Indo-Aryan words in Hurrian

[N. Ganesan]

>There was probably no IA aristocracy at any time in the
>Mittani empire, and there is nothing (no temples, for
>instance!) to suggest that IA gods were ever worshipped by the Hurrians.

The early Aryan migrants had nothing to do with temples
at all. Rigveda has no word for 'brick'. The earlier vedi
is a shallow pit to invite Gods; When public rituals
involving mahAvedis start, Non-Aryans have acculturated.
Indian art was started by heteredox religions such as
Buddhists and Jains, and art historians point to Greek
and Iranian influences in the beginnings of art of historic
India after the hiatus once Indus culture declined.
> From this, the Hindu cave temples start after some
centuries in the Dravdian South by Chalukyas and Pallavas
after some centuries. The bhakti mass movement which is
the characteristic of Hindu temple culture spreads
from the Tamil speaking South.

Curiously, the vocabulary for IA chariotry includes
a word that is likely Dravidian. It is "aaNi"
('lynch pin', 'nail'). In Tamil, a South Dravidian
langauge whose literature spans at least 2300 years,
"aa_l-tal" is "to dive, to go deep, to press" etc.,
> From this verb "aaNi" seems to come from.

The retroflex letters like n, (written .n or N),
in Indian languages are supposed to come from
Dravidian. Note that the systemic retroflexion
(not spontaneous sporadic ones) is lacking in the sister
languages of Mundas in East India and in old Iranian.

>I also had a chance to reread the texts from Tell Brak, the Hurrian
>Nawar/Nagar ("Pasture",
>not Nagara, i hope!), a city in the Mittani
>heartland, perhaps not far from the lost Wa$$ukkanni.

The common verbs, "Ur-tal" and "nakar-tal" have
the same meaning: to crawl, to move slowly, to creep.
(You can check on-line Tamil lexicon from the
University of Cologne). Ur is the Dravidian village
name, so much so it or its variants like "oura" etc.,
are used to look for Dravidian in Indian toponymy.
"nakar" is also like "Ur", and nagara appears
to be a loanword in Sanskrit from this.

>If mani, "jewel" etc., is a non-IE, indigenous Indian word, why and how was
>it accepted into Hurrian? Is there a reasonable etymology? Is the word
>known in Dravidian languages and what does it mean in these languages?

This word is maNi meaning jewel or grain. I agree
with Prof. Selvakumar that for grains/jewels have
something to do with 'maN' = dense, hard, concentrated.

Another important aspect:
> From UCologne OTL, pl. take a look at:
maNNu-tal maNNu-tal 1. to bathe; to perform ablutions;
2. to immerse oneself completely, as in water;
1. to wash, clean by washing; 2. to smear, anoint;
3. to do, make, perform; 4. cf. man2d2 to adorn, beautify, decorate;
5. cf. man2d to polish, perfect, finish, as a gem

The meanings in the verb "maNNu-tal" such as
"to adorn/decorate/beautify" and "to perfect/finish as a gem"
is what is "maNi" = gem/jewel in Tamil and Sanskrit.
I have argued that the Vedic karkoTaka means
"gemstone giver".
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind9911&L=indology&P=R17156
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind9911&L=indology&P=R17553
On maNimat rAkshasa connected with maNi:
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind9912&L=indology&P=R9658

Compare maNi, maNNutal with another pair: paNi, paNNutal

The verb, paNNutal has given us important words
for music raaga, hand, trade etc.,

otl paNNu-tal paNNu-tal 1. to make, effect, produce, accomplish;
2. to fit out, make suitable; 3. to adorn; 4. to sing in an instrument,
as a tune; 5. to tune musical instruments; 6. to cook

paN - service, work, business, employment;

This is the root verb in barter trade in ancient times.
paNi, vaNi, vaNij (related to vaNiya), paNa ('money'),
pra-paNa are likely related with "paNNu-tal".

On a summary of Dravdian in ancient India:
    a) A. F. Sjoberg, The Dravidian contribution to the
    Development of Indian Civilization: A call for a
    Reassessment.
    Comparative Civilizations Review, v.23, p.40-74, 1990
    b) A. F. Sjoberg, The impact of Dravidian on Indo-Aryan:
    An overview,
    in Edgar C. Polome, Reconstruction of Languages and Cultures,
    1992, p. 507-529

Regards,
N. Ganesan

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