Itihasa of Soma pavamana Meluhha oṇi gold dust exports to Mesopotamia Cuneiform texts 3rd millennium BCE

Itihāsa of Soma pavamāna, Meluhha oṇi ‘gold dust’ exports to Mesopotamia -- Cuneiform texts 3rd millennium BCE Executive summary Itihāsa of Soma pavamāna with particular reference to use of oṇi 'gold dust' from anthills Ṛgveda Ṛcas discussed in the following monographs indicate that oṇi 'gold dust' from anthills is used in Soma, wealth-creation process http://tinyurl.com/j967fp6 http://tinyurl.com/jbb3w56 http://tinyurl.com/j34qv9r http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2017/02/herodotus-was-not-lying-himalayas-offer.html Cuneiform texts attest that gold dust was exported from Meluhha to Ancient Near East during 3rd millennium BCE. Monique Cardell reports on the views of Prof. M. Romain Garnier, Prof. of Sanskrit at the University of Limoges:[quote] “According to Mayrhofer, (EWAia III: 132-3), the Vedic pipIla m. ‘ant’ (source of the derived secondary skr. pipIlaka ‘big black ant’) is a non-Indo-European term that resembles the Tibetan p’yi ‘marmot’.In his first dictionary, the KEWA (II: 284-5), in the province of Aix, he likens this word, which is a borrowed word, to affirmed zoonyms in languages spoken in the Far East and Siberia: the Chukchi pipykyl-g ‘mouse’ and Koriak pipika ‘mouse’. There is no trace of this word in Old Persian, but the language is so poorly documented that it hardly matters; we can imagine an ancient adjective for a color signifying ‘reddish-brown’ or ‘brown’ and its having been used as a denomination for ants, marmots,and mice.” … Indeed, because the word pipIlika has never been employed to mean flakes of gold in any other text other than book 2 of the Mahābhārata, it is therefore a hapax legomenon. (hapax, is a word used only once in either a text or a whole language). However, pipIlika is used twice in the same verse, and the other time it has a different meaning. Remember, pipIlika when used to mean gold is a neutral noun, whereas when it means ‘ant’ pipIlika is either a masculine or feminine noun…Robert H,. Stacy,..believes that pipIlikas were men from a Mongolian tribe. (Robert H. Stacy, India in Russian Literature, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1985, p.2: ‘it appears that both the word and the story arose from a confusion of the Mongolian words for a tribe and for ‘ant’…Johannes Adrianus Bernadus van Buitenen…translates the following way: ‘they brought the gold called PipIlika, which is granted as a boon by the pipIlika ants…’…The guests from abroad brought to Yudhisthira ‘as tribute of pipilika gold dust…we can establish that in the same verse (or ‘sloka’) 02048004a of Book 2, Sabha Parva, The Book of the Assembly Hall, of the Mahābhārata, according to the edition designated (http://bombay.indology.info/cgi-bin/welome.cgi -- register for free to read text), the 1

first pipIlika represents flakes of gold, and the second, pipIlikaih represents an animal that, by burrowing, unearths flakes of gold; its names is a foreign word, pipilika, a hapax in Sanskrit literature, which everystood was a type of rodent of the sandy and auriferous deserts of the Himalayan region.[unquote] https://www.academia.edu/12455298/Herodotus_and_the_gold_digging_ants_h e_was_not_lying The Ṛgveda term for the 'gold dust' or 'gold flakes' would be 'slabs' made of anthills containing pipilika. Such slabs were called oṇi which were used as 'Soma press-slabs' and hence, the dual, oṇyoh in a Ṛgveda Ṛca. The Ṛgveda term for the 'gold dust' or 'gold flakes' would be 'slabs' made of anthills containing pipilika. Such slabs were called oṇi which were used as 'Soma pressslabs' and hence, the dual, oṇyoh in a Ṛgveda Ṛca. The use of the dual indicates that oṇi was of two types: 1. stone and 2. anthill gold dust (slab) to press the Soma pyrite ores.

RV 9.65.11 I send thee forth to battle from the press, O Pavamana, Strong, Sustainer, looker on the light. 9.065.11 You, the supporter of heaven and earth, O purified (Soma), the beholder of heaven, the powerful one, I send forth to battle. [Or, I urge you to grant us food].

Griffith: RV 9.101. 14 The Friend hath wrapped him in his robe, as in his parents arms, a son. He went, as lover to a dame, to take his station suitorlike-. RV9.101.14 (Soma) the kinsman (of the gods) is enveloped in the investing filter like a child in the arms of its protecting parents; he hastens like a gallant to a mistress, like a bridegroom (to the bride) to sit upon his station (the pitcher). That the word oṇi in Rgveda is a synonym of pipIlika is confirmed by the following textual evidence from Hemachandra Deśināmamālā, p. 18 glossary:

