Dear Friends,

I have now ventured to disclose to the best of my possibility that Sanskrit is actually an ancient  variety of Tamil, a later form of SumeroTamil, a register of Tamil that actually predates the Sangkam Tamil from which the known History begins.  I know fully well the revolutionary implications of this claim , a claim that goes counter to the general believe that has conditioned Indian and European thinking for the last several thousand years. But then they did not know SumeruTamil  and hence could not see Sanskrit against the Sumerian background that we now have.

Perhaps we can see the history of Sanskrit as follows. There is the Rig Vedic variety that scholars like Burrow has linked with the language of Zen Avesta of the Persians. Let us call this Rigiskrit just for convenience. Now Sanskrit is an evolute of this and took its final grammatical form as codified by Panini. But Emeneou and many others have noted that in  this evolution many features of the Dravidian languages were assimilated. It may be possible that this Dravidian language is a language very close to Sumero Tamil. It now transpires than even the langiage of Rig Veda is another form of Archaic Tamil, quite close but later than SumeroTamil.

I am NOT an expert either in Sumerian or Sanskrit but however could not restrain myself after noting so many facts related to the theme I want to advance . So let me say that what I am saying is ONLY A PROPOSAL that NEEDS to be looked at more closely and certainly by experts. But since at the moment experts  who combine a sound knowledge of Tamil Sanskrit and SumeroTamil do not exist (as far as I know) I venture in this task,  bringing to it whatever little I know by way initiating  a new  field of study.

My intention is to point out that this claim is reasonably well founded and therefore worth taking it up at a more professional level.

In these postings I shall take up only Purusa Suktam and therefore my claims are LIMITED only to this text. If time permits I shall take up other texts as well

Notes. Abbreviations : "Sir" for Sirbiyam and "Mut". for Mutariibiyam. Those who do not have TSCII Tamil fonts please ignore the Tamil parts.

Loga

Santimantra

Om/ tacchamyoraavrniimahe/ gaatum yajnaaya/ gaatum yanjapataye/ daivii svatirasu nah/ svatir maanusebhyah/ uurdhvam jigaatsu bhesajam/ sam no astu dvipade/ sam catuspade/

Om santih santih santih

µõ/ ¾îºÁ¢¦Â¡Ã¡Å¢÷½£Á¦†/  ¸¡Ðõ ˆɡÂ/ ¸¡Ðõ  ˆÉÀ¾§Â/ ¨¾Å£ ŠÅ¾¢ÃÍ ¿‹/ ŠÅŠ¾¢÷ Á¡Û¦ºÀ¢Â‹/°÷òÐÅõ ƒ¢¸¡ðÍ §Àºƒõ/ ºõ §¿¡ ¾¢Å¢À¡§¾/ ºõ ºÐŠÀ¡§¾/

µõ º¡ó¾¢ º¡ó¾¢ º¡ó¾¢

We Pray  to God who dispels our sorrows and gives us the fruits of rituals. We pray to Him to get the results of our yajna (rites and rituals) as also for the good of the yajamaana or the sacrificer. May we attain the same kind of good that the gods (in heaven) get! May all the human beings also attain to suspiciousness! In future also, let all  the evils of life  be dispelled! May the human beings as also the  domestic animals under our care be happy!
 

1. Om or Aum. Ta. aam, oom and Su. am

This 'am' is Su. occurs everywhere and can be seen as a  term of assent , agreement , emphasize etc. that corresponds very closely Ta. aam which  interestingly enough,  is uttered as Om among the Sri Lankan Tamils to this day.

In Su. one of the most interesting occurrences is in Sir. 123-130  where it occurs definitely in  the mantra " he-zu-am" which is translated as "be it known" but which can also be  "eecu aam > eettu aam'  meaning "yes lets us praise "
 

Chandogya Upanisad, has an observation that shows this identification is quite beyond doubt.
It occurs in sec.1 where AUM is investigated as udgItha. I give the whole passage and its translation as given by none other than Dr. Radhakrishnan.

8. tad vaa etad anujnaaksaram, yaddi kim caanujaanaaty aum ity eva tad aaha; esaa eva samrddhir yad anujnaa, samardhayitaa ha vai kaamaanaam bhavati ya etad evam vidvaan aksaram udgitham upaaste

8. Verily, this syllable is of assent, for whenever one assents to anything he says simply ' aum'. What is assent is fulfillment. He, who knowing this thus, mediates on the syllable as the 'udgItha' becomes , verily , a fulfiller of desires.

This explanation clearly points out that among those who wrote this Upanishad there was the use of 'aum' as an expression of assent and agreement very much as  it is the case with Sri Lankan Tamils even to-day.

