History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c82.440

v6.c82.440

⁸⁸³ The same figure occurs in Rawlinson's ‘Five great monarchies of the ancient world’ (ed of 1889) vol II, p 574 and that author thinks that there are the Ram, the Bull, the Scorpion, the Serpent, the Dog, the Arrow, the eagle or vulture Vide George Smith's ‘Assyrian Discoveries’ (London, 1875) pp. 235-241 where he gives a figure on a boundary stone of about 1370 B. C which records the grant of land to one Merodach Baladan and a complete English translation of the inscription. Smith thinks (p. 237) (*Continued from last page*) that the figure contains the symbols of the Sun and Moon, a Scorpion, dove, winged lion, a ziggurat (tower). One can also detect therein a bull and a goat with fishes' tail. Waerden in Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol 8 at p 22, holds that symbols on boundary stones are of little help and that the figure of Scorpion might first be an earthly Scorpion considered as a symbol of a god or it might be a zodiacal Scorpion.