Author : Wahid Ahmad
The Indus Valley civilization, also
known as the Harappan civilization, was an ancient and highly advanced society
that existed around 2600-1800 BCE in what is now Pakistan and northwestern
India. It's often compared to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and is considered the
birthplace of Indian civilization and possibly the root of Hinduism. Despite
its achievements, it's unique because there's no evidence of armies or warfare.
This civilization had large cities like
Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, known for their well-planned layouts and advanced
amenities like house drainage systems and even the world's first toilets. They
also had intricate jewelry, seal stones, and a mysterious script that's yet to
be deciphered.
The Indus script is an ancient form of
writing with around 450 different signs that look like pictures. These signs
have been found on objects like seals, pottery, and amulets. Some items also
show pictures of animals and religious scenes. Deciphering this script has been
challenging because we don't know the names of rulers, gods, or the language
they spoke.
The writing used by the Indus Valley
civilization is a bit of a mystery because we haven't fully figured it out yet.
Some people even wonder if it's writing at all or just magical symbols. One big
challenge is that the inscriptions we've found are quite short, usually with
less than 30 signs. This makes it hard to spot patterns that could help us
understand what it means.
In other ancient languages, like
Egyptian, they were able to crack the code by comparing it to known
inscriptions. But with the Indus Script, we haven't found any inscriptions that
are written in two languages, which would be really helpful.
Also, the Indus civilization didn't
leave behind any books or history records that could give us hints about their
writing. So, we're kind of in the dark.
Before
Getting on to the Indus script let’s understand what is writing and how did it evolve?
i.
Phonemes:
These are the smallest units of sound in a language, like the sounds /c/ and
/b/ in "cat" and "bat." In writing, we use graphemes, which
are letters or symbols representing phonemes.
ii.
Morphemes:
These are the smallest meaningful units of language, like "dog" or
the "s" in "dogs." Early writing used pictures to represent
whole words or root morphemes, leaving out grammatical affixes (like
"s" for plural) for the reader to guess.
iii. Logo-syllabic script: As writing
evolved, it began to represent grammatical affixes too, resulting in complex
scripts with many symbols. The Indus script has about 450 signs, similar to
other early logo-syllabic scripts.
iv. Syllables and Alphabets: Eventually,
writing advanced to represent full syllables and individual sounds, leading to
the development of alphabets like the one we use today.
The Indus script is a logo-syllabic
script, meaning it uses symbols to represent whole words or parts of words
(morphemes) and sometimes syllables within words. It likely represents root
words and might include some grammatical affixes.
Here's
what we do know:
The Indus Script was generally written
from right to left, although there are some exceptions where it goes in
different directions on different lines.
They used certain symbols to represent
numbers. A single unit was shown with a downward stroke, and semicircles were
used for tens.
The Indus Script has about 400 basic
signs, with only 31 of them being used very often. Some experts think we can
simplify it to 39 basic signs, with the others being different ways of writing
the same thing.
The writing has been found on various
things like seals, pottery, tools, and even small tablets made of different
materials like stone and metal. The most common are square stamp seals made of
a material called steatite, with the script on top and an animal design in the center.
Sanskrit or Dravidian?
Sanskrit Hypothesis: Some proponents,
especially speakers of Indo-Aryan languages like Hindi and Bengali, have
suggested that the language of the Indus Valley civilization was Sanskrit or an
early form of it. They argue that Sanskrit, or Old Indo-Aryan, might have been
spoken in the region during the time of the civilization and evolved into
modern Indo-Aryan languages.
However, this Sanskrit hypothesis faces
challenges in terms of chronology. The Indus civilization existed from roughly
the second half of the third millennium B.C., while evidence suggests that the
Vedic Aryans, associated with Sanskrit, entered the Indian subcontinent from
Northeast Iran and Central Asia in the second millennium B.C. Additionally, the
early Aryans were known to be nomadic and relied heavily on horses, which are
notably absent from the art of the Indus civilization. Comprehensive bone
analyses suggest that horses were introduced to the subcontinent around the
beginning of the second millennium B.C., further complicating the timeline.
Dravidian Hypothesis: An alternative
theory proposes that the language of the Indus Valley civilization was
Dravidian. Dravidian languages are a distinct linguistic family spoken
predominantly in South India and parts of South Asia. There is evidence of
structural and lexical features in early Indo-Aryan texts, such as the Rigveda,
suggesting the influence of Dravidian languages in Northwest India during the second
millennium B.C.
Today, Dravidian languages are spoken
by millions of people and form the second-largest linguistic family in South
Asia. The North Dravidian sub-branch, represented by languages like Brahui and
Kurukh, may provide clues to the ancient language spoken in the Indus Valley
region. Brahui is spoken in Afghanistan and Baluchistan, an area associated
with the Early Harappan neolithic cultures, while Kurukh is spoken in North
India.
The most likely language spoken by the
Indus people appears to be an early form of Dravidian. In many Dravidian
languages, the word for 'fish' is 'meen.' Interestingly, in the ancient
Dravidian language, 'meen' also meant 'star.' Both words referred to something
shiny or glittery.
The Indus civilization often used
pictures to represent words. For example, a drawing of an arrow meant
"arrow." But not everything was easy to draw, especially abstract
ideas. So, they extended the meaning of pictures to words that sounded similar
even if they had different meanings. For example, in Sumerian, the picture of
an arrow meant both "arrow" and "life" because the words
sounded alike.
