Pontic Steppe
109-623: Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Tocharian (sometimes Tokharian ) languages ( US : / t oʊ ˈ k ɛər i ə n ˌ - ˈ k ɑːr -/ toh- KAIR -ee-ən, - KAR - ; UK : / t ɒ ˈ k ɑːr i ə n / to- KAR -ee-ən ), also known as
218-623: A Central Asian Buddhist manuscript from the late 8th century states that it was translated into Old Turkic from Sanskrit, via a twγry language. In 1907, Emil Sieg and Friedrich W. K. Müller proposed that twγry was a name for the newly-discovered language of the Turpan area. Sieg and Müller, reading this name as toxrï , connected it with the ethnonym Tócharoi ( Ancient Greek : Τόχαροι , Ptolemy VI, 11, 6, 2nd century AD), itself taken from Indo-Iranian (cf. Old Persian tuxāri- , Khotanese ttahvāra , and Sanskrit tukhāra ), and proposed
327-543: A sister language to Proto-Indo-European , rather than as a daughter language . Their Indo-Hittite hypothesis is that the parent language (Indo-Hittite) lacked the features that are absent in Hittite as well, and that Proto-Indo-European later innovated them. Other linguists, however, prefer the Schwund ("loss") Hypothesis in which Hittite (or Anatolian) came from Proto-Indo-European, with its full range of features, but
436-520: A verbal noun , a supine , and a participle . Rose (2006) lists 132 hi verbs and interprets the hi / mi oppositions as vestiges of a system of grammatical voice ("centripetal voice" vs. "centrifugal voice"). The mi -conjugation is similar to the general verbal conjugation paradigm in Sanskrit and can also be compared to the class of mi -verbs in Ancient Greek. The following example uses
545-784: A "turning point between the Vedic Hinduism and Puranic Hinduism". The Shramana movement, an ancient Indian religious movement parallel to but separate from Vedic tradition, often defied many of the Vedic and Upanishadic concepts of soul (Atman) and the ultimate reality (Brahman). In 6th century BCE, the Shramnic movement matured into Jainism and Buddhism and was responsible for the schism of Indian religions into two main philosophical branches of astika, which venerates Veda (e.g., six orthodox schools of Hinduism) and nastika (e.g., Buddhism, Jainism, Charvaka, etc.). However, both branches shared
654-512: A collection of Tamil and later Sanskrit scriptures chiefly constituting the methods of temple construction and creation of murti , worship means of deities, philosophical doctrines, meditative practices, attainment of sixfold desires and four kinds of yoga. The worship of tutelary deity , sacred flora and fauna in Hinduism is also recognized as a survival of the pre-Vedic Dravidian religion. Ancient Tamil grammatical works Tolkappiyam ,
763-535: A half-human, half-buffalo monster attacking a tiger, which may be a reference to the Sumerian myth of such a monster created by goddess Aruru to fight Gilgamesh . Some seals show a man wearing a hat with two horns and a plant sitting on a throne with animals surrounding him. Some scholars theorize that this was a predecessor to Shiva wearing a hat worn by some Sumerian divine beings and kings. In contrast to contemporary Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilisations,
872-466: A hitherto unknown branch of Indo-European, now known as Tocharian: Prakrit documents from 3rd-century Krorän and Niya on the southeast edge of the Tarim Basin contain loanwords and names that appear to come from a closely related language, referred to as Tocharian C . The discovery of Tocharian upset some theories about the relations of Indo-European languages and revitalized their study. In
981-457: A king was considered to be divine by nature and possessed religious significance. The king was 'the representative of God on earth' and lived in a "koyil", which means the "residence of a god". The Modern Tamil word for temple is koil . Titual worship was also given to kings. Modern words for god like "kō" ("king"), "iṟai" ("emperor"), and "āṇḍavar" ("conqueror") now primarily refer to gods. These elements were incorporated later into Hinduism like
1090-558: A language of late antiquity contemporary with Gothic , Classical Armenian , and Primitive Irish . The existence of the Tocharian languages and alphabet was not even suspected until archaeological exploration of the Tarim Basin by Aurel Stein in the early 20th century brought to light fragments of manuscripts in an unknown language, dating from the 6th to 8th centuries AD. It soon became clear that these fragments were actually written in two distinct but related languages belonging to
1199-540: A lord of animals; and often depicted as having three eyes. The seal has hence come to be known as the Pashupati Seal , after Pashupati (lord of all animals), an epithet of Shiva. While Marshall's work has earned some support, many critics and even supporters have raised several objections. Doris Srinivasan has argued that the figure does not have three faces, or yogic posture, and that in Vedic literature Rudra
SECTION 10
#17327722783941308-438: A result, it has been suggested that Tocharian A was a liturgical language , no longer spoken natively, while Tocharian B was the spoken language of the entire area. The hypothesized relationship of Tocharian A and B as liturgical and spoken forms, respectively, is sometimes compared with the relationship between Latin and the modern Romance languages , or Classical Chinese and Mandarin . However, in both of these latter cases,
1417-531: A retrospective view from a much later Hindu perspective. An early and influential work in the area that set the trend for Hindu interpretations of archaeological evidence from the Harrapan sites was that of John Marshall , who in 1931 identified the following as prominent features of the Indus religion: a Great Male God and a Mother Goddess; deification or veneration of animals and plants; symbolic representation of
1526-471: A rudimentary noun-class system that was based on an older animate–inanimate opposition. Hittite inflects for nine cases : nominative , vocative , accusative , genitive , dative - locative , ablative , ergative , allative , and instrumental ; two numbers : singular, and plural; and two animacy classes: animate (common), and inanimate (neuter). Adjectives and pronouns agree with nouns for animacy , number , and case . The distinction in animacy
