Indus valley and the Muchiri pattanam

                 

Ever since I had written the article on the three arrows of the Indus valley (Indus script and the Muthassis of Kerala (theindusscript.blogspot.com)) I have been trying to evaluate combinations of the words {Mu(tha), Jyeshta, Mu(nnu), Thri} & {Ambu, Amma/Amba, Shree} for potential parallels in Sanskrit and Malayalam. There could be several correct and incorrect interpretations of the 'Three Arrows' and legends around them. Given below are some exciting combinations which I have found.

Literal meaning of the script: Munnu Amb(u)/Three arrows

Intended meaning: Mutha Amma/Senior lady priestess of the Indus temple who represented the goddess herself

Parallels

1.Tri-Ambaka - Another name for Lakshmi/goddess (identified by Iravatham Mahadevan)

2. Jyeshta-Shree/Jyeshta/Chetta - Anti thesis of Lakshmi (identified by Iravatham Mahadevan)

3. Tri-pura - Three mythical floating cities of the Asuras destroyed using a single arrow by Shiva (identified by Iravatham Mahadevan)

Other parallels that I have identified

4. Muth(i)-Amma - An old, divine lady in the folklore/myths of the Malayali people

5. Mookambika - Possibly rooted from Mu-Amb(a)  (revered as the goddess of learning in South India)

6. Muthassi (or Mutha-Achi-A senior Nair lady/A senior female temple attendant (an Achi/Devadasi) from the Nair community)

7. Tri-kana Mathilakam (former seat of the Cheras whose ancestors emigrated from the Indus valley)

8. Mu-chiri Pattanam (or Muziris-Ancient harbor and urban center of the Early Cheras)

Immigrants bring along their traditions and ideas. The forefathers of the early Cheras lived along the banks of the river Indus. So it is certainly possible to find elements, on the banks of the river Periyar, indicating a cultural continuity. This thought has escorted me to a place near Kodungallur called Mathilakam which was formerly known as Trikana Mathilakam. Tri in Sanskrit means 'Three'. Kana (a synonym for Ambu) in Malayalam means 'Arrow'. Thus Tri-kana (meaning 'Three arrows') is a combination that is presumably derived from the 'Three Arrows' of the Indus valley. It is possible that the inner cities of Indus valley (inside the citadel atop the mount) was referred to as Mathilakam (Indus script and Mathilakam (theindusscript.blogspot.com)). The Indus fort complex had served as the administrative head quarters where the priestly elite lived.

Historians claim that there was a Jain temple at Mathilakam which was later converted to a Shiva temple. In Dravidian, the prefix Thiru (as in Thiru-Ananda-puram) is indented to show respect. While some argue that Kana would also mean linga (Phallus) and the correct word is Thiru-Kana (Divine linga) thus attributing the place name to the Shiva temple there, I strongly believe that the original word was Tri-Kana (meaning 'Three arrows'), in the context of the Indus script. Perhaps, the linga narrative was proposed to justify the Shaivite legacy of the region.

Muchiri pattanam or Muchiri or Muziris is an ancient port city (near Kodungallur) of the early Cheras. It is believed that the place got its name from the distributaries of Periyar. The river empties itself into the Arabian sea via three branches. From the sea, it resembled a cleft lip and hence the name. Proponents of this theory doesn't clarify whether Mu means Munnu (three) or Murinja (representing the split upper lip).

I propose that the original word could have been a combination of the Munnu ('Three' in Malayalam) and the Shree ('lady' in Sanskrit). Mu(nnu)-Shree could become Mu-chiri (Originally there were a fewer alphabets in the Dravidian (dramida sanghathaksharangal) as compared to the Sanskrit. So loan words from Sanskrit might suffer a contusion in an attempt to write them with the available Dravidian alphabets. Thus Shree would become 'Chiri'. Shreekaryam became Chirikaryam and Shreedevi became Chirithevi).

Since the early Cheras were descendants of the immigrants from the Indus valley, the above explanation attributing the origin of the word Muchiri (which was a harbor and urban center of the early Cheras) to an Indus script sounds more rational than the prevailing cleft lip theory.

It is also worth mentioning that there is a famous shrine at Kodungallur dedicated to Devi/Amma (goddess). The 'Three arrows' from the Indus valley also represented a female embodiment of the divine being. It is not difficult to understand why the early Cheras worshipped female deities and named their centers after the goddess herself. Ever since the migration of the Indus people, the Sakthi (goddess) worship is hugely popular and is an integral part of the Hindu religion in the state of Kerala