File:
<dravid.htm> <Bronze Index> <Migrations Index> <Archeology Index> <Home> Next►
[Note: All Basque words are in Italics and Bold-faced Green]
DRAVIDIAN
/ BASQUE ASSOCIATION *
A review derived from the following: Nyland, Edo. 2001. Linguistic Archaeology: AnIntroduction. Trafford Publ., Victoria, B.C., Canada. ISBN 1-55212-668-4. 541 p. ----Please CLICK on desired underlined categories [to search for Subject Matter, depress
Ctrl/F ]:
An
ancient language form that originated in the North African area of our most
ancient civilizations has been studied by Nyland (2001). He found that
many words used to describe names of places and things on the Indian
Subcontinent seem to be closely related to the ancient language, which is
being called Saharan, but more appropriately might be Igbo
West African, which predated it.
The Basque Language has been found to be a close relative
to the Saharan. Following is a discussion of
this relationship: PRINCIPAL DRAVIDIAN
LANGUAGES
Nearly one
quarter of India's population speaks Dravidian, a language family usually considered to have four branches (Nyland (2001): 1.
Northwest: Brahui,
spoken in Baluchistan, 2.
Northeast: Kurukh and
Malto in Bengal, 3.
Central: Telugu, Kui and
Kolami-Parji, 4.
South: Tamil, Kannada, Tulu, Malayalam, Bagada,
Toda, Kota and Kodagu.
There are four major languages, each having
its own independent script and literature dating from pre-Christian
times: The number of people speaking
each in 2004 is noted as follows: 1.
Telugu (Te), the state language of Andhra Pradesh, spoken by some 60
million people. 2.
Tamil (Ta), the state language of Tamilnadu,
spoken by about 45 million people. 3.
Kannada, also called Kanarese (Ka), of
the state of Karnataka with about 34 million speakers. 4.
Malayalam (Ma), the state language of
Kerala, with some 25 million speakers. Francis Ellis, a
British civil servant who recognized the relationship between the four
literary languages as well as Tulu, Kodagu and Malto, first described the
Dravidian language family in 1816. In 1856 Robert Caldwell added several more
languages, Kota, Toda, Gondi, Kui, Kurukh and Brahui. He then took the
Sanskrit word dravida, supposedly meaning "Tamil," and used it to name the
family. We may assume that Dravidian was the language of all of India
before ca.1,500 bce. This language
must have been identical, or almost so, with the Saharan
language, at the time that large migrations from the North African area took
place. The latter were stimulated by
a rapid drying-out of the region (see Climate). This was a more primitive form of modern
Basque but the Basque dictionary could still be used to translate the
Dravidian names and words in this article. BASQUE WORDS WIDESPREAD TO INDIA
We don't have to
look far in India to recognize Basque-related names and words, such as: Himalaya, ima-alaia, imajina (image, scenery) alaia (pleasing): "Pleasing scenery."
harapatu (to plunder), which
therefore can hardly be considered the true name of the city.
GENETIC
RELATIONSHIPS
A group of
comparative linguists in the United States developed a system that they
called the "Lexico-Statistical
Method" and attempted to put a percentage figure on the
degree to which languages are related (M.Swadesh, Linguistics Today,
1954). It is based on the percentage of resemblances between 200 words
considered to be essential in a language: 1.
The oldest names for parts of the body
and its functions 2.
Pronouns and numerals 3.
Names for dwellings, children and
families 4.
Domestic animals The well-known
Basque linguist A. Tovar followed this method to measure the degree of
kinship of Basque with other languages of non-Indo-European origin. The
closest relationship he found was with Berber (11%) followed by
Circaskian/Kirrukaskan (7.5%), Coptic (6.5%), Arabic (3.25%). Then he asked Dr. Lahovary to try this
method on Dravidian, with the astounding result of 50+%. This meant that, of
all the languages tested so far, the Dravidian language was closest to Basque
by far. However, the ease with which Edo Nyland assembled the long list of
related Basque-Ainu words, makes
it likely that Ainu could even be closer to early Basque than Dravidian. A
student of Lexico-Statistical Method should test this possibility. This method is
of no use with invented languages such as Latin,
Greek, Sanskrit, Hebrew, English, German etc. because all of these are made
up almost 100% by formulaic manipulation and mutilation of the Basque/Saharan
language. REASON FOR THE
ASSOCIATION BETWEEN DRAVIDIAN &
BASQUE
A calamity of
unprecedented scale must have driven large numbers of people from the once well-populated
North African area, starting about 10,000 bce. (see Climate). Some of the tribes living along the
Atlantic, Mediterranean and Indian ocean shores had developed advanced skills
in boat building, sailing techniques and star navigation, which specialized
knowledge was carefully guarded by the families involved. They became later
known to the Egyptians as the Sea Peoples. Other
tribes in the interior had no relationship to salt water and were dependent
upon the Sea Peoples for ocean transport when the time came to seek a new
homeland. All of these people had the same Goddess religion, a universal
language called Saharan and strong oral traditions.
