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Citation: Priyadarshi, P., Inadvertent mistakes or deliberate distortions? : A review of Prof. Michael Witzels views on Autochthonous Aryans, Vedic Avenues, 2012, 1(2): (accepted for publication as Letters to the Editor). Article being produced with permission as on 14 December 2011.

Letter to the Editor, The Vedic Venues.

Inadvertent mistakes or deliberate distortions? : A review of Prof. Michael Witzels views on Autochthonous Aryans
by P. Priyadarshi priyadarshi101@hotmail.com

Michael Witzel has frantically maintained the stand that none of the words for the typical South Asian plants (like lotus or kamala, bamboo, ashvattha, bilva, jambu) or animals (like lion, tiger, leopard, elephant etc) have representation in the Indo-European vocabulary even with altered meanings (Witzel 2001:63). However, even a casual perusal of any Proto-IndoEuropean dictionary proves that it is a bogus claim made without any proper study of the issue. We can take an example of the etymology of kamala (lotus) as given by Pokorny (1959): Sk kamala; PIE *kemero-, *komero-, *kemero-, (Pokorny:558); O.H.G. hemera, ProtoGermanic *hamir (hellebore flower), Ger. dial. hemern ds. (hellbore), RCS (Russian Church Slavonic) emer poison, originally hellbore; Russ. emer a f. (hellebore); Lith. kemerai (Eupatorium cannabinum); Greek kamaros (Delphinium); Greek , kammaron (Aconitum flower); Indian ChamarikA (camarikA) from kamal-ikA. Thus contrary to the Witzels claim, the word kamala in modified forms has been used to denote a large number of European flowers, incidentally all being blue or purple in colour. Not only kamala but other Sanskrit words for the lotus, aravinda and nalina too have been preserved in the European lexicon: Sanskrit aravinda (lotus), Greek erevindos chickpeas, PIE *ereg(h)o-, O.H.G. araweiz, arwiz, German name Erbse, M.Ir. orbaind etc (Pokorny:335; Starostin:902). The European flower lily is perhaps a cognate word of Sanskrit nalina meaning lotus. This should prompt people in the field to re-examine the whole issue of the flora and fauna of the Indo-European homeland. I have examined the issue, and a detailed report will be presented in future. However, the emerging leads show that most of what Witzel wrote was nothing more than a hoax. Witzel claims that the animals of Indo-European vocabulary otter, beaver, wolf, bear, lynx, elk, red deer, hare, hedgehog, mouse are all from colder climate and have not lived in India (Witzel 2001:53, 54, 55). Unfortunately for him, all of these are either present in the South Asia or were there in the past. We can see with the few examples the hollow nature of his claims:

Beaver: Witzels prestigious claim (2001:53,54,55) that beaver was not native of India during the Vedic age is proved wrong by archaeology. Beaver bones with the evidence of hunting have been found from the archaeological remains in India (e.g. Kashmir Valley Neolithic sites Burzahom and Gufkral 4000 BP to 3200 BP; Misra:507; Singh: 114; IAR 1962). However, beaver became extinct later from India, probably due to the thick human settlements along river banks. Mentions of beaver in the Rig-Veda and later Vedic texts show that they are very old texts. Following the extinction of the beaver, the same term babhru came to be applied to mongoose in India and to mice in north Iran (bibar Persian mouse, Steingass:154). Hence Neningers claim (oft cited by Witzel) that mongoose was the meaning of Vedic babhru is false. In Europe we find confusion in the meaning of cognates of the word beaver. The arriving Indo-Europeans applied this word to mean several other things, like fibre, brush etc (Pokorny 1959: 136). In the north European languages its cognates often mean anything brown, including even bear. In Latin there has been a semantic change and the fiber/ fibra means soft or extremity of anything (Valpi:152-3). Purely on the linguistic grounds too, the PIE word for beaver *bhebhru does not stand to be of northern origin. In *bhebhru, we find the reduplication of the stem bh, which is not a feature of the northern languages at all, but an important areal feature of the southern (Austro-Asiatic, Austronesian, Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and African) languages (WALS Feature 27 by Carl Rubin). Mosquitoes and Flies: These two species, inhabitants of the warm humid climates, are well represented in the southern European languages although absent from the languages of colder northern Europe: Sanskrit: mashaka, mAcikA, makSa, makSikA house fly; mashaka, masha mosquito; Greek: (muia) house fly; Latin: musca house fly; Albanian: mize gnat; Persian: makh1 wasp, bee (Steingass: 1191); mausa, mUsa bee (Steingass:1345); PIE *mako, or *mok-o- fly (Pokorny:699).] Lion : Pokorny (1959: 520) shows that the Sanskrit kesha (hair, mane), from PIE *kais, is cognate to Tocharian A ik (lion), Tocharian ecake (lion) and Lat. aesaris (from which Latin Caesar and German kaisar meaning Emperor) have been derived. Hence keshari (Sk lion, king) is an Indo-European word. Another early IE word for lion was *singhos (Mallory and Adams: 142). However, it has survived only at two places: Arm. inj, ink (leopard) and Sk. simha lion. Starostin (database) lists Armenian in (leopard) and Proto-Tocharian *s ke (lion), and proposes PIE *simha (lion). However Witzel (1999:66) tries to mislead by saying that the proposed root (he lists: *sengha/singha > *sinj'ha; **s1engha) is a substrate word from north Central Asia or East Europe borrowed into Indo-Iranian, as if these regions had lion in the past.

