SUMERIAN AND TAMIL - A COMPARISON AND STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO A TRANSLITERATED TEXT AND STANDARD TRANSLATIONS. PDF

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SUMERIAN AND TAMIL - A COMPARISON AND STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO A TRANSLITERATED TEXT AND STANDARD TRANSLATIONS.- ​A Research Study Paper / All Rights Reserved. ABSTRACT : A research study paper authored by Purushothaman P. Ellapura and Rajan Menon. Purushothaman P. Ellapura : My first motivation came...

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SUMERIAN AND TAMIL - A COMPARISON AND STUDY WITH REFERENCE TO A TRANSLITERATED TEXT AND STANDARD TRANSLATIONS.- ​A Research Study Paper / All Rights Reserved. ABSTRACT : A research study paper authored by Purushothaman P. Ellapura and Rajan Menon. Purushothaman P. Ellapura : My first motivation came from the late Dr. Loganathan and I decided to take it to the children of Tamil Nadu. , My plan is to interact with the children of Tamil Nadu drawing resources from my work to construct a language and educational program consisting of textbooks and learning based on the Sumerian and Tamil languages. As a part of my PhD thesis, ( Madras university), I incorporated the “Edubba” , a Sumerian House of tablets , a place of learning, a school and repository of knowledge where secular and sacred literature were inscribed and stored. Rajan Menon: I was introduced to the Sumerian problem about seven years ago by the late Dr. Loganathan. Loga had studied Sumerian for over 20 years and had discovered parallels between the extinct language and Tamil. As a forerunner to Dr. Loganathan, K. L. Mutturaya, in the Journal of Tamil Studies , 1975, provided hundreds of lexical correspondences between Sumerian and the Dravidian languages of India. I do not have a copy of this study and to date I have not located a copy.

I .-

SUMERIAN AND TAMIL : A COMPARISON

Sumerian and Tamil conform to the agglutinative language group. Sumerian appears to be a language isolate; the ethnic linguistic group to which the Sumerians pertain is complicated and uncertainty still prevails. The Ubaid period 5000-3600 BCE saw the beginnings of rural settlements in Southern Mesopotamia and the introduction of artificial irrigation. Large scale urbanization began during the Uruk period 3600-3100 BCE and the development of the cuneiform script during 3100 - 2900 BCE. after 2000 BCE the Sumerians were no longer identifiable ethnically and their spoken language became extinct before circa 1800 BCE. As a language of education, it remained in use until the C.E. Henri Frankfort suggested that the Sumerians had migrated into southern Mesopotamia from the Iranian Highlands during the Ubaid period. Stephen Langdon argued that the city of Kish in the early Dynastic Period was inhabited by a mixture of Semitics and Sumerians represented by the Euro-Africans and the Mediterraneans. Later, a third Armenoid group incorporated into the population mix. Sir Arthur Keith in his examination of skulls from Ubaid (Chalcolithic) and Ur (Bronze Age) observed a continuity in the Mesopotamian population since the 4 millennium BCE and

suggested Iranian or even Indian affinities. He would not differentiate between the Sumerians from Ur and the semites from Kish. However, Anton Moortgat (1945) and E. Speiser (1951) observed that the sumerians were represented in iconography with short heads while the skulls discovered at Ur were long. Andrzej Wiercinski opted for a far more complicated anthropological structure in Mesopotamia. He concluded that Tibet or Central asia could be considered as the country of origin of the Sumerians. H.Crawford noticed the great tooth size of the early inhabitants of Mesopotamia and inferred an affinity to the early Indians. E. Speiser (1930) observed that the names of many of the ancient city of Sumer were Elamite. His conclusions were that the Elamites inhabited Mesopotamia before the Sumerians who invaded the land from the south, coming from the east through the Persian Gulf. Speiser suggested that the sumerians were related to the early Dravidians of the Indian sub-continent. Speiser´s theory was further developed by Jan Braun who presented similarities between Sumerian and Tibetan languages. C.S. Coon on the other hand, suggested, with reference to odontometry, affinities between the inhabitants of Chalcolithic Eridu in southern Mesopotamia and the population of the Indus Valley. (Coon 1949:104). Recently, Hamlet Martirosyan has presented a section of an unpublished work entitled “The Origin of Sumer”. In a comparison done between the Armenian and Sumerian terminologies in the field of agriculture/ livestock farming, pottery, metallurgy,writing and other concepts of early civilization, his vision implies that agriculture and livestock farming were brought to lower Mesopotamia from the Armenian Highland.