1635-518: A scholar of Tocharian, presented a decipherment of 10 texts written in the Kharoṣṭhī script . Schmidt claimed that these texts were written in a third Tocharian language he called Lolanisch . He also suggested that the language was closer to Tocharian B than to Tocharian A. In 2019 a group of linguists led by Georges Pinault and Michaël Peyrot convened in Leiden to examine Schmidt's translations against
1744-409: A second he named "Ḫattuša Hittite" (or Hittite proper). The first is attested in clay tablets from Kaniš/Neša ( Kültepe ), and is dated earlier than the findings from Ḫattuša. Hittite was written in an adapted form of Peripheral Akkadian cuneiform orthography from Northern Syria. The predominantly syllabic nature of the script makes it difficult to ascertain the precise phonetic qualities of some of
1853-506: A subject of debate among scholars. While Radhakrishnan , Oldenberg and Neumann were convinced of Upanishadic influence on the Buddhist canon, Eliot and Thomas highlighted the points where Buddhism was opposed to Upanishads. Buddhism may have been influenced by some Upanishadic ideas, it however discarded their orthodox tendencies. In Buddhist texts Buddha is presented as rejecting avenues of salvation as "pernicious views". Jainism
1962-644: A unitary view of the universe with 'God' (Brahman) seen as immanent and transcendent in the forms of Ishvara and Brahman . This post-Vedic systems of thought, along with the Upanishads and later texts like the epics (the Ramayana and the Mahabharata ), is a major component of modern Hinduism. The ritualistic traditions of Vedic religion are preserved in the conservative Śrauta tradition. Since Vedic times, "people from many strata of society throughout
2071-535: Is a contradiction in terms since Vedic religion is very different from what we generally call Hindu religion – at least as much as Old Hebrew religion is from medieval and modern Christian religion. However, Vedic religion is treatable as a predecessor of Hinduism." The rishis , the composers of the hymns of the Rigveda , were considered inspired poets and seers. The mode of worship was the performance of Yajna , sacrifices which involved sacrifice and sublimation of
2180-495: Is also evidence for a length distinction. He points out that the word " e-ku-ud-du – [ɛ́kʷːtu]" does not show any voice assimilation. However, if the distinction were one of voice, agreement between the stops should be expected since the velar and the alveolar plosives are known to be adjacent since that word's "u" represents not a vowel but labialization . Hittite preserves some very archaic features lost in other Indo-European languages. For example, Hittite has retained two of
2289-742: Is attested only in Kucha. There are also the middle ("classical") and the late stage. A third Tocharian language was first suggested by Thomas Burrow in the 1930s, while discussing 3rd-century documents from Krorän (Loulan) and Niya . The texts were written in Gandhari Prakrit , but contained loanwords of evidently Tocharian origin, such as kilme ("district"), ṣoṣthaṃga ("tax collector"), and ṣilpoga ("document"). This hypothetical language later became generally known as Tocharian C; it has also sometimes been called Kroränian or Krorainic. In papers published posthumously in 2018, Klaus T. Schmidt,
SECTION 20
#17327722783942398-590: Is evident, many of these features are already present in the oldest known Indo-Aryan language , the language of the Rigveda (c. 1500 BCE), which also includes over a dozen words borrowed from Dravidian. This represents an early religious and cultural fusion or synthesis between ancient Dravidians and Indo-Aryans, which became more evident over time with sacred iconography, traditions, philosophy, flora, and fauna that went on to influence Hinduism, Buddhism, Charvaka, Sramana, and Jainism. Throughout Tamilakam ,
2507-414: Is known as the Vedic period , which lasted from roughly 1750 to 500 BCE. The Vedic Period is most significant for the composition of the four Vedas, Brahmanas and the older Upanishads (both presented as discussions on the rituals, mantras and concepts found in the four Vedas), which today are some of the most important canonical texts of Hinduism, and are the codification of much of what developed into
2616-400: Is now believed to be mistaken, "Tocharian" remains the usual term for these languages. The discovered manuscripts record two closely related languages, called Tocharian A (also East Tocharian or Turfanian ) and Tocharian B ( West Tocharian or Kuchean ). The subject matter of the texts suggests that Tocharian A was more archaic and used as a Buddhist liturgical language, while Tocharian B
2725-410: Is rudimentary and generally occurs in the nominative case , and the same noun is sometimes attested in both animacy classes. There is a trend towards distinguishing fewer cases in the plural than in the singular. The ergative case is used when an inanimate noun is the subject of a transitive verb . Early Hittite texts have a vocative case for a few nouns with -u , but it ceased to be productive by
2834-577: Is the Avestan language term (corresponding to Vedic language ṛta ) for a concept of cardinal importance to Zoroastrian theology and doctrine. The term "dharma" was already used in Brahmanical thought, where it was conceived as an aspect of Rta. Major philosophers of this era were Rishis Narayana, Kanva, Rishaba , Vamadeva , and Angiras . During the Middle Vedic period, the mantras of
2943-538: Is the ultimate foundation of everything; it is "the supreme", although this is not to be understood in a static sense. [...] It is the expression of the primordial dynamism that is inherent in everything...." The term rta is inherited from the Proto-Indo-Iranian religion , the religion of the Indo-Iranian peoples prior to the earliest Vedic (Indo-Aryan) and Zoroastrian (Iranian) scriptures. " Asha "