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पििीपिक n. a kind of gold supposed to be collected by ants MBh. ii , 1860.; m. an ant AdbhBr. MBh. &c (Monier-Williams) पििीपिकः pipīlikḥपििीपिकः An ant . -कम् A kind of gold (said to be collected by ants); तद् वै पििीपिकं नाम उद् धृतं यत् पििीिकैः । जातरूिं द्रोणमेयमहार्षः ि्ञ्जशो नृिाः ॥ Mb.2.52.4. -Comp. -ि् टम् an ant-hill. (Apte) तद् वै पििीपिकं नाम उद् धृतं यत् पििीिकैः । जातरूिं द्रोणमेयमहार्षः ि्ञ्जशो नृिाः ॥ Mb.2.52.4 The corrrect translation of this sloka, based on the views of Robert H. Stacy of the Mahābhārata text would be: presents included...pipIlikam 'flakes of gold' were dug out by pipIikaih 'by people of a Mongolian tribe called pipilika'. What the cuneiform texts refer to as 'gold dust' should refer to pipIlika gold. The word oṇi which means 'anthill' (according to Hemacandra) should be explained in the context of Ṛgveda descriptions of use of oṇi 'slabs' to press Soma 'pyrite ores' to obtain purfied gold dust or potable gold. The seafaring merchants from Meluhha were also called mleccha, workers in copper (and metals). Their speech form in Indian sprachbund involved many mispronunciations and ungrammatical expressions. Thse expressions have been identified in the Indus Script Corpora read rebus as hieroglyphs/hypertexts of metalwork catalogues. Ṛgveda tradition of Soma Samsthā Yāga of processing Soma, continued into the third millennium BCE Indus Script inscriptions related to metalwork. The Indus Script hieroglyphs/hypertexts are also attested along the Persia Gulf (Magan, Dilmun) and into Ancient Near East (including on three pure tin ingots in a shipwreck in Haifa, Israel). Meluhha (and through Magan) was a source of gold dust for Mesopotamia in 3rd millennium BCE. Worterbuch (St. Petersburg Dictionary), Hemacandra’s Abhidāna Cintāmaṇi (IV.105), lexicons of Monier Williams and Apte give ‘copper’ as one of the meanings of the cognate lexeme mleccha. म्लेच्छ [p= 837,3] n. copper L.; one who mispronounces Samskrtam, Chandas words. म्लेच्छः mlēcchḥ -च्छम् 1 Copper; -आस्यम् , मुखम् copper. -वाच् a. speaking a barbarous or foreign language; म्लेच्छवाचश्चायषवाचः सवे ते दस्यवः स्मृताः Ms.1.45.; म्लेच्छनम् mlēcchanam म्लेच्छनम् 1 Speaking indistinctly or confusedly. 2 Speaking in a barbarous tongue.; म्लेच्छच्छत mlēcchita म्लेच्छच्छत p. p. Spoken indistinctly or barbarously. -तम् 1 A foreign tongue. -2 An ungrammatical word or speech.म्लेच्छच्छतकम् mlēcchitakam म्लेच्छच्छतकम् Foreign or barbarous speech..(Monier-Williams; Apte)

Gudea (ca. 2200 BCE) under the Lagash dynasty brought usu wood and gold dust and carnelian from Meluhha. Ibbi-Sin (2029-2006 BCE) under the third dynasty of Ur “imported from Meluhha copper, wood used for making chairs and dagger sheaths, mesu wood, and the multicoloured birds of ivory.” 3

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/08/meluhha-mleccha-language-of-ca-4th.html

Shulgi’s twenty-sixth year (2068 BCE) economic text reports receipt of gold dust at Ur from a lugal-Ma-gan (ki) (Ur Excavation Texts III 299). (loc.cit. DT Potts, 1992: https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/ART/article/viewFile/5534/6202

MS 2814 ROYAL INSCRIPTION COMMEMORATING DEFEAT OF MAGAN, MELUKHAM, ELAM(?), AND AMURRU, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF REGULAR OFFERINGS TO HIS STATUE; SCHOOL TEXT?

MS in Neo Sumerian and Old Babylonian on clay, Sumer, 2100-1800 BC, 1 tablet, 14,8x14,0x3,3 cm (originally ca. 16x14x3 cm), 3+3 columns, 103 lines in cuneiform script. Commentary: The text was copied from a Sargonic royal inscription on a statue in the Ur III or early Old Babylonian period. Magan was at Oman and at the Iranian side of the Gulf. Meluhha or Melukham was the Indus Valley civilisation (ca. 2500-1800 BC). This is one of fairly few references to the Indus civilisation on tablets. The 3 best known references are: 1. Sargon of Akkad (2334-2279 BC) referring to ships from Meluhha, Magan and Dilmun; 2. Naram-Sin (2254-2218 BC) referring to rebels to his rule, listing the rebellious kings, including '(..)ibra, man of Melukha'; and 3. Gudea of Lagash (2144-2124 BC) referring to Meluhhans that came from their country and sold gold dust, carnelian, etc. There are further references in literary texts. After ca. 1760 BC Melukha is not mentioned any more. For Indus MSS in The Schoyen Collection, see MS 2645 (actually linking the Old Acadian and Indus civilisations), MSS 4602, 4617, 4619, 5059, 5061, 5062 and 5065. Exhibited: Tigris 25th anniversary exhibition. The Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo, 30.1. - 15.9.2003. 4

].hhttp://www2.uned.es/geo-1-historia-antiguauniversal/new%20website/IRAK/Tesoros_Irak_20_TablillaS_cuneiformeS.htm

S. Kalyanaraman Sarasvati Research Center February 16, 2017

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