SV: method of dating RV, III and Mitanni

[S.Kalyanaraman]

Vidyanatha Rao wrote:> 3) Regarding the occurance of `Varuna' in the
well-known treaty:> The actual text reads urvan(n?)assil, with another version
reading> arunassil. urvana and varuna cannot both be traced to the same PIIr>
word [wrwa should be syllabified (in Sans. letters) as v.rva]. Diakonoff> says
that the development w- > zero is not knwon in any of the
> relevant languages. [Which is one reason why he rejects the idea that
> Mittani rules were proto-Indian.] And then there is the suffix ssil:
> Why were they swearing by ``those of Urvana, those of Mitra'', instead
> of just by Varuna and Mitra? What is the explanation of all this
> according to those who claim that Mittani's were ruled by a
> proto-Aryan dynasty? 
> >I will thank all those who answer in advance> and go back to lurking.

Before you go back to lurking, let me cite some specific issues:
The actual texts have: u-ru-ua-na-as'-s'-el, a-ru-na-as'-s'i-il
The s's'il/s's'el follow mitra and varun.a (or, arun.a). The guess by J.
Friedrich, Orientalia, vol. 12, p. 316 was that this suffix may be a
(grammatical) duality of each name (how relate to Hurrian s'in? meaning
'two'). -na is explained as Hurrian plural-indicating particle -na (Spieser).
It would be interesting to know if s's'il/s's'el occur in othe contexts in the
Hurrian documents. The next issue is why two forma are used for Varun.a; can
this somehow be treated as variants (apart from il, el variants) and related
to Hittie aruna- meaning 'sea'? In the context of the four names which are
clearly vedic, and the sea-trade across the Gulf with wherever mleccha or
meluhha was, would it be an unreasonable surmise to equate aruna with varun.a
(sea-god)?

On toponymy of ruler's names being in Sanskrit constructions, was there a
tradition to give a different name after anointing a prince to be a ruler in
the Near East or in Vedic India?

On the taxi- or chariot, what is the take on the link between the onager-drawn
solid-wheel chariot of Mesopotamia and the chariots further northeast?

Regards,
Kalyanaraman

____________________________________________________________________
More than just email--Get your FREE Netscape WebMail account today at http://home.netscape.com/netcenter/mail