3052-802: The Arśi-Kuči , Agnean-Kuchean or Kuchean-Agnean languages, are an extinct branch of the Indo-European language family spoken by inhabitants of the Tarim Basin , the Tocharians . The languages are known from manuscripts dating from the 5th to the 8th century AD, which were found in oasis cities on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin (now part of Xinjiang in Northwest China) and the Lop Desert . The discovery of these languages in
3161-533: The Great Bath at Mohenjo-daro is widely thought to have been so used, as a place for ritual purification. The funerary practices of the Harappan civilisation is marked by its diversity with evidence of supine burial; fractional burial in which the body is reduced to skeletal remains by exposure to the elements before final interment; and even cremation. The documented history of Indian religions begins with
3270-597: The Hittite sound inventory . The syllabary distinguishes the following consonants (notably, the Akkadian s series is dropped), The Akkadian unvoiced/voiced series (k/g, p/b, t/d) do not express the voiced/unvoiced contrast in writing, but double spellings in intervocalic positions represent voiceless consonants in Indo-European ( Sturtevant's law ). The limitations of the syllabic script in helping to determine
3379-606: The Indus River Valley buried their dead in a manner suggestive of spiritual practices that incorporated notions of an afterlife and belief in magic. Other South Asian Stone Age sites, such as the Bhimbetka rock shelters in central Madhya Pradesh and the Kupgal petroglyphs of eastern Karnataka, contain rock art portraying religious rites and evidence of possible ritualised music. The religion and belief system of
Tocharian languages - Misplaced Pages Continue
3488-643: The Uyghurs , expelled from Mongolia by the Kyrgyz , moved into the Tarim Basin. The theory is supported by the discovery of translations of Tocharian texts into Uyghur. Some modern Chinese words may ultimately derive from a Tocharian or related source, e.g. Old Chinese * mjit ( 蜜 ; mì ) "honey", from Proto-Tocharian * ḿət(ə) (where * ḿ is palatalized ; cf. Tocharian B mit ), cognate with Old Church Slavonic медъ (transliterated: medŭ ) (meaning "honey"), and English mead . A colophon to
3597-598: The Vedas ). The older Upanishads launched attacks of increasing intensity on the ritual. Anyone who worships a divinity other than the Self is called a domestic animal of the gods in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The Mundaka launches the most scathing attack on the ritual by comparing those who value sacrifice with an unsafe boat that is endlessly overtaken by old age and death. Scholars believe that Parsva ,
3706-458: The historical Vedic religion , the religious practices of the early Indo-Aryans , which were collected and later redacted into the Samhitas (usually known as the Vedas ), four canonical collections of hymns or mantras composed in archaic Sanskrit . These texts are the central shruti (revealed) texts of Hinduism . The period of the composition, redaction, and commentary of these texts
3815-537: The history of India , they constitute a wide range of religious communities, and are not confined to the Indian subcontinent. Evidence attesting to prehistoric religion in the Indian subcontinent derives from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings. The Harappan people of the Indus Valley civilisation , which lasted from 3300 to 1300 BCE (mature period 2600–1900 BCE), had an early urbanized culture which predates
3924-404: The proto-language . See #Classification above for more details. Hittite is the oldest attested Indo-European language, yet it lacks several grammatical features that are exhibited by other early-attested Indo-European languages such as Vedic , Classical Latin , Ancient Greek , Old Persian and Old Avestan . Notably, Hittite did not have a masculine–feminine gender system. Instead, it had
4033-508: The r / n alternation in some noun stems (the heteroclitics ) and vocalic ablaut , which are both seen in the alternation in the word for water between the nominative singular, wadar , and the genitive singular, wedenas . He also presented a set of regular sound correspondences. After a brief initial delay because of disruption during the First World War , Hrozný's decipherment, tentative grammatical analysis and demonstration of
4142-617: The wave model of Johannes Schmidt , suggesting that the satem isogloss represents a linguistic innovation in the central part of the Proto-Indo-European home range, and the centum languages along the eastern and the western peripheries did not undergo that change. Several scholars identify the ancestors of the Tocharians with the Afanasievo culture of South Siberia ( c. 3300–2500 BC), an early eastern offshoot of
4251-534: The "ancient, classical, mediaeval and modern periods" periodisation. An elaborate periodisation may be as follows: The earliest religion followed by the peoples of the Indian subcontinent, including those of the Indus Valley and Ganges Valley , was likely local animism that did not have missionaries . Evidence attesting to prehistoric religion in the Indian subcontinent derives from scattered Mesolithic rock paintings such as at Bhimbetka , depicting dances and rituals. Neolithic agriculturalists inhabiting
4360-480: The 13th centuries BC, with isolated Hittite loanwords and numerous personal names appearing in an Old Assyrian context from as early as the 20th century BC, making it the earliest attested use of the Indo-European languages. By the Late Bronze Age , Hittite had started losing ground to its close relative Luwian . It appears that Luwian was the most widely spoken language in the Hittite capital, Hattusa, in
4469-809: The 13th century BC. After the collapse of the Hittite New Kingdom during the more general Late Bronze Age collapse , Luwian emerged in the Early Iron Age as the main language of the so-called Syro-Hittite states , in southwestern Anatolia and northern Syria . Hittite is the modern scholarly name for the language, based on the identification of the Hatti ( Ḫatti ) kingdom with the Biblical Hittites ( Biblical Hebrew : * חתים Ḥittim ), although that name appears to have been applied incorrectly: The term Hattian refers to
Tocharian languages - Misplaced Pages Continue
