Harappan script glyph: one-eyed person wrestling with and dividing two tigers
Kalyanaraman
mdsaaa48 at giasmd01.vsnl.net.in
Wed Mar 5 05:02:15 UTC 1997
An extraordinary glyph of the script is:
A one-eyed person wrestling with, trying to separate,
two tigers standing on either side,and rearing on their hindlegs.
There are lexemes in Indian languages which encapsulate the semantics
of this glyph.
kANa = one eyed; kANeya = son of one-eyed woman (Skt and other languages.)
kaN = eye (Tamil)
kannai = side; party, as in games, wrestling, fighting; kannai-mARu = to
change sides for a new game; kannai-ppiri = to divide a company into two
parties for a game (Jaffna Tamil)
kan = copper work; copper; workmanship (cf. kanmam = work; karmam = work)
kannuvar, kannAr = braziers, bell-metal workers; kannAn = brazier, bell-metal worker,
one of te divisions of the kammALa caste (Tamil) cf. khani = a mine (of jewels) (Skt.)
We have noticed elsewhere that the tiger is denoted by a lexeme: kaTaka.
So, the glyph can be interpreted to be a glyphic determinative of the morpheme, kan (sememe
metal) and the entire pictorial can be read as kan + kaTaka = copper (or bell-metal) bangle (maker)
Regards, Kalyanaraman.
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