History of Tamil people...
PART-5
Sumerian texts repeatedly refer to three important centers with which they traded: Magan, Dilmun, and Meluhha. A number of scholars suggest that Meluhha was the Sumerian name for the Indus Valley Civilization. Finnish scholars Asko and Simo Parpola identify Meluhha (earlier variant Me-lah-ha) from earlier Sumerian documents with Dravidian mel akam "high abode" or "high country". Many items of trade such as wood, minerals, and gemstones were indeed extracted from the hilly regions near the Indus settlements.Further number of Indus Valley seals have also found at Ur and other Mesopotamian sites,which confirm above proposal.Further Earlier texts (2200 BC) seem to indicate that Meluhha is to the east, suggesting either the Indus valley or India.Also the presence of Mesopotamian artifacts in Indus Valley civilization , tell us that Mesopotamia is at least as old as its trading partner, if not older.Further the location of Dilmun also is in dispute among scholars.Samuel Noah Kramer, as in his book The Sumerians, have placed it again in the Indus River Valley based on the references that it was located where the sun rises, that is towards the east of Sumer.This theory is based largely on the Sumerian Deluge myth which states that the Sumerian Noah was given immortality and transplanted to the "mouth of the rivers" and to "the place where the sun rises." Also Tilmun [Dilmun ] is a compound of two different words - ‘til ‘and ‘mun’ both of which are attested in Tamil to this day.“til” occurs as such in Sangam classics but in the fused expression ‘vazka til’ where the meaning ‘vaaz’ (to live well) may also be meaning of ‘til’. This word occurs now as ‘tin’ (to eat), ‘tiini’ (food or what is eaten). Thus ‘vaazka til/tin’ can be taken to mean “live healthily (with good intake of food). The ‘mun’ is an adverb of place meaning ‘in front’ and which is also an adverb of time meaning ‘earlier’. Thus ‘til-mun’ collectively can be taken as the ‘earlier place of sustenance or living’. Thus in meaning it may be roughly the same as present day ‘taai naadu’, the mother country, and the place of origins. Now if the Sumerians are taken to have come from the Indus Valley, then it can be, as claimed by Kramer and Winters, that the Sumerians called Harappa as Tilmun in memory of their place of origins.Further the archaeological evidence suggest that the Indus Valley which was settled by Dravidian speakers was the source of the lapis lazuli , which made Dilmun famous,Not only that Archaeological research also confirmed that cultural interaction existed between the contemporary civilizations of the 4th and 3rd millenia B.C.
There are eleven occurrences of the term: meluhha in Sumerian texts.One such sample is given below:
"Let the land of Meluha, Magan, and Dilmun look upon me. Let the boats that trade with Dilmun be loaded with timber. Let the boats that trade with Magan be loaded sky high. Let the magilum [ma-gi-lum] boats that trade with Meluha, transport gold and silver and bring them to Nibru for Enlil, king of all lands."[Enki and the world order 123-130 ]
"The Sumerians" by C. Leonard Woolley says the last people who came (at that time) to settle in Mesopotamia after a rich delta formed were the sumerians and they were a dark-haired people speaking an agglutinative [To form (words) by combining words or words and word elements.]language somewhat resembling ancient Turkish (Turanian) in its formation though not in its etymology[the study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history.];Encyclopaedia Britannica World Languages Dictionary [1963, Vol.1, p. 384] defines DRAVIDIAN as follows:"ONE BELONGING TO THE MOST ANCIENT INDIGENOUS RACE OF SOUTHERN INDIA. A NON-INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY OF AGGLUTINATIVE LANGUAGES SPOKEN PRIMARILY IN SOUTHERN INDIA AND NORTHERN CEYLON, INCLUDING TAMIL, MALAYALAM, KANARESE, AND TELUGU".Initially historians could not decipher this writing system.It was first believed the language was invented and used for an unknown tongue.Finally excavators and historians confirmed the existence of a civilisation and language called Sumerian.
The earliest Tamil sangam used primitive Tamil.These Tamil Sangams were asssemblies of Tamil scholars and poets. Researchers now believe Sumerian is nothing but the Archaic Tamil of the first Sangam and Sumerian is called by these pundits as SumeroTamil..J.V.Kinnier Wilson(1986) claimed that the Harappans and Sumerians were in fact the same people, that the Sumerians were in fact INDO-SUMERIANS,a small group of people who probably separated from the parent stock, the Harappans, settled in Sumeria and began to develop independently.
