Mleccha, linguistic area; Meluhha -- Locus and interaction areas (Meluhha corpora update Oct. 6, 2011)
24 views
Skip to first unread message
S. Kalyanaraman
Oct 6, 2011, 7:45:33 AM10/6/11
to
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2011/10/road-to-meluhha-dt-potts-1982.html
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2011
Mleccha, linguistic area; Meluhha -- Locus and interaction areas
This is an update to Meluhha Corpora (October 6, 2011)
Mleccha, linguistic area (Excerpts from: H.W. Bailey)
In the Annexe to John Hansman's 'Periplus' H.W. Bailey discusses three terms from the perspective of a linguistic area: mleccha-, baloc, and Gadrosia. (Bailey,1973 in: John Hansman, A Periplus of Magan and Meluhha, 1973, pp. 584-6).
A. mleccha-; verbal mlecchati, mliṣṭa-, mlecchita-
1.1. Earliest reference is in the later Veda, śatapathabrāhmaṇa, 3.2.1.24: the noun mleccha-, used of Asura celestial beings who speak imprecise language whether ill-pronounced or foreign. The word helayo, variant hailo, is quoted. No vocalization is given for this mythic allusion.
2. Epic usage. Mahābhārata contrasts mleccha- with the ārya- and has the mleccha-bhāṣā, 'Mleccha language', and mleccha-vāk 'using Mleccha speech'. The Dharmasūtra text Manu-smṛti, 2.23, has the mleccha-deśa- 'Mleccha country' as unfit for Brahmanical sacrifices.
2. 1. The Mahābhārata places Mleccha loosely in east, north, and west. The Rāmāyaṇa has Mleccha for the Matsya people of Rajputana (see S. Levi, Journal Asiatique, XIe Ser., XI, 1, 1918, 123).
2. Varāhamihira, c. 550 CE, placed the Mleccha in the upara- region, the western. His upara-region refers to the peoples beyond the Sindhu, Indus, for whom Mahābhārata had the epithet pāre-sindhavah 'beyond the Sindhu'. Varāhamihira has peoples reaching from Vokkāṇa- 'Wakhān', through Pancanada- 'Panjab', to the Pārata-, Pārada-, which is the Greek
'Parada-' placed by Ptolemy in Gedrosia. These Pārada- are named in the Paikuli inscription of the Sasanians and in the inscription of Shāpuhr I, Parthian text, line 2, in the list krmn skstn twgrn mkwrn p'rtn hndstn 'Kirmān, Sakastān, Tugrān, Pārtan, Hindastān. This position excludes Levi's proposal of the Panjab for the Pārata-.
These Indian localizations give only 'beyond the Indus'.
3. Linguistic evidence
1. (a) Later Veda, mleccha- and verbal mlecchati, with participle in the Scholiast to Pāṇini mliṣṭa-;mlecchita- is also cited. Patanjali has the infinitive mlecchitavai.
(b) Pali, in the oldest texts, Dīgha-nikāya and Vinaya, milakkhu-, milakkhuka-, milakkha-, milakkha-bhāsā, and later milāca-.
(c) Jaina older Ardha-māgadhī, milakkha- (with Vokkāṇa- and yavana- (Wakhān' and 'Greek'),milakkhu-, milikkhu-, mileccha-, and Māhārāṣṭrī miliṭṭha- 'speaking indistinctly'.
(d) Buddhist Sanskrit mlecha-, whence Saka Khotan mīlaicha-.
(e) New Indo-Aryan in R.L. Turner, Comparative dictionary, no. 10398, Kāśmīrī mīch (with -ch from older -cch-, not -kṣ-); Bengali mech of a Tibeto-Burmese tribe, Sinhalese milidu, milindu 'savage',milis, maladu, Panjābī milech, malech.
The Pali -kkh- was explained as secondary to -cch- by J. Wackernage, Altindische Grammatik, 1, 154; but was unexplained according to Turner, loc. cit.
