Origins of Tamils?[Where are Tamil people from?] - PART :54

Compiled by: Kandiah Thillaivinayagalingam]

Dr Clyde Winters[Ph.D Uthman dan Fodio  Institute, Chicago, IL 60643] in his article "Dravidian is the language of the Indus writing",published in CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 103, NO. 10, 25 NOVEMBER 2012 had mentioned the followings:1]Total about 3000 seal inscriptions have been unearthed from the Mohenjodaro and Harappan sites.2]The writing indicates that this population was literate and spoke a Dravidian language.This Indus Valley inscriptions were written in Tamil.It was a syllabic writing system related to linear Elamite writing and Proto-Sumerian seals The Indus Valley writing was probably not used to write the Indo-Aryan language because the Aryan speakers did not arrive in India until after 1600 BC3]The Harappans believed that man must do good and live a benevolent life so that he could obtain ‘pukal’ [fame/புகழ் ), for his right doing(s).Through the adoption of benevolence an individual would obtain the reward of gaining the good things of life in the present world – and the world beyond. In general, the Harappan seals indicate that the Harappans sought righteousness and a spotlessly pure mind.Purity of mind was the ‘sine qua non’,for happiness ‘within’.4] In South India, the Dravidians continued to use the Indus Valley writing which they called Tamili to inscribe pottery,write on leaves and in caves 5]The Tamili inscriptions are from an earlier period than Brahmi writing

 [a hand-held axe with the Indus script on it at Mayiladuthurai]

The discovery of a Neolithic stone celt,a hand-held axe,with the Indus script on it at Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu and more than ten burial urns of Megalithic period also found in Tamil nadu with graffiti marks on them & These scripts look similar to that of the Indus Valley script.All of this confirms that the Neolithic people of Tamil Nadu shared the same language family of the Harappan group,which can only be Dravidian.

Also the high level of Indus valley civilization strongly indicates that its inhabitants must have had some form of medical discipline'their sophisticated water drainage system and communal baths indicate their awareness of hygiene.However we do not know about the medical systems of the indus valley civilization.On the other hand,we do know that the aryans were highly religious.Their religious symbols and practices became formalized as Hinduism,which also incorporated certain practices of the Indus valley,as for example,a sense of hygiene.

  [A Tamil-Brahmi inscribed potsherd/burial urn]

As the Sumerians settled in the valleys between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers,a land known as Mesopotamia,the area known today as Kuwait and Iraq,The Indus Valley people too settled in the flood plain of the Indus and Hakra rivers,in the area that is now Pakistan,part of Afghanistan and Northern India The two most important cities were Mojeno-doro and Harappa.It is now understood that the Sumerian and Harappan economies developed along similar lines,and have comparable religious and social structures.Nevertheless the Mesopotamians stayed in existence for hundreds of years compared to the Indus Valley tribe who died out rather rapidly.Also if Homo Sapiens left the East Coast of Africa 75,000 years ago,they would have also had to travel through Mesopotamia first.The civilizations in  Mesopotamia was Recognisable since 5000 BC,though the written records exist only from 3300 BC and this great civilisation fell around 2000 BC.The Indus Valley Civilization(IVC) probably around in 3300 BC[Farmers build villages in the indus valley] & Between 1900 and 1700 BC,this great civilisation started to fall apart.Some of the Indus valley objects were later found in Mesopotamia..Also,preliminary study of tooth enamel from individuals buried at Harappa and at the Royal Cemetery of Ur,indicates that it should be feasible to identify Harappans  in Mesopotamia.This also confirmed by above shown Shu-ilishu’s cylinder seal,which referring to the personal translator of the ancient Indus or Meluhan language, Shu-ilishu,who lived around 2020 BC during the late Akkadian period.Here Meluhhan carried an antelope on his hands.Also Based on cuneiform documents from Mesopotamia we know that there was at least one Meluhhan village in Akkad at that time,with people called “Son of Meluhha” living there.

Further, Sumerian texts repeatedly refer to three important centers with

[Mesopotamia's Shu-ilishu’s cylinder seal ]which they traded:Magan,Dilmun,and Meluhha.There are scholars today who confidently identify Meluhha with the Harappan Civilization on the basis of the extensive evidence of trading contacts between Sumer and this region.Also 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".Earlier texts (2200 BC) seem to indicate that Meluhha is to the east,suggesting either the Indus valley or India.There seemed to be some connection between the two cultures.Research scholars found that the Harappan inscriptions

[South Arcot:"The script found in a cave,away from the temple,resemble Indus script,'' according to Dr. R. Madhivanan, Chief Editor of Tamil Etymological Projects.]

were ancient Tamil.For example:Prof Ra. Mathivanan,a research scholar,has determined that letters found in the Harappa inscriptions were ancient Tamil.The pictographic writing found under a painting on a rock formation in the South Arcot[ஆற்காடு,வேலூர்] district of Tamil Nadu was the same as that found in the Indus Valley.A brick found during excavations in the Karunool[KURNOOL] district of Andrapradesh [ஆந்திரப் பிரதேசம்] has inscriptions in Indus Valley letters.A seal found during excavations in Anaicoddai [அனைக்கோட்டை] in Srilanka contained both Indus Valley letters and brahmic[பிராமி] script.All these have been translated into modern day Tamil.All these confirm this connections.Sesame oil was probably imported from the Indus valley into Sumer.The Sumerian word for this oil is illu(Akkadian: ellu).In Dravidian languages of South India el or ellu stands for sesame.There is extensive presence of Harappan seals and cubical weight measures in Mesopotamian urban sites too.

PART :55 WILL FOLLOW