Persian makh has retained many of the semantic features of flies and mosquitoes. Its meanings bee and wasp have retained the feature biting characteristic of mosquitoes. However other meanings like sticking, annihilated, reduced to nothing are features of a house fly. The last two have been well expressed in William Blakes poem The Fly (Am I not a fly like thee?).

Leopard: In spite of Witzels claim (1999:66) that Sanskrit pArdaku is a Para-Munda substrate word, philology shows that leopard was an animal of the Indo-European homeland. PIE (Starostin) *prd or *perd leopard: Sanskrit pRdaku, Greek pardos, Old Greek r -s, r a -s, r a i-s, Pardel, (Panther), Tajik-Iranian Sogd wr k, Pashto pr g, N. Pers. palang (panther). (References: WP II 49 f.; Starostins database). Lith. aru avs (foxy) may be related, where in the absence of leopard, the word got applied to the fox. Panther: Latin panther, Greek panther, Sanskrit punDariika tiger, the yellowish animal (Harper Douglas). Jackal (E.) : Sk. shRgAl (shrigal); Pers. shaghal; Turkish akal; German schakal; Lith. aka as; Latv. ak is; Bulgarian chakal (); Polish szakal; Kurmanci Kurd chacal. LopAsha (Sk. fox, jackal): Cognate words are well represented in European languages often with altered meaning (to wolf): Sk lopAsha (PIE *ulp-, lup-, *suilk-: fox, jackal, wolf; Pokorny: 1179): Germanic *wulfaz, English wolf, Av. urupis dog, raopis fox/jackal; M.Pers. r As, Pers. rbAh fox; Arm. a us fox; Lat. v s fox, also lupus wolf; Bret. louarn fox; Welsh llywarn fox; Polish (*lues) lis fox; Gk. (alopeks) and (alopos) fox; Lith. (*u ), vi i s wild cat; Ltv. lapsa fox. (see Notes, Starostin:3410-3411). Starostin (Database) reconstructs a PIE root *lup- meaning both wolf and fox. However, after critical examination, we can say that the original meaning of the root-word (*lup-) must have been fox and jackal, and it did not include wolf in the beginning. Wolf: Wolf is found in India today, and its skeletal remains have been found from Indian archaeological remains. Sanskrit vRka (a tearer, wolf); Av. vhrka-, Gk. (lukos), O.Ice. ylgr, Lith. vi kas, Ltv. vlks, O.Pruss. wilkis, O.C.S. v k ds., Alb. ulk, ulku, Illyr. name Ulcudius, Ulcirus, O.Brit. name Ulcagnus, O.Ir. name Olcn all mean wolf. Other cognates are O.Ir. olc, gen. uilc mad, wicked, evil. Also, Swedish varghona, varginna, vargbna, shewolf. Starostin (database) reconstructs PIE *welk-, and adds Tocharian B walkwe wolf to the list. Anatolian (Luv.) walwa/i- (lion) is a cognate of these (Mallory and Adams: 138). Witzel completely ignores the IE status of some southern European-South Asian animals many of them are cold-blooded, and live only in the warmer areas. The IndoEuropean words for these have been preserved in the southern route languages only, originating from India reaching South Europe. Cancer: Latin cancer, Greek karkinos, Hindi kenkarA, Sanskrit karkaTa, karka. However, in northern Europe, where crabs are not found, this word was applied to mean the spiders:

