Indus Valley Civilization and Tracing its Vanishing Script




“I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are pedigrees of nations” – Samuel Johnson


Indus Valley Civilization is one of the oldest civilizations of the world. Dating roughly from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE it is regarded as contemporary of other civilizations of the world like the Egyptian civilization and the Mesopotamian civilization. Even after being contemporary of such great ancient civilizations, our knowledge of Indus Valley Civilization remains limited as compared to that of others. One of the main hindrances in studying about this civilization is its script which has not been deciphered yet.

The writing system of the Indus Valley Civilization remains the most exasperating riddle of it. Over 4200 inscriptions have been found, most of them on seals, tablets or pottery; made up of about 400 signs, only 200 of which are used more than five times. Epigraphists and scholars all around the world had come forward to present their own decryption theories but the Indus script had remained stubbornly mute. The present state of their knowledge is that it appears to be born in cities (of the Indus Valley Civilization), and fades away with them. Indus Valley Script is also considered to be boustrophedon (written from left to right) with some exceptions suggesting it is bi-directional. Unlike the Rosetta stone which enabled Champollion to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics, there is absence of any bilingual inscription for the epigraphists to compare the Indus Valley symbols. The other reason being that the inscriptions are too short ( 5 to 6 signs average, longest being only 26 and some seals containing only 1 or 2 signs) and appears to exclude full sentences making verification virtually impossible.

However, scholars have tried to compare Indus script with Sumerian, proto-Elamite, Old Semitic and Etruscan scripts. One of the popular assumptions amongst the scholars is that it is a form of a ‘proto-Dravidian script’ owing to similarities between some of the symbols from both the scripts.
Interestingly, few scholars have tried to suggest some similarities between the Brahmi script and the Indus script. Brahmi is considered as the mother of all Indian scripts as well as some south-Asian scripts. Many findings across India had led the epigraphists to link the Indus script to the Brahmi script. Like the inscription from Bet-Dwarka (island 30km north of Dwarka in Gujarat) where Late-Harappan antiquities have been found and the inscription on them is strikingly similar to the Brahmi script. Another inscription was found in the Vikramkhol cave in Orissa which was studied an eminent epigraphist K.P. Jayaswal, who concluded in 1933 that, ‘ Vikramkhol inscription supplies a link in the passage of letter-forms from Mohenjodaro script to Brahmi’.

After studying the Indus script for years, most of the experts assume that the Indus Valley Script simply transformed into the Brahmi script, however it cannot be ruled out that once the Indus script disappeared around 1800BCE, India had to wait until 5th century BCE for its first historical script – Brahmi – to appear in a developed form. Still some scholars are speculative of this this thought because some aspects of the Indus Valley Civilization are congruent to many Indian practices even today. D.P. Aggarwal sums up this situation with these words:

“It is strange but true that the type and style of bangles that women wear in Rajasthan today, or the vermilion that they apply on the parting of their hair on the head, the practice of Yoga, the binary system of weights and measures, the basic architecture of the houses etc. can all be traced back to Indus Civilization. The cultural and religious traditions of the Harappans provide the substratum of the latter-day Indian civilization.”

Thus we can conclude that according to popular belief Indus Valley Script did not disappear but transformed into the mother of Indian languages- the Brahmi script. However, we should wait for it to be deciphered and finally share its story to the rest of the world.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A sense of liberation in unearthing your history : Watching Netflix's documentary Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb

Image
  "You get a lot of mistakes about history, seeing the great temples, the great statues and you think everything in history was perfect. And then you see these people, you discover they're like us. Exactly like us. This is the real story."  - Amira Shaheen, professor of Rheumatology in the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University. The film by James Tovell presents the odyssey of several excavations at Saqqara, Egypt, to unearth the tomb of the ancient priest lord Wahtye. A team of Egyptologists, archaeologists, researchers from Cairo University, and excavators are deployed at the excavation site, where they unearth artifacts dating back to the 5th Century BCE. In 2018, the excavation site at Saqqara had recently witnessed some of the most important historical discoveries, such as the oldest mummified lion cub, the discovery of the Bubasteion Necropolis, the Egyptian goddess 'Bastet' statues, playing figurines, etc.  According to the hieroglyphs that were deciphered b...
Read more

The Clickbait Charade: Unveiling the Psychology Behind Viral Content

 Have you ever scrolled through social media and gotten sucked into a vortex of funny cat videos, heartwarming stories, or something so bizarre you just had to share it? You're not alone. Viral content thrives because it taps into the core of human psychology, making us click, share, and come back for more. The internet is a swirling vortex of information, entertainment, and endless scrolling. But what makes certain content break through the noise and achieve viral fame? The answer lies in the fascinating dance between psychology and content creation. Understanding what compels us to click, share, and engage with content is the key to unlocking the secrets of virality. Viral content can steer some sense of emotion into us. Various psychological factors are associated with the anatomy of a viral video, image, graphic, icon, or meme that is made using such viral content. Following are some psychological factors behind viral content and what makes it tick:- The Emotional Rollercoaster...
Read more

Incorporating Tech like AR & VR in Schools: Are we heading towards metaverse school system?

Image
Emerging technologies like Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality are changing the education field with innovation in the teaching methods many schools adopt today. As the learning experience becomes more immersive and engaging for students, should schools be more receptive to technological innovations in education dissemination? Today, technology has incorporated itself into education in ways that give a new face to learning. Technologies like augmented and virtual reality have been used to teach students methods of science and arts efficiently. Augmented reality is a digital simulation that allows users to augment their surroundings using digital elements. According to Krogstad, augmented reality has the following attributes: a) it should combine the real and the virtual, b) augmentations should be interactive in real-time, and c) the simulations should be registered in 3 Dimensions. (Aastveit)  Since the advent of these techs in the education space, students can learn creatively, ...
Read more