The Indus Civilization, one of the oldest urban cultures in the world, flourished around 2500–1900 BCE in what is now modern-day India and Pakistan. Its mysterious script, known as the Indus Script, remains undeciphered and represents a linguistic mystery.
This ancient civilization is believed to have had a complex language system, as evidenced by the complex seals and inscriptions found at archaeological sites such as Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.
While the exact linguistic features of the script remain elusive, scholars speculate about its potential connection to Dravidian or other indigenous languages.
The Indus people developed advanced urban planning with a sophisticated drainage system and standardized weights and measures. Despite the mystery of the scenario, the cultural and technological achievements of the Indus civilization continue to fascinate researchers and shed light on ancient linguistic and social complexities that continue to fascinate historians today.
Language and Script of the Indus Civilization
| Historical Facts | Language and Script of Indus Civilization |
| Direction | Right to left |
| Dravidian family | Parpola and Koskenniemi |
| analogies | Sumerian signs |
| G. R. Hunter | 149 characters |
| A.H. Dani | 537 characters |
| Mahadevan | 417 characters |
Introduction Language and script of the Indus civilization
The Harappan language or languages are still unknown and must remain so until the Harappan Dilip script is here. In general, there would seem to be two main contenders as to the nature of the language: that it belonged, however improbably, to the Indo-European or even Indo-Aryan family; or that she belonged to a Dravidian family.
Decryption is a problematic Script of the Indus Civilization
Despite careful analysis of the corpus of Harappan inscriptions, now numbering about 3,000, the task of decipherment remains problematic, and the brevity of the inscriptions, almost all on seals or amulet tablets, makes interpretation difficult. Perhaps it is because of this challenge that the related problems have attracted some scientists to try to solve them. Since no two trials have yet matched, and as the number increases, only one thing is more certain: the probability that someone will be right will decrease accordingly. Several laborious attempts to read the inscriptions have been made by groups of scholars using various techniques, including computers.
The ancestral language of the Dravidian family
Parpola and his Scandinavian colleague Koskeniemi produced an impressive match of known inscriptions and proceeded to hypothesize that the language was the ancestral language of the Dravidian family and that the script relied on homophones. This has been the most frequently and strongly supported hypothesis since its adoption by Marshall (1931) and Hunter (1934). A group of Soviet scientists also concluded that the language is closer to Dravidian than any other known language, and Indian scholar Mahadevan also published an impressive computer match. Among all these attempts, certain areas of agreement emerge, both in the acceptance of the Dravidian hypothesis and in the reconstruction of the elements of the astronomical system from the inscriptions.
Arguments in favor of Dravidian languages
There are several arguments for this; first, careful analysis has shown “beyond any reasonable doubt” that Elimite and the Dravidian language family are “genuinely” related. This would indicate that they were in closer geographic proximity at some point in the past than the modern Dravidian distribution suggests. Further, despite doubts about its meaning, the fact remains that the Dravidian language Brahui is still spoken by the nomadic pastoralists in the Balluchi hills.
Early Semitic alphabet
A somewhat different approach can be found in the recent attempt to read the content of the inscriptions in terms of analogies between Harappan and Sumerian signs or groups of signs. This does not lead us to the language of the inscriptions, but it may lead us to the meaning of some of them. S. R. Rao also made an entirely different attempt to read the script as containing a pre-Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-European family and as clearly ancestral not only to the later Indian Brahmi script but also to the early Semitic alphabet. This attempt has not yet been supported by other scientists.
The greatest mystery
Among the greatest mysteries facing humanity in the next millennium is one of the past. Why can’t we read what the people of the Indus Valley civilization or the Harappan civilization wrote? Along with Etruscan, a pre-Roman language, it is one of the last undeciphered scripts in the world.
The solver of this riddle, historians say, is not only assured of world fame but will open the key to a whole range of information on the subject. Not that there weren’t any efforts to break the script. At least 100 experts have tried their hand at it, but not a single interpretation of this largely pictographic script has found universal acceptance. Most archaeologists agree that our knowledge of the first Indian civilizations is minimal, mainly because we cannot read its script. Yet this remarkable civilization has given us many hints of a complex system of governance and urban planning.
The emergence of this complex network seems impossible without a writing system and a well-developed one at that.
Characters in the Indus script
The number of characters estimated by different archaeologists in the Indus script also varies. While G.R. Hunter (1932) estimated 149 characters, A.H. Dani (1963) put the number at 537. Asko Parpola and his Finnish team reported 396 (1973), Mahadevan 417 (1977), and Fairservis 419 (1992). This is a problem that has exercised the minds of experts since John Marshall first discovered the remains of this 5,000-year-old culture at Mohenjodar in 1922.
Conclusion
The script was written from right to left, like in modern Urdu. The number of characters indicates that the script is unrelated to any of the contemporary Egyptian, Sumerian, or Babylonian scripts. Some scholars call it the parent of the Brahmi script, but this has not been conclusively proven.
This mystery can only be solved when a bilingual inscription containing a known language or a long inscription with prominent repetitive characters is found. All inscriptions discovered so far are short, with an average of half a dozen letters, the longest having seventeen. The day this Indus script is deciphered will be a turning point in the history of India.
Videos about Indus Script
(FAQ) Questions and Answers about the Script of the Indus Civilization
Q-1. What is the Indus script?
Ans. The Indus script is a collection of symbols found on artifacts from the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, dating from around 3300–1300 BC.
Q-2. Has the Indus script been deciphered?
Ans. No, the Indus script remains undeciphered, and its meaning continues to be debated among scholars.
Q-3. Where were the Indus script artifacts discovered?
Ans: Artifacts of the Indus script have been found at various archaeological sites in the Indus Valley, including Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in present-day Pakistan and other parts of northwestern India.
Q-4. How many symbols does the Indus script contain?
Ans. There are more than 400 different symbols identified in the Indus script, but the lack of a bilingual text has hampered decipherment efforts.
Q-5. What was the purpose of the Indus script?
Ans. The exact purpose of the Indus script remains unknown. It could have been used for administrative, religious, or commercial purposes.
Q-6. Are there any theories about the purpose of the Indus script?
Ans. Various theories suggest the writing’s connection to religious ritual, trade, or governance, but there is no consensus among scholars.
Q-7. Why is deciphering the Indus script difficult?
Ans. The absence of bilingual text, the brevity of the script on the artifacts, and the absence of a known language make deciphering difficult.
Q-8. Are there ongoing research efforts to decipher the Indus script?
Ans. Yes, researchers continue to explore new methods, linguistic approaches, and archeological findings to unlock the secrets of the Indus script.
Q-9. What is the significance of the Indus script for understanding ancient civilizations?
Ans. Deciphering the Indus script could provide insight into the language, culture, and social structures of the Indus Valley Civilization and contribute to a better understanding of ancient history.