We may also note here that the Christian "aamen" may be  a variant of  Su. am-me-en  or Ta. aam.man where the word 'man' means 'most certainly" a particle of emphasize.

Purusa
 

The  term ' Purusa" can be identified as Ta. purusan where 'san' can be traced to Su. sag(sang) meaning a person. The 'puru" has several senses . The one relevant to the Suuktam is "pur>pul" which means  'emerging' 'arising' as in 'pul-ar' 'pul-an" etc. Then Purusa means the 'BEING that manifests " itself , a meaning that fits the essence of the Suuktam. It is clear that the demythologizing  of this term must have given  the term 'poruL"  that which is (uL) and how it shows itself up. The third Book of Tolkaappiyam is termed "PoruL atikaaram" meaning the study of the things that constitute the phenomenal world.

Another meaning of 'pur/pul' is to  conjugate , unite with etc. and which gives us the word 'purusan' meaning the man who unites  with , hence husband for a woman.

 Suukta. This may be a variant  of "dug-ta' of Su. that corresponds to the Ta. tuukku: to sing . Here we are presupposing the change 't'> 's'  quite contrary to the general rule where the reverse is the case. The term Ta. tuukku occurs as tuungku as below. Many words in like Su. du-du  are derived from this du(g)

Puram 24

tiNdimil vanparatavar
veppudaiya madduNdu
taN kuravaic  ciir thuungkuntu

where 'ciir tuungkuntu" makes it clear that 'tuungku/ tuukku" here means to sing a song (ciir).

The Sank. uktam: to propose , to assert etc.  also be taken as a variant of 'suuktam/tuuktam" where  the initial 's' is deleted-- a linguistic phenomena that is  quite well known.

The 'ta/tam' can be linked with the 'dam' of Su. ildam; the things that arise. It is a term of reference or generic name for things.

So from what we have said so far , it is clear that the terms "Purusa Suukta" and "Om' are Tamil., an ancient kind of Tamil related somewhat to Sumerian.

We shall continue along these for the entire Suktam.
 
 

Let us continue and I wish to mention here that certainly I can be mistaken as I haven't learned Sanskrit to the degree I should have done. . But I use the translations and transliterations into English and Tamil scripts  to help me along.

We have seen that 'AUM" is Tamil and possibly related Ta. aam, oom and Su. am. It is also possible that Christian  'amen' is also related to this. We have also seen that the title 'Purusa Suuktam ' may itself be Archaic Tamil meaning " a Song of Praise for Purusa, the Manifest BEING"

Now let us  analyze the next few lines in this Santhi Mantra.

 santhi: Ta. saathu, cettal, Ta. caantam, Su. sed-de'

In Sir. the 'sed-de' occurs in the sense of "to pacify" like a mother pacifying a crying child . In Tamil it has come  to mean 'to die" and also " patient, soft and gentle" assuming here the word caatu to be Tamil.  However the Su. word attests that it  and its variants are Tamil and that long ago it has become "saanti" a word that occurs very frequently in almost all prayers.

For "sed-de",  see:

Sir. 96 dumu-ir-pa-da-bi ama-ne na-an-sed-e

May its plaintive child not be placated by his mother

Ta. tamu iir padubi ammanee  naan settee

The sed-e or sed-de that is the archaic form of Ta. settu has the meaning to pacify , to calm etc. that corresponds with the meaning od saanti.

 taccamyoraavrNimahe

This phrase can be analyzed into : taccham yoraa virNi mahee

mahe or mahee:  Su. ma, mah & the  related term Su,. makatum Ta. maa , mahaa, Ta. makattuvam
 

This certainly is  a variant of Su. mah which was probably read as 'maah' . Suffixed is 'ee', the eekaaram that distinguishes the subject from the rest-- the theeRRa eekaram

taccam . Ta. tuccam

Here the Ta. tuccam is related ta. tuuci, tuucu etc. and which means dirt, dust and something despicable . It is possible that Ta. tuccam> Sk. taccam  meaning "sorrow' and other despicable things. It may also mean poverty.

yoraa Ta. oruvu, uruvu *Ta.  ooram Su. ur-re as kur-ur-re that occurs in Mut.

The Ta. oruvu, uruvu means 'to displace', 'to put aside' 'to unsheathe'  possibly  derived from the original 'Oram"  meaning  the edges, the sides off the center.

vrNii . About this I am uncertain but can be taken as variant of Su. kar-Ni  meaning to set up , establish etc.

