Indian lexemes related to death

[S.Kalyanaraman]

Hi,

Would appreciate guidance on predicting possible ancient forms related to the
following semant. in IA and Dravidian. These notes are in refce.
to the funerary pottery (and images) reported recently by Profs. Kenoyer and
Meadow from Harappa.

mr.tyu = death (Skt.); smas'a_nam = crematorium (Skt.)

DEDR 4680, 4760, 4777 and 4801: man.d.u = to burn (Te.); mr.ahpa
(mr.aht-)destruction by fire (Kui); mo.t.- to put fuel on fire (Toda); ma_~d.u
to be burnt (Te.); ma_sa_na_ to burn, burn a corpse; ma_r- to be charred
(Gondi); mod- (mor-t-) locus of tribal activity, funeral place (Toda); mar-p
dead (Toda)

In this context, it may be of interest to note the association of a bull image
with cremations in Bali; cf. among Balinese Hindus, there is an extraordinary
ceremony called ngaben described, with colorful pictures,in the following
URLs:

http://www.indo.com/culture/cremation.html
http://www.bali.go.id/ceremoni_eng.htm
http://clearwater.nic.edu/socsci/jasylte/cremat1.htm
http://museon.museon.nl/objextra.eng/ceremoni.html

Kalyanaraman

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