Information on sesame (tila)

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In a message dated 1/5/99 1:14:33 PM Central Standard Time,
lsrinivas at YAHOO.COM writes:

> 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. "

Thanks for the Parpola reference. In some aspects, it seems to be more up-to-
date than the Erdosy volume.

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

While, the evidence for sesame as eL or its reconstructed forms is weak, there
is another word for sesame DEDR 3720 Ta. nU, nUvu, Te. nUvu, nuvvu, etc. which
may go back to 2000-1500 BC.

Regards
S. Palaniappan