4578-414: The 19th century, it was thought that the division between centum and satem languages was a simple west–east division, with centum languages in the west. The theory was undermined in the early 20th century by the discovery of Hittite , a centum language in a relatively eastern location, and Tocharian, which was a centum language despite being the easternmost branch. The result was a new hypothesis, following
4687-557: The 23rd Jain tirthankara lived during this period in the 9th century BCE. Jainism and Buddhism belong to the śramaṇa traditions. These religions rose into prominence in 700–500 BCE in the Magadha kingdom., reflecting "the cosmology and anthropology of a much older, pre-Aryan upper class of northeastern India", and were responsible for the related concepts of saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death) and moksha (liberation from that cycle). The shramana movements challenged
4796-645: The 23rd Tirthankara, was a historical figure. The Vedas are believed to have documented a few Tirthankaras and an ascetic order similar to the shramana movement. Buddhism was historically founded by Siddhartha Gautama , a Kshatriya prince-turned-ascetic, and was spread beyond India through missionaries. It later experienced a decline in India, but survived in Nepal and Sri Lanka , and remains more widespread in Southeast and East Asia . Gautama Buddha , who
4905-536: The 2nd century BCE due to his significant patronage of the religion. His reign is considered a period of growth and influence for the religion, although Jainism had flourished for centuries before and continued to develop in prominence after his time. The early Dravidian religion constituted of non- Vedic form of Hinduism in that they were either historically or are at present Āgamic . The Agamas are non- vedic in origin and have been dated either as post-vedic texts. or as pre-vedic oral compositions. The Agamas are
5014-659: The Hittite kings. The script formerly known as "Hieroglyphic Hittite" is now termed Hieroglyphic Luwian. The Anatolian branch also includes Cuneiform Luwian , Hieroglyphic Luwian , Palaic , Lycian , Milyan , Lydian , Carian , Pisidian , Sidetic and Isaurian . Unlike most other Indo-European languages, Hittite does not distinguish between masculine and feminine grammatical gender, and it lacks subjunctive and optative moods as well as aspect. Various hypotheses have been formulated to explain these differences. Some linguists , most notably Edgar H. Sturtevant and Warren Cowgill , have argued that Hittite should be classified as
5123-504: The Hittite noun declension's most basic form: The verbal morphology is less complicated than for other early-attested Indo-European languages like Ancient Greek and Vedic . Hittite verbs inflect according to two general conjugations ( mi -conjugation and hi -conjugation), two voices ( active and medio-passive ), two moods ( indicative mood and imperative ), two aspects (perfective and imperfective), and two tenses ( present and preterite ). Verbs have two infinitive forms,
5232-523: The Indo-European affiliation of Hittite were rapidly accepted and more broadly substantiated by contemporary scholars such as Edgar H. Sturtevant , who authored the first scientifically acceptable Hittite grammar with a chrestomathy and a glossary. The most up-to-date grammar of the Hittite language is currently Hoffner and Melchert (2008). Hittite is one of the Anatolian languages and is known from cuneiform tablets and inscriptions that were erected by
5341-473: The Indus Valley lacks any monumental palaces, even though excavated cities indicate that the society possessed the requisite engineering knowledge. This may suggest that religious ceremonies, if any, may have been largely confined to individual homes, small temples, or the open air. Several sites have been proposed by Marshall and later scholars as possibly devoted to religious purpose, but at present only
5450-454: The Indus Valley people has received considerable attention, especially from the view of identifying precursors to deities and religious practices of Indian religions that later developed in the area. However, due to the sparsity of evidence, which is open to varying interpretations, and the fact that the Indus script remains undeciphered, the conclusions are partly speculative and largely based on
5559-640: The Vedas were summarized in Upanishads , which are commonly referred to as Vedānta , variously interpreted to mean either the "last chapters, parts of the Veda" or "the object, the highest purpose of the Veda". The early Upanishads all predate the Common Era, five of the eleven principal Upanishads were composed in all likelihood before 6th century BCE, and contain the earliest mentions of yoga and moksha . The śramaṇa period between 800 and 200 BCE marks
SECTION 50
#17327722783945668-630: The Vedic religion and Hindu religions". The late Vedic period (9th to 6th centuries BCE) marks the beginning of the Upanisadic or Vedantic period. This period heralded the beginning of much of what became classical Hinduism, with the composition of the Upanishads , later the Sanskrit epics , still later followed by the Puranas . Upanishads form the speculative-philosophical basis of classical Hinduism and are known as Vedanta (conclusion of
5777-559: The Vedic religion. The documented history of Indian religions begins with the historical Vedic religion , the religious practices of the early Indo-Aryan peoples , which were collected and later redacted into the Vedas , as well as the Agamas of Dravidian origin. The period of the composition, redaction, and commentary of these texts is known as the Vedic period , which lasted from roughly 1750 to 500 BCE. The philosophical portions of
5886-461: The Yajurveda and the older Brahmana texts were composed. The Brahmans became powerful intermediairies. Historical roots of Jainism in India is traced back to 9th-century BC with the rise of Parshvanatha and his non-violent philosophy. The Vedic religion evolved into Hinduism and Vedanta , a religious path considering itself the 'essence' of the Vedas, interpreting the Vedic pantheon as
