Guru in Sumeria

Sumerian  gu-la and Tamil. guru, kuru

As we proceed with SumeroTamil studies, it turns out that many key terms that are typical of Indic Culture are in fact SumeroTamil and hence Tamil in origin. The following lines contain quite a number of interesting words, some in the same shape but some only in semantics.

A very interesting term is: 147. ugula.uru-na-ke, where  the grammatical particle ‘ke’ as genitive case marker is certainly the Tamil ‘ku’ (here ku-ee) as mentioned in Tolkappiyam. The term ‘ugula” is interpreted as “the foreman” but a better translation would be “ the illustrious guru”, a forerunner to the classical  munivan, munaivan etc that are available in Classical Tamil. We can analyze ‘ugula’ as “ u-gula’ where the ‘u’ as in ‘u dalla-e-a’ in Sirbiyam means ‘radiant light’ and which in Tamil occurs as uL, oL, oLi etc and  where uL means also ‘exist, truth’ etc. Thus u.gulla is uL.gula and allowing for the frequent l -> r we can have ‘uL-gura’. From gura’ we can have ‘guru, kuru, kuravan’ etc.

Thus it appears that at about the time of Suruppak (c. 3000 BC) in Sumerian society there were  illustrious gurus, Suruppak being one of them, and who supplied edifying discourses to the general public (ur-di-da gizzal kalam-ma-ke) Here the word ‘kalam’ meaning land, country etc is still in use in Tamil as ‘kaLam’

The personal names are also semantically very interesting. The name ‘suruppak’ means “ a sharp knife or spear’ and one is reminded here the Knife carried by Muniswarar, now a village deity or the Vel carried by Muruka, a very ancient  Tamil deity. The name Ziu.sudra’ which has entered the Semitic religions in translated version ( Akkadian Naphistu, Noah  etc) literally means the ancient or long-lived (Sudra) soul (Ziu: Jiiva, ciivan etc)

However the most fascinating is Ubar.tu.tu i.e., Ta. Uppar.tutu, sayings (tutu) coming from the heavens (ubar: uppar, umpar etc) and which is the same in meaning as Upa-ni-sad where ‘sad’ means sayings (Ta. saaR.u, Su. sar) and ‘upa’ is Ta. Uppar, umpar and Su. uba

Thus it would appear that the ancient Sumero-Tamil and hence Tamil culture was guru-centered and which happened to be also mystical somewhat where “utterances from the heavens” played an important role in the edifying discourses. However we should also note that Suruppak’s NeRi (nari) from which these lines are taken are simply a collection of Mutumozi, proverb-like sayings but with supportive reasons, i.e. the eetu.

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Lexical Notes:

Most of these lines are repetitions of the lines occurring at the beginning of the text. However some comments are made to bring out some new notions.

147. ugula.uru-na-ke ur.di-da gizzal kalam-ma-ke (the foreman of the city, the famous one(?), the most intelligent one in Sumer)

148. Suruppak-e dumu-ni-ra na na-mu-un-ri-ri ( Suruppak gave instructions to his son)

Ta. OgkuLu-a uurunnakkee Orttidua  kiiccal kalammakkee ( The great person of the city, who stands tall, said wise things to the nation)

Ta. Suruppakkee tamuniinRa nanna  munaRiaRi  ( Suruppaak gave instructions on good things to his son)

ugula.uru-na-ke

uru-na-ke ; Ta. uuru-(a)nakkee: to his city; ‘na’ here third person pronoun Ta. ana, avana. The ‘-ke” is Ta. ku-ee where ’ku’ is is the genitive case marker which in the times of Tol. was restricted only to persons e.g kantanukku manaivi: wife to Kantan.

Ugula: Ta.  OLkulu-a  ;  U, Ta. uu, uL, oL, oLi : to be bright; kula Ta. kura, kuru : the great one; Note Ta. kulam, kulai: a large collectivity, bunch

It is possible that the term guru, kuru which has the  meaning of ‘teacher’, ‘the great one’ etc are evolutes of this ‘u-gula” where ‘u’ as Ta. OL etc  is a separate word meaning ‘resplendent , bright, illustrious’ etc ( u. Ta. uu, oL, oLi: bright)

ur.di-da gizzal : Ta. oorttiduva kiiccal

ur-di-da> Ta. oorttidua> uyarttidua: that which uplifts

gizzal> Ta. kiiccal: utterances, words . Note Ta. kisu kisu: to whisper, kiiccal: loud and shrill sound

kalam-ma-ke : Ta. kaLammakee

kalam Ta. kaLam: land, country. See poorkkaLam: battlefield; sa-kaLam : earthly, phenomenal

149 & 150

Suruppak dumu ubar.tu.tu-ke

zi.u.sud.ra dumu-ni-ra na na-mu-un-ri-ri ( Suruppak, son of Ubartutu, gave instructions to his son Ziusudra)

149&150

Ta. Suruppak tamu ubartuutukkee, Jivasudra tamuninRa nanna  munaRiaRi ( “)

Suruppak : Ta. suurupaak.u: sharp spear or knife ( paaku < Ta. paku: to divide, paakku;that which divides, cuts etc). One is reminded here of the large knife the village deity Muniswarar holds in his hands, an iconographic detail still available. Thus ‘suruppak’ may be an ancient name of Siva that still survives as Muniswarar but downgraded as a village deity.

dumu ; Ta. tamu : already considered ; it is present to this day entrenched in tam-akkai: sister, tam-aiyan: brother; tam-bi; younger brother, tam-ar: relatives etc.

ubartu.tu ; Ta. uppartuuttu : words (tutu) coming from the heavens ( upper, umpar: the heavens) . This same meaning is conveyes upa-ni-sad where upa-ni ( Ta. uppar-ni) means ‘from the heavens” and ‘sad” ( Ta. saaR.u) means ‘sayings’ etc.

na-na : Ta. nanna, nalla : that which is good and beneficial

ri : Ta. aRi : to inform, to instruct etc.

151. es.kam.ma-se Suruppak-e dumu-ni-ra na na-mu-un-ri-ri  ( A third time Suruppak gave instructions to his son)

Ta. eeskaammasee Suruppaakkee tamuniinRa nanna munaRiaRi ( “)

es-kam-ma  : while the names of numbers have changed but the ordinal constructions such as here is retained as “ mutalaama, iandaamma etc. The “se’’ is Ta. ku-ee ; the locative case marker.

152 &153

suruppaak(ki) dumu ubar.tu.tu-ke

zi-u-sud.ra dumu-ni-ra na se-mu-ni-in-ri ( Suruppak, son of Ubartutu, gave instructions to his son Ziuusudra)

152&153

Ta. Suruppaak tamu ubartuutukkee

Jivasudra tamuninRa nal cem munnin aRi ( “)

na se : Ta. nal cem : good  and pure Ta. ce,  cem : bright and pure as in Ta. cen-tamiz (< ce-tamiz) , cemporuL (< ce-polrul)

Dr K.Loganathan @ Ullaganar 

(revised 15-7-10)

( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )

( pic taken from https://pixabay.com/ with thanks )