The Naga were Semitic speaking people from Ethiopia. According to Macdonell the Semitic writing was introduced to India around 700BC.
The Semitic speakers of Africa founded the ancient civilization of Punt.
As a result I refer to the speakers of Ethiopian Semitic languages Puntites.
The Puntite languages are characterized by a basic vocabulary, a
system of roots and vowel patterns and the formation of derived verbs by prefixes. The South Arabian languages: Sabaean, Minaean and Hadramautic, are slightly different from modern South Arabic, but analogous to the Ethiopian languages. This represents the influence of the Jectanid tribes on South Arabic.
It is clear that the Proto-Puntite speakers lived in Africa. Wolf Leslau has made it clear that Ethiopic and South Arabic form a dialectical unity.
Dialectical unity means that two or more languages form a unified dialect.
According to Haupt, in 1878, Akkadian , Minaean and Ethiopic all belong to the same group of Semitic languages, even though they are
separated in time and by great geographical distance. This is surprising considering the fact that Ethiopic and Akkadian are separated by many hundreds of years. The best example of this unity is the presence of shared archaicism . The linguistic feature of shared archaicism is the appearance of the vowel after the first consonant of the imperfect.
For example, one of the most outstanding features of Puntite, is the presence of a vowel following the first consonant in the verb form known as the imperfect, e.g., yi quattul (using the hypothetical verb consonants q-t-l, yi is the person marking prefix) or yi k'ettl 'he kills'. In Southwest Semitic the form of the perfect is yu qtul-u . Here we have the same hypothetical q-t-l form, but there is no vowel following the first consonant of the verb root. This results from the fact that in Black African languages we rarely, if at all find words formed with double consonants.
The fact that Southeast Semitic has shared archaicism with Puntite shows that at the time the Akkadians and Ethiopic speakers separated these groups had dialectical unity. The lack of this trait in Arabic and Hebrew shows that they have been influenced by the Indo-European speakers who invaded Palestine between 1500 B.C. and Arabia 900 B.C.
Semitic verb root
Akkadian Ethiopic/S. Arabian[list]
kl 'to be dark' ekelu Soqotri okil 'to cover' mr 'to see' amaru Geez ammara;Tigre amara br 'to catch' baru Soqotri b'r
dgh 'remove' daqu Geez dagba 'to perforate' kdn 'to protect' kidin Tigre kadna
Clearly Black African language forms are the base of most Semitic words. Anta Diop recognized that in relation to Arabic words, once the first consonant was suppressed, there is often an African root, This phenomenon was also recognized by Wiener who believed that many African words were of Arabic origin.
The Cushitic substratum has strongly influenced the phonology, morphology, syntax and vocabulary of the Puntite languages.
Comparison of Cushitic and Semitic Words
Cushitic English Semitic Saho la wild cow *la-at Samoli la id. id.
This supports the view of I.M. Diakonoff Hamitico-Semitica Languages.
(Moscow ,1965, p.104.) that the Semitic speakers and A-Group lived in close proximity in ancient times.
This makes it clear that Arabia, which was occupied in neolithic times by the Anu, was probably not the original homeland of the Semitic
speakers.
It also appears that Puntite speakers lived in Libya which was part of the Proto-Sahara. As early as 2500 B.C. , Puntite people migrated into North Africa. Josephus maintained in Antiquities, that the people of Punt founded Libya. The Bible says "...[T]he Libyans that handle the shield"
(Jeremiah 46:9); "Persia, Ethiopia and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet". (Ezekiel 38:5) The Puntites are mentioned in
Egyptian literature as invading this area around 2400 B.C., according to the text of Herkhut, found at Aswan, written during the VIth Dynasty of Egypt.
It is interesting to note that as pointed out in the West Asia unit many people of Persia and Ethiopia originally had lived in Libya. This supports the Bible's listing of the Libyans , Persians and Ethiopians of analogous ethnic groups.
In the ancient literature of Kemit (Egypt) and Mesopotamia, Punt was recognized as a sea power. From ports along the Red Sea, the people of Punt traded with of Kemit, Arabia, West Asia and Mesopotamia.
Modern Ethiopia is part of the land known to the Egyptians "the lands of the gods". The inhabitants of Punt, on the other hand called their
country Arwe. It was from here that the Semitic speaking nations moved northward into Arabia and Mesopotamia.
The Kemites allude to the Arwe Kingdom in a short story which tells how a good natured serpent of great size speaks to a ship wrecked Egyptian whose life he saved:
"I am the Prince of Punt...But it shall happen when[thou] art parted from this place ,that never shalt thou behold this island more, for it will become water...."
This "good natured serpent" may refer to the King-Serpent that ruled Punt according to Ethiopian traditions.
The Ethiopians who conquered India were members of the Arwe
civilization. According to Ethiopian traditions the first empire was founded by Za Besi Angabo, of the Arwe line which ruled Ethiopia for 350 years. This dynasty began in 1370 B.C. The traditions of this dynasty are recorded in the Kebra Nagast , or "Glory of Kings".
The greatest and most famous of the rulers of Arwe was the Queen of Sheba, known as Makeda of Tigre, and Bilkis to her subjects in South Arabia.
Za Sebado, was the grandfather of Makeda, he ruled Ethiopia from 1076-1026 B.C., his wife was named Cares. Makeda was born in 1020 B.C., and ascended the throne in 1005 B.C., she ruled Ethiopia and South Arabia until 955 B.C. During her rule she visited King Solomon of the Jews. Here Makeda was impregnated by Solomon.