II .- ( Sumerian text, Tamil recovered text, transliterated and translated ) ​- Puru has used spoken Tamil (or dialect and not the refined classical Tamil except few exceptions) to constitute the equivalent Tamil text from the Sumerian, which is given in appendix-1. Sumerian Alphapet as recovered in Tamil as a trial recovery (Sumerian Tamil Arisuvadi) is given as appendix-2. In above two cases, the same methodology proposed by Purushothaman and Suresh ( 2014) is used. This method is simple. A native speaker of Tamil language could recover possible words and sentences of the Sumerian literature through the use of Sumerian dictionary at ePSD, which gives both the transliteration and the meanings in English. The method involves identification of proper sounding words giving appropriate meanings as per ePSD wherever possible, and where that is not apparent, consider several meanings, after appropriate evaluation with reference to the context. The method used here is slightly different from the gloss given in the Sumerian literature collections, ETCSL. As this process progresses, coherency, consistency, meaningfulness were also evaluated and revised while choosing appropriate Tamil words. Thereby, Purushothaman and Suresh (2014) could provide a trial version for e.dub.ba.a C on pedagogical issues. They have recommended to retain the original version of translation and results of this method as an alternative.

III .- ( Discussions ) ​Purushothaman and Suresh (2014) devised a method of recovering and translating the Sumerian literature into Tamil that has opened new possibilities for research on Sumerian literature. There is a need to reexamine the accepted view of Sumerian being a dead language and no longer spoken. The late Dr. Loganathan had proposed that the Sumerian language was an archaic form of Tamil and to a certain extent of Sanskrit although he could not substantiate the latter claim. His theory is partially being tested with regard to Sumerian and Tamil by the current approach, by recovering Tamil words from Sumerian literature. Purushothaman and Suresh (2014) report, while investigating the Sumerian educational system known as “Edubbaa”, that Sumerian songs spread out far and wide implying that the language acquired a universality in language and commerce and spread with migrating groups in the known world, while the Sumerian language utilized the Akkadian writing system to advantage. Further, the Sumerian grammar in vogue, could be compared to the current grammar of the Tamil dialect as spoken by the general populace to a large extent. Further, consider what George ( ) had observed that the Sumerian system of education spread out all over the world and was incorporated into art and crafts and became traditional. So to say the least material culture, literature and music, crafts and technology radiated from sumerian sources. We should expect Sumerian loanwords in almost all known languages. A few researchers have observed that by highlighting only few words in any particular language would not be sufficient evidence that a particular language was spoken by Sumerian, but what if blocks of language constructs from earlier works could be recovered in Tamil or in any other language, indicating a demand in further research ? Appendix-2 provides a recovery of tamil words corresponding to Sumerian, matching phonetic values of transliterations and their respective meanings. The proposal is made on a trial basis, as there are still a few words for which exact Tamil equivalents could not be obtained, but for all cases one or more Tamil words could be identified with given meanings, suggesting the possibility of Tamil being a serious candidate as a language derived from archaic Sumerian as the late Dr. Loganathan reported earlier. This is further reinforced through appendix-1, which gives proposed translation after recovering Tamil words from the “Gilgamash-Enkidu Nether World” literature; for a starter a fair length of 35-lines. If we consider this with the translation of “edubbaa” about 70 lines and Zigrut about 10 lines in Purushothaman- 2017, the possibility that the Sumerians spoke an archaic Tamil language is reinforced to a reasonable extent that calls for an investigation and evaluation of the interaction between Sumerian and Tamil languages . Of interest, we would also consider few words of critical interest which would tell more about cultural contexts and so on. ​Dub ​(tuppu) and ​gir-gin-na (Kiṟukkiṉavai), are two