Understanding these picture meanings in
the Indus script is important because it can tell us what they were trying to
say, even if we don't know their spoken language. But it's a bit tricky because
over time, the symbols in the script became simpler. Unlike other ancient
scripts like Sumerian, which turned into abstract symbols, the Indus script
still had some pictures.
Some of the symbols in the Indus script
look like "fish," and these symbols have raised interesting
questions. Researchers have noticed that some of these "fish" symbols
appear in the mouths of fish-eating gavials on amulets. This made them think
that these symbols might represent gods. To be sure, they needed to check if
"fish" and "god" were words that sounded the same in some
ancient language, even though they meant different things.
So,
here's what researchers have found:
1.
Interpreting 'Fish' Signs as Deities:
Some Indus inscriptions are found on stamp seals used for making impressions in
clay. These seals often contain proper names, and some of them include god
names. This suggests that these "fish" symbols might represent gods.
Researchers are trying to confirm this by studying the language of the script.
2.
Seeing 'Fish' Signs as Symbols for Astral Deities: If stars were used as symbols of gods
in the script, then the "fish" signs could represent these gods. In
other ancient scripts, like cuneiform, a "star" symbol was added to
divine names to show they were gods. During the time of the Indus civilization,
Mesopotamians associated their gods with specific stars or planets. Similarly,
in India, planets have been worshipped as minor gods, each linked to a major
Hindu god.
3.
Evidence from Astronomy: The
layout of Indus cities' streets, facing different directions, suggests they
were interested in astronomy. They might have used tools like sun-sticks and
sundials for observations.
4.
Ancient Calendar: Indian
traditions used a star-calendar that goes back to around the 23rd century B.C.,
the peak time of the Indus civilization. This suggests that the Indus people
were already using a calendar based on the movements of the moon and the sun.
5.
Fish and Water Deities: The
"fish" symbols might represent gods associated with water. Fish were
important in Early Harappan religion, and the god of waters may have been a
central figure, possibly linked to death and fertility.
To make sense of these "fish"
symbols, researchers have looked at other signs that appear with them. They've
treated the Indus script like a crossword puzzle, trying to see if different
signs fit together logically.
Here's what they found:
1.
'Fish' Signs with 'Roof' Mark:
When a mark that looks like a "roof" is added to the "fish"
sign, it could mean "black star." This aligns with the name of the
planet Saturn in old Dravidian texts, where it's called the "black
star."
2.
Diacritic Marks on 'Fish' Signs:
Diacritic marks on the "fish" signs suggest a connection to
"green stars" or other celestial bodies, like the planet Mercury.
3.
'Two Long Vertical Strokes' with 'Fish':
A sign with "two long vertical strokes" often combined with the plain
"fish" sign could mean "white star" or "planet
Venus."
So, while we haven't completely
deciphered the Indus script, researchers are making progress by looking at how
these "fish" symbols combine with other signs and their meanings.
This helps us understand what the ancient people of the Indus Valley might have
been trying to communicate in their writing.
In the ancient Indus script, they used
symbols that looked like pictures to represent things or ideas. These symbols
could carry two messages at once: one visual (what they represented) and one
phonetic (how they sounded). It's kind of like solving a picture puzzle.
Now, let's dive into some interesting
findings related to these symbols:
Numerals and Celestial Bodies: In the Indus script, they represented
numbers by repeating short vertical strokes. For example, the number 'six' was
shown by drawing six short strokes in two lines. When they combined this number
with the symbol that looks like a "fish," it meant 'aru-meen,' which
stands for a group of stars called the Pleiades. These stars had special
significance in ancient Indian calendars, especially around 2300 B.C.
Pleiades and Hindu Mythology: The Pleiades, those stars mentioned
earlier, have a special place in Hindu mythology. They were seen as the mothers
or wet nurses of the war-god Rudra/Skanda, representing the victorious rising
sun and the new year. According to the mythology, these stars were the wives of
seven sages, which connects to the seven stars of the Great Bear constellation.
Great Bear and Seven Stars: In Old Tamil, the language spoken in
ancient South India, the Great Bear was called 'elu-meen,' which means
'seven-star.' This name lines up with the Indus script, where they combined the
symbols for '7' and 'fish.' In Hindu mythology, the Pleiades were separated
from their husbands because of infidelity, except for one wife named Arundhati,
who stayed loyal. This loyalty is represented by a small star called Alcor
within the Great Bear.
Evidence from Indus Seals: If you look at Indus seals, you can
often see rows of human figures. These figures likely represent the Pleiades
stars. This connection between the Indus civilization and the Pleiades myth is
supported by these seals and other pieces of evidence.
In simple terms, researchers have found
links between symbols in the Indus script, numbers, and celestial bodies like
stars. These connections offer insights into how the ancient Indus people might
have used their writing to talk about important astronomical events and myths.
It's like reading a piece of their history through their symbols and pictures.
Conclusion:
The Indus script is a logo-syllabic
writing system, meaning it combines pictures and sounds. While many signs in
the script remain mysterious, some have been deciphered. These interpretations
suggest that the Indus people spoke a Dravidian language and practised a
religion related to both ancient West Asia and later India. The symbols in the
script were carefully designed to convey both visual and phonetic messages,
like the 'roofed fish' representing the 'black star,' which is an ancient
symbol for the planet Saturn.
In simple terms, the Indus script used
symbols that represented both pictures and sounds. Some symbols represented
numbers and celestial bodies like stars. These symbols were related to Hindu
mythology and had connections to ancient stories. The script likely represented
a Dravidian language and a religious belief system that combined elements from
different cultures.