Indus Writing