5995-548: The [speech] of the people of Kaneš". Although the Hittite New Kingdom had people from many diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, the Hittite language was used in most secular written texts. In spite of various arguments over the appropriateness of the term, Hittite remains the most current term because of convention and the strength of association with the Biblical Hittites . The endonymic term nešili , and its Anglicized variants ( Nesite , Nessite , Neshite ), have never caught on. The first substantive claim as to
6104-410: The affiliation of Hittite was made by Jørgen Alexander Knudtzon in 1902, in a book devoted to two letters between the king of Egypt and a Hittite ruler, found at El-Amarna , Egypt . Knudtzon argued that Hittite was Indo-European, largely because of its morphology . Although he had no bilingual texts, he was able to provide a partial interpretation of the two letters because of the formulaic nature of
6213-530: The centum–satem division is not seen as a real familial division. Indian religions Indian religions as a percentage of world population Indian religions , sometimes also termed Dharmic religions or Indic religions , are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent . These religions, which include Buddhism , Hinduism , Jainism , and Sikhism , are also classified as Eastern religions . Although Indian religions are connected through
6322-498: The core beliefs of Hinduism. Some modern Hindu scholars use the "Vedic religion" synonymously with "Hinduism". According to Sundararajan, Hinduism is also known as the Vedic religion. Other authors state that the Vedas contain "the fundamental truths about Hindu Dharma" which is called "the modern version of the ancient Vedic Dharma" The Arya Samaj is recognize the Vedic religion as true Hinduism. Nevertheless, according to Jamison and Witzel ... to call this period Vedic Hinduism
6431-446: The diplomatic correspondence of the period. Knudtzon was definitively shown to have been correct when many tablets written in the familiar Akkadian cuneiform script but in an unknown language were discovered by Hugo Winckler in what is now the village of Boğazköy , Turkey, which was the former site of Hattusa , the capital of the Hittite state. Based on a study of this extensive material , Bedřich Hrozný succeeded in analyzing
6540-406: The discovery of laryngeals in Hittite was a remarkable confirmation of Saussure's hypothesis. Both the preservation of the laryngeals and the lack of evidence that Hittite shared certain grammatical features in the other early Indo-European languages have led some philologists to believe that the Anatolian languages split from the rest of Proto-Indo-European much earlier than the other divisions of
6649-484: The early 20th century contradicted the formerly prevalent idea of an east–west division of the Indo-European language family as centum and satem languages , and prompted reinvigorated study of the Indo-European family. Scholars studying these manuscripts in the early 20th century identified their authors with the Tokharoi , a name used in ancient sources for people of Bactria ( Tokharistan ). Although this identification
SECTION 60
#17327722783946758-592: The evidence for Marshall's hypothesis to be "terribly robust". Some of the baetyls interpreted by Marshall to be sacred phallic representations are now thought to have been used as pestles or game counters instead, while the ring stones that were thought to symbolise yoni were determined to be architectural features used to stand pillars, although the possibility of their religious symbolism cannot be eliminated. Many Indus Valley seals show animals, with some depicting them being carried in processions, while others show chimeric creations . One seal from Mohen-jodaro shows
6867-524: The family, recently revised to Agni-Kuči , but this name has not achieved widespread usage. Tocharian is documented in manuscript fragments, mostly from the 8th century (with a few earlier ones) that were written on palm leaves, wooden tablets, and Chinese paper , preserved by the extremely dry climate of the Tarim Basin. Samples of the language have been discovered at sites in Kucha and Karasahr , including many mural inscriptions. Most of attested Tocharian
6976-519: The features became simplified in Hittite. According to Craig Melchert , the current tendency (as of 2012) is to suppose that Proto-Indo-European evolved and that the "prehistoric speakers" of Anatolian became isolated "from the rest of the PIE speech community, so as not to share in some common innovations". Hittite and the other Anatolian languages split off from Proto-Indo-European at an early stage. Hittite thus preserved archaisms that would be lost in
7085-500: The figure as a deity, its association with the water buffalo, and its posture as one of ritual discipline, regarding it as a proto-Shiva would be going too far. Despite the criticisms of Marshall's association of the seal with a proto-Shiva icon, it has been interpreted as the Tirthankara Rishabha by Jains and Vilas Sangave or an early Buddha by Buddhists. Historians like Heinrich Zimmer , Thomas McEvilley are of
7194-490: The fire was believed to reach God. Central concepts in the Vedas are Satya and Rta . Satya is derived from Sat , the present participle of the verbal root as , "to be, to exist, to live". Sat means "that which really exists [...] the really existent truth; the Good", and Sat-ya means "is-ness". Rta , "that which is properly joined; order, rule; truth", is the principle of natural order which regulates and coordinates
7303-436: The geminate series of plosives is the one descending from Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops , and the simple plosives come from both voiced and voiced aspirate stops, which is often referred as Sturtevant's law . Because of the typological implications of Sturtevant's law, the distinction between the two series is commonly regarded as one of voice. However, there is no agreement over the subject among scholars since some view
7412-462: The havana sámagri (herbal preparations) in the fire, accompanied by the singing of Samans and 'mumbling' of Yajus , the sacrificial mantras. The sublime meaning of the word yajna is derived from the Sanskrit verb yaj, which has a three-fold meaning of worship of deities (devapujana), unity (saògatikaraña), and charity (dána). An essential element was the sacrificial fire – the divine Agni – into which oblations were poured, as everything offered into
