The Indus Script
The Indus Script is a corpus of
the symbol produced by the
Indus valley civilization during
the mature Harappa period
between the 26th and the 20th
centuries BC. Most inscriptions
are extremely short.
It is not clear if these symbols
constitute a script used to
record a language, and the
subject of whether the Indus
symbols were a writing system
is controversial.
Decipherment of Indus script is
one of the biggest challenges
in
the
archaeological
decipherment. This is because
there is no multilingual text
that has been found and
the underlying language is
unknown. The problem becomes
even more challenging because
the script occurs in very short
texts. Infact, the average
length of an Indus text is five
signs and the longest text in a
single line has only 14 signs.
The total number of signs in
the Indus script is generally
agreed to be around 400
though some archaeologist
have identified about 676
distinct signs. In spite of many
attempts at decipherment,
it is un-deciphered, and no
underlying language has been
identified.
The Indus script is predominantly
found on objects such as seals,
sealing’s, copper tablets, ivory
sticks, bronze implements,
pottery etc.
While denying the status of a
writing system to the Indus script,
Farmer, Sproat and Witzel
point to the extreme brevity of
the texts (averaging less than
five signs) and the presence
of numerous “singletons” (signs
with only one occurrence).
On the other hand, Iravatham
Mahadhevan argued that
“Seal-texts tend to be short
universally. Further, the Indus
script appears to consist mostly
of word-signs. Such a script
will necessarily have a lesser
number of characters and
repetitions than a syllabic script.
Thus the proper comparison
should be with the number of
words in later Indian seals or
cave inscriptions. The average
number of words in these cases
matches the average number
of signs in an Indus text. There
are, however, many seal-texts
that are much longer than the
average.”
“As for singletons, they appear
to be mostly composite or
modified signs derived from
basic signs, apparently meant
only for restricted or special
usage. An apt parallel would
be the difference in frequencies
between basic and conjunct
consonants in the Brahmi script.”
So if it is a writing, what will
be the underlying arguments?
The answer is still unknown.
But many hypothesis has been
proposed. Out of those, most
accepted hypothesis are the
Dravidian Hypothesis and the
Sanskrit Hypothesis
But once again there arises
a question if Indus script has
an underlying language. The
problem is simple.
Indus Valley Civilization is huge,
comprising of about 1500
settlements of varying sizes,
and geographically includes
all of modern Pakistan, part of
India as far east as Delhi and
as far south as Bombay and
parts of Afghanistan as well.
So there is a possibility for
many languages. Is Indus script
a composite of languages or a
single language ?
Hunter (1934) pointed out that
frequency and the combination
of the signs at Harappa and
Mohenjadaro are the same
showing that the language
used there must be the same.
However he pointed out an
exception. In some of the Indus
Valley seals found in Middle
east, particularly round seals,
the order of the signs and
their combination are totally
different from what is found in
Mohenjadaro and Harrapa.
How do they say that the
underlying Script is this
language ?
Let’s say that a lingustic
researcher is coming to an
Indian Museum. He sees an
Indus seal. He asks the guide
“What language is that written
on the seal?”. The guide refers
his book and says that “Sir, it is
Indus script and it is unknown”.
The curious researcher takes out
his smartphone takes pictures
RESEARCH 35