Dr. K PJayaswal -Ancient site discovered in Bihar

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INDOLOGY, "Ravi Chaudhary" <ravi9@h...> wrote:

 

> > After digging in the dirt for four years, archeologists in Bihar's

> Samastipur district have finally hit luck. They have found a 3500-

> year-old site in Pandavsthan village and some 2000 artifacts that

are

> said to date to around 1500-2000 B.C.

>

> Charcoal samples from the site are being sent to the Birbal Sahani

> Institute of Paleobotany at Lucknow.

>

> Pandavsthan's residents always believed their village got its name

> from the Mahabharata and that the Pandavas spent some time here. The

> excavations carried out by the K P Jaiswal Institute suggest that

> there may be just a bit of truth to this belief.

>

 

>Does the K P Jayaswal Institute do any publications ?

 

The 1500-2000 BC date is way high for Pandavas, and epics,

and the site in Bihar Samastipur.

 

A good ref. is A. Parpola, Pandaie and SItA: On the historical

background of the Sanskrit epics, Journal of the American Oriental

Society 122 (2), 2002 p. 361-373.

 

The clues to Bihar's Samastipur distict site:

p. 361

First para:

"The focus of the MBh is in the upper Ganges valley, c. 900-700 BC

(Buitenan 1973: xxiv). In Valmiki's R. the hero's domicile

is in the middle Ganges valley, and the old core is dated

to c. 750-500 B.C. (Goldman I.23) or c. 500-300 BC (Brockington

1998:379). The texts reflect a gradual eastward move of

the cultural center of the Indo-Aryan speakers (cf. Brockington

1998:198)."

 

" King PANDu and the five PaaNDavas are never once mentioned

in any Vedic text (Weber 1853:420f.: Hopkins 1901: 376, 385, 396;

Horsch 1966:284; Brockington 1998:6). The PaaNDavas, therefore, have

arrived on the scene only after the completion of Vedic

literature."

 

What is the origin of the name, PaaNDava?

p. 362,

" Foreign, northerly origin is suggested by their pale

skin color, which the MBh (1.100.17-18) connects with

the name of PaaNDu, literally 'pale'; the name Arjuna

likewise means 'white' (Lassen 1847: I, 634, 641-3).

Sanskrit pANDu-, pANDura- 'white, whitish, yellowish,

pale', attested since c. 800 BC ( ZB, ZA), are loanwords

going back to the same Dravidian root as Sanskrit

phala- 'fruit' (cf. Tamil pa_lam 'ripe fruit') and

paNDita- 'learned' (differently Mayrhofer 1996: II, 70f.,

201f.), namely pa_l-/paND- 'to ripen, mature, arrive

at perfecion (as in knowledge, piety), change color

by age, (fruit) to become yellow, (hair) to become grey,

to become pale (as the body by disease [esp. leukoderma])'

(cf. DEDR 4004; Parpola 1984:455)."

 

Patanjali on vArtt.3 of Panini 4.1.168 derives the dynasty

name, Pandyas of southern Madurai, irregularly from

PaaNDu. Note that -y- and -v- are "glides", the ancient

tamil grammatical term is "uTampaTumey".

"Karaiyar" is fishermen caste in Tamil, also called

"Karavar" in Ceylon, (cf. Karave in Sinhalese).

Karai is "(sea)shore" in tamil. The -y-/-v- glide

alternation in dravidian nouns is exhibited in

paaNDya/paaNDava, karaiya/karava 'fisherfolk caste',

valaiyar/valaivar variation is attested even in sangam texts.

 

The name, Pandiya (as in Tamil) exists in Gujarat even today.

Haren Pandya, uncle of the astronaut Sunita Williams,

was shot dead recently:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2887259.stm

 

Among Vellalas of Kongu region, there's a gothram

(called kulam/kuuTTam in tamil) called PaaNDiyar.

They don't have anything to do with southern TN, but

they are generally fair in color.

 

BTW, Parpola's 2002 JAOS paper has so much correlating

data from old Tamil literature which can be used

(cf. R. & M. Raghava Iyengars' papers in Centami_z

jl. of 1920s & 30s. Raghavans are cross-cousins at

Ramnad Sethupathi court).

 

Regards,

N. Ganesan