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Some Aspects of the Indo-Mediterranean Contacts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

R.N. Dandekar

Extract

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Let me begin by defining my subject geographically and chronologically. For the purpose of this paper, by “Mediterranean World,” I have understood, on the one hand, the Levant which included Asia Minor and the Fertile Crescent with Egypt at its western terminus, Syria-Palestine forming its western band, and Assyria-Babylonia constituting its eastern bow, and, on the other, Greece and Rome. By India I mean the Indian subcontinent. I shall deal with my subject roughly in four chronological periods, which, for the sake of convenience, I shall designate as Indo-Mesopotamian period, Indo-Anatolian period, Indo-Hellenistic period, and Indo-Roman period.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 18 , Issue 71 , September 1970 , pp. 18 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © 1970 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 Cf. V. P. Alekseyev, in Indiya v Drevnosti - Sbornik Statej, Moscow 1964.

2 Proceedings of the World Population Conference, Vol. II, 761-782.

3 George F. Dales, "Of Dice and Men," JAOS, 88, 14-23.

4 G. Bibby, "The ‘Ancient Indian Style' Seals from Bahrain," Antiquity, 32, 243-46. Also see: W. F. Leemans, Foreign Trade in the Old Babylonian Period, Leyden, 1960.

5 Cf. S. R. Rao, "Shipping and Maritime Trade of the Indus people," Expedition, 7, 30-37; Hartmut Schmökel, "Zwischen Ur und Lothal, Die Seehandelsroute von Altmesopotamien zur Induskultur," Forschungen und Fortschritte, 40 (5), 143-147. Incidentally, it is suggested that "when the Indo-Aryans already inhabited a great part of India, the peninsula of Gujarat was perhaps a last bulwark of the Indus civilization" (Leemans, JESHO, 11, 223).

6 G. F. Dales, "Harappan Outposts on the Makran Coast," Antiquity, 36, 86-92.

7 S. R. Rao, "A ‘Persian Gulf' Seal from Lothal," Antiquity, 37, 96-99.

8 Archaeology, 20, 104-107. Also see: C. J. Gadd, "Seals of Ancient Indian Style found at Ur," Proceedings of the British Academy, 1932, 191-210.

9 Cf. "The identification of Meluhha with India is well established and is corroborated by its etymological derivative in Sanskrit mleccha, a word which occurs first in the Śatapathabrāhmana to denote barbarians (‘demons’) of unintelligible speech" (Asko Parpola and others, Decipherment of the Proto-Dravidian Inscriptions of the Indus Civilization, A first announcement, Copen hagen, 1969, p. 4). Pentti Aalto first suggested the connection of Meluhha with Pali milakkha, Sanskrit mleccha (ibid., p. 50). Also see: W. F. Leemans, "Additional Evidence for the Persian Gulf Trade and Meluhha," JESHO, 11 (2), 215-226.

10 Samuel Noah Kramer, "The Indus Civilization and Dilmun, the Sumerian Paradise Lost," Expedition, 6, 44-52. Parpola and others identify Tilmun (Dilmun) with the Bahrein island (op. cit., p. 4) Also see: K. Jaritz, "Tilmun-Makan-Meluhha," Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 27 (3), 209-213.

10a M. Mayrhofer, "Zahlwortkomposita des Kikkuli-Textes," IF, 70, 11-13.

11 For a fuller discussion, see: R. Hauschild, Über die frühesten Arier im alten Orient, Berlin 1962; M. Mayrhofer, Die Indo-Arier im alten Vorderasien mit einer analytischen Bibliographie, Wiesbaden 1966; A. Kammenhuber, Die Arier im Vorderen Orient, Heidelberg, 1968.

12 Cf. O. Szemerényi, "Structuralism and Substratum: Indo-Europeans and Semites in the Ancient Near East," Lingua, 13, 1-29.

13 E. Benveniste, " La forme du participe en Luwi," Festschrift Johannes Friedrich, 1959, 53-59.

14 M. Mayrhofer, "Über einige arische Wörter mit hurrischem Suffix," Annali Ist. Univ. Or. Napoli, Sez. Ling., 1, p. 1-11.

15 P. Thieme, "The ‘Aryan' Gods of Mitanni Treaties," JAOS, 80, 301-317.

16 The names may be rendered in Vedic Sanskrit as mathivāja and tvesaratha.

17 E. Herzfeld, Iran in the Ancient East, 1941, p. 192.

18 For a fuller statement on the subject, see: R. N. Dandekar, "The Antecedents and the Early Beginnings of the Vedic Period," Proceedings of the Tenth Indian History Congress, 1947, 24-55. It will be seen that I have slightly modified my earlier view regarding the migration of the Proto-Aryans towards Anatolia.

19 Perhaps comparable with OIA arnas, arnava.

20 Though usually referred to as Eastern Anatolia, the Mitanni kingdom geographically coincided with a major part of ancient Mesopotamia

21 See the preceding foot-note.

22 A. S. Altekar (Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Indian History Congress, 1959, p. 20) is inclined to identify the Panis with ‘the Harappans or with a section of them.'

23 H. G. Rawlinson, "India in European Literature and Thought," in The Legacy of India, Oxford 1962, p. 1.

24 Rawlinson, op. cit., pp. 2-3.

25 Mortimer Wheeler, Early India and Pakistan, 24 and 171.

26 H. D. Sankalia, Indian Archaeology Today, 124. The first ‘urbanisation' was encouraged by the Indo-Mesopotamian contacts described above.

27 This is the view of C. von Fürer-Haimendorf.

28 The names as mentioned in the rock-edict read: Amtiyoga; Tulamaya, Amtekina; Maka; Alikyasudala.

29 Bela Lahiri, "Impact of Foreign Trade on Coins of Ancient India," QRHS, 5, 194.

30 B.N. Mukherjee, "Impact of Foreign Trade on Political History—An Illustration," QRHS, 5, 183.

31 Kalyan Kumar Das Gupta, "Foreign Trade and Gandhara Art," QRHS, 5, 201.

32 B. B. Lal, Indian Archaeology since Independence, 34.

33 Mortimer Wheeler, Rome beyond the Imperial Frontiers, 135. Sankalia (op. cit., 120 f.n. 81) does not think that the statuette portrays Laksmī.

34 R. N. Dandekar ("East and West," Journal of the University of Poona: Humanistic Section, No. 17, p. 79) sees in this the influence of the anthropo centric West. See also foot-note 36.

35 It has been pointed out by Lallanji Gopal (QRHS, 5, 188) that "the literally golden period of Indian coinage system was the period which witnessed India's trade activity at its peak."

36 According to K. K. Das Gupta (op. cit., 201-202), the art of Gāndhāra was "but an integral part of Hellenistic art" and it "derived its sustenance from Buddhism and capitalism, the latter being an outgrowth of Indo-Roman commerce." In connection with the Gāndhāra art, R. N. Dandekar says ("East and West," 78): "The traditional cosmic non-individualistic outlook of the Indians did not encourage the sculptures of individual, isolated figures. It must have been the contact with the anthropocentric West which had inspired the sculpture of the figures of the Buddha."