Kavu-2 -The variant of Kavu symbol

Abstract:

Generally, the word kavu is represented by this ‘U’ symbol. It looks like that there is one additional symbol for this word Kavu. The above-given ‘wooden frame’ symbol expresses the same idea as the ‘kavu’ symbol. It is possible that different priests could have used different ideograms to express the same idea. Ideogram is not like an alphabet, and an ideogram is not a standardised one like an alphabet. Hence various ideograms for a single idea are logically possible.

Seal picture courtesy – Book of Sue Sullivan

I saw on a documentary film on Arunachal Pradesh, a northeastern state near Assam, India, entirely inhabited by tribal population only. A kind of reserved area for tribal people. People here are animist, still practising ancient rituals.

In that documentary, the religious ritual of slaughtering a buffalo was shown. I saw this documentary around the year 2000, and I do not have any reference for this documentary, most probably the documentary was made by the ‘Doordarshan’, the television channel of the government of India.

In that documentary, the buffalo’s head was not cut off. But the buffalo was choked to death by a wooden frame like the symbol shown above.

At this juncture, it is relevant to note that, before sacrificing the animal, all kinds of tricks are played by the priests before cutting the animals head. For, example, even today, before sacrifice, the goat is drenched with water to keep it silent. Finally, the priest will ask the goat, ” are you willing to be sacrificed” till the goat becomes quiet, the goat is not sacrificed. What a great idea? To find a willing victim to be sacrificed.

It is pertinent to note that during Vedic ritual of slaughter of the bull, the sound of the animal is not to be heard. It seems that one or two persons will hold the muzzle also, to block the animal from making any sound (Satapatha Brahmana,3.8.1-2). (1) The wooden frame was likely used to choke the animal during the sacrifice ritual to avoid spilling of blood. (1)

Statistical analysis of the data available

The data is available from the research papers of Iravatham Mahadevan (1)and Sundar. (2) This ‘kavu’ symbol occurs 73 times as per the data of Mahadevan and Sundar.

	Symbol pair	Reading of the symbol	Frequency of occurrence
1		Karkida Kavu	29 times
2		Karkida kavu	22 times

The symbol pairs in serial numbers 1&2 virtually give the same meaning as ‘Karkida Kavu’. The ‘karkida symbol’ in the serial number two has a small tail-like appendage to show the ‘da’ sound. This symbol is one of the best examples to illustrate the phonetic usage of logos in the Indus scripts.

Another notable point is that this ‘kavu’ symbol is paired explicitly with ‘Karkida’ ritual. Further, where ever this second kavu symbol occurs, the general kavu symbol is absent. The absence of regular ‘kavu’ symbol shows that the priest who had used this second kavu symbol is not aware of the first kavu symbol. (or) preferred to use the second kavu symbol instead of the first one. Anyhow, this kavu symbol interpretation is giving a meaningful association with other symbols.

Acknowledgements:

All the Indus seals are taken from the book of Sue Sullivan (1)

All the symbols are taken from the books of Iravatham Mahadevan and Asko Parpola. (3) (2)

Bibliography

1. .K.Pennington, Brian. Teaching religion and violence. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012.

2. Mahadevan.I. The Indus script -Text, Concordance and Tables. http://www.rmrl.in. [Online] http://www.rmrl.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/papers/5a.pdf.

3. Sundar. -The-Indus-Script-Text-and-Context.pdf. http://45.113.136.87/wp-content/uploads/. [Online] http://45.113.136.87/wp-content/uploads/43-The-Indus-Script-Text-and-Context.pdf.

4. Sullivan, Sue,. Indus script dictionary. 2011.

5. Parpola, Asko. Deciphering the Indus Script. New Delhi : Cambridge University Press, 2000.