Father Gnana prakasar believes that there was a great similarity between old sumerian & tamil[dravidian] languages spoken in India.A S Thiyagaraja & Dr K Looganathan pointed out such similarities.Ramaswami Aiyar even has published a list of geographical names sharing the same relationship..Now I am giving below such 15 selected words.
Meaning\Lang: Sumerian Dravidian
Tie/bind KAD KATTU
house/family GUD GUDI/KUTI
mother ama ama
house bitu vidu
five ia ei
theland /place kalam kalam
sheep udu adu
city ur ur
love ‘‘m anbu
love aka akam
to grind ara arai
boat kalam kalam
quay kar-ra karai
to make, do ag, ak aakku
what a-na enna
Malaysian professor, Dr. K. Loganathan, who believes that Sumerian was an ancient form of Tamil, the most widely used language in present-day south India.ie the Sumerians and Dravidians (non-Aryan Indians) once had a common ancestor Amala Singh & few others too pointed out some similarities.However S. N. Kramer said:"Sumerian resembles very much such agglutinative languages as Turkish, Hungarian, and some of the Caucasian languages. In vocabulary ,grammar, and syntax, however, Sumerian still stands alone and seems to be unrelated to any other language, living or dead."Dr Ashok malhotra posted "It is of considerable interest to trace where the ancient Sumerians emerged from because of their primary contribution to human civilization. It was suggested that Sumerians appeared in Southern Mesopotamia around five and half thousand years ago carrying with them the seeds of civilization. It was also suggested that they migrated from the west coast of India.Clyde A. Winters wrote::A genealogical relationship exist between the Black African, Dravidian, Elamite and Sumerian .Dr David Neiman [David Neiman (1921–2004) was a Rabbi, archaeologist,and renowned scholar in the fields of Biblical Studies, Jewish History,]claims "Sumerians came from Karakoram Mountains"Also note that The Karakoram pass was also an important caravan route between China and India and Pakistan. Legend has it that Buddhism left India for China via this route.As all of us know,The Indus civilization cities were linked by the Indus river. This Indus River flows south from Karakoram and Himalayan Mountains through present-day Kashmir and Pakistan to the Indian Ocean. Hence,There are two further lines of investigation one may adopt to confirm these above hypothesis.The first is to investigate fully whether any groups in India[TAMIL] with a similar language and the second is to carry out a physical examination of the Sumerian skeletons as available at the present time to detect racial similarities with the said group...
Saiva Siddhantam[சைவ சித்தாந்தம்], is the religion and philosophy of the Tamil people. Dr. Pope says : "Saivism is the old pre-historic religion of South India, essentially existing from pre-Aryan times, and holds sway over the hearts of the Tamil people." One of the Sumerian texts,is that of EnHudu Anna, the eldest daughter of Sargon the Great ( 2200 B.C.) and also the head of a Temple, transliterated and translated by Hallo and Van Dijk ,"The Sumerian Temple Hymns," and hymns to the god Inanna, "nin-me-sara,",which is popularly known as 'The Exaltation of Inanna'[may called "Sirbiyam"] The Sumerian "In-Anna" is believed to be the godess Korravai[Kali] by Dr K.Loganathan, Universiti Sains Malaysia(retd), Penang Malaysia,who claim Sumerian is Tamil of the first Sangam along with other team of researchers.Further Scholars explain that KoRRavai is an independent deity,later merged/married to Shiva. While the Vedic lacks the concept of the "Great Goddess", indus valley civilization and later Hinduism has the Great Goddess.Also Parpola in his book has a chapter on Durga and her relation to Mesopotamian goddess - Inana/Ishtar.Here,in 'The Exaltation of Inanna', we find "The Sakti as Light" & also the exordium begins with these arresting lines the substance of which is still retained as part of Saiva metaphysical thinking.I am giving below the details of the first songs[first 8 lines].
"Lady of all the divine powers, resplendent light, righteous woman clothed in radiance, beloved of An and Urac! Mistress of heaven, with the great pectoral jewels, who loves the good headdress befitting the office of en priestess, who has seized all seven of its divine powers! My lady, you are the guardian of the great divine powers! You have taken up the divine powers, you have hung the divine powers from your hand. You have gathered up the divine powers, you have clasped the divine powers to your breast."
