The Indus Valley and Uthiyan Cheral Athan
A Naga in Sanskrit would mean a snake or any other reptile living in the Mountains. Those who worshipped the Snakes were also referred to as the Nagas. If you think along the similar lines, Chera (in Malayalam) is a general term for the reptiles living in the mountains (mostly snakes) and therefore a Chera(n) was someone who worshipped the snakes (or Chera).
Evidence suggests that the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas (Moovarachar or the three kings) were descendants of the Velir people who migrated from the Indus valley. Agathiyan (or Agasthya) legend might be referring to this exodus.
Malayalam is arguably older than Tamil. Many scholars believe that the oral, proto-Tamil (Kodum-Tamil) was in fact more Malayalam than Tamil. Its Sangam era (300 BCE to 200 AD), variant (the chiseled down Chen-Tamil used for literary purposes) is said to have evolved into the present-day Tamil. But the language of the immigrant Chera worshippers maintained its identity, thanks to the isolation of Chera-Nādu (the land of Cheras) caused by the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea.
Here, I would try to interpret the writing on the below seal (fig 1) from Mohenjo Daro, assuming that it is Malayalam. If the language used in the valley (2700-1700 BCE) was indeed related to Malayalam, then one would be able to find linguistic parallels.
Indus people used a
pictographic - syllabic writing system. I would like to invite your attention
to the second sign from the right. This represents a wavy motion (of the snakes). This stands for Chera (or snake). As I had explained in my earlier articles, the Indus jar sign is a male honorific suffix. This is rooted on the Agasthya (Akathiya) legend. Akathiya(n) (means 'the one inside' (the citadel) in Malayalam) denotes the priest ruler of the Indus cities. Agasthya is also known as the Kumbha-Sambhava or Kumbha-Yoni (born from a pot/Jar). In light of this, the eminent epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan interpreted the Jar symbol as "an." (as in Kumaran/Murukan/Avan/Rajan etc. in Malayalam). Combine the last two signs (i.e., the Serpent and the Jar) and that could be read as Cheran.
Cheras were the rulers of Kerala. The reference to Cheran in the Indus script confirms our belief that their ancestors had migrated from the Indus valley. It is also important to note that the Indus folks had used the serpent sign to represent a Cheran. This is in agreement with our understanding that the early Cheras were Serpent worshipers.
The crossroad sign suggests that the script talks about a place/street (dedicated to the Cheran in this case). In the Indus lower cities, the streets were laid out in a précised grid pattern. A Panthi in Malayalam means row. Those from the Panthi (i.e., grided Indus streets) were called Panthiyan (Pandiyan). Panthalam is a place in Kerala attributed to the Pandiyans. It is also possible that the Malayalam Vari/Vazhi might have been used in reference to the grided streets. A Pātha (means a lane in Malayalam) or a Pati/Pazhi/Palli/Pilli (popular suffixes for village/road names in Kerala. Say Pukkattupady, Karthikappally etc.) also keeps reminding us of the carefully planned Indus cities/streets. Akananuru talks about a war between Nannan and Uthiyan Cheran (Chera ruler) at Pazhi. In short, the crossroad sign in the seal might be read as Pati (or one of its variants mentioned above).
Indus script sometimes
takes the form of rebus writing. The Malayalam for fish is Meen. But the sign actually refers to something that sounded similar. 'Minn'uka in Malayalam means “to shine” and so the intended meaning of
the sign is “that which shines” or a
star. According to Mahadevan the fish with a vertical stroke might be referring
to the rising star/sun. A horizontal stroke would mean a setting star. Uthayan (or Uthiyan where Uth means rising upwards) - a common name among the early Cheras (and popular even in the modern times)
– would mean "the one rising like the sun”.
The earliest known ruler of the early Cheras is Uthiyan Cheral Athan and he is fabled to have fed Kauravas and
Pandavas in the Kurukhethra (which earned him the title Perum Chorru Uthiyan). The
name of the Cheran (represented by the fish with vertical stroke) in the script is also likely to be the same.
In short, the writing could
mean: “A village or street or road (pati/panthi) of a Cheran (possibly with
the name Uthiyan/Uthayan). Today as we come across place names like cheranbadi, cheranalloor, cheranad etc., it is to be inferred that that the immigrants continued the naming convention.
References
Mahadevan, I. (2011). The Indus Fish Swam in the Great Bath: A New Solution to an Old Riddle. Bulletin of the Indus Research Centre.
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