7521-529: The history of India, namely the Hindu, Muslim, and British periods. This periodisation has been criticised, for the misconceptions it has given rise to. Another periodisation is the division into "ancient, classical, medieval, and modern periods", although this periodization has also received criticism. Romila Thapar notes that the division of Hindu-Muslim-British periods of Indian history gives too much weight to "ruling dynasties and foreign invasions", neglecting
7630-526: The indigenous people who preceded the Hittites, speaking a non-Indo-European Hattic language . In multilingual texts found in Hittite locations, passages written in Hittite are preceded by the adverb nesili (or nasili , nisili ), "in the [speech] of Neša (Kaneš)", an important city during the early stages of the Hittite Old Kingdom . In one case, the label is Kanisumnili , "in
7739-479: The language of the people of Neša ' ), also known as Nesite (Nešite/Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites , a people of Bronze Age Anatolia who created an empire centred on Hattusa , as well as parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia . The language, now long extinct, is attested in cuneiform , in records dating from the 17th ( Anitta text ) to
7848-470: The language. He presented his argument that the language is Indo-European in a paper published in 1915 (Hrozný 1915), which was soon followed by a grammar of the language (Hrozný 1917). Hrozný's argument for the Indo-European affiliation of Hittite was thoroughly modern although poorly substantiated. He focused on the striking similarities in idiosyncratic aspects of the morphology that are unlikely to occur independently by chance or to be borrowed. They included
7957-666: The legendary marriage of Shiva to Queen Mīnātchi who ruled Madurai or Wanji-ko , a god who later merged into Indra . Tolkappiyar refers to the Three Crowned Kings as the "Three Glorified by Heaven". In the Dravidian-speaking South, the concept of divine kingship led to the assumption of major roles by state and temple. Hittite language Hittite (natively: 𒌷𒉌𒅆𒇷 , romanized: nešili , lit. 'the language of Neša ', or nešumnili lit. '
8066-463: The liturgical language is the linguistic ancestor of the spoken language, whereas no such relationship holds between Tocharian A and B. In fact, from a phonological perspective Tocharian B is significantly more conservative than Tocharian A, and serves as the primary source for reconstructing Proto-Tocharian. Only Tocharian B preserves the following Proto-Tocharian features: stress distinctions, final vowels, diphthongs, and o vs. e distinction. In turn,
8175-480: The loss of final vowels in Tocharian A has led to the loss of certain Proto-Tocharian categories still found in Tocharian B, e.g. the vocative case and some of the noun, verb, and adjective declensional classes. In their declensional and conjugational endings, the two languages innovated in divergent ways, with neither clearly simpler than the other. For example, both languages show significant innovations in
8284-571: The name "Tocharian" (German Tocharisch ). Ptolemy's Tócharoi are often associated by modern scholars with the Yuezhi of Chinese historical accounts, who founded the Kushan Empire . It is now clear that these people actually spoke Bactrian , an Eastern Iranian language , rather than the language of the Tarim manuscripts, so the term "Tocharian" is considered a misnomer. Nevertheless, it remains
8393-476: The nature of Hittite phonology have been more or less overcome by means of comparative etymology and an examination of Hittite spelling conventions. Accordingly, scholars have surmised that Hittite possessed the following phonemes: Hittite had two series of consonants, one which was written always geminate in the original script, and another that was always simple. In cuneiform , all consonant sounds except for glides could be geminate. It has long been noticed that
8502-537: The new language. Besides the Buddhist and Manichaean religious texts, there were also monastery correspondence and accounts, commercial documents, caravan permits, medical and magical texts, and one love poem. In 1998, the Chinese linguist Ji Xianlin published a translation and analysis of fragments of a Tocharian Maitreyasamiti-Nataka discovered in 1974 in Yanqi . Tocharian A and B are significantly different, to
8611-764: The norm for other writings. The Hittite language has traditionally been stratified into Old Hittite (OH), Middle Hittite (MH) and New Hittite or Neo-Hittite (NH, not to be confused with the polysemic use of " Neo-Hittite " label as a designation for the later period, which is actually post-Hittite), corresponding to the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms of the Hittite history ( c. 1750 –1500 BC, 1500–1430 BC and 1430–1180 BC, respectively). The stages are differentiated on both linguistic and paleographic grounds. Hittitologist Alwin Kloekhorst (2019) recognizes two dialectal variants of Hittite: one he calls "Kanišite Hittite", and
8720-501: The objective. Both Jainism and Buddhism spread throughout India during the period of the Magadha empire. Buddhism flourished during the reign of Ashoka of the Maurya Empire , who patronised Buddhist teachings and unified the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century BCE. He sent missionaries abroad, allowing Buddhism to spread across Asia. Jainism began its golden period during the reign of Emperor Kharavela of Kalinga in
8829-559: The operation of the universe and everything within it. "Satya (truth as being) and rita (truth as law) are the primary principles of Reality and its manifestation is the background of the canons of dharma, or a life of righteousness." "Satya is the principle of integration rooted in the Absolute, rita is its application and function as the rule and order operating in the universe." Conformity with Ṛta would enable progress whereas its violation would lead to punishment. Panikkar remarks: Ṛta