words already dealt with by Purushothaman & Suresh, in fact, ​dub (tablet) was correlated by the late Dr. Loganathan to ​tuppu , tuppaki (gun) ​a word in common use in Tamil. Nor only that, it is very word in multiple meanings used by Thiruvalluvar in one of a popular poem, even before guns were invented. The case is true and same for ​gir-gin-na library of Sulgi, as a function performed at school or in a library (kirrukal - to scribble ), is a difficult task to correlate it with the Tamil ​kirrukal ( to scribble) a word in of common usage in tamil for scribbling, not only by children. The word contributed to the name of a great Tamil writer, Kiṟukkiṉavai. Both these words indicate a common substrate between a proto Tamil dialect or language and the Sumerian language through the Akkadian script. The phenomenon is a pointer to a method or process whereby a recovery of the original Sumerian Tamil words could be recovered by scholars. If we scrutinise the sumerian ​dub and the three corresponding recovered equivalents viz., ​tuppu, thappu and dubasi (the first two words are in Tamil and the last one common to all Indian languages), meaning ​competence (or finding secrets), ​beating ​(particularly the traditional drums played during a funerary rite or ceremony , death ceremony or the public beating of a person, beating reflected in the wave phenomenon of sound as ​thap..thap​) and a speaker of multiple languages or a translator. This particular recovery is possible by flexibility in comparing the transliterations and attributing several interpretations to the transliterated text and pondering the same into acceptable equivalents. If we consider ​gir-gin-na​, with the Tamil K ​ iṟukkiṉavai, the indications are grammatically implied as “​notes, something written or scribbled and collected​”. Furthermore , we could arrive at reach a reasonable conclusion of the spoken Sumerian dialect and the written language through the medium of the present day Tamil dialect with due interpretation and modification of the transliterated text. The results arrived at may be limited and subject to experimentation. However, the methodology would lead to an interesting discovery of the etymology of Tamil and their roots in the Sumerian Tablets. There are many challenges in recovering the Tamil roots from Sumerian literature. Let us consider the Euphrates river mentioned in the Gilgamesh – Enkidu episode, appendix-1, we propose two alternatives as a trial for future considerations, line no-28: ​gu2 ​id2buranun-na​ kug-ga-ka du3-a-bi ட இ

ர டஆ

உ

ண(ஆ

ெபா ைந நதி )

க

- கனக

ழா பி

Kūṭal iṭi puraṭṭa āṉ uṇṇa (āṉ porunai nati) kukaṇ - kaṉaka tuṭuppu tuḻā piṉ

At the river mouth in the sea, there was turbulence, but rowing steadily. Note : “​āṉ porunai nati” is the name of the river in Erode town of Tamilnadu as seen from Madras University lexicon, the other one, ' iṭi puraṭṭa āṉ uṇṇa” somewhat reflects the result of lightning with the incidence of rain.

This also suggests some continuity in cultural issues and we could expect the movement of people during the height of the Sumerian culture , to and from the Indian sub-continent, as Gilgamesh himself in his search for Utnaprashthi (Utnapraisithi), and migrated to the highlands during the deluge.

Purushothaman and Suresh have highlighted the cultural continuity, with emphasis on the education system of ​“thinnai palli” and the ​gurukula system. It is also worth to note certain interesting issues: During primary school, children are initiated in writing by using a finger as a stylus and writing on grain gathered in a plate; children are taught 'a' for 'ammaa', mother and vice versa, 'ammaa' mother begins with 'a'; children are taught to tell stories by looking at pictures without written descriptions. A common saying in Tamil in interpretation of both spoken and written matter is very interesting that is place(idam), porul(content) and eval(intentions), are required to be considered appropriately. Powell (2012) writing on transliteration nightmares, observes that the first task is to create a theoretical transliteration which is appropriate to the given context, as only the context will reveal the correct reading and translation. The foregoing make it evident that there is some substance in the late Dr. Loganathan´s findings that the Sumerian language is an archaic form of language similar to archaic or proto Tamil. We propose that the Sumerian language is still alive in its present form of the Tamil language. This would enable an alternative recovery of the Sumerian texts and literature through the Tamil language.

IV .- ( Conclusion ) ​From the Sumerian Gilgamesh-Enkidu nether world text , the first 35-lines were recovered in Tamil using online resources of Tamil and sumerian language dictionaries. Transliteration of the sumerian texts into appropriate Tamil texts have been utilized to demonstrate a link between Sumerian and Tamil languages. This demands more research in recovering complete works of Sumerian literature in Tamil so that alternative interpretations are possible.