2. The starting-point of the interpretation should be a form *mlekṣa-, mlikṣ-. Within the Veda there is a variation between -cch- (-ch-) and -kṣ- as in Atharva-veda ṛccharā- besides śukla-yajur-veda, Vājasneyi-samhitā ṛkśalā- 'fetter',and within the Atharva-veda in parikṣit- and variant paricchit- 'surrounding'. Hence śatapathabrāhmaṇa mleccha- may be traced to older *mlekṣa-. The kṣ was replaced by -kkh- or by retroflex -ch- or by palatalized -cch- in different dialects. Within the Veda there was also variation kśā-, kṣā-, and khyā- from kaś-, corresponding to Avestan xsā- from kas-'to look at'.
If the oldest form had then *mlekṣa-, this -kṣ- could be accepted as a substitute for a foreign velar fricative
(the sound expressed in Arabic script by خ kh).
If the word *mlekṣ- was a foreign name, it was adapted to the usual Vedic verbal system, giving participle mliṣṭa- in the grammarians, supported by the Jaina Māhārāṣṭrī miliṭṭha-.
The vowel -e- of mleccha- was thus adapted into the ablaut system -e-: -i-.
For recent comments on mleccha, see Wackernage, Altindische Grammatik. Introduction generale. Nouvelle edition...par Louis Renou, 1957, 73; M. Mayrhofer, Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Worterbuch des Altindischen, 699, mleccha.
Sotka (Sokhta) Koh, Meluhha. On this map, Sokhta-koh is shown as a site in Meluhha. The coastal Harappan site at Sotka (Sokhta) Koh, 'burnt hill' was first surveyed by an American archaeologist George F Dales in 1960, while exploring estuaries along the Makran coast, Balochistan, Pakistan. The site is located about 15 miles north of Pasni. A similar site at Sutkagen-dor lies about 30 miles inland, astride Dasht River, north of Jiwani. Their position along a coastline (that was possibly much farther inland) goes well with evidence of overseas commerce in Harappan times. Based on pottery styles, it is estimated that the settlement belongs to the Mature Harappan (Integration) Era (2600-1900 BCE).
Sokhta Koh, Meluhha as a trading outpost. Chris J D Kostman in his paper, The Indus Valley Civilization: In Search of Those Elusive Centers and Peripheries, discusses: "A primary, if not the primary, rationale for long-range trade driving force would be a need for 'luxury goods,' raw materials, and other items not found in the riverine alluvial plain which made up the vast majority of the Indus Civilization. In the Indus Valley, sought-after materials included copper, gold, silver, tin, jasper and agate cherts, carnelian, azurite, lapis, fine shell, steatite, antimony, and ivory. Forays would have been made towards and beyond the civilization's peripheral areas to obtain these goods. At the minimum, then, there is an economic motive for inter-regional travel. Silvio Durante's study (1979) of marine shells from India and their appearance in the archaeological record in such distant sites as Tepe Yahya and Shahr-i-Sokhta in Iran, as well as in the Indus Valley, sheds light on the ancient trading routes of certain types of shells which are specifically and exclusively found along the Indian coastline proper. Durante primarily discusses the marine shell Xancus pyrum and the fact that it was traded whole and intact, then worked or reworked (into jewellry? sic) at its destination site, perhaps then moving on to other locations. The importance of this specific shell is that Xancus pyrum has a very limited geographic distribution and thus has almost the same significance in the field of shells as that of lapis lazuli in the context of mineral resources (as regards the determination of the possible routes along which a locally unavailable raw material is transported from a well-defined place of origin to the place where it is processed and, as also in the case of Xancus pyrum, consumed). Perhaps, as these shells crossed so many cultural hands, they were left unworked in order for the final owner or consumer to work the raw material into a style and usage specific to their region. Durante offers four possible trade routes from their gathering zone along the west and northwest Indian coast to destinations west: sea route direct to the Iranian coastal area; sea route to Sutkagen-dor and Sotka-koh on the Makran coast, then overland westwards; overland through the Indus plain and then through the Makran interior to Sistan; overland through the Indus Valley and then through the Gomal Valley to Sistan."
Periplus of Magan and Meluhha -- John Hansman (1973)
Mleccha, linguistic area (Excerpts from: H.W. Bailey)
In the Annexe to John Hansman's 'Periplus' H.W. Bailey discusses three terms from the perspective of a linguistic area: mleccha-, baloc, and Gadrosia. (Bailey,1973 in: John Hansman, A Periplus of Magan and Meluhha, 1973, pp. 584-6).