8938-506: The opinion that there exists some link between first Jain Tirthankara Rishabha and Indus Valley civilisation. Marshall hypothesized the existence of a cult of Mother Goddess worship based upon excavation of several female figurines, and thought that this was a precursor of the Hindu sect of Shaktism . However the function of the female figurines in the life of Indus Valley people remains unclear, and Possehl does not regard
9047-407: The original texts. They concluded that Schmidt's decipherment was fundamentally flawed, that there was no reason to associate the texts with Krörän, and that the language they recorded was neither Tocharian nor Indic, but Iranian. Phonetically, Tocharian languages are " centum " Indo-European languages, meaning that they merge the palatovelar consonants (*ḱ, *ǵ, *ǵʰ) of Proto-Indo-European with
9156-406: The orthodoxy of the rituals. The shramanas were wandering ascetics distinct from Vedism. Mahavira, proponent of Jainism, and Buddha (c. 563-483), founder of Buddhism were the most prominent icons of this movement. Shramana gave rise to the concept of the cycle of birth and death, the concept of samsara , and the concept of liberation. The influence of Upanishads on Buddhism has been
9265-541: The other Indo-European languages. Hittite has many loanwords, particularly religious vocabulary from the non-Indo-European Hurrian and Hattic languages. The latter was the language of the Hattians , the local inhabitants of the land of Hatti before they were absorbed or displaced by the Hittites . Sacred and magical texts from Hattusa were often written in Hattic, Hurrian and Luwian even after Hittite had become
9374-443: The phallus ( linga ) and vulva ( yoni ); and, use of baths and water in religious practice. Marshall's interpretations have been much debated, and sometimes disputed over the following decades. One Indus valley seal shows a seated figure with a horned headdress, surrounded by animals. Marshall identified the figure as an early form of the Hindu god Shiva (or Rudra ), who is associated with asceticism, yoga , and linga; regarded as
9483-668: The plain velars (*k, *g, *gʰ) rather than palatalizing them to affricates or sibilants. Centum languages are mostly found in western and southern Europe ( Greek , Italic , Celtic , Germanic ). In that sense Tocharian (to some extent like the Greek and the Anatolian languages ) seems to have been an isolate in the " satem " (i.e. palatovelar to sibilant ) phonetic regions of Indo-European-speaking populations. The discovery of Tocharian contributed to doubts that Proto-Indo-European had originally split into western and eastern branches; today,
9592-477: The point of being mutually unintelligible . A common Proto-Tocharian language must precede the attested languages by several centuries, probably dating to the late 1st millennium BC. Tocharian A is found only in the eastern part of the Tocharian-speaking area, and all extant texts are of a religious nature. Tocharian B, however, is found throughout the range and in both religious and secular texts. As
9701-407: The present active indicative endings but in radically different ways, so that only the second-person singular ending is directly cognate between the two languages, and in most cases neither variant is directly cognate with the corresponding Proto-Indo-European (PIE) form. The agglutinative secondary case endings in the two languages likewise stem from different sources, showing parallel development of
9810-451: The related concepts of yoga, saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and death) and moksha (liberation from that cycle). The Puranic Period (200 BCE – 500 CE) and Early Medieval period (500–1100 CE) gave rise to new configurations of Hinduism, especially bhakti and Shaivism , Shaktism , Vaishnavism , Smarta , and smaller groups like the conservative Shrauta . The early Islamic period (1100–1500 CE) also gave rise to new movements. Sikhism
9919-692: The royal lineage of Ayodhya. Buddhism emphasises enlightenment (nibbana, nirvana) and liberation from the rounds of rebirth. This objective is pursued through two schools, Theravada, the Way of the Elders (practiced in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, SE Asia, etc.) and Mahayana, the Greater Way (practiced in Tibet, China, Japan, etc.). There may be some differences in the practice between the two schools in reaching
10028-517: The secondary case system after the Proto-Tocharian period. Likewise, some of the verb classes show independent origins, e.g. the class II preterite, which uses reduplication in Tocharian A (possibly from the reduplicated aorist ) but long PIE ē in Tocharian B (possibly related to the long-vowel perfect found in Latin lēgī , fēcī , etc.). Tocharian B shows an internal chronological development; three linguistic stages have been detected. The oldest stage
10137-428: The series as if they were differenced by length , which a literal interpretation of the cuneiform orthography would suggest. Supporters of a length distinction usually point to the fact that Akkadian , the language from which the Hittites borrowed the cuneiform script, had voicing, but Hittite scribes used voiced and voiceless signs interchangeably. Alwin Kloekhorst also argues that the absence of assimilatory voicing
10246-644: The social-economic history which often showed a strong continuity. The division in Ancient-Medieval-Modern overlooks the fact that the Muslim conquests took place between the eight and the fourteenth centuries, while the south was never completely conquered. According to Thapar, a periodisation could also be based on "significant social and economic changes", which are not strictly related to a change of ruling powers. Smart and Michaels seem to follow Mill's periodisation, while Flood and Muesse follow
10355-519: The standard term for the language of the Tarim Basin manuscripts. In 1938, Walter Bruno Henning found the term "four twγry " used in early 9th-century manuscripts in Sogdian, Middle Iranian, and Uighur. He argued that it referred to the region on the northeast edge of the Tarim, including Agni and Karakhoja , but not Kucha. He thus inferred that the colophon referred to the Agnean language. Although
