________________
( 63 ) the acheivements of Sumer, that it was stimulated ; and that it adapted to its own rapid development such elements as seemed compatible with its efforts. In Egypt, signs of contact with Sumer almost cease after Narmer or Menes times. The art objects of the Sumerian influence, the serpent-naked lions, intertwinned snakes and composite and other motifs are also found at Mohenjodaro. It seems probable that the people who introduced art in Sumer took that art to Egypt also and hence the similarity. But the contact of Sumerian art with Egypt at some point in South Arabia or Somali coast does not make that art of Arabia or Somaliland. It did not belong to any of these two regions. It was brought from somewhere else. Nobody claims the colonisation of Egypt by Sumerians. We have to look to some other land. Fortunately the word Punt itself provides the answer. The root of the word is Pwn, the T being the usual feminine ending for å foreign country. It may also indicate the origin of the Phænician, the coast people of Palestine and Punic, of the North Africa. The Pwn may be identified with Paņi of Bhārata. Punt means 'country of the Paņis'. Paņis were great sea-faring people of Bhārata. Paņis were the first foreign immigrating settlers of Egypt who gave her art, science, culture and civilization. Menes expedition may be placed in the middle of the fourth millennium B. C,8
Father Heras has, admirably well traced the origins of the Sumerian and the Egyptian civilizations to pre-Aryan Bhārata. He has compared the archäological evidence of the Three Great civilizations. But the archæological evidence is not alone to prove these conclusions. Similarities of economic and social conditions in this vast region bear remarkable similarities. Freedom of the individual, foundation of the family, status of women, formation of
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
