Uttara Kuru

[Dominique.Thillaud]

>Does anyone here have opinions on the location of Uttara Kuru?
>Please give your proposed boundaries and why you think that
>way.  I'm interested mainly in theories placing it somewhere near
>the subcontinent and not in Siberia, the North Pole or the Western
>hemisphere.

        The Uttarakurus are clearly a mythical people (long life,
happiness, &c.) and searching their exact location would be pointless, but
        1) They seem to have many common features with the Hyperboreans, a
Greek mythical people whose name means "beyond the North Wind" and who are
linked with the cult of Apollo. From a long time I believe (without any
proof) they are to be considered as the memory of an homeland, before the
Greek come in Greece, perhaps an other Eurindian group ?
        2) The Uttarakurus are said (MMW sv. kuru, without reference) the
ancient home of the Aryans.
        3) The Divine name apollOn is without etymology (a link with the
Hittit Appaliuna is to forget) but he could be derived from a *H2-kv-o-l-w-
who, at zero degree, is perfectly able to give Skr. kuru. Moreover Apollo
is allways defined as the Bowman, a rare weapon in Greece but not in Indian
epics!

        Hence, in my present research on the coherence of a subgroup
Indo-Greek, I consider the location you ask for, is to search somewhere
around Europa and Asia limits. Finding the exact place is a task for
archeologists, but a very difficult one. From my point of view, I reject
completely Renfrew's theory but Mallory (In Search of the Indo-Europeans
...) seem to make very fine and credible synthesis. He is considering the
culture Andronovo (south of Oural mountains) as a good candidate for
Indo-Aryan homeland but, clearly, the task is unfinished: Andronovo's
people is a recent one (2nd mill.), too recent to be an Indo-Greek
homeland. I would prefer the Yamnaya civilisation (4th-3rd mill.) lying
along the North of the Caspian and Black Seas.

        Hoping to help,
Dominique

PS: searching an indirect phonetical link between [Uttara] Kuru and
[Hyper]boreans (Gr. huper = Skr. upara) is very dubious but not strictly
impossible: the mythical Ossetic family name Boratae and some other names
give perhaps a track, but almost completely erased ...

Dominique THILLAUD
Universite' de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France