Meluhhan

See Michael Donne's posting on MIA and Vedic. 'The modern languages
emerged from some other, presumably Sanskrit, dialect than the ones
that are recorded in the Vedas and later classical Sanskrit texts?'

This is called bha_s.a_ or des'i_ (cf. Hemacandra's Des'i_ na_ma
ma_la_) and many languages of India are relatable to this heritage.

Here is the code.

See http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/mlecchita.htm [Mlecchita
Vikalpa, cypher-writing, the code of inscribed objects]

The Vedic chant refrain is:

hiran.ya garbham garbhastham hemabi_jam vibha_vasoh
anantapun.ya phaladam atah s'a_ntim prayaccha me

Garbha! The womb. The philosophical Upanis.ad refrain is: from being
to becoming.

The same imagery is evoked by metal-smiths.

See the use of rebus glyphs for the following lexemes:kut.hi and
bat.hi, 'furnace'. The glyphs and lexemes are
at:http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/munda/furnace1.pdf
Mlecchita vikalpa of the inscribed objects of the Sarasvati Sindhu
Valley Civilization (SSVC) seem to unravel.

Take for instance, the most dominant glyph, the 'jar' with
orthographic emphasis on the 'rim' of the jar [as distinct from
another glyph which shows a rimless, wide-mouthed pot].
The rebus for this glyph is: kan.d.a kanka which in Santali means:
kan.d.a, pot; kanka = rim; also, kan.d., 'furnace'. kanka = gold or,
kan- copper-work (Tamil). The glyph is also ligatured to a water-
carrier glyph: ka_jaha_ra, 'water-carrier', 'glass-bronze-worker'.
http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/html/Waterc2.jpg
http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/html/Varia-12-t.jpg

Or, the device depicted in front of the one-horned male heifer. Both
pictorials are ligatures: the device is a ligature of a portable
furnace and a gimlet (of a lathe). The heifer is a ligature composed
of a curved horn, a pannier, a heifer with pronounced rings on the
neck. All these orthographic components can be unravelled. E.g.
san:gad.a = portable furnace; san:gad.a = lathe; jan:ga_d.iyo =
military guard accompanying the treasure into the treasury (All
Gujarati). cf. kat.avu = a turning lathe (Tamil)
http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/html/H196b.jpg
http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/html/standard1-t.jpg

va_hur.o = heifer (Punjabi); va_karan- = soldier (Tamil). The one
horn shown ligatured to the heifer is kot. And kod. is artisan's
workshop (Santali); cognate Skt. gos.t.ha 'cowpen'.

kan.d.hli_ = ring round the neck; necklace of beads (See the rings on
the neck of the bull)A phonetic determinant of this substantive using
a homonym is the pannier is kan.t.la (Telugu); kan.t.an- 'warrior'
(Tamil); gan.d.a 'hero' (Skt.) [See also kan.t.am 'an iron style for
writing on palm leaves' (Tamil); khan.d.a 'an instrument, weapon'
(Skt.); ka~_t.a_l.u_ (G.)(CDIAL 2678) cf. kan.d.ali = billhook] Thus
when a ligature is depicted showing two heifer heads with one horn
each and rings on the neck both linked to a 'standard device'
[san:gad.a] with emanating nine leaves, the mlecchita vikalpa can be
interpreted as: nine bill-hooks! or nine bill-hooks of the warrior!
http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/munda/mundan9.jpg

One of the many fish glyphs can be rebus: hako, 'fish', hako, 'axe'
(Bond.a; cf. the Munda etymological dictionary compiled by the late
Bhattacharya). It is a countable object as evidenced by the short
numeral strokes which are shown next to the fish glyph. The numerals
seem to be Munda, e.g. numeral used for the count of, 'nine'; lo=
nine (Santali), loa = fig leaf, ficus glomerata; loh = metal (ore).
Nine fig-leaves are shown on a few inscribed objects as phonetic
determinants of the morpheme, lo, 'metal (ore)'.
http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/munda/mundanine.htm