Bibliography.(1) ​Arkadiusz Soltysiak : Physical Anthropology and the “Sumerian Problem” : Studies in Historical Anthropology, vol.4 : 2004 (2006) pp 145-158. (2)​ ​Hamlet Martirosyam : section of an unpublished work entitled “The Origin of Sumer”. (3) ​Abraham Hendrik Jagersma, 2010, A descriptive grammer of Sumerian, retrieved from https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/16107/Binnenwerk-jagersma. pdf (4) ​Purushothaman P, Suresh ESM, 2014, Reflecting on pedagogical issues of e-dub-ba-a of Sumeria linking to our present times, Journal of engineering, science and management education , Vol-7(II) 136-141, 2014, ISSN 0976-0121. (5) ​Purushothaman P 2017, Ziggurat mudhal Meenakshi amman koil varai, International Tamil seminar on Madurai, pp 68-73, 31​st March, 2017, Manikka vaasagam & Thyagarasar College, Madurai, ISBN 978-93-83209-07-1, presentation file online available at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxSkYgXjLXqUMnlqVzBFOGlLakU/view?usp=sha ring. (6) ​A. R. George, “In search of the é . d u b . b a . a : the ancient Mesopotamian school in literature and reality”, accessed on 2nd Jan-2014, http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/1618/1/GeorgeEdubbaa.pdf K

Loganathan, “A brief history of SumeroTamil” https://sites.google.com/site/sumeriantamil/brief-history-sumerotamil and, http://arutkural.tripod.com/sumstudies/su-ta-lex.htm

Powel B B, 2012, Writing, Theory and history of the technology of civilization, Wiley – Blackwell,

Appendix-1, Gilgameš, Enkidu and the nether worldhttp://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.1.8.1.4&display=Crit&charenc =gcirc# ETCSL c.1.8.1.4 the order is, A- ETCSL transliteration, B- recovery in Tamil, proposed by me as a trial C- Transliteration of recovered in Tamil using Google D - Translation of what has been recovered in Tamil, ( note traditional story telling situations like koothu, katha kalaatchepam, villu paattu...this situation is fairly inline with original ETCSL translation, but content is at variance) 1. A - ud re-a ud su​3​-ra​2​ re-a B- உ ெடரிய உதய ற எரிய C- Uṭṭeriya ut cuṟṟa eriya D- As sun is throwing fire balls, spinning, circling around and burning (this also gives an indication of the roots of the word, உ ெடரிய, with present meaning of just throwing out, earlier this could have meant to mean as what that comes out from sun) 2. A- ĝi​6​ re-a ĝi​6​ ba​9​-ra​2​ re-a B- ஆ ைக எரிய ஆ ைகப ற எரிய C- Āṅkai eriya āṅkaipaṟṟa eriya D- There(up in the sky) it was burning, spreading and burning lot 3. A- mu re-a mu su​3​-ra​2​ re-a Bஎரிய ற எரிய C- Muṉ eriya muṉ cuṟṟa eriya D- it was burning in front of us, spinning and circling, & burning lot 4. A- ud ul niĝ​2​-du​7​-e pa e​3​-a-ba B- உ நீ தீ பாய அ ப C- Uṟṟuḷ nīṅkutī pāya appa D- as fire balls were coming out, thrown out, then, it was tremendous! 5.

A- ud ul niĝ​2​-du​7​-e mi​2​ zid dug​4​-ga-a-ba B- உ நீ தீ ெம சி த ஓ க அ ப C- Uṟṟuḷ nīṅkutī mey cittaṉ ōtuka appa D- the fire balls which were coming out are to be true of Lord Shiva, praise the Lord, then, it was tremendous, fearsome!

