Written Words And The Song Of Spades

By S.Sarwar.Malik 

With changing times, among many things that change, is our understanding of the past. Spoken words do transmit from one generation to another what one experientially gathers, but since mortals we are, human life is limited to some years and usually during the sunset years, memories fade and so do other things, stored within our system. 

Inherent quality of written word is that it can be transmitted to other individuals and generations and that it suffers little change, comparatively. With the birth of written-language legends, myths and tales , in simple prose or ornate verse-form got preserved and subsequently the treasure house of literature on varied subjects, came to be amassed.

Language, in simple words, is the structured system of communication. Speech, (-including gestures) and writing together constitute language. Names of thousands of languages can be listed with a little labour but it is most probably impossible to trace all of them to a single original universal human language. Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, Aramaic, classical Hebrew, Arabic, Archaic Chinese, Tamil and Sanskrit are said to figure in the list of ancient languages.  Summerian, which was spoken in Mesopotamian areas of Babylonia and Assyria (Iraq) as per some, as early as 3500 BC, (but surely before 2600 BC), is long extinct. Akkadian that was also spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, including Babylonia as early as 2500 BC, is also extinct. Aramaic (- the proto-Semitic language), dated back to 1,000-700 Bc, was spoken in ancient Syria, Sinai peninsula and also Mesopotamia. (David and Ezra chapters of the Old Testament are said to have used this lingo.)

Till 19th Century AD, Hebrew was largely thought to be the most ancient written-language, by those who professed Jewish/ Christian faith.

Likewise, Hindus claim the same for Sanskrit, though Telugu/Tamil-speaking populace contest it. The Arabic speaking world ,too, has its separate claim.

The earliest writing system, called Cuneiform, (-derived from the Latin word Cuneus, wedge), was first used in URUK,(east of Euphrates), whose samples were discovered by archaeologists. Cuneiform kept evolving with time at different places. They are named as Summerian-Cuneiform ( 2600 BC); Babylonian-Cuneiform; Elamite-Cuneiform (-Persian Cuneiform;  believed to have developed independently) and Hittite- Cuneiform (-related to Akkadian logograms; read ahead, about this race) are the famous four Cuneiform types that are preserved in great numbers in reputed museums of the world. First three among these were deciphered by the German Philologist, George Friedrich Grotefend, from 1800 to1836 AD. 

Imagine the great spade work of the battery of great archaeologists; carried relentlessly, investing sweat, time and money as a result of which Mari tablets were found in 1933 AD; (-Mari is on West of Euphrates, Syria) & of Nineveh around 1840-50 AD; both are Akkadians.(Nineveh was the Assyrian area on the eastern bank of Tigris river, in north Iraq). Those found in Sippar around 1880 AD are Babylonian; those found in Hattusa (in 1906 AD) are Hittite; those found in Drehem are Summerian; those found in Persepolis (1933 AD) are  Elamite (old Persian) and those found in Nimrud (in 1952) are Neo- Assyrian cum Neo- Babylonian tablets.   Based on pictograms, phonograph and characters, Cuneiform is humankind’s earliest available  form of writing that has come to us. Cuneiform is believed to have most probably preceded Egyptian hieroglyphics, too (- the latter, archaeologists have found in the tombs of Pharaoh.) Cuneiforms, as old as 3,000 BC, have come to us in the shape of imprinted clay-tablets. This system of recording transactions (-of sheep/goats, grains etc in the beginning); believed to have, evolved; after pottery was invented by Mankind, from pictograms/ graphs to abstracted glyph, then to signs  as written on clay, syllabograms; marked by wedge-shaped-indenting, done with stylus. The script morphed & adapted and was used in a considerably big area, first to keep track of transactions, then later used in religious, cultural & artistic practices. 

Cuneiform script was used in ancient Mesopotamia for folklore writing (- Epic of Gilgamesh, of Uruk, translated in 1872 AD by George Smith from the Cuneiform); for recording laws (-like The Code of Hammurabi );  for business documents; for listing medicine, and even for “writing mathematical equations”. Hammurabi was the Babylonian king who destroyed the Mari kingdom on Euphrates around 1700 BC. This code is preserved on a Stele in Louvre Museum that was discovered in 1901 AD. This Code  is   believed to have been  composed around 1750 BC, in Akkadian dialect. It dwells  on different types of laws.

