Tales from the Indus Seals-Romancing the Gods

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Romancing the Gods - Tales from the Indus Seals

 

Gopichand Katragadda

Published on Monday, February 7, 2005

Introduction

 

Excavations in the 1920s at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa in the Greater

Indus Valley uncovered a previously unknown civilization dating back

to 2550 B.C. Popularly known as the Indus Valley Civilization, this

civilization was highly advanced with brick laid cities, plumbing

systems, public baths, and more importantly an advanced form of

writing. This discovery led to rewriting the history of the Indian

subcontinent. European historians, who previously considered the

advent of Aryans (from central Asia) as the starting point of

civilization in India, had to scurry and re-look at their hypothesis.

Currently, the most widely accepted theory is that the Indus Valley

Civilization was a civilization of Dravidians, who were gradually

displaced by the incoming Aryan tribes. The weakest link in proving

any theory regarding the people of the Indus Valley Civilization and

their origins has been the inability of the research community to

decipher the Indus Script. Some 3500 specimens of this script survive

in stamp seals carved in stone, in molded terracotta and faience

amulets. The investigation of the Indus script based on these

specimens is a key to solving the Indus puzzle. The difficulty in

deciphering the Indus script is three-fold.

 

1. The specimens of script, which survive, are mainly seals with a

small string of symbols, which probably represent isolated words.

Hence the context of a sentence, which would aid/ validate the

deciphering process, is unavailable.

2. There are no known translations of the script into other languages

of the time.

3. There is no consensus on the language or even the family of

languages to which the script belongs. This is tied into the lack of

consensus on the protohistory of the region.

 

European researchers, of whom A. Parpola is eminent, have made several

attempts, to decipher the Indus script based on the syntactic,

semantic, phonetic, and phonological properties of current Dravidian

languages. There also have been several recent attempts, primarily by

Indian researchers N. Jha, S. Kak, and S.R. Rao, to link the Indus

script to Sanskrit, which is considered an Aryan language, using

archaeological evidence. However, neither group has provided an

authoritative and comprehensive solution. Each group has attempted

deciphering a small sub-set of the available specimens based on

several assumptions. Extending their results outside this subset does

not result in any intelligible decipherment. Hence, it can be safely

stated that to date, there is no accepted solution to the problem.

There is a need for renewed effort and innovative approaches to

decipher the Indus script to provide an authoritative and

comprehensive solution to the most vexing problem in South Asian

protohistory.

 

Protohistorical Framework

Historians, both past and present, drawing conclusions based on

insufficient data and insufficient analysis have muddied the waters of

Indian protohistory.

 

Early historians who documented the protohistory of the Indus region

were primarily European colonists. History books before 1920 related

the arrival of Aryans as being the starting point of civilization in

India. This obvious error was propagated for two reasons:

 

1. The lack of appropriate archaeological data (since the Indus Valley

Civilization was not yet excavated), and

2. Attempts by a few historians, like Max Muller, to fit Indian

protohistory into the Judeo-Christian time scale, which posited that

the world was created in 4004 B.C.

 

With the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization, historians had to

rewrite much of the protohistory of the region, but did so trying to

minimize changes to the original theory of an 'Aryan Invasion'

occurring around 1200 BC. The Aryan invasion according to these

historians led to the elimination of the Indus Valley civilization in

one swift swipe. There are several holes in this theory, as exposed by

later discoveries, which showed that the Indus Valley Civilization was

not localized to the sites of the original excavations, but extended

as far south as Gujarat. Invading hordes obviously could not have

displaced this expanse of a civilization in one swift swipe. David

Frawley, a self-appointed authority on Vedic period India and one of

the strongest opponent of the Aryan Invasion theory states:

'Anthropologists have observed that the present population of Gujarat

is composed of more or less the same ethnic groups as are noticed at

Lothal in 2000 BC. Similarly, the present population of the Punjab is

said to be ethnically the same as the population of Harappa and Rupar

four thousand years ago. Linguistically the present day population of

Gujarat and Punjab belongs to the Indo-Aryan language-speaking group.

The only inference that can be drawn from the anthropological and

linguistic evidences adduced above is that the Harappan population in

the Indus Valley and Gujarat in 2000 BC was composed of two or more

groups, the more dominant among them having very close ethnic

affinities with the present day Indo-Aryan speaking population of

India.' For clarity, it should be pointed out that, David Frawley, by

no stretch of imagination is an authority on either the Indus

civilization or script.