6. A- eš​3​ kalam-ma-ka ninda šu​2​-a-ba B- ஈ வ கள மகா நீ ட ழ அ ப C- Īsvar kaḷam makā nīṇṭa cūḻa appa D- The Lords land or space is so vast, engulfing, then, tremendous! 7. A- im​šu-rin-na

kalam-ma-ka niĝ​2​-tab ak-a-ba B- ரீ என கள மகா நீ கா த ப ஆ க அ ப C- Curīr eṉa kaḷam makā nīṅkā taṭpam ākka appa D- So hot, unbearable, space is so vast, (the) heat stays, never departing, then, so tremendous! 8. A- an ki-ta ba-da-ba​9​-ra​2​-a-ba B- வா கி ட பட ப ற அ ப C- Vāṉ kiṭṭa paṭa paṟṟa appa D- it so appear that the sky has come down with all the heat 9. A- ki an-ta ba-da-sur-ra-a-ba B- இ ைக அ த ரீ பட அ ப C- Iṅkai anta curīr paṭa appa D- here, the heat was so unbearable, then, so tremendous 10. A- mu nam-lu​2​-u​18​-lu ba-an-ĝar-ra-a-ba Bேனா ந மா உ கா ப கா ற அ ப C- Muṉṉōr nam'māḷu uṅkāḷu paṅkāṟṟa appa D- Our and your ancestors took part, were present then, (we were so proud of you ) so tremendous

11.

ud ​an-ne2​ an ba-an-de​6​-a-ba

உதய ேந ஆ டவ ப தி அ ப Utayaṉ nēr āṇṭavaṉ panti appa Sun & the god are in the assembly (​Uthayan is the Lord God)

12 den-lil2-le​ ki ba-an-de​6​-a-ba

அ ய (அ ெய ) ஓலி -வளி (காலி ) அ ைக ப தி அ ப Ayyaṉ (ayyeṉ) ōlil-vaḷi (kālil) aṅkai panti appa The wind god is also in the assembly

13. dereš-ki-gal-la-ra​ kur-ra saĝ rig​7​-bi-še​3​ im-ma-ab-rig​7​-a-ba

இ ளீ வ ைககலா ற றவி ச கரி பி ேசர இ மா அபிக அறிக அ ப Iruḷīsvar kaikalāṟṟa kūṟṟavi caṅkari piṉ cēra im'mām apikaḷ aṟika appa The god of darkness gives order, the goddess joins, the priest sees

14.

ba-u​5​-a-ba ba-u​5​-a-ba பா உற க பா உற க அ ப Pār uṟaṅka pār uṟaṅka appa the world is asleep, then

15.

a-a kur-še​3​ ba-u​5​-a-ba அ - ஆ , அ யா , அ யா, அ ய யா ேச பா உற க அ ப A - ā, ayyā, ayyyā, ayyayyā kūṟṟu cēr pār uṟaṅka appa Fathers, grandfathers learn, then world is asleep

16. den-ki​ kur-še​3​ ba-u​5​-a-ba

அ ய ைக ேச பா உற க அ ப Ayyaṉ kai kūṟṟu cēr pār uṟaṅka appa The god is there, know this, then when the world is asleep

17.

lugal-ra tur-tur ba-an-da-ri ஆ க அரச வர ப டாரி ஆரி Āḷukaḷ aracar vara tūr tūr paṇṭāri when the rulers enter, the business when rulers entered people from ​far-off places welcome with roar

18. den-ki-ra​ gal-gal ba-an-da-ri அ ய ைகஆ ற கைலக ப டாரி ஆரி Ayyaṉ kai'āṟṟa kalaikaḷ paṇṭāri āri when the god made a sign for the artists to commence, they also welcome with roar

19.

tur-tur-bi na​4​ šu-kam பிரேதச நப ழ கம கம கம க Tūr tūr piratēca napar cūḻa kama kama kamakkam with people from distant and far off place, the music started

20.

gal-gal-bi na​4​ gi gu​4​-ud-da-kam கைலக பி நாக கீரி , உடா கம கம கம க Kalaikaḷ piṉ nākam kīri kuṭukuṭu, uṭā kama kama kamakkam after artists, animal creatures display

21.

ur​2​ ​ĝiš​ma​2​ tur-re ​den-ki-ka3-ke4

ஊ தி மர கல ரிரீ அ ய ைக கா க Ūrti marakkalam turirī ayyaṉ kai kākka the fast sailing ship was protected by god

22.

niĝ​2​-bun​2​-na du​7​-am​3​ mi-šu​2​-šu​2 நீ கா ைன ழா ஆ க ைம ழ ழ Nīṅkā puṉṉai tuḻā ā...