Of Men, Mice & Languages! Inspired by the thread below, I …

Of Men, Mice & Languages!

Inspired by the thread below, I am pleased to share the fruits of my labour!😀

Presenting my AMT - Aryan Mouse Theory*!

आर्यमिश्रान् विज्ञापयामि अस्मिन् विषये।

While this may seem in jest, the data👇🏼shown is all valid

[*channeling my inner Witzel}

This is my attempt. I guess, one can clearly see lexical cognates, but the morphology is rather different.

Lithuanian:
Di\u1ebdvas d\xe3v\u0117 m\xf9ms dant\xecs, di\u1ebdvas d\xfaos m\xf9ms d\xfaon\u0105.

Sanskrit:
D\u0113v\u1e53 dada\xfa n\u014d d\xe1nt\u0101, d\u0113v\u1e53 d\u0101sy\xe1ti n\u014d d\u02b0\u0101n\u0101\u0301m.
\u0926\u0947\u0952\u0935\u094b \u0926\u0952\u0926\u094c \u0928\u094b\u0952 \u0926\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093e\u0951, \u0926\u0952\u0935\u094b \u0926\u093e\u0952\u0938\u094d\u092f\u0924\u093f\u0951 \u0928\u094b\u0952 \u0927\u093e\u0952\u0928\u093e\u092e\u094d\u0964 https://t.co/uLlnGmioNv
— S\u0101\u0301mapriya\u1e23 \U00010a2f\U00010a0c\U00010a28\U00010a24\U00010a3f\U00010a2a\U00010a01\U00010a29\U00010a0f \U00011032\U00011038\U0001102b\U00011027\U00011046\U0001102d\U0001103a\U0001102c\U00011002 (@samopriya) January 24, 2022

As the screenshot shows, the word for Mouse is remarkably conserved across multiple languages

German - Maus
Dutch - Muis
Swedish - Musen
Russian - myš’
Czech - Myš
Polish - Mysz
Bulgarian - miškata
Slovenian - Miška

Samskritam मूषिकः । Mushika | Mushaka

Here is a list of 70+ languages with the word for ‘Mouse’

In fact, total list may be 100+ languages!

Quite remarkable!

But why?

Mice & humans in fact, go a long way back

The history of origin & spread of Mouse is an important clue to the spread of human beings & languages

१ Mice originated in India & SEA

२ 10,000 years ago had split to 4 populations with non-overlapping range in India

३ Mouse started commensalism only after agricultural communities started

४ domesticus spread to fertile crescent

५ musculus spread to China

६ 4000 BP ->Europe

This is the map highlighting the spread of mice

Now if Mouse originated in India, what is the Samskritam etymology for मूषिक or मूषक?

It originates from मुष - a “thief”, someone who steals grains & food!

मूष्णाति द्रव्याणि इति। Steals things😀

मूष् in Paninian धातुः (word root) system comes from मुषँ स्तेये।

स्तेन->steal

Let us ask ourselves, how old is the Samskrita word मूषक for Mouse?

Very ancient!

In fact, it is mentioned in the Rg Veda

“As mice eat threads”!

Mice मूषिकः are also mentioned in abundance across ancient Indian texts

Texts that are clearly prior to 500 BCE

Ramayanam, Mahabharatam, SusrutaSamhita etc

Mice is a commensal {2 species living together where 1 benefits (mice) & other may/may not benefit}

Mice & agricultural communities go together

Since mice originated in India, its important to understand origins of Indian agriculture

India shows agriculture from 9000BCE!

So beginnings of Indian agriculture is intimately connected with commensalism of mice

It is likely that original Indian farming communities were the first to give the name मूषक to “mouse” given the stealing skills they experienced first hand!

Where Indians went, mice also went

And how does ARYA come in all of this?

The संस्कृतम् word Arya originates from ऋ गतौ (to go, flow etc)

It means cultured/noble

It is also connected to ‘Cultivate/Agriculture/Irrigation’ etc.

In fact one of the meanings for Arya is Trader/Farmer!

अर्यः = वैश्यः।कृषकः।

@sudarshanhs & @BhattaPN have discussed words originating from ऋ गतौ incl. आर्य।अर्य।ऋतम्।इरिणम्।

Many pundits have written about Arya & Agriculture/Trading

Sediyapu Krishna Bhat’s theory on the connection between Arya & Agriculture {‘Arable’} 👇🏼

https://t.co/6AzIWoT0SP

@vakibs has written about his theory of how agriculture & irrigation is connected to the notion of Arya / civilization / nobility which is broadly similar to Shri Bhatt’s ideas https://t.co/187lmwRPK9

Now, the word "irrigation" itself, along with other related words in Indo-European languages: \u03b3\u03b5\u03c9\u03c1\u03b3\u03af\u03b1 (agriculture), arable, area etc. point to a common root.

This is possibly the Sanskrit root : \u221a\u1e5b (to flow) from the verbal roots (Dh\u0101tup\u0101\u1e6dha) of P\u0101\u1e47ini.

\u221a\u1e5b+nyat = \u0100ryam.
— vakibs (@vakibs) February 18, 2019

So agriculture & civilization gave rise to “Aryas” & also led to mice being fellow-travellers with humans

Direction of movement of mice is OUT OF INDIA & follows human migration patterns

मूषिकः is a conserved word across many languages

मूषिक is attested in Rg Veda

Farmers evolved to trading

Shreshta/Traders are also Arya

India had a trading culture right from Sarswati Sindhu Civilization days

So it is highly likely that मूषिक, the global template word for mouse, originated in India

As Indians expanded, both mice & language went along

The origin & spread of मूषिक, the ‘species’ as well as the ‘word’ is thus an important clue to direction of human migration & language spread

Hence, its time to consider alternate models also to understand how we came to be..

The REAL Aryan Migration Theory 😀

शुभमस्तु।🙏🏼

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