A. mleccha-; verbal mlecchati, mliṣṭa-, mlecchita-
1.1. Earliest reference is in the later Veda, śatapathabrāhmaṇa, 3.2.1.24: the noun mleccha-, used of Asura celestial beings who speak imprecise language whether ill-pronounced or foreign. The word helayo, variant hailo, is quoted. No vocalization is given for this mythic allusion.
2. Epic usage. Mahābhārata contrasts mleccha- with the ārya- and has the mleccha-bhāṣā, 'Mleccha language', and mleccha-vāk 'using Mleccha speech'. The Dharmasūtra text Manu-smṛti, 2.23, has the mleccha-deśa- 'Mleccha country' as unfit for Brahmanical sacrifices.
2. 1. The Mahābhārata places Mleccha loosely in east, north, and west. The Rāmāyaṇa has Mleccha for the Matsya people of Rajputana (see S. Levi, Journal Asiatique, XIe Ser., XI, 1, 1918, 123).
2. Varāhamihira, c. 550 CE, placed the Mleccha in the upara- region, the western. His upara-region refers to the peoples beyond the Sindhu, Indus, for whom Mahābhārata had the epithet pāre-sindhavah 'beyond the Sindhu'. Varāhamihira has peoples reaching from Vokkāṇa- 'Wakhān', through Pancanada- 'Panjab', to the Pārata-, Pārada-, which is the Greek
These Indian localizations give only 'beyond the Indus'.
3. Linguistic evidence
1. (a) Later Veda, mleccha- and verbal mlecchati, with participle in the Scholiast to Pāṇini mliṣṭa-;mlecchita- is also cited. Patanjali has the infinitive mlecchitavai.
(b) Pali, in the oldest texts, Dīgha-nikāya and Vinaya, milakkhu-, milakkhuka-, milakkha-, milakkha-bhāsā, and later milāca-.
(c) Jaina older Ardha-māgadhī, milakkha- (with Vokkāṇa- and yavana- (Wakhān' and 'Greek'),milakkhu-, milikkhu-, mileccha-, and Māhārāṣṭrī miliṭṭha- 'speaking indistinctly'.
(d) Buddhist Sanskrit mlecha-, whence Saka Khotan mīlaicha-.
(e) New Indo-Aryan in R.L. Turner, Comparative dictionary, no. 10398, Kāśmīrī mīch (with -ch from older -cch-, not -kṣ-); Bengali mech of a Tibeto-Burmese tribe, Sinhalese milidu, milindu 'savage',milis, maladu, Panjābī milech, malech.
The Pali -kkh- was explained as secondary to -cch- by J. Wackernage, Altindische Grammatik, 1, 154; but was unexplained according to Turner, loc. cit.
2. The starting-point of the interpretation should be a form *mlekṣa-, mlikṣ-. Within the Veda there is a variation between -cch- (-ch-) and -kṣ- as in Atharva-veda ṛccharā- besides śukla-yajur-veda, Vājasneyi-samhitā ṛkśalā- 'fetter',and within the Atharva-veda in parikṣit- and variant paricchit- 'surrounding'. Hence śatapathabrāhmaṇa mleccha- may be traced to older *mlekṣa-. The kṣ was replaced by -kkh- or by retroflex -ch- or by palatalized -cch- in different dialects. Within the Veda there was also variation kśā-, kṣā-, and khyā- from kaś-, corresponding to Avestan xsā- from kas-'to look at'.
If the oldest form had then *mlekṣa-, this -kṣ- could be accepted as a substitute for a foreign velar fricative
(the sound expressed in Arabic script by خ kh).
If the word *mlekṣ- was a foreign name, it was adapted to the usual Vedic verbal system, giving participle mliṣṭa- in the grammarians, supported by the Jaina Māhārāṣṭrī miliṭṭha-.
The vowel -e- of mleccha- was thus adapted into the ablaut system -e-: -i-.
For recent comments on mleccha, see Wackernage, Altindische Grammatik. Introduction generale. Nouvelle edition...par Louis Renou, 1957, 73; M. Mayrhofer, Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Worterbuch des Altindischen, 699, mleccha.
Periplus of Magan and Meluhha -- John Hansman (1973)
Kalyanaraman
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages