(Continued from the previous post.
The original post in Tamil can be read here :-http://thamizhan-thiravidana.blogspot.in/2012/08/103.html
Translated into English by Ms Shantha )
The star has much significance in the Christian and Jewish Religions. Following in the footsteps of these religions, the star ideogram plays a significant role in Islam as well. One may speculate that this importance of the star began with human kind's curiosity about these celestial bodies based on their daily observations. Then, this raises a question that if that were so, why such ideograms were not found in the Indus Valley Civilization. The explorers of the Indus Valley Civilization mostly belonged to religions mentioned above. Perhaps, it is due to this reason that they continue to look for the star in the Indus Valley Civilization and 'invent' stars where they are not present.
Fish is a common symbol found in several Indus Valley seals. The Indus researchers connect the fish symbol to 'star'. To justify this, they quote the Tamil language where "meen" means fish as well as star. "VinnMeen" means fish of the sky, that is, the star. (They claim that the IVC fish seals are symbols of stars or planets that swim in the ocean of outer space.) Based on this they claim that Indus people were Tamils!
Fig 1
First of all, how can we say that these IVC fish symbols denote the Tamil "Meen"? In Sanskrit too, "Meena" is fish. The Moon sign Pisces is called as "Meena Rasi" in Sanskrit. "Meen" is fish in both Tamil and Sanskrit. Is it correct then, to say that the IVC fish is the Tamil "Meen" and hence the Indus Valley people were the Tamil people or Dravidians?
Is it not incorrect to jump to conclusions that the fish seal denotes the Tamil word without proper consideration for the usage of this word in Sanskrit or of its usage in a particular context?
Incidentally, some of these IVC seals were found in parts of what is now Rajasthan which used to be called as "Matsya Desh" (Matsya in Sanskrit means fish). In the past, when monarchies existed in this country, each princely state or dynasty had royal emblems of their own. Single fish, double fishes etc. have been portrayed in royal emblems as well as in Ashtamangala insignia (Eight Auspicious Signs such as conch, fish, parasol, victory banner, mirror etc.). The fish was considered as a religious icon both in Buddhism and Jainism. The Fish Symbol as an image or symbolic representation with sacred significance was an idea present in India and borrowed by Christianity. We'll look into that later.
The matter under discussion now is that it is incorrect to conclude that the fish symbol found in the IVC seals denotes the Tamil "Meen". This appears to be a hypothesis that was concocted purely to support the pre-conceived notion of the Aryan-Dravidian conflict. Moreover, contriving to find associations between the word "Meen" and the star, smacks of the influence of the star of Abrahamic religions.
Actually, there are other instances where association with the Tamil word "Meen" seems to carry more weight. One of them is Meenas or Mina, a community that lives in the Aravalli mountain ranges of Rajasthan. The other one is Minoa, the name of a civilization that flourished in bronze-age settlements 5000 years ago in the Aegean coasts. Archeological evidence for these settlements has been found in the Mediterranean island of Crete that presents evidence for their antiquity. Why not investigate the connections between this Minoans and the Aravalli Minas and the Tamil "Meen"?
We shall investigate this later on because there is something that is intriguingly common between them. Both the Meenas and the Minoans lived on top of mountains. The Meenas still do. The lifestyle of the Meenas seems similar to the lifestyle of the Tamil people of the Kurinji landscapes (mountainous forests). Sub sects of the Sangam Era Tamil population were formed based on specific professions in each of the five landscapes - Kurinji, Mullai, Marutam, Neithal and Palai. The Kurinji people were mountain tribes or people dependent on the mountains for their living. The Aravalli Mountain is part of the range of mountains that starts at the Maldives, continues underwater as the Lakshadweep ridge and runs through the Indian state of Rajasthan.