The worship of Mother Goddess is very ancient not only among the Dravidians but also many people in the world and continues to this day despite many attempts by some of later religions to wipe it out and along with that the place of leadership of women in religious culture.As we have pointed out above, Exaltations of Inanna of Ehudu anna, a woman head priestess of a Temple, begins with these arresting lines:
1. nin-me-sar-ra ( Lady of al the me's) u-dalle-ea (resplendent light)
நின் மெய் சர்வ உள் தெள்ளிய
2. mi-zi (righteous woman) me-lam gu-ru Clothed in radiance) ki-aga-an-uras-a ( beloved of Heaven and Earth)
மை-சீ மேலம் கூறு காங்க வான் ஊரஸ்ய
The "nin" here which also means 'sister" is to be derived from Tamil. nim, niv(ar) nil etc. and simply means something tall and high and hence lofty. The Sumerian. me corresponds to both Tamil. mey ( truth) as well as Tamil. mey, moy meaning power or strength. The sar-ra is better retained in sanskrit as sarva ( but note the adjectival formant, -a) and perhaps linked with Tamil. aayiram.
But what is unmistakable is u dalla-e-a which is certainly Tamil. uL teLLiya, radiant Light . Thus we have in the first line itself the Woman who is the Holder of all powers ( mey, moy) also discloses Herself as Pure Light , a notion that is still retained to this day where the WOMAN is described as paraaparai : Transcendent Light.
The description "clothed in radiance" ( me-lam gu-ru: meeLam kuuRu) is also significant for it has been noted by mystics all over the world. However while they may NOT describe it as WOMAN the the Saivites do as they do not any contempt for the Feminine. They see that BEING Himself the Female ( பெண் ஆண் என நின்ற பெம்மான்,பெண்சுமந்த பாகத்தான், பெம்மான் பெருந்துறையான்....
The lizard- carvings are found on the ceiling of the main sanctum of Gobekli Tepe temple Situated at the northwest edge of Mesopotamia in Southeastern Turkey, it makes us wonder whether there was an ancient practice of carving lizards in temples. Lizards are a common feature in day today life of the Tamils and all Indian people. It is an important tool of omen in knowing the future. There is a branch of knowledge that deals with the omens connected with the sound that lizards make and the results that can be expected if a lizard happens to fall on a person. A Tamil Sangam poem tells about such an omen. By all this it is surmised that presence of lizards in a temple was considered as a necessary one, because the sounds that lizards make or omens they show by falling on a person could have been welcomed as a means of knowing whether the prayer that a worshiper is making in the temple will be fulfilled or not.It is amazing that a few of the omens that we have in our Tamil culture comes to us from Sangam times, unchanged. We see the lizard omens in the Sangam poems.One such poem is Akananuru 289,which mentioned about lizard omens as below:
"....................................................confused, her
strength lost, and whenever she hears the clucks
of a lizard with a gaping mouth, she prays for it to
spell a good omen, as she trembles and struggles
in the painful, dull evenings."
The importance for lizard had not only travelled from India to Sumeria or vice versa ,What is of importance to us is that the lizard culture was a Tamil and Vedic culture. If only it had developed in the Indian ocean dwellings before 10,000 years,it is possible for it to have travelled to Sumeria as Gobekli Tepe is nearly 10,000 years old.
With the discovery of Sumerian as Archaic[very old ] Tamil and the study of the large number of literary texts already made available by the archaeologists, we can see Agamic[Some popular agama-based religions are those of Shaiva, Vaishnava, etc] Hinduism with its worship of Siva Tirumaal Ambal Muruka and so forth as ALREADY present in a matured form in Sumeria, ancient Iraq of more than four thousand years ago, which was also a TEMPLE centered culture. Thus Agamic Hinduism goes to the beginnings of civilization itself.in 'The Exaltation of Inanna', we find "The Sakti as Light" & also we pointed out earlier that the exordium begins with arresting 8 lines, the substance of which is still retained as part of Saiva metaphysical thinking.
Now to this list we can also add Sulgi’s Mutariibiyam - more popularly known Hymn B as pointed out by Dr K. Loganathan. For we have here the mention of not only Siva but also the first expression of essence of Tamil Culture - that one must live in truth and nothing else.
73-74 : sipa ildum-ma-bi su-bi hu-mu-dug, u me-da u-ul-li-a-se
Tamil: Siva ezutummabi suurbi emmu tuukk.u uNmeyodu uu uuzi-a see :
Towards Siva who has brought into presence all, I raise my hands[and worshiping deities] so that I can live in TRUTH till the end of the whole world.
