Some facts and reflections

Language = Culture

Writing = Technology [?abstracted culture?]

Why write?
 
 

Modes of writing:

• Logographic [pictogram or sign or symbol for each word]
• Syllabic [simplified sign or symbol for each syllable]
• Alphabetic [further simplified sign or letter for each sound or phoneme]

Types of Writing

Invention of writing?

• Mesopotamia [Sumerian cuineform, before 3000 BCE]
• ?Egypt [hieroglyphics, around 3000 BCE?]
• China [by 1300 BCE?]
• Mesoamerica [Zapotecs of southern Mexico, by 600 BCE]

First writing:  non-phonetic logograms
 

Later logographic writing: introduction of phonetic logograms using rebus principle

• Sumerian ti = arrow = life
• Indus/Harappan ??? = fish = star

Logographic ==> syllabic/alphabetic?

Any good invention will migrate:

• diffusion:  adoption or adaptation?
• Sumer ==> IVC [ca. 2600?]; Aramaic ==> Brahmi [ca. 800?]

Southern Asia ca. 1500 - 700:  The transition from IVC to Aryavarta?

Nature of the evidence:    Poetic Verse vs. Physical Remains

• Disciplines:    Paleo-linguistics vs. Archeology

What do the physical remains tell us?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

• Geographic scope: Indus/Panjab/Gujarat:  Afghanistan/Pakistan/WestIndia
• Urban culture:  axial street patterns, water
• Seals/stamps:  linguistic uniformity across region
• Agrarian culture:  wheat and, later, rice cultivation
• Animals?    Cow, sheep, camel.   Horse?  around 2000 BCE
• Trade links:  especially west and north
• Temporal scope:  3000 ==> 1700 BCE

No sure linguistic evidence [Sanskrit vs. Dravidian]

But there is evidence of writing:  implying taxation, trade

• Political system?
• Military culture?
• Religious culture?

What does the linguistic evidence tell us?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sanskrit?  Veda ==> RgVeda

• Geographic scope?  Indo-European languages
• Temporal scope?
• Religious-Cultural concerns?  Agni, Indra, Soma
• Enemies?  Dasas, Nisada
• Military culture?

Dravidian/OldTamil?

• Geographic scope?
• Temporal scope?
• Religious-Cultural concerns
• Enemies?
• Military culture?

Sanskrit or Dravidian?

• Comparative paleolinguistic evidence (from west Asia)
• cultural evidence within Sanksrit:  the horse
• Aryan invasion?  Parpola section 6 interlude?  Assumptions?
• Fish and Stars?

Mahadevan critique:  "Parpola's excessive, almost obsessive, preoccupation with the 'Harappan religion'"

soma filter argument