Madhuvidya

Author(s): S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 578

found in any other two branches of the Indo-European family of languages. If one glances through the pages of the Altiranisches Wörterbuch--the extent of which is far too smaller than of a Sanskrit dictionary--one meets with many vocabulary items which have cognates in Sanskrit and hence prove their common origin-- examples chosen at random: Sk.hiranya, Av.zaranya'gold', Sk.vṛkşa, Av.varǝša tree; Sk.mátsya. Av.mašya'fish'; Sk., send, Av. haend 'army'; Sk. yajñá, Av. yasna 'worship, sacrifice'; Sk. hótar Av. zaotar 'priest'; Sk. Mitrá, Av. miera 'name of a deity', etc. etc. the similarity between the two languages is not restricted to the vocabulary items in large number; it is witnessed even more strongly in grammer -- that is in the manner of root alternation cf. Sk. gam: gacch, Av. gam:jas, in the use of vikaranas to form stems, e.g. Sk. su: sunu, Av. hu: hunu; and in terminations, e.g. Sk. bhárāmi, bhárati, Av. barāmi baraiti. Not only this. Both these branches have made common innovations in the parent Indo-European language, e.g. they have merged IE a, e, o> a, and changed IE m, n > a; both show palatalistion before front vowels as in ca-kära, ja-gama and the introduction of n before gen.pl.term, hence Sk.devänäm, Av.daevānam against Gk.hippon, Lat. deum=deorum etc. The similarity between Sanskrit and Avesta is best illustrated by showing how an Avestan line like tom amavantom yazatəm surəm damohu səvištem mirəm yazdi zao@rabyo (Yt. 10.6) can be easily rendered into Sanskrit - tam amavantam süram dhamasu favistham mitram yajai hotrebhyaḥ (for hotrebhiḥ) 'that strong, brave, bravest among the creations, Mitra, I worship with oblations".
It is very likely that the Indo-Iranians, after they left the original home of the IndoEuropeans, came to Iran and Afhganistan from South Russia. The common view regarding their coming to this new land together and the subsequent migration of a part of them to India has to be a little modified on account of certain linguistic evidence brought to light from the Near East. There, in upper Mesopotamia, Mitanni Kingdom was established by people who spoke a language very similar to the Indo-Iranian or the Old Indo-Aryan. These people are supposed to have come to Mesopotamia between 17411600 B. C. The Cuneiform inscriptions discovered in this area reveal certain terms and names of deities which are unmistakably of the Indo-Iranian branch. Some of the names of the Mitanni princes also show closeness to Indo-Aryan, e.g. šuvar-data = Sk. svar-datta or svar-dhäta'given or created by the sun'; Indrauta Sk. Indra-ūta protectd by Indra'. In a treaty concluded in 1360 B. C. by the Hittite king Suppiluliuma with Mattiwaza of the Mitanni people when the latter was made a king and was given his daughter by the Hittite king, we have the mention of the names of deities as witness to the treaty. In this list of gods we find, by the side of a number of non-Aryan deities, such names as are easily identifiable with Vedic gods Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Nasatyā. Then in a Hittite text composed by one Kikkuli on horse-training we find such numerals as aika 'one', tera 'three', panza 'five', satta 'seven', na (va) 'nine', and such words as
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