Thus we can see that there was already a LINK between the worship of Siva (sipa) and living in TRUTH , something that even Sambantar recalls in his Hymn as follows:
"Besides that act of grace one who founded the Caṅkam in beautiful and cool maturai for those people who are not clear about the superiority of Civaṉ to be clear in their minds about that fact.if we think of the fact that the palm leaf in which the verse was written, thrown into the clear water went up-stream safely without being washed away by the water, and reached the bank.is not the god who held aloft a bull in his flag, a great god? "[Third Thirumurai /054/11]
Siva who rescued from death all the celestial beings from the most potent poison by swallowing it and keeping it in His throat, also disclosed Himself as the essence of the various compendiums of the Tamil poems developed in Madurai and as part of the Academies that flourished there and the President of which was Siva Himself. Now while textual productions of the those ignorant of BEING disappeared in the floods, the Tamil texts survived swimming across the tides and thus standing as deathless. We should understand that Tamil survives perhaps because Siva who rides the Bull of Infinite Fertility patronizes it.
The Tamil language and culture survives only because as a whole it is organized as for TRUTH and hence Saivism as its foundation.Saivism has been a religion of Natural Metaphysics where truth seeking was enshrined as its central dynamics and with it producing individuals who are Mey Kandaan[மெய் கண்டான்], those who have witnessed TRUTH.In general, Agamas are the texts explaining the TRUTH, came from the TRUTH, thus they themselves are the embodiment of the TRUTH.
As every one knows,Nandi,the Bull appears as the primary vehicle and the principal gana (attendants of Shiva/follower) of Shiva,The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh even depicts the killing by Gilgamesh and Enkidu of the Bull of Heaven, Gugalana ,a Sumerian deity["The Great Bull of Heaven" < Sumerian gu "bull", gal "great", an "heaven", -a "of"), first husband of the Goddess Ereshkigal.Bulls also appear on the Indus Valley seals from Pakistan as well,which had trade connection with Sumeria.
As we have pointed out above,Sumerian culture has a lot of similarities with Tamil/Indian culture. No one can dismiss them as sheer coincidences.Clay tablets from the 13th century BC unearthed at Ugarit[an ancient port city/உகரிட்—பூர்வ நகரம்] give some more interesting information about a king.His name is Keret . The king lost his brothers and seven wives but had no heir. Praying for a son, he was advised in a dream by their chief god El,the father of mankind and all creatures to sacrifice to Baal[a fertility deity and one of the most important gods in the pantheon] then march with his army to Udumu to ask for it’s king’s daughter Hurriya as his wife. On the way he VOWED TO GIVE TWICE HER WEIGHT IN SILVER AND THRICE HER WEIGHT IN GOLD TO THE GODDESS ATHIRAT (a mother goddess ) of Tyre, if he were successful. When he got her, he did not fulfil his vow to the god Athirat. The god struck him with an illness. This story of Keret was published in the Dictionary of the Ancient Near East.
The similar reference to a Tulabharam[ துலாபாரம், one's own weight in gold, presented an atonement for sin; a deed of merit] also comes from sangam poem:Kurunthokai 292. story is as follows: Nannan was a king who ruled part of Kerala called Poozi Nadu. A mango fell from one of the trees in his garden and it was washed away in the water of a canal.A little girl in his town sees a fruit & took with her.The servants reported this ‘theft’. Immediately Nannan ordered to kill the girl for theft. The whole town rose against him. The girl’s father with the support of of the town met the king and begged to release his daughter. He even came forward to give Nannan 81 elephants as a penalty. Nannan did not budge.Finally her father told him that that he WOULD GIVE GOLD MEASURE FOR MEASURE. But evil Nannan executed the girl refusing to accept the gold. One of the great poets of Tamil Cankam (Tamil Academy) Paranar gave this story in Kurunthokai poem[குறுந்தொகை] 292.
"Mother who does not sleep since he came as a guest
with a smiling face,is like Nannan, who killed
a bright-browed young girl who ate the fresh fruit that
the stream water brought,refusing an offer of eighty-
one elephants and a gold statue equal to her weight.
May she suffer in eternal hell!"
The corpus of Sumerian literature is enormous and stretches a period of three thousand years ( 4000 B.C to 1000 B.C) of which the classical period is said to be 3000 B.C to 2000 B.C. the time during which some of the great texts such as Epic of Gilgamesh[ 2000-1400 BC] & Epic of Keret[1500 – 1200 BC],of outstanding merits were composed. ....
WILL FOLLOW... PART-6
யாழறிவன்... Yalarivan Jackson Jackie
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