Jury is still out on 'Meluhha, Dilmun and Makan'?

[l.m.fosse at easteur-orient.uio.no]

>Piotr Michalowski wrote recently in sci.archaeology
>usenet: "As Gelb and others pointed out, the type of
>refernces we have from third millennium and early
>second millennium Mesopotamia indicate that Meluhha
>was for them a vague term for areas along the north
>coast of the Persian Gulf and extending east,
>possibly as far as Beluchistan, but probably no
>further."
>
>A series of articles and counters had appeared in the
>Journal of the Economic and social history of the
>Orient, Vol.XXI, Pt.II, Elizabeth C.L. During Caspers
>and A.Govindankutty countering R.Thapar's dravidian
>hypothesis for the locations of Meluhha, Dilmun and
>Makan; Thapar's A Possible identification of Meluhha,
>Dilmun, and Makan appeared in the journal Vol. XVIII,
>Part I locating these on India's west coast. Bh.
>Krishnamurthy defended Thapar on linguistic grounds
>in Vol. XXVI, Pt. II: *mel-u-kku = highland, west;
>*teLmaN (= pure earth) ~ dilmun; *makant = male child
>(Skt. vIra = male offspring.
>
>Have there been any further explorations on these
>lines to locate Meluhha?

You may want to check out K. Karttunen (1989). India in Early Greek
Literature. Helsinki, Finnish Oriental Society. Studia Orientalia. Vol. 65.
293 pages. ISBN 951-9380-10-8, pp. 11ff et passim. You may further want to
read

Asko Parpola (1975a). Isolation and tentative interpretation of a toponym
in the Harappan inscriptions. Le dechiffrement des ecritures et des
langues. Colloque du XXXIXe congres des orientalistes, Paris Juillet 1973.
Paris,  Le dechiffrement des ecritures et des langues. Colloque du XXXIXe
congres des orientalistes, Paris Juillet 1973. 121-143 and

Asko Parpola (1975b). "India's Name in Early Foreign Sources." Sri
Venkateswara University Oriental Journal, Tirupati,  18: 9-19.

Best regards,

Lars Martin Fosse







Lars Martin Fosse
Research Fellow
Department of East European
and Oriental Studies
P. O. Box 1030, Blindern
N-0315 OSLO Norway

Tel: +47 22 85 68 48
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E-mail: l.m.fosse at easteur-orient.uio.no