Who else but a metal-worker or blacksmith had the competence to write
on a weapon itself or on copper plates? There are inscriptions on a
gold pendant; on a gold pectoral; there is a monolithic inscription
on aan advertisement board adorning the northern gate at Dholavira
(where well-polished stone pillars and ring-stones were also found,
apart from a stone image of a monitor lizard); the 'standard device'
is incised on a gold fillet (worn on the forehead,e.g. the priest
statuette). See the tradition of use of copper plates in Bha_rata to
record property transactions. Many glyphs [perhaps as many as 300+
signs and pictorial motifs (or field symbols)] can be explained as
products made by the lapidary or metal-worker and the professions
themselves of a military guard, a trader or a trader-helper or the
workshop, kol- (tiger, kill -- both pictorially represented). The
tradition of literacy created by the artisan-artist continues into
the historical periods: use of copper plates to record property
transactions, use of as.t.aman:galaka ha_ra (or aimpat.aitta_li) on
yaks.i-s depicted by vis'vakarma_ sculptors on Barhut stu_pas with 8
or 13 weapon symbols on necklaces worn, depiction of mu_rti-s of
godesses with multiple arms carrying multiple weapons. A seal-maker,
an ivory worker, a stone sculptor -- the artistic legacy continues.
Take for instance the glyphs which appear on the Anau stone seal or
on tin ingots found in a ship-wreck at Haifa (yes, Haifa, Israel).
They are comparable to the glyphs on many inscribed objects of SSVC
(not Cretan symbols). There seems to have been a search for minerals
(arsenic, tin in particular) to harden by alloying with the copper
tools. So, ran:ku, 'tin', ran:ku, 'antelope', ran:ku, 'liquid
measure'. Groups of functionaries can be depicted by ligatured
animals; surprise! san:gad.a = joined animals (Mara_t.hi).

Va_tsya_yana's Ka_masutra describes 64 arts to be learnt; one of
these is 'mlecchita vikalpa', interpreted as 'cryptographic writing'.
Mleccha was a Meluhhan; concordant with Pali, milakku, 'copper'. Yes,
the same mleccha which both Vidura and Yudhis.t.hira could speak and
understand.

We seem to be dealing with a linguistic area (substratum!) of
artisans, between the Tigris-Euphrates doab and the Sindhu-Sarasvati
doab (south of the Oxus), an area which Emeneau surmises after
compiling the Dravidian Etymological Dictionary. Meluhhan needed an
interpreter in Mesopotamia (as shown on a cylinder seal), so Mleccha
is likely to be something different from Sumerian [which of course,
had substrates (borrowings?) such as tibira, 'merchant' --
ta_mra, 'copper'; san:ga, 'priest', sa_n:gvi_, 'priest, pilgrim's
guide' (Gujarati)].

It appears the ancestors of Roma, Dom, Munda, kan-n-a_n
(Tamil, 'coppersmith') were metal workers who had the competence to
write to connote property possessions or to prepare bills of lading
for products of lapidaries/metalsmiths traded -- either on sealings
or on tablets-in-bas relief. So the svastika_ is found in an extended
area, even in Tepe Yahya apart from over 50 inscribed objects of SSVC
with this glyph. It was an object, a metal object, satthiya_, knife.
[or, hypersanskritisation: s'akti, 'lance']. See also the URL and
similar rebus homonym pages:
http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/html/decipher10.htm

They adored the peacock, 'maraka'. The lexeme also connoted
the 'dead'. Hence, its depiction on funerary pots and plates,
together with a black buck, 'marg' (homonym; Skt. mr.ga).
Not personal names, these glyphs. For, within a statistically small
population of about 3000 inscribed objects, there are over 200
inscribed objects with no 'sign', but with just 'pictorial motifs'
and about 300 with just one or two 'signs'.
http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/html/K067at1.jpg
http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/pictures/Ai6.jpg There are over 300
objects with repetitive inscriptions.

As the code unravels, so does the heritage of the early metal-workers
in search of minerals over an extensive area spread from Ropar in
Punjab to Ur in Sumer; from Tepe Yahya close to the Caspian Sea to
Daimabad on the banks of Pravara river, a tributary of Godavari
river; across Dilmun, Magan, Mehrgarh into the Sapta-Sindhu upto
Rakhigarhi on the banks of Dr.s.advati river, a tributary of
Sarasvati river, 150 kms. northwest of Delhi.

Mlecchita vikalpa. The code. Rebus. Bha_s.a_ (Syn. linguistic area,
substratum!). Professions, tools of trade of/products made by
professionals and artisans, starting ca. 3300 BCE at Harappa (cf. the
1998 discoveries reported by Kenoyer and Meadow).