 

As a counter reaction to these errors by early European historians,

present day historians and archaeologists (primarily Indian

researchers such as the now discredited N.S. Rajaram, and the more

respectable S. R. Rao) have swung the pendulum to the other end,

claiming that there did not exist a race called Aryans, and that all

of the Indian subcontinent belongs to the same race. They claim the

Indus region as the hub from where people moved to the Middle East and

Europe carrying their culture with them. In addition, these

archaeologists claim a Sanskrit base for the language of the Indus

Valley Civilization. Unfortunately, these attempts are invalid as

research studies, as there is a clouding of scientific fact and

socio-religious emotions.

 

Additionally, there is Steve Farmer, a Harvard Indologist who

concludes that the Indus people were illiterate and the so-called

script is not a script but just symbolic and mythological in

character. Again, much like India – there is nothing one can say about

the Indus script that is totally incorrect. It is very probable that

several seals, especially the early ones were purely symbols.

 

Currently, it is accepted that the Aryans did not invade the Indus

region like a tidal wave carrying all the Dravidians before them.

According to some scholars they came in at least two major waves as

well as small trickles. The first wave came around 2000 B.C., and the

second some six centuries later. After the second wave, when they

became dominant, their language too spread over northern India. It is

this language, or rather a number of dialects, which we call old

Indo-Aryan for convenience.

 

New Speculations

This section presents some of my speculations based more on an

understanding of the complex nature of the Indian sub-continent, but

as a layman to the field of linguistics. A detailed linguistic

analysis is required to take these observations further. Not being a

linguist by profession, I would certainly welcome suggestions and

comments.

 

As is accepted by most Indus scholars, I start with the assumption

that the Indus script is a script rather than purely symbolic and

mythological in nature. Another hypothesis is that, like the Indus

spoken language, the script could not have suddenly disappeared from

usage, but possibly evolved into one of the present-day scripts of the

region (there are again several lesser known Indus scholars who have

used this assumption). The chief objections to this second hypothesis are:

 

· The existing theory that the current scripts of the region evolved

from Brahmi, which evolved from the West Semitic script.

· The time-gap between the last discovered Indus script date (1600

B.C.) and the first appearance of present-day scripts in India (300 B.C.).

The basis of attributing a West Semitic origin to Brahmi is shaky.

Parpola who accepts the West Semitic origin of Brahmi, states: 'The

Semitic consonantal alphabet is the

 

[1] The following is a correspondence (extracts) I had with Parpola on

this issue.

 

Parpola's message to me dated March 14, 2001in response to my query

regarding possible connection between the Indus script, Brahmi, and

the present day scripts of South Asia:

 

The Indus script was created around 2600 BC. At that time, there was

no alphabetic script anywhere in the world. The Indus script as a

writing system disappeared when the Indus urbanization broke down

about 1900 BC (even at that time there was no alphabetic script

anywhere in the world), although isolated script symbols seem to have

survived in some places (notably in Maharashtra) some centuries longer.

 

The West Semitic consonant alphabet, the first alphabetic script of

the world, was created around 1600 BC. It came into being as a

simplification of the Egyptian hieroglyphic script by non-Egyptian

(Semitic) scribes employed by Egyptian masters, who started using the

one-consonant signs of the Egyptian script to write their own language

(when writing the Egyptian language they employed all Egyptian signs

most of which denoted a sequence of two or three consonants). The

Semitic writing system came to South Asia only at the end of the 6th

century BC (when Darius conquered the Indus Valley), and the Brahmi

script was created even later.

 

I can see no chance for a connection between the Indus script or these

scripts used later in South Asia.

 

My response and Parpola's return response dated April 14, 2001:

 

Thanks for your message. As we continue to make discoveries, the

hypothesis we work from probably needs continuous adjustment. I have

a few more questions, which I will present to you.

 

1.

http://news2.thdo.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_334000/334517.stm

- This link is to a BBC news article describing a 1999 discovery of

pottery dated 3500 BC with Indus inscription. That is a full 1000

years earlier than what you have for the creation of the Indus script.

Does this affect your hypothesis in any manner?

 

Not much, because the news article was mistaken in describing the find

as 'writing': what was found was 'potter's marks', not real writing.

 

 

 

model for the Indian alphabets too. Two different adaptations of the

Semitic consonantal alphabet are used in the earliest directly

preserved documents of India, Asoka's

 

2. Around 1600 BC, Egypt was ruled by foreign invaders 'Hyksos'.

There is not much known about these invaders. Were these invaders

responsible for the West Semitic script? If so, did they bring the

concepts of an alphabetic script from foreign lands either they

visited previously or were from?

