

3.6 The most striking aspect of muruku is that he had no form; he was a disembodied spirit or demon who manifested himself only by possessing his priest or a young maiden. When muruku possessed him, the priest (velan) went into a trance and performed the shamanic dance in a frenzy (veri atal). When muruku possessed the maiden (anankutal), her mother called in the priest (velan) to perform the veri dance to pacify the spirit and restore the girl to her senses.36

3.7 The second prominent trait of muruku was of a ‘wrathful killer' indicating his prowess as a war-god and hunter.37

3.8 The only physical traits which may be attributed to the primitive muruku are his red colour (cey) associated with blood and bloody sacrifices, and his spear (vel) associated with killing enemies and hunting animals. As muruku had no material body, these two physical traits are shown to belong to his priest, velan the ‘spear-bearer' who wore red clothes and offered red flowers in ritual worship involving the sacrifice of goats and fowls. There were no temples in the earliest times, and the worship was carried out in the open field (kalam) before a wooden altar.

3.9 Another very ancient aspect of the worship of Murukan, not alluded to in the Cankam poems, but strongly supported by Tamil tradition, is the ritual carrying of offerings on the kavati (yoke with the offerings tied to the ends by ropes). The Paharpur plaques noticed above may also be compared with the Tamil legends of muruku (the demon) and Itumpan, his kavati-bearing worshipper.38

3.10 Much of the later Tamil literature, and virtually all the Tamil inscriptions and iconographic motifs have been heavily influenced by the Sanskritic traditions of Skanda-Karttikeya-Kumara and have very little in common with the primitive muruku except the name Murukan.39 Even the meaning of his name has undergone a radical transformation from muruku ‘the demon or destroyer' to Murukan ‘the beautiful one', consistent with the later notion that gods must be ‘beautiful' and demons ‘ugly'. As P.L. Samy points out in his incisive study of Murukan in the Cankam works, there is no support for the later meaning in the earliest poems. He derives muruku (Murukan) and murukku ‘to destroy' from Dr. muru-, and endorses the identification of Murukan with muradeva (a class of demons) mentioned in the Rgveda, as proposed by Karmarkar.40

3.1 1 The muruku of the early Tamil society before the Age of Sanskritization was a primitive tribal god conceived as a ‘demon' who possessed people and as a ‘wrathful killer or hunter'. This characterisation of the earliest Tamil muruku is in complete accord with his descent from the Harappan Skeletal Deity with similar traits revealed through pictorial depictions, early myths and Dravidian linguistic data.

Notes and References

1. See, for example, the pictorial representations of deities and sacrificial scenes on seals, sealings and other inscribed objects. I. Mahadevan 1977 (=ISTCT), App. II: Field symbols 47-81; Pl.IV-VI: Figs. 80-116.

2. ISTCT, Sign List: Nos. 1-48 (p. 32).

3. Gardiner, Sign List: A.40 (determinative) and C.1-7 & 9-1 1: (ideograms).

4. It is interesting that Asko Parpola and his Finnish colleagues started off in 1970 with virtually the same assumptions and identified Sign 47 as ‘god' and Sign 48 as ‘Mother goddess'. Asko Parpola et al 1970: pp. 25-26. However Parpola has since changed his mind and presently identifies Sign 47 as an ‘enraged cobra with expanded hood' and Sign 48 as its ‘female gender'. Asko Parpola (1994: p.59).

5. ISTCT, Concordance, pp. 195-96. The pairing of the signs proves that they are not mere graphic variants. Either sign can function as a substantive or as an attribute. However when they occur as substantives, Sign 48 is followed by the ‘JAR' suffix (Sign 342) indicating masculine gender, and Sign 47 is followed by the ‘ARROW' suffix (Sign 211) indicating non-masculine gender. I. Mahadevan 1998.

6. Vats, vol. II (Plates): Figs. 303-613; 658-692. The votive tablets and sealings are interpreted as ‘sacrificial' by the Soviet scholars (transl. Zide & Zvelebil, pp.105-07); and as serving ‘a religious purpose' by Asko Parpola (1994: p.107).

7. ISTCT, Tables I & IV.

8. ISTCT, Concordance, pp. 197-200.

9. Joshi & Parpola (=CISI, Vol.I), No. K -102-03.

10. Sinha & Roy, p.121, Pl. XXX, No.24. A grey-coloured round terracotta seal with three Indus signs ( 47-342-176) to be read in the clock-wise direction starting from the 6 o'clock position (in the impression). This little-known seal was first identified as bearing a legend in the Indus Script by Chakraborty (p.88 & Pl. 3A). The excavators assign the seal to Period III (ca. 200 BC - 200 AD.). However it is difficult to believe that this seal (-bearing a text so similar to the Harappan that, had it been found at Harappa, it would not have attracted special attention-) can be so late. As the excavators point out, the site is a highly disturbed one, and PGW and NBP ware occur together "as the ware was re-deposited from the lower levels in the course of making the plinth of the Garh higher and erection of mud rampart" (Sinha & Roy, pp 7-8). Most probably the present seal came from the lowest level reached at this site (ca. 1100 BC).

