23 Aug 2021 The Indus Valley civilization is linked to an old Dravidian language

The Indus Valley civilization is linked to an old Dravidian language

Context: 

1. A new research paper published in the Springer Nature Group’s peer-reviewed journal has revealed some fascinating new information about the Harappan linguistic civilization. 
2. The research traced the Indus Valley people’s language roots to proto-Dravidian, which is the ancestor language of all present Dravidian languages, using hints from a few phrases shared between them and the cultures they encountered. 
3. Following that, the report claimed that speakers of ancestral Dravidian languages were more historically present in northern India, particularly the Indus Valley region, from whence they migrated.

 
The findings:

1. Bahata Ansumali Mukhopadhyay, a software developer and independent researcher, wrote a study titled “Ancestral Dravidian languages in Indus Civilization: ultraconserved Dravidian tooth-word demonstrates deep linguistic ancestry and supports genetics.”
2. The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC) and the Persian Gulf, as well as Mesopotamia, had extensive trading links, according to the study. As a result, Mukhopadhyay combed through Near Eastern books seeking foreign words with Indus Valley origins. As the study shows, the idea is that when a commodity is not produced locally, we refer to it by its foreign name.
3. As a result, the study discovered that the Akkadian (ancient Mesopotamian language) word for elephant, ‘pru’/‘pri’ and its variants, as well as the old Persian word for ivory, ‘prus,’ may have originated in the Indus Valley. 
4. The words ‘plu’, ‘pella’, ‘palla’, ‘pallava’, ‘piuvam’, and ‘pluru’ are used to denote elephants in numerous Dravidian languages. 
5. people of ancient Persia had functioned as mediators between Mesopotamia and IVC traders, while exporting IVC’s ivory, they had arguably transferred the Indic elephant word (‘piru’ ‘pilu’) to Mesopotamia as well
6. The Indus Valley Civilisation’s essential vocabulary items must have been proto-Dravidian, or ancient Dravidian languages must have been spoken in the region.

How will our understanding change on the basis of these findings?

1. Based on the findings, the underlying language of the Indus script was determined to be Proto-Dravidian.
2. Evidences that the dravidian language has its genesis in the IVC culture
   1. The proto-Dravidian languages spread from northwestern India to southern India as per the genetic study
   2. After the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation, populations from north and northwestern India speaking a proto-Dravidian language went south and east, as per a report titled ‘The Formation of Human Population in South and Central Asia.’
   3. The current geographic distribution of Dravidian languages (in southern India and southwestern Pakistan) and a proposal that some symbols on ancient Indus Valley seals signify Dravidian words or names are nongenetic evidence for an IVC origin.
   4. According to a recent genetic study, some Harappan migrants whose ancient DNA was obtained from the Indus Periphery carried the Y-chromosome haplogroup H1a1d2, which is now largely present in southern India.
3. According to a recent genetic study, some Harappan migrants whose ancient DNA was obtained from the Indus Periphery carried the Y-chromosome haplogroup H1a1d2, which is now largely present in southern India.

Source: Indian Express
Syllabus: GS1 (Culture, History)

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Yojna IAS Current Affairs Team