M.H.G. Ger. dial. kanker spider, Finn. (from dem Gmc.) kangas web, webbing, strong cloth or fabric, net-like weave, Swe. dial. kang droopy slender branch, kAng (esp. from horses) agile, lively, excited, aroused (actually spinning violently) (Starostin 1018; Pokorny 380). Germanic word crab is not related to these words. Conch: English conch (loanword from Latin, cognates lost from Germanic and BaltoSlavic), Sanskrit shankha, Latin concha, Greek konkhe, PIE *konkho (Pokorny, 614). Toad (E.): tadige, tadie (OE); taduri, dardarika, dardura, dAdura (Sanskrit). Frog (E.): plava (Sanskrit), frude, froud (Middle English) from fraudr (O.N.). Chamaeleon (L.): khamaileon (Gk), hemala (Sk). Lizard (E.): Latin lacertus, saraTu (Sk.). Tortoise: dadru, druDi, duli, Duli, dulii, dauleya and druni (Sk), turtle (E.), tortue (Fr.), turtur (L.); also tortuse (OE) and tortuca (M. Latin). Serpent: Sanskrit sarpa, Latin serpens, Greek herpenton and Alb. gjarpn. Lost from the Germanic and other European languages. These are not related to English snake or German schenake, which are probably cognates of a mollusk snail, and later inventions after reaching north Europe. Elk, Red Deer and Cervus : Witzel (2001:54) claims that the elk and the Red deer are northern animals. Cognate of elk is present in Sanskrit language (O.E. eolh, E. elk, O.N. elgr, Latin alces, los, Cz. los, Pol. o , Sanskrit RSa). Elk bones too have been found from Indus Civilisation remains (Peregrine:280). The word elk has been applied to many species of the deer family or Cervidae and its meaning has changed with time. Earlier, elk was Cervus elaphus (Europe, Central Asia, East Asia, North America). The species was later dissected into at least three independent species European C. elaphus, Central Asian C. hanglu and American C. Canadensis (wapiti). Only the last has retained the term elk. Apart from this, elk word is applied to the European deer Alces alces (moose). The South Asian large deer sambar (Rusa unicolor) is too called elk. Cervus elephus and C. hanglu have been traditionally called the Red Deer. Cervus elaphus bones have been recovered from South Asian archaeological sites like Kupruk dating to Neolithic times (AKII, Afghanistan; Perkins 1972, quoted in Crabtree:26). Cervus hanglu is found in modern India too (known as the Kashmir stag). Red deer stag bones have been found from Neolithic Kashmir Valley dating about 3000 BP (Misra: 507). Latin ceruvus is a cognate of Sanskrit sharabha (deer). Cognates of this word have been used to mean both cow and deer in different languages of Europe indicating that this word originally did not belong to Europe: PIE (Pokorny:574-77) *keruo-s, kruo-s (deer), Latin cervus (deer), Welsh carw (deer), O. Prussian sirwis (deer), Sanskrit sharabha (deer); Lith. k rv (cow), Czech

Karvina (cow), Russian Church Slavonic krava (cow), O. Polish karw (cow), Polish krowa (cow), O. Prussian curwis (cow). Another Sanskrit word hariNa (deer) too got applied to mean cow, deer or ram almost indiscriminately in Germanic (and other European) languages, for the same reasons as for sharabha. Its cognates are: Sk. hiraNa, O.E. hr , O.N. hreinn (all meaning deer); O.H.G. hiruz, O.S. hirot, O.E. heorot, O.N. h r r, Ger. family name Hirsch (all meaning ram); O.H.G. (h)rind, O.E. hrer, in names Horntier, O.E. hr er ds., Dutch rund, German rother (all mean cow or cattle). Mouse, Hedgehog, Otter: Witzel (2001:54) claims that mouse is an animal of temperate climate. This claim is wrong. It is known to science that the mice have come out from India after the Last Glacial maximum (Tate 1936; Ferris 1982; Auffray 1990; Boursot 1993; Din 1996). Mice, hedgehogs and otters are found in India even today. Their bones have been recovered from archaeological excavations in India (Misra:507; Singh:114). Indian hedgehog (Paraechinus micropus) is restricted exclusively to India, and is famous for the important role Indian Hedgehog (IHH) Protein plays in the humans. Goat (bukka): barkara and bukkA (Sk.), Bengali boka, Bihari botu, Hindi bakarA, Pavlavi buz, Persian buj, buz, German (name) Bock, M.Ir. bocc, pocc, Ir. boc, poc, Welsh bwch, O.N. bokkr and Old English bucca (all meaning he-goat); Arm. buz lamb; buck male deer; Proto-Celtic *boucca cow; (PIE *bh - goat, Pokorny:174). Archaeology too proves that goat was domesticated the earliest in India about 9000 to 10,000 before present (Possehl:27; Jarrige:143; Meadow). Bull: The original Indo-European cattle was humped (zebu) is obvious from philological analysis, which shows that the very word bull comes from presence of a hump, indicating that the first cattle known to the Indo-Europeans were humped: O.E. b e, M.H.G. biule swelling, blister; O.N. beyla hump (Starostin:297); O.S. bulde, bolde, byld hump; O. Ice. boli bull; OE bulluc, bula young bull (Starostin:365); Dan. bulk hump, nodules (Pokorny:98-102, 120-122). The humped cattle (zebu) are found in India, Africa, Central Asia, China, Southeast Asia and also some breeds of Europe. It has been determined after DNA studies that all these zebu cattle are of an exclusive Indian origin, wherever they live today (Chen 2009). Cow: When the South Asians reached Europe in their first exploration, they could not take with them the hot-adapted Indian cows, and hence the words meaning cow in India were often applied to other animals (game) in Europe. PIE *agh (plough animal, ox), Sanskrit ahii (cow), Hindi ahiir (a cow-keeping caste); M.Ir. ag (sstem) m., f. bovine animal, cow, ag allaid deer (actually, wild ox), l brood, throw (*aglo-), Welsh ael , M.Welsh aelaw abundance, fertility, eilion (*agliones) fallow deer, horses; Arm. ezn bovine animal. (Pokorny:7; Starostin:21).

Cognates of the very commonest word cow (Sk. go, gau, gavis) have been lost from most of the European languages, or distorted severely. In German, the word Kuh (cow) and Vieh (cattle) have survived only in the family names like Kuhstall, Kuhweisse and Kuh. Although presence of gu (Chinese), koh (Thai), komo (Khosa-Bantu) and k (Khoe, Africa) show an early arrival of domesticated cow to these regions from India (which is supported by DNA evidence too), absence of the cognates of Sanskrit gau from most of the European languages is an important indicator of late arrival of domesticated cows to Europe. Ibha (Elephant): Sanskrit ibha (male elephant), Latin ebur (ivory, elephant), Greek el-ephant, Gothic ulbandus. PapihA (CDIAL 8204; Old Awadhi and Hindi; an Indian bird, Brain-fever Bird; Hierococcyx varius; or Cuculus melanolencos): Sk pippakA (also pippiika), PIE * ( )-, Latin i , Gk. f. or m. young bird, , f. a kind of woodpecker Pipus, Sloven. ppa chicken, Alb. bib young water-fowl, etc. (Pokorny: 830). Pika (Sk. Indian cuckoo): English Pie (old name of magpie, a bird of crow family), Latin pica (magpie, f. of picus), Latin picus (woodpecker), Umbrian pieca, German name Specht (woodpecker). (see Pokorny: 999; & Harper). Tittir: Sk. tittira (partridge), PIE *teter; M.Ir. tethra hooded-crow; Germanic thidurr capercaillie, OCS tetrevi pheasant, Lith. teterva capercaillie, Rus teterev capercaillie, Iranian tadharv pheasant; Gk. tetraon capercaille (Pokorny:1079). Shuka (Sk. parrot): Arm. sag goose, O.C.S. sova owl, Celt. cavannus, Lith. auki , a k cry, loud call, shout, cry, name, Russ. s Zwergeule, Sperlingseule, Cz. s owl (Pokorny: 535-536; Starostin: 1475). Carp (Cyprinus sophore): This tropical small fish is found in the fresh waters of South Asia and Southeast Asia only, yet its cognates are present in most of the languages of Europe. Sanskrit shaphara (masculine), shapharii (f.); PIE (Pokorny:614) k (h)e -s r ka (h)elo-s; Lithuanian a as, Latin Cyprinus, Greek kuprinos, German Karpfen (in names only), English carp. Abbreviations: CDIAL A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, by R.L. Turner; E. English; Gk. Greek; IAR Indian Archaeological Review; L. Latin; Lithu. Lthuanian OE Old English; ON Old Norse etc. References: Auffray, J. C. et al, 1990, The house mouse progression in Eurasia: a palaeontological and archaeozoological approach, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 41: 1325. Boursot, P. et al, Evolution of House Mice, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 1993, 24:119-152.

