Dr. K PJayaswal -Ancient site discovered in Bihar

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Keep in mind that Gujarati paNDyaa is unerelated to Skt.

paaNDava. It is an apabhramsa form for Skt. paNDita, as are

paaNDeya of north India and paaNDe (as in my last name

dezapaaNDe) in Maharashtra. I am not convinced of Parpola's

arguments that Tamil Pandya is related to Skt. PaaNDava. Best,

 

Madhav Deshpande

 

 

INDOLOGY, "naga_ganesan"

<naga_ganesan@h...> wrote:

>

> 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