Thus we  can reconstruct the phrase as : tuccam ooram karNi mahee: (Ðîºõ µÃõ ¸÷½£ Á§¸) meaning ; Oh! the Great One! put aside our poverty and miseries!

 gaatum yajnaaya

gaatum Su. kal/gal Ta. kaal, kaar ; Su. tum, tum-mu Ta. tuppu, tummu

In Su. one of the words that occurs very frequently is gal/ kal with variants gar/kar meaning ' to set up, to do " etc. The Ta. kaal that means  'legs' or " limbs" may be a secondary development with the meaning 'that which establishes" . There is also an ancient  phrase ' kaal yaattal" meaning in the case of plants-- taking roots.

The word 'tum-mu' as in  'um-ma tum-mu-de " Mut. 102  is related to Ta. tuppu in the sense of plants or food stuff but really meaning the which grows, pushes  forward or appear. At the moment it can be related to Ta. thooRRu : cause to appear, show itself up and links up with malay: tumboh: to grow.

yajna Su. izi (fire) Su. ezen: festival Ta. yaakam

Obviously here  the Sk term is very close to the Su. that means fire or festival.

The -ay- is either a sound filler or a variant of  Ta. aa, aay: to become, to emerge etc.

The suffix  "-a"  which also occurs frequently in Su. and Ta. is 'cuddu' meaning 'that' but which when suffixed to a name becomes "that from which " 'that to which it belongs" etc.

This observation is important for here we have a GRAMMATICAL identity which normally do not get borrowed by foreign languages. Thus the term can be analyzed as  'ezen-aay-a" (±ƒÉ¡Â) meaning 'that which emerges from the ritual, or fire festival. Hence " kaal tum ejenaaya" means : Establish as there those that emerge from the fire festival.

 gaatum yajnapataye.

Here we can analyze it as " ejen-a-pate-ye" where we have also  a related term " ejamaan-a" the leader of the sacrifice which is obviously Ta. with 'maan" . Though I am not certain we can consider "pati" that also occurs in Tamil, as a variant of  Su. ba-ji where both are seen individually but not  as  a compoud such as this.  The term 'ba" means simply a person and with the cuddu 'a' becomes " a-ba" : meaning that person. The term zi/ji in Su. means Jivan and also a honorific person as in Babu-ji etc. So we propose here  ba-ji> pa-si> pati meaning 'the lord" and derivatively " the husband" . As the whole the phrase may mean: Establish me as the leader of festivals, the eje.maana

However the term "pati" can be related to Sumerian "patesi" : governor ,  a political term of wide use in Sumerian. Here "-si" is a variant of "zi" which exists till today as the honorific suffix 'ji' in Northern Indian languages and in  Tamil as "ji-yar" in VaishNava Tamil usage. When we delete this honorific suffix, we have simply "pate" meaning the governor, the lord, the leader. etc.
 
 

The next lines are : daivii svastir astu nah/ svaatir maanusebhyah/

 daivii  Ta. teyvam, teyviikam , tivviyam, teevan etc. Su. dingir Ak. diwer

This word that is widely used both in Sanskrit and Tamil has been assumed that  it is original to Sanskrit  and was borrowed into Tamil as well as all other Indian languages.

However now it turns out that it is native to Sumero Tamil and is a variant of Dingir that occurs with  the meaning 'god' very extensively and also as the generic term for deities.  This also occurs as 'dimmer' and diwer' in Akkadian a language contemporary to Sumerian and which existed alongside and which later displaced Sumerian  itself. It can also be related  Ta. tingkaL meaning 'moon' a notion not impossible as most the names of gods are related to the names of celestial objects.

 svastir (possibly: Su. su-ba-si-tir ,)Su. ti, til, til-lu

The Su. tir/ti/ til-lu appear to be related terms and where we have Ta. til as an archaic term the meaning of which is indeterminate but which occurs in  Sangam classics as 'vaazka til amma' etc. The Su. til-lu as in " til-lu ug " in Sulgi Hymn B, (Mut) it has the Tamil correspondence 'tinnu' meaning to eat and hence derivatively 'to live, survive" etc. It is retained in Ta. tillai manRu, an important  term in metaphysics meaning the Ground of All Origins.

However "su-ba-si" has become obsolete. The 'su" meaning 'hands' exists as  cuur> karam  with identical meanings.. However this Sk term seems to retain the original Su. phrase such as those that occur  in the following sentences.

Dumuzi's Dream :

174: Utu a-igi-na su ba-si-in-ti (utu received his tears)

235: Utu a-igi-na su ba-si-in-in -ti ( Utu received his tears, note the repetition of -in-)

179 .. zi-ni ba-si-in-tum ( he saved his life)

It appears that 'svastir" is a truncation with vocalic deletion (that is frequent in Sk.) of possible "su-va-si-tir" :  place in my hands i.e. give it to me, or grace me with it.

