Information on sesame (tila)

[Lakshmi Srinivas]

---Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan  wrote:
> Burrow derives Sanskrit tila from Dravidian *ceL or *teL related to
Tamil >eL
> (eLLu in colloquial usage). Kuiper says "Sanskrit tila-, m. "the
sesamum >plant
> or seed" and the prefixed form jartila- "wild sesamum" TS ZB must be
> borrowings from Munda."

                Perhaps there are other instances where the Proto
Dravidian  short e is changed to i  in Sanskrit,  especially in the
radical syllable? Also, would not the Dravidian derivation be hard put
to explain the prefixed form?  In either case, there is no phonetic
resemblance to the Akkadian form, ellu.

> Frank C. Southworth in "Reconstructing social context from language:
Indo-
> Aryan and Dravidian Pre-history", p. 270, says "Sesame seeds were
found at
> Harappa, one of the major sites in the Indus Valley civilization
(Vats 1940).
> Sesame was important both as a food and an ingredient of religious
ceremonies
> inancient India, and is still so today. Assuming a connection between
> Dravidian eLLu and Akkadian ellu, it is impossible to determine
without
> further evidence which was the source, or whether there was perhaps
some third
> source. Nonetheless, since sesame was grown in the ancient Indus
Valley and
> was involved in the trade with mesopotemia (see Ratnagar 1981:52
(note 30),
> 80), the resemblance between the words for sesame provides support for
> assuming some sort of relationship between speakers of Dravidian
languages and
> the Indus Valley civilization."

Regarding sesame in the Indus Valley, this is what Prof. Parpola has
to say (Deciphering the Indus Script, CUP, 1994. p169)

"D. Bedigian (reference below: LS) has suggested that sesame may have
come to Mesopotamia from India with the Indus trade, and in this
connection called attention to the similarity between Akkadian ellu /
Ulu 'sesame oil' and Sumerian ilu / ili on the one hand, and SDr eL,
eLLu 'sesamum indicum' on the other. This argument is not fully
satisfactory however:
(1) according to most recent research, sesame is an originally African
cultivar;
(2) the evidence for sesame in the Indus Civilization is rather poor;
and
(3) the quoted Dr word can be reconstructed only for Proto-South
Dravidian  and not to Proto-Dravidian. "

Bedigian, Dorothea. Se-gis-i,  sesame or flax. Bulletin on  Sumerian
Agriculture 2: 159-78.

Indian palaeo-botanists Vishnu-Mittre and R. Savithri in their paper
Food Economy of the Harappans discuss various grains and seeds in
Harappa and quote the original excavation reports incl. the 1941
report of MS Vats:

"Finally a lump of charred sesame, No. 8827, was found in Trench V,
Mound F, depth six feet, in association with Stratum III."

They go on to add " Owing to their non-availability, these materials
could not be examined."

 (in Harappan Civilization: A Recent Perspective, G. Possehl (ed.),
Oxford & IBH, New Delhi, 1993. p 206)

The evidence for sesame, IMHO, does not  seem to be strong.

Thanks and Warm Regards.
==
Lakshmi Srinivas





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