Makeda had a son. He was named Ebna Hakim, from his descendants Hebrewism came to Ethiopia.
Queen Makeda had a residence near Axum, but the main capital of Arwe was located along the southern end of the African shores of the Red Sea in a district called Azab, Asabe or Saba, which meant in the Tigrinya language of the time "the southern lands". The name Sheba , was a
variation of the name Saba or a specific designation.
When Ebna Hakim took the throne, his mother had already established colonies in Arabia and India. Hakim took the name of Menelik I in 955 B.C. At Axum, Menelik established his capital. The first city of Axum was at Dar'o Addit Kilte.
Menelik I, ruled an empire extending from the Blue Nile to Eastern India. He later, according to tradition, made the empire much larger.
After Menelik the people of Arwe worshipped either Hebrewism or the serpent Arwe.
In the Kebra Nagast, a history of the Ethiopians written by Ethiopians, we find mention of the Arwe kings who ruled India. The founder of the dynasty was Za Besi Angabo. This dynasty according to the Kebra Nagast began around 1370 BC. These rulers of India and Ethiopia were called Nagas. The Kebra Nagast claims that " Queen Makeda "had servants and merchants; they traded for her at sea and on land in the Indies and Aswan". It also says that her son Ebna Hakim or Menelik I, made a campaign in the Indian Sea; the king of India made gifts and donations and prostrated himself before him". It is also said that Manalik ruled an empire that extended from the rivers of Egypt (Blue
Nile) to the west and from the south Shoa to eastern India", according to the Kebra Nagast. The Kebra Nagast identification of an eastern Indian empire ruled by the Naga, corresponds to the Naga colonies in the Dekkan, and on the East coast between the Kaviri and Vaigai rivers.
By the 6th Century BC, the Naga had strong kingdoms in India between the Jumma and the Ganges river and Sri Lanka. It is interesting to note that in the fragments sculptures of the Naga Kings, at the Government Museum , Madras from Amaravati they are distinguished by the hood of five or seven headed serpent behind their backs. Naga princesses had a three-headed serpent and ordinary Naga were typified with a single-headed serpent.
The major Naga tribes were the Maravar, Eyinar, Oliyar, Oviyar, Aru-Valur and Parathavar. The Nagas resisted the invansion of the Cholas . In the Kalittokai IV,1-5, the Naga are described as being "of strong limbs and hardy frames and fierce looking tigers wearing long and curled locks of hair." The Naga kings of Sri Lanka are mentioned in the:
Mahawanso, and are said to have later become Dravidians, as testified to by the names of these people: Naganathan, Nagaratnam, Nagaraja and etc.
The Naga were defeated by another group of Dravidian speaking people form Kumarinadu. Kamarinadu is suppose to have formerly existed as a large Island in the India ocean which connected India with East Africa.
This landmass is mentioned in the Silappadikaram, which said that Kamarinadu was made up of seven nadus or regions. The Dravdian scholars Adiyarkunallar and Nachinaar wrote about the ancient principalities of Tamilaham, which existed on Kamarinadu.
Kumarinadu was ruled by the Pandyans/Pandians at Madurai before it sunk beneath the sea. The greatest king of Kumarinadu was Sengoon.
According to Dravidian scholars tha Pandyans worshipped the goddess Kumari Amman. This Aman, probably corresponds to the ancient god Amon of the Kushites. The Kalittokai 104, makes it clear that after the Pandyans were forced to migrate off their Island home into South India,
"to compensate for the area lost to the great waves of the sea, King Pandia without tiresome moved to the other countries and won them.
Removing the emblems of tiger (Cholas) and bow (Cheras) he, in their place inscribed his reputed emblem fish (Pandia's) and valiantly made his enemies bow to him".
The major gift of the Naga to India was the writing system:
Deva-Nagari. Nagari is the name for the Sanskrit script. Over a hundred years
ago Sir William Jones, pointed out that the ancient Ethiopic and Sanskrit writing are one and the same. He explained that this was supported by the fact that both writing systems the writing went from left to right and the vowels were annexed to the consonants. Today Eurocentric scholars teach that the Indians taught writing to the Ethiopians, yet the name Nagari for Sanskrit betrays the Ethiopia origin of this form of writing. In Geez, the term nagar means ‘speech, to speak’. Thus we have in Geez, with the addition of pronouns: nagara ‘he spoke, nagarat ‘she spoke’
and nagarku ‘I spoke’.
Moreover, it is interesting to note that Sanskrit vowels: a,aa,',i,u,e,o, virama etc., are in the same order as Geez. Y.M. Kobishnor, in the Unesco History of Africa, maintains that Ethiopic was used as the model for Armenian writing, as was many of the Transcaucasian scripts. The Naga introduced worship of Kali, the Serpent, Murugan and the Sun or Krishna. It is interesting that Krishna, who was associated with the Sun, means Black, this is analogous to the meaning of Khons of the Kushites.
Homer, described Hercules as follows: "Black he stood as night his bow uncased, his arrow string for flight". This mention of arrows identifies the Kushites as warriors who used the bow, a common weapon of the Kushites and the Naga.
Soon the Nagas were absorbed into the Dravidian population. Today the Naga, are recognized by some researchers as Dravidians.
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