. asti (possibly  Su. a-si-ti) Ta. a: that, this etc.

Here almost the same goes. a-si-ti> asti : "place that" or "let that be". Here there is cross reference'  a' to "daivii" that is named as that which is desired.

 nah Su, ngaa (written as ga but read also as 'nga' and 'na') Ta. kam, ka, naan

This term is also of wide occurrence. We can see it above in D.D 174 'a-igi-na"  " waters from his eyes' : Ta. am imainna.

Hence this phrase can be reconstructed as : dingir-e su-ba-si-tir nah : meaning either" Dear god! grant me (what I desire) or " Dear God, Place in my hands (the good things)

The next phrase is "svastir maanusebhyah"  where 'svastir" is repeated.

maanusebhyah  Su. munus (woman ) Ta. manithan, manusi , maantan etc.

In Su. gi and mi mean a woman.  In addition to that we have also 'munus" as in the following:

nam-sub-eridu-ga murgu sa-sa-al ti-ti munus-be u-me-ni-dib (given in the notes to 'mi' in Sir)

Though originally meant 'woman' (Ta. manusi) it has come to mean 'human beings ' later.

The 'bhyah" corresponds to the grammatical term Su. bi-a that occurs frequently and which has become obsolete in Tamil.

Sir.

45. ugnim-bi ni-bi-a ma-ra-ab -lah-e
    It leads its army captive before you on its own accord

46. ka-kesda ni-bi-a ma-ra-ab-si-il-e
    it disbands its regiments before you of its own accord.

The 'ni-bi-a" meaning on its own accord corresponds to Sk. bhyah that also occurs very widely. The "bi" has the meaning of "it, they" and when it occurs as suffix it means "it's,  their" etc. The "-a" is the cuddu 'that' . Thus collectively 'maanushebhyah" may mean " that which pertains to human beings"
 

The next line that do not present many great difficulties is  " urrdhvam jigaatu bhesajam". Let us consider the words one by one

 uurdhvam  Su. ur, Ta. uur (to crawl, move etc.) & Su. -dam, -tam Ta. tuvam

Taking this word as having originated from root 'uur" it would mean things that move  and qualified as "jigaatu"  than living creatures other than human beings i.e. 'manuse" that occurs in the earlier line.

Sir.

14. nin ur-ra u-a : Lady riding on a beast.

Though translated simply as beast what it means is  things that move, a sense that is retained in Ta. uurti: vehicle, a conveyance from the root 'uur" meaning to move etc.

The sense "something above " that is also associated with "urdhvam" may also be linked with Su. hur and Tamil uyar: high and above

The 'dvam" is already discussed above  and where we noted this as a variant of 'tam' as in Su. maka-tum and 'dam' as Su. il-dam: the things that grow,  where this term parallels 'uurdhvam" . Perhaps the original structure was " uurdam" or 'uurttam"

. jigaatu.

This can be analyzed into jiga-atu" meaning 'those living things.  "jiga" is obviously Su. zi-ga or Ta, jiivan where 'van' is an evolute of 'ka". 'atu" is the Tamil 'atu" meaning that, a cross reference here to 'uurdhvam'

. bhesajam  Su. ba-e-si  Su. sum, se Ta. sem-

This is archaic the parallel of which do not exist in Tamil (as far as I know). However there are Sumerian parallels

Sir

9. usumgal-gim kur-ra us ba-e-si.
   Like a dragon you have deposited venom on the land

Clearly the parallels are obvious, the Sk bhesa is very likely a variant of " baesi" . Here instead of 'us' poison we have ' 'jam" which is a variant of 'sam" or what's the same "sem" i.e. happiness and prosperity occurring not before the verbal phrase but after it  but which does not  make any difference to the meaning.

Thus the overall meaning of this phrase appears to be:  Let the living creatures be granted happiness and prosperity. This makes sense as the prayer, after seeking happiness and prosperity for the human beings should   seek also the same for the animals.

It is against this elucidation that we should look the next phrases

'sam no astu dvipade" and 'sam catupade" which I shall not  discuss extensively. The 'dvi' and 'catur' do not have parallels in Sumerian terms for numbers.  The term 'pade" has parallels in Ta. paatam, paatai  and since I cannot recall parallel terms in Su. I shall take it when I do. The 'sam" and 'astu' have already been discussed.
 

However let us conclude this study of Santhi Mantra: Almost every word is Sumero Tamil and in addition to that there are syntactic or grammatical structures almost the same except that the Sk. records versions that are much later in the evolutionary history of the Sumerian  language which is Archaic tamil.
 

(to continue) 

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