11. Lal, Pl. XXXI B-1(Megalithic) symbol No.47. The symbol also occurs in Pl. IIIA-1,3 and Pl. XXX B-1. See especially Lal's photographic comparison of the Indus sign and the Megalithic symbol (Pl. XXXI B). He remarks: "In the case of Sanur (rare examples elsewhere also) three symbols occur in such close proximity to one another as to give the impression of a record. It may however be added that the three symbols interchange their positions on different pots producing all possible combinations" (Ibid. p.23). The graffiti-bearing Megalithic pottery found in Tamilnadu is assigned to ca. the second half of the First Millennium BC.

12. Gardiner, Sign List: F. 38-40.

13. CISI, Vol.I, No. K-104

14. CISI, Vol.I, No. K-48.

15. The details are clearly visible in the highly enlarged photograph of the seal published in Swami Oamanda Saraswati 1975, Pl. 275.

16. For illustrated Lists of variants of Sign 48, see ISTCT, p. 785, No.48; Asko Parpola 1994, p.71, No.87.

17. It has been suggested that Ta. pey is from Pkt. peya < Skt. preta. Filliozat 1982: p.10. Notwithstanding the weighty authority of DEDR (Entry 4438), I agree with Filliozat.

18. Ardeleanu -Jansen, pp. 139-57, Figs. 16-35.

19. The Vedic myths relating to Dadhyanca and Dadhikravan are summarised in Macdonell, pp.141-42 and 148-49. For references to Dadhica (Dadhici) in the Mahābhārata, see Sorensen, p.225.

20. Meriggi, pp. 198-241. Mishra, pp. 78-81.

21. Knorozov et al, Index of Signs, No.48 (pp. 84, 100).

22. Ellora, Cave 14.

23. Sorensen, p.147.

24. Gardiner, Sign List: A-6. Wallis Budge, Sign List: 1.101-104.

25. Debala Mitra, Pl.5.

26. Karaikkal Ammaiyar, Arputa-t-tiruvantati 101. Filliozat, pp. 10-11.

27. Karaikkal Ammaiyar, Tiruvalankattu mutta tiruppatikam.

28. Bronze of Karaikkal Ammaiyar (Chola Period) at Bhava Aushadhisvara temple in Tirutturaippundi (Thanjavur Dt.).

29. S.L. Shali, pp. 133-34.

30. Emaciated Ascetic, stamped terracotta tile, 4-5 cent. AD. Harwan. (Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay). A similar frieze from this site in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK, (Mus. Acc.No.1980-65) depicts additionally the ribs. See also Debala Mitra, Pl. 85.

31. K.N. Dikshit, p.66; Pl. XXVI (b): (yoke-bearer); Pl. XLVIII(e) : (Emaciated Ascetic).

32. Ibid Pl. XXVI (a). The photograph published in the book is not clear. Pl. VI illustrating the present Paper is from a much better photograph (ASI. 16/64) in the Photo Archives of the Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi.

33. The basic premise is that the Indus Texts are in a Dravidian language. The arguments in favour of the Dravidian character of the Indus Valley Civilization are presented in Parpola 1994, pp. 160-75.

34. The Dravidian linguistic data is taken from Burrow & Emeneau, A Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, 1984 (=DEDR). Names of Dr. languages are abbreviated as in DEDR.

35. The earliest layer of the Tamil Cankam poetry comprises the Ettuttokai (Eight Collections) and Pattuppattu (Ten Idylls) excluding Tirumurukarruppatai and Paripatal which are considered to be relatively later works. For analysis of the earliest references to Murukan in the Cankam literature, see P.L. Samy. For an overall view of Tamil Traditions on Subrahmanya-Murukan, see Kamil Zvelebil 1981 & 1991.

36. Akam. 22, 98, 138, 139 etc.

37. Akam. 59, 158, 266; Puram. 14, 16; Narrinai. 225 etc.

38. See Asko Parpola 1981 & 1997 for the connection between the Indus sign ‘yoke- carrier', kavati traditions in North India as reflected in Indo-Aryan languages and kavati worship in Tamilnadu.

39. The earliest epigraphic reference to Murukan in Tamilnadu is found in the Tiruttani (Velancheri) Plates of Pallava Aparajitavarman (ca. 900AD); R. Nagaswamy. Sculptures of Murukan begin to appear only from the Pallava-Early Pandya Period (from ca. 7-8 cent. AD). For a comprehensive treatment of the iconography of Murukan in Tamilnadu, see L'Hernault.

40. P.L. Samy, pp. 9-16, 96. A.P. Karmarkar, p.128. it is significant that the name mura in the RV is derived by Sayana from the root with the meaning marana ‘killing'.

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This article first appeared in the March 1999 issue of The Journal of the Institute of Asian Studies.

Iravatham Mahadevan, I.A.S. (Ret'd) joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1954 and took voluntary retirement in 1980 to devote himself exclusively to academic pursuits. Among his contributions to Indian epigraphy, especially in the fields of the Indus and Brahmi scripts, his book The Thdus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables (1977) is recognised as a source-book for research in the Indus script. His most recent book is Early Tamil Paleography .

"Deciphering the Indus Script" (book review) by Richard Solomon

"Indus Graffiti as Rock Art and their Astronomical Implications"

Index of research articles on Skanda-Murukan