10464-584: The steppe cultures of the Don-Volga area that later became the Yamnayans . Under this scenario, Tocharian-speakers would have immigrated to the Tarim Basin from the north at some later point. Most scholars reject Walter Bruno Henning 's proposed link to Gutian , a language spoken on the Iranian plateau in the 22nd century BC and known only from personal names. Tocharian probably died out after 840 when
10573-401: The subcontinent tended to adapt their religious and social life to Brahmanic norms", a process sometimes called Sanskritization . It is reflected in the tendency to identify local deities with the gods of the Sanskrit texts. During the time of the shramanic reform movements "many elements of the Vedic religion were lost". According to Michaels, "it is justified to see a turning point between
10682-529: The ten anthologies Pattuppāṭṭu , the eight anthologies Eṭṭuttokai also sheds light on early religion of ancient Dravidians. Seyon was glorified as the red god seated on the blue peacock, who is ever young and resplendent, as the favored god of the Tamils. Sivan was also seen as the supreme God. Early iconography of Seyyon and Sivan and their association with native flora and fauna goes back to Indus Valley Civilization. The Sangam landscape
10791-473: The term twγry or toxrï appears to be the Old Turkic name for the Tocharians, it is not found in Tocharian texts. The apparent self-designation ārśi appears in Tocharian A texts. Tocharian B texts use the adjective kuśiññe , derived from kuśi or kuči , a name also known from Chinese and Turkic documents. The historian Bernard Sergent compounded these names to coin an alternative term Arśi-Kuči for
10900-450: The three laryngeals ( * h₂ and * h₃ word-initially). Those sounds, whose existence had been hypothesized in 1879 by Ferdinand de Saussure , on the basis of vowel quality in other Indo-European languages, were not preserved as separate sounds in any attested Indo-European language until the discovery of Hittite. In Hittite, the phoneme is written as ḫ . In that respect, Hittite is unlike any other attested Indo-European language and so
11009-487: The time of the earliest discovered sources and was subsumed by the nominative in most documents. The allative was subsumed in the later stages of the language by the dative - locative . An archaic genitive plural -an is found irregularly in earlier texts, as is an instrumental plural in -it . A few nouns also form a distinct locative , which had no case ending at all. The examples of pišna- ("man") for animate and pēda- ("place") for inanimate are used here to show
11118-443: The verb ēš-/aš- "to be". Hittite is a head-final language: it has subject-object-verb word order , a split ergative alignment , and is a synthetic language ; adpositions follow their complement , adjectives and genitives precede the nouns that they modify, adverbs precede verbs, and subordinate clauses precede main clauses . Hittite syntax shows one noteworthy feature that is typical of Anatolian languages: commonly,
11227-467: Was called an "awakened one" ( Buddha ), was born into the Shakya clan living at Kapilavastu and Lumbini in what is now southern Nepal. The Buddha was born at Lumbini, as emperor Ashoka 's Lumbini pillar records, just before the kingdom of Magadha (which traditionally is said to have lasted from c. 546–324 BCE) rose to power. The Shakyas claimed Angirasa and Gautama Maharishi lineage, via descent from
11336-704: Was classified into five categories, thinais , based on the mood, the season and the land. Tolkappiyam, mentions that each of these thinai had an associated deity such Seyyon in Kurinji -the hills, Thirumaal in Mullai -the forests, and Kotravai in Marutham -the plains, and Wanji-ko in the Neithal -the coasts and the seas. Other gods mentioned were Mayyon and Vaali who were all assimilated into Hinduism over time. Dravidian linguistic influence on early Vedic religion
11445-527: Was established by a lineage of 24 enlightened beings culminating with Parshvanatha (9th century BCE) and Mahavira (6th century BCE). The 24th Tirthankara of Jainism, Mahavira, stressed five vows, including ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truthfulness), asteya (non-stealing), and aparigraha (non-attachment). As per Jain tradition, the teachings of the Tirthankaras predates all known time. The scholars believe Parshva , accorded status as
11554-582: Was founded in the 15th century on the teachings of Guru Nanak and the nine successive Sikh Gurus in Northern India . The vast majority of its adherents originate in the Punjab region . During the period of British rule in India , a reinterpretation and synthesis of Hinduism arose, which aided the Indian independence movement . Scottish historian James Mill , in his seminal work The History of British India (1817), distinguished three phases in
11663-588: Was more actively spoken in the entire area from Turfan in the east to Tumshuq in the west. A body of loanwords and names found in Prakrit documents from the Lop Nur basin have been dubbed Tocharian C ( Kroränian ). A claimed find of ten Tocharian C texts written in Kharosthi has been discredited. The oldest extant manuscripts in Tocharian B are now dated to the fifth or even late fourth century AD, making it
11772-496: Was not a protector of wild animals. Herbert Sullivan and Alf Hiltebeitel also rejected Marshall's conclusions, with the former claiming that the figure was female, while the latter associated the figure with Mahisha , the Buffalo God and the surrounding animals with vahanas (vehicles) of deities for the four cardinal directions. Writing in 2002, Gregory L. Possehl concluded that while it would be appropriate to recognise
11881-630: Was written in the Tocharian alphabet , a derivative of the Brahmi alphabetic syllabary ( abugida ) also referred to as North Turkestan Brahmi or slanting Brahmi. However a smaller amount was written in the Manichaean script in which Manichaean texts were recorded. It soon became apparent that a large proportion of the manuscripts were translations of known Buddhist works in Sanskrit and some of them were even bilingual, facilitating decipherment of
#393606