 

When Egypt and Syria were united into one kingdom, Syrian scribes were

trained to write Egyptian script, which consisted of signs denoting

words containing 3, 2 and 1 consonants each. The 1-consonant signs are

few, and these West Semitic speaking scribes discovered that they

could use these few signs to write their own language, since no

previous tradition forced them to also use the numerous 3- and

2-consonant signs as was the case when writing the Egyptian language.

 

3. The provisional list of the Indus script consists of about 400

symbols (including the composite symbols) - compared to the 600

letters (including composite letters) in the present-day scripts of

the Indian sub-continent. So is there a possibility that the Indus

script was alphabetic (or maybe later Indus script was alphabetic)?

 

The present-day Indian scripts are 'syllabic alphabets', in which

signs for every vowel or diphthong are systematically joined with

every consonant (or conjunct consonant sign). In the Indus script

there is no system of diacritical signs that are regularly joined with

nearly every different sign.

 

4. How do you account for the disappearance of a script (without a

substitute) as widespread as the Indus (present day Afghanistan -

present day Maharashtra)? Is there another similar example?

 

The Indus script was created when the Harappan culture became

urbanized, and it disappeared when the urbanization broke down, except

that some reminiscences lingered a couple of centuries in some

pockets. The same thing happened after the breakdown of the Mycenaean

culture in Greece, except in Cyprus, where the script exceptionally

survived to historical times.

 

5. Why are there only seals with short inscriptions? Is it possible

that they used some other method of writing (such as on palm leafs),

which did not survive time? Is this the same reason that we do not

have surviving written material for 1900 BC - 600 BC?

 

Undoubtedly the Harappans wrote on some perishable materials -- palm

leaves, birch bark, or cloth. There was probably no writing at all

from 1900 BC onwards, because the rule in the Indus Valley seems to

have changed hands to illiterate Aryan speakers favouring oral

tradition alone.

 

inscription dated c. 250 B.C. One known in Sanskrit as Kharosthi, is

restricted to Northwest India; it is based on the Aramaic script used

by clerks all over the Achaemenid empire, which extended from the Nile

to the Indus c. 520-330 B.C. The other, called Brahmi, is ultimately

based on the West Semitic alphabet, and seems to have been adopted

sometime after 600 B.C., probably via sea trade. All the modern Indian

scripts go back to Brahmi. The greater number of phonemes in Indian

languages demanded the creation of many new consonant signs, and led

to considerable modifications. The correspondences suffice, however,

to establish the Semitic origin, the shapes of the Brahmi tha and sa

even narrow the date of adoption to between 600 and 250 BC. The vowels

are systematically marked in the Indian scripts, too, but by a rather

complicated method.' Several conclusions drawn in this statement, I

feel are, based on insufficient data. I make the following observations:

 

1. The Brahmi and West Semitic symbol for tha (cerebral) is . The

Brahmi symbol for sa is , the corresponding West Semitic symbol being

.. The most startling omission in concluding that Brahmi is derived

from West Semitic is that exact matches of both these symbols are

prominently present in the Indus script, making the Indus script the

possible root of both the Brahmi and the Semitic scripts.

2. There is insufficient evidence to make a statement that all modern

Indian scripts go back to Brahmi. It might be more appropriate to say

Brahmi script and all current Indian scripts share a common influence.

3. There are several Indus symbols, which could be mapped into the

current India scripts (including vowels not present in Brahmi). A few

examples are (the Telugu-Kannada script is used in this study for

convenience):

a) The cow horn symbol (as interpreted by Parpola) mapped to the

Telugu-Kannada letter for ä (the Telugu word for cow is ävu):

 

b) The most discussed, and one of the most used symbols from the Indus

script, the 'fish' symbol.

 

The most plausible theory on its usage is that provided by Parpola to

be 'mën' which could mean both fish and astral divinities. The middle

sound in mën is "ë". The fish symbol variation with a strike through

in the middle could be mapped to the current letter for ë in the

Telugu-Kannada alphabet as follows.

 

c) The Tha (cerebral) symbol can be interpreted as relating to the THA

sound obtained in the South Indian percussion by hitting the drum in

the middle of the drum:

 

Figure 1. South Indian drum Kanjira making the THA sound (Courtesy:

http://www.drumdojo.com/world/india/kanjira.htm)

 

d) The warrior with the sword (as interpreted by Parpola) mapped to

the Telugu-Kannada letter for Tha (dental):

 

e) The crab (as interpreted by Parpola) mapped to the Telugu-Kannada

letter for pa (crab is pëtha in Telugu):

 

There are several rarely used accents in Telugu-Kannada scripts

primarily used in Sanskrit text transliterated to Telugu.

Surprisingly, most of these accent letters have exact matches in the

Indus script. The Telugu-Kannada accents and the matching Indus

symbols are shown in Table 1.

 

Table 1. Accents used in the Telugu-Kannada script, which have exact

matches in the Indus script.

 

The provisional list of the Indus script consists of about 400 symbols

(including the composite symbols) – compared to the 600 letters

(including composite letters) in the present-day scripts of the Indian

sub-continent. The numbers are close, given the strong possibility of

undiscovered Indus symbols and later letter imports for accommodating

new sounds.

It is possible to obtain new interpretations (unexplored by previous

researchers) of Indus seals based on this paper. For example the

famous 'Proto-Shiva' seal could probably be that of the contemporary

deity Ayyappan as discussed next.

 

Ayyappan the Proto-Siva?

The episode of Ayyappan is described in 'Brahmananda Purana', and also

in 'Skandapurana'. It is told that Ayyappan was found on the shores of

the holy Pamba River by the heirless king of Pandhalam, Rajasekara,

when he was out on a hunting trip. As the divine child was wearing a

golden bell around his neck, the king named him Manikanta, and adopted

him as his son. Soon the queen had her own child. As the children grew

up, young Manikanta was loved and admired by all. The queen now

started feeling jealous, as she wanted her own child to ascend to the

throne. The queen feigned a strange ailment that required tiger's

milk, and requested that Manikanta go to the forests and procure the

tiger milk. Manikanta took up the task of getting it for his mother.

He ventured boldly into the forests, had an encounter with a demon

called Mahishi (Sanskrit for buffalo) which ended in him killing

Mahishi (this is again of significance as there are several Indus

seals depicting a man killing a bull or a water buffalo). Eventually

the divine child returned home triumphantly riding a tigress. The

queen realized the divine nature of her foster son. Prince Manikanta

explained to his foster parents his divine mission, helped install his

younger brother on the throne and went to the crest of Sabari where he

is worshipped eternally as Ayyappan, the divine yogi. This story is of

key significance as the Indus Seal (M-304) shown in this document

(Figure 1) could be interpreted as the life story of Ayyappan. The

seal shows a man riding a tiger (compare with a modern rendition in

Figure 2) and it shows a mad bull - both part of the story described

above. Also, tradition has it that Ayyappan was born on Jan 14th – the

day of Makara Sankranti (Makara – Capricorn) when the sun enters the

zodiac sign of Capricorn symbolized by the goat. M 304 shows the goat

at the feet of the deity. Ayyappan is also associated with the

elephant and is sometimes shown riding an elephant.

 

 

 

Indus Seal or Tablet (Impression?)

 

 

Representative modern picture of Ayyappan

 

 

 

Read from left to right (as this is a seal).

 

First letter is ä

 

Second letter is ë

 

Third letter is ä (?)

 

Fourth letter is pa

 

Fifth letter is pa

 

Sixth letter is an (for man)

 

Note the animals related to the story of Ayyappan

 

Read as Ayyappan(?)

 

ProtoSiva seal M 304

 

 

Possible reading for M 304

 

Figure 1. Possible reading of Indus Proto-Siva seal M 304

 

There are several issues with this analysis that need to be

acknowledged and addressed:

1. The story of Ayyappan is set in the South Indian state of Kerala

way off from the Indus lands. Also, the current version of the story

probably has recent origins much after the Indus times. However, it is

possible that this myth, like many others, had its origins much

earlier in other lands.

2. Parpola concludes that the man riding the tiger is part of the

written text on the seal rather than part of graphics. It is difficult

to agree with Parpola's conclusion given that the man on the tiger is

separated from the rest of the text by an elephant in between!

3. Most Indus script is read right-to-left and seals are read

left-to-right. There is a discrepancy in comparison to Parpola's work,

as he reads the M-304 seal in the opposite direction as read here, and

the picture of the seal M-304 in his book is a mirror image of the

picture shown in this document. It is possible that the picture of the

seal M-304 shown in this document is actually an impression of the

seal. It is still possible to read it left to right based on the fact

that some 6.5% of the Indus writing is actually left to right.

 

(a)

 

(b)

 

©

 

Figure 2. (a) A typical modern devotional rendition of Ayyappan

returning successfully from the jungle; (b) and © Indus seal

(H-163a) showing a man on a branch over a tiger (other variations of

this theme are also present)

 

Valliamman the Fig-Deity?

Another mythological character of importance is Murugan, also known as

Skanda, Kanda, Subrahmanyan, Kumaraswamy, amongst other names.

Ayyappan is also considered, by a few, as an incarnation of Murugan.

