Smearing the Drums

[Bjarte Kaldhol]

Dear listmembers,

Naga Ganesan wrote:

> Note 3: Parpola considers NArada muni with NarayaNa,
> kinnaram, etc. from Dravidian root, nara- 'gut string'
> and says has relations with the Near East.
> Fairservis wrote IVC seals with harp, twin drum
> might have been called as paaN 'bard'.
> http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind0003&L=indology&P=R7015
> Any relation between India and ancient Near East in
> musicology?
>

As far as I know, the etymology of kinna:ru (long a), "lyre", and na:ru or
na'ru or nu'a:ru, "musician" is not in any way transparent. Kinna:ru is
thought to have entered  Akkadian from West Semitic, I think. There is a
Hurrian derivation, kinnaruhuli, "kinnaru-player", or perhaps
"kinnaru-maker"? attested at Alalah in Syria. Kinnaru is attested from Old
Babylonian times (eighteenth century BC) and later at Ugarit. I do no know
if it is attested earlier, perhaps at Ebla? The Greek form is kinura
(kinyra), with short vowels, attested as a personal name (written ki-nu-ra)
already in a Linear B tablet from Pylos in Greece (thirteenth century BC).

I do not see how kinna:ru can be related to na:ru, which in its turn is
supposed to be associated in some way with Sumerian NAR, "musician". If the
second part of kinnaru is related to Dravidian nAr, nAri, nAram etc., the
first part kin- must be explained, and then a Semitic or Hurrian origin is
excluded, but perhaps not a Sumerian origin? I do not believe that Sanscrit
kinnara- (!) has anything to do with kinna:ru, if that has been asserted.

There is a Hurrian root kinn- attested in names like Kinnari, Kinnanni,
Kinnuzzi and perhaps Kinnitanni. If the word is Hurrian, the suffix -ar- is
easy to explain as an iterative suffix, but one would have expected the -a-
to be short. (There are lots of such Hurrian words consisting of a root
plus -ari/-are.) In Hurrian kinnaruhuli, however, the -a- seems to be
short; it is spelled ki-in-na-ru-hu-li. The meaning of kinn- is not known.

Literature on Hurrian music:
M. Duchesne-Guillemin, "Sur la restitution de la musique hourrite", in
REVUE DE MUSICOLOGIE 66, 1980. About Harfe, Laute and Leier (in German),
see Reallexikon der Assyriologie.

Regarding the status of leather workers (called A$GAB and a$kapu), which
Naga Ganesan asked me about in private correspondence, they were highly
respected and in fact among the most important experts in Near East
societies, since they also made  parts for weapons, chariots, horses, and
armour. Musicians and singers, too, were highly regarded, as they took part
in all kinds of rituals. There were no "polluted" castes in Near East
societies.

Best wishes,
Bjarte Kaldhol