April 7, 2010
Indus-like inscription
on South Indian pottery from Thailand
IRAVATHAM MAHADEVAN
http://beta.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00102/TH08_POTTERY_1_102625f.jpg
Pottery Inscription from Thailand with Indus-like symbols, probably
on South Indian Megalithic Pottery.
A fragmentary pottery inscription was found during excavations
conducted by the Thai Fine Arts at Phu Khao Thong in Thailand
about three years ago. (Dr. Berenice Bellina of the Centre National
de la Recherche Scientifique, France, sent me a photograph of
the object: Figure 1)
The discovery of a Tamil-Brahmi pottery inscription of about
the second century CE at the same site was reported earlier (The
Hindu, July 16, 2006). One can presume that the present inscription
is also from the Tamil country and belongs approximately to the
same period. The two characters incised on the pottery now reported
are not in the Brahmi script. They appear to be graffiti symbols
of the type seen on the South Indian megalithic pottery of the
Iron Age-Early Historical Period (second century BCE to third
century CE).
What makes the discovery exciting is that the two symbols on
the pottery resemble the Indus script, and even the sequence of
the pair can be found in the Indus texts, especially those from
Harappa.
The symbol looking vaguely like an N' appears to be the
same as the Indus signs 47 or 48 (in Figure 3). Professor B.B.
Lal, former Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India,
showed that these Indus signs have a remarkable resemblance to
the megalithic symbol occurring at Sanur, near Tindivanam, and
elsewhere in Tamil Nadu (Figure 2). More recently, the same symbol
has turned up on two pottery fragments from Pattanam in Kerala
(probably the same as Musiri of the Sangam Age). I have compared
the symbols with the Indus signs depicting a seated anthropomorphic
deity.
The symbol on the Thai pottery resembles a diamond. It occurs
in the Indus script in diamond or oval forms (Signs 261 and 373
in Figure 3).
What is extraordinary about the present find is the occurrence
of the two symbols on the pottery in the same sequence as found
in the Indus texts (see for example texts 4589 and 5265 from Harappa,
Figure 3). The Thai pottery has only two symbols. Another symbol
might have been lost owing to the fragmentary state of the pottery.
Sequences such as this on the Thai pottery and those reported
on the inscribed Neolithic stone axe from Sembiyan Kandiyur and
on megalithic pottery from Sulur (near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu)
provide evidence for the survival of the Indus script in South
India during the megalithic age, and for the possibility that
the languages of the Indus Civilisation and South India belong
to the same family, namely Dravidian.
(The sign and text numbers are cited from The Indus Script: Texts,
Concordance and Tables, by Iravatham Mahadevan (1977). The author
is Honorary Consultant of the Indus Research Centre at Roja Muthiah
Research Library in Chennai.)
http://beta.thehindu.com/arts/history-and-culture/article391104.ece
Comment: The two glyphs on the Thai pottery as on other megalithic
pottery relate to the pictographs showing: 1)backbone; 2)corner.
The homonymous words used in mleccha, respectively, are: baraDo
'spine, backbone'; panzur 'skeleton'; kanac 'corner'. The rebus
readings relate to smithy 'pasra'; bharat 'mixed alloy'; kancu
'bronze'. Thus the Thai pottery inscription is a calling card
of a smithy artisan detailing his professional competence: working
on mixed alloy, bronze in a smithy.
Pictograph 1: bara?o = spine; backbone; the back; bara?o thaba?avo
= lit. to strike on the backbone or back; hence, to encourage;
bara?o bhare thato = lit. to have a painful backbone, i.e. to
do something which will call for a severe beating (G.lex.)bar?e,
bara?e = an offering of food to a demon; a meal after fasting,
a breakfast (Tu.lex.) barada, barda, birada = a vow (G.lex.)bhara?o
a devotee of Siva; a man of the bhara?a caste in the bra_hman.as
(G.) bara? = name of a caste of jat- around Bha?i??a; barara??a
mela = a special fair held in spring (P.lex.) bhara? = a religious
service or entertainment performed by a bhara?i_; consisting of
singing the praises of some idol or god with playing on the d.aur
(drum) and dancing; an order of a?hara akhad.e = 18 gosayi_ group;
bharad. and bharati are two of the 18 orders of gosayi_ (M.lex.)
Rebus: bhara? = to bring out from a kiln (G.) bara?iyo = one
whose profession it is to sift ashes or dust in a goldsmiths
workshop (G.lex.) In the Punjab, the mixed alloys were generally
called, bharat (5 copper, 4 zinc and 1 tin). In Bengal, an alloy
called bharan or toul was created by adding some brass or zinc
into pure bronze. bharata = casting metals in moulds; bharavum
= to fill in; to put in; to pour into (G.lex.)Bengali. ??? [ bharana
] n an inferior metal obtained from an alloy of coper, zinc and
tin.
K. panzur m. skeleton; Or. pañjara skeleton,
ribs (CDIAL 7685)
Rebus: pasra smithy (Santali)
Pictogaph 2: kana, kanac = corner (Santali); kan~cu = bronze (Te.)
Kalyanaraman
8 April 2010