Book Title: Sumati Jnana
Author(s): Shivkant Dwivedi, Navneet Jain
Publisher: Shantisagar Chhani Granthamala

Previous | Next

Page 159
________________ 136 Sumati-Jñāna Saivism from the realistic phallic representations in the Harappan period to the Gudimallam Siva Linga of early historic period obtained from south India to the later Siva lingas. Besides the above, recently, Sundara (2001: pp. 98-106; 2002: pp. 237-246) has traced several links of traditions between the Harappans and Megalithic communities besides links of coeval association between the Mauryans, Moriyas of south India and Megalithic communities of south India. In the context of Megalithic practices, he has recalled the use of stone - although infrequently-back to the Harappan time as seen at Surkotada, Dholavira, and Harappa. Recently, only 60 kilometers away from Dholavira cairn circles were reported from Kuran (Mahurkar, 2004, pp. 56-57). This site also yielded Harappan pottery in the course of excavations. Apparently, the megalithic cairn circles had its genesis earlier in time and became conspicuous in south India after the decline and dispersion of the Harappans. Further, tracing the possibilities of Harappan traditions Sundara (2002: pp. 237-246) has posed a question on the possibility of the origin of Brahmi script from the graffiti on the Black and Red Ware potteries from deep south. He has pointed out the similarity between the graffiti and Harappan script. Earlier (Zvelebil, 1965, pp. 65-69) had pointed towards similarity of Harappan alphabets and graffiti on the Black and Red Ware. Pertinently the Black and Red Ware Pottery (Tewari, et. al. 2002, pp. 54-59) form one common and earliest pottery in the subcontinent. They have pointed out the early dates of the Black and Red Ware pottery from Lahuradeva and, therefore, also to nearby sites in eastern Uttar Pradesh to as early as sixth-fifth Millennium BC. The pottery has also been reported from the earliest levels of few Harappan and related sites, namely: Lothal, Balu Siswal, Kot Diji, Ropar, Alamgirpur, etc. Evidently, the continuity-albeit in distorted forms-of Harappan script on Black and Red Ware pottery from south India is a natural corollary. On the other hand, the Harappan script has echoed down to the present times also. The resemblance with Harappan script of the diagrams drawn by tribes in the then subdivision of Shabganj (Bihar) definitely hints that continuity of the Harappan tradition was being practiced by these descendants of the Harappans who "migrated to this region (middle Ganga plain) in the devolutionary stage of the Harappan with certain ethos” (Saran and Sant, 2002, p. 135). Perhaps the different grades of similarities found in the south and east Indian context may be diverse manifestations of things that had a common origin during the Harappan times and evidently underwent changes differently, across time and space. Recently, Coningham (2002:p. 86) has commented, “that Brahui (spoken in a small area of Pakistan) represents a residual element of a once sub-continental wide distribution of such Dravidian languages is accepted by most scholars.” However, Coningham also quoted other scholar who does not subscribe to the above view and assert that this diffusion of Dravidian languages in the Brahui region had occurred as late as the first Millennium AD. In this context, nothing has been mentioned regarding the spread of Dravidian languages as far as Nepal including Bihar and Jharkhand albeit noticed in isolated pockets. Whatever be the actual positions that would be eventually clarified, for the purpose of this paper at least tentatively the existence of the Dravidian languages almost through out the subcontinent from the early part of the Harappan Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468