For the knowledgeable, these archeological finds transferred some tales to the realm of history but largely changed the very position that the Bible (Old Testament) occupied, as many questions arose about the Great Deluge & Laws of Moses (a.s) and also many other aspects of scriptures but laity remained untouched. People read with great interest books written by great American, English, French and German scholars after a century of digging in the Middle East, in Mesopotamia,  Palestine and Egypt. Schools of Oriental Research came up; and archaeology departments became the Centre of focus in many countries. 

Ancient Iraq, which was home of Summerians and Akkadians, spoke about its eloquent past, distinctively.The area between Euphrates, Tigris and Nile gained importance. The area from Caspian Sea to Persian Gulf, to Thebes &  Nile to Cyprus & to Ararat Hills suddenly emerged as ‘The Cradle of Humankind’, as per many scholars. French archaeologists like Andre Parrot ( 1936-1954), C.F.A Schaeffer (1939-1949) and scores of others, and also, those writers who published their works, after studying scriptures afresh in light of these findings, like Werner Keller (German,1956 AD), became famous world wide. [ This author has read a few related books during 1980’s, out of which only that of W.Keller(-along with my jottings) survived in readable state, after the devastating Srinagar Flood of 2014 AD]. 

A small note about the Hittites, mentioned above. As per Old Testament portions viz Numbers, Joshua, Judges and Exodus, Hittites were a ‘nation’ that lived with other four nations including Amorites and Canaanites etc, somewhere in the expanse from the coast of Jordan, Euphrates, Lebanon to mountains, to the “land flowing with milk and honey”; whom (as per Deuteronomy), Prophet Moses (a.s) drove out, after living with these ‘nations’ for sometime. Note Uriah in the story of Prophet David (given in Bible) was a Hittite. Likewise other people mentioned above, in the context of Cuneiform tablets are not a figment of imagination. This much about Cuneiforms.

To state briefly Semitic/Proto-Canaanite, Phoenician, Greek, Roman/ Latin scripts etc all contributed to the development of the alphabets, much before the English language was standardised in Britain around the 15th Century  AD. Students of English literature know that Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey  Chaucer (1387-1400 AD)  present some  samples of what is called Middle English.  Here I end the main body of my write-up: written words and the song of spades. 

Few more interesting pieces of information, as dessert:

The story of the Flood given in the Old Testament/Bible, as well as holy Quran,(-account related to  Prophet Noah a.s); is fairly known. The Epic Of Gilgamesh, mentioned in preceding paras (-that are the heroic sagas; given in Utnapishtum portion, is the story of The Great Flood) is another account of The Great Deluge. 

Sanskrit, we know, is the lingua franca of many Indian languages. Brahmi was its ancient script & devanagari of later time; possibly dating back to 1500 BC, as per some researchers. It claims  to have the richest literature in the world. Among the holy books of Hinduism, there exists one called Matsya-Purana, wherein Lord Vishnu (- who is said to have manifested in ten major forms/avatars) in one form, (-that is half fish, half human), informs Manu, about the coming flood, instructs him to construct a huge ark, to lodge living creatures, including seeds of plants, and at the end guides him to a rocky peak; thereby saving them for starting afresh. (Surprised?) It is said that Matsya-Purana, that is in Sanskrit, has many versions, including one in Tamil. Are these all different accounts of one universal deluge or multiple localised ones? Only time will tell after chronological issues are settled scientifically.

Now one more interesting similarity. As per Hinduism the first man(equivalent to Adam of OT ) is called Manu and first Female Ananti. (Remember, the Sanskrit word for humankind is Maanav.) 

Now the Parting Shot, dear readers: As per Hindu scholars, Sanskrit scriptures say ‘three hundred sixty days make one solar year. One solar year is equal to one Divine Day ( sounds familiar?) and one Maha-yug is equal to 12,000 Divine Years’. 

Adieu, till we meet again.

• The author is a Srinagar based Penman, Columnist & Poet, who has been contributing non-political writeups to newspapers & literary journals, from over two decades

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