Crabtree, P.J. et al, Early animal domestication and its cultural context, UPenn Museum of Archaeology, 1989. Din, W. et al, 1996, Origin and radiation of the house mouse: clues from nuclear genes, Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 9(5):519-539. Douglas, Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, http://www.etymonline.com/ Ferris, S. D. et al, Mitochondrial DNA evolution in mice, Genetics 1983, 105(3):681-721. Indian Archaeology Review (IAR), Burzahom 19601961, p. 11; 19611962, pp 1721; 1962 1963, pp 910; 19641965, p. 13; etc. and Gufkral 19811982, pp 1925). quoted by Misra. Jarrige, J.F., 2008, Mehrgarh Neolithic, Pragdhara 18:135-154. Kazanas, Nicholas 2009b, Indo-Aryan Origins and Other Vedic Issues, Aditya Prakashan, New Delhi. Kazanas, Nicholas, 2009a, Coherence and Preservation in Sanskrit in Kumar, S. (Ed.), Samskrit, Samskriti and Samskara, Vidyanidhi Prakashan, Delhi, (108-184). Meadow, R.H., 1998, Pre- and Proto- historic agricultural and pastoral transformations in north-western South Asia, in O. Bar-Yoseph (Ed.), The Review of Archaeology (spl. issue), 19(2):12-21. Misra, V.N., 2001, Pre-historic human colonization of India, J Biosc, 26(4) supplement: 491532. Nenninger, Claudius, 1993, Wie kommt die Pharaonsratte zu den vedischen Gottern? Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 18, 161168. Peregrine, P.N. and Ember, M., 2002, Encyclopedia of Prehistory: South and Southwest Asia, Vol 8, Human Relations Area Files Inc. Pokorny, J., 1959, Indogernanische Etymologisches Worterbuch. Possehl, G.L., The Indus Civilization: a contemporary perspective, Rowman Altamira, 2002. Renfrew, C., 1987, Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins, Jonathan Cape, London. Carl Rubino, World Atlas of Language Structure, Feature 27 Singh, Upinder, 2008, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th century, Pearson Education India, p. 114.

Srarostin, G., 2007, Proto-Indo-European Dictionary, A revised edition of Julius Pokornys Indogermanisches Worterbuch, DNGHU Assoqiation. Starostin, G. Database, http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/main.cgi?root=config Steingass, F.J., 1892, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, Routledge and K. Paul, London. Tate, G. H. H., Some Muridae of the Indo-Australian Region, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 1936, 72(6): 501-728 Valpy, F.E.J., 1828, An Etymological Dictionary of the Latin Language, Baldwin and Co., London. Rubino, Carl, Reduplication (Feature 27), Haspelmath, Martin (Ed.), World Atlas of Language Structure, OUP, 2005. http://wals.info/feature/27A?tg_format=map&v1=cd00&v2=cf6f&v3=cfff , discussion on http://wals.info/chapter/27
Witzel, M., 1999, Early Source for South Asian Substrate Language, Mother Tongue, Special Issue, Oct 1999. Page numbers of the pdf web version have been referred. Witzel, 2001, Autochthonous Aryans? The Evidence from Old Indian and Iranian Texts. Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 7-3 (EJVS) 2001(1-115). The page numbers as in the pdf web version have been referred.