It is likely that their Saharan language was the only highly developed
language in the entire world at that time, the product of a marvelous oral
educational tradition. History proved that they were well equipped for
pioneering anywhere in the wide world. As Lahovary
noted: "One of the most common linguistic phenomena is the ease with
which a new language can impose itself on vast masses, even if spoken only by
a relatively small minority, should this minority have political power or the
prestige of a superior civilization" (p371). To political power and
civilization, we might add the vibrant Goddess religion of the North
Africans. The present evidence of significant remnants of the Saharan language in distant parts of the world shows
that their language took hold wherever they settled. All of these
people believed absolutely in reincarnation, which meant that a person, with all his/her
knowledge and experiences, would live on in a newborn when the body died.
Risk taking was part of the joy of living, even if lives of productive people
were frequently lost. Reincarnation would then restore the deceased person to
active life. It was all part of living. As a result, these people were
timeless and they totally believed that it was their duty to continue with
the tasks and ideals of their previous lives. They had no idea of what we
call history because they were history themselves. A son would always follow
in the footsteps of his incarnation, whether farmer, ocean navigator,
herdsman or fisherman, a system which created enormous stability in their
civilization, and which was also at the root of the caste system. The women
were responsible for the home front, the men for the out-service which
included long distance exploration, ocean travel and trading, whaling,
fishing etc. Several writers
have speculated about the origin of the Dravidian people and how they
acquired their language and religion. There are two main theories. Most of
the North Africans were white-skinned, but in or near Ethiopia there lived a
population of dark-skinned and black people (and they are still there) who
did not have the usual Negro features. This may have been the population that
gave rise to the Dravidians. They may have been one of the last tribes to be
forced to migrate when the extreme drought finally settled in their area.
Another theory is that the refugees from North Africa were Caucasian, who
then entered the land of the indigenous people of India and introduced their
language and religion. As has happened elsewhere, this probably quite small
population of immigrants mixed with the dark skinned local population and in
time the white characteristic were totally submerged. Edo Nyland favors this theory. Sailing
east around 3-4,000 bce. they had found Mesopotamia already fully occupied so
they settled in the fertile Indus valley, where they built their villages,
which around 2,500 bce. developed into major cities like Mohenjo-Daro and "Harappa". The Goddess religion was
retained by them and further developed into the characteristic and artistic
religion of today. The Saharan language was mixed with the indigenous
languages of the people and over time these evolved into a number of related
languages. It should be
noted that the Basques and the Dravidians had never been in physical contact
with each other, living in widely separated areas. Therefore, the language they shared with the Dravidians must
have been acquired from a common, North African source. The Basques and
Berbers have a special characteristic that the Dravidians do not have:
Rh-negative blood. If these tribes had ever been in close contact, that
characteristic would have been evident today. MALE DOMINATION
IN INDIA
Around 1,800
bce., the thriving land of the Indus civilization attracted a large
land-migration of tall, Caucasian herdsmen, coming from the Near East or
North Africa (see Nyland
(2001). They brought with them a new religion that they had created by
turning the Goddess religion inside out. Where the old society was a gentle
and matrilineal organized, yet egalitarian society, the newcomers were
patriarchal warriors and extremely dictatorial; they promoted writing and
forbade the maintenance of the ancient oral traditions. A start was made with
the creation of a new language, later called Samskrta (Sanskrit), and eventually the speaking
of the Universal language was forbidden. Under this new order the formerly
highly respected and independent women became the property of fathers and
husbands, to be given away, used, punished or disposed of at will, never to
be without supervision of a man. They no longer had any say in the running of
the tribe. For the resident Dravidians the choice was either to adopt the
newcomers' way or slavery. The Dravidian peoples chose not to submit and
decided to flee from the Indus valley. The newcomers, being herdsmen, had no
knowledge of city management or desire to live in this manner and the ancient
cities were plundered and abandoned. Those who stayed, mixed in with the new
population and in time altered the character of the Caucasian herdsmen to
create the distinctive race of people we see today in northern India and
Pakistan. The majority of the Dravidians fled south and entered the area of
other tribes which move created a domino effect of new and sometimes bloody
conflicts, one of which, the Tamil fight for Sri Lanka, is still making
headlines in our newspapers today. |