Parpola's deciphering effort has several theories revolving around

Murugan. In considering the 'fig-deity' seal (M1186-a Error! Reference

source not found.), Parpola however heads off to interpret the

'fig-deity' as Durga, who is likely a more recent deity and has

virtually no direct association with Murugan. It is more probable that

the 'fig-deity' is Valli (Tamil for a creeper) the consort of Murugan,

and the foliage interpreted as 'fig-tree', is actually a creeper. The

story of Valli, which has a very important place in Tamil mythology,

will throw some more light in this direction.

 

It is said that the Kuruvas (a mountain dwelling pastoral tribe) found

a baby girl abandoned amidst creepers in a forest. The head Kuruva

took her home and named her Valli – the creeper. Valli grew up to be a

dusky beauty, admired and loved by all the forest dwellers. Once, when

the tribesmen were away, Valli and her friends were guarding the crops

of their tribe from atop an elevated platform (Error! Reference source

not found.). A hunter from the mountains wandered into the Kuruva

lands chasing a deer. The hunter upon spotting Valli was so smitten by

her that he proposed marriage. Before much else could happen, Valli's

tribe folk returned and the hunter did a disappearing act. The hunter

would return several times, seeking Valli's hand in marriage. Valli

also grew fond of the young hunter and accepted the proposal. The

Kuruvas came to know of this and were infuriated that a 'foreigner'

would dare approach one of their girls. However, on learning that the

hunter was none other than Murugan, their warrior god, the anger

turned into joy and they celebrated the wedding with great pomp and

splendor. Parpola describes the inscription on this seal as closely

similar to the inscription on M-304 (though this is not very clear in

Error! Reference source not found.). Possible reading of this seal

would be Ayyamma or Valliamma.

 

Figure 1. An Indus seal depicting a scene similar to that of Kanda

courting Valli

 

Figure 2. A modern rendition of Kanda courting Valli (www. kataragama.org)

 

Basavanna the Unicorn?

Another very important Indus seal is, of course the unicorn. It is

highly likely that the unicorn is really a bull with only one horn

showing due to the lateral view. The bull is again very strongly

associated with Ayyappan and the present day South Indian traditions.

To date, decorated Brahmin bulls are key in the celebrations of Makara

Sankaranthi, which is, as discussed before, the day Ayyappan was born.

Figure 3 shows the possible interpretation of one of the most popular

'unicorn' seals. Again, it needs to be acknowledged that the script on

this seal is only one of many scripts found on unicorn seals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deity at Basvanagudi (Bull Temple) in Bangalore, India

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read from right to left as this is the impression of a seal

 

First letter is `ba'[1]

 

Second letter is `sa'[2]

 

Third letter is `va'[3]

 

Fourth letter is pa or na

 

Read as Basavappa or Basavanna – Basava is the name for the popular

bull-deity in South India

 

Indus Seal or Tablet

 

 

Possible Reading the Unicorn Indus Seal or tablet

 

 

Figure 3. Analysis of an Indus 'Unicorn' Seal based on speculations in

this paper

 

Based on these observations, there is sufficient evidence to link some

of the main Indus seals to specific Dravidian mythology. Also, there

are sufficient structural similarities between the current Indian

scripts and the Indus script to warrant a detailed investigation.

Similarly there are sufficient structural similarities between the

Brahmi script and the Indus script to question the theory of Brahmi

originating from West Semitic. There are possibilities that the

 

[1] Note that Parpola interprets this sign as a water carrier. In

Telugu, Basta is a jute sack and also a measure. The assumption here

is that the letter is derived from Basta. Curiously, 'bastazein' in

Greek is to carry! Also, this sign is similar to the letter for 'Ba'

in the Telugu-Kannada alphabet and also the English B when flipped by

90 degrees.

 

[1] The sign is interpreted as rice-paddy. Sali rice being a common

rice variety in India, the sign is taken to represent the letter 'Sa'

 

[1] The root 've' in Telugu is used in words meaning finger-like.

Examples include velu (fingers), veru (root). Surprisingly, the

Indo-European root-word 'werte' and its Latin derivative 'versus' mean

turning of the plough or to furrow!! This sign is interpreted here as

a finger like tool such as a rake or a small plough.

 

Indus script might actually be the root of both Brahmi and West

Semitic – leading to wide implications. The other possibility is that

Indus script is the root of West Semitic, and came back to India as

Brahmi after a period of death in India. However as other researchers

have sagely pointed out the initial rush to draw conclusions is

eventually replaced by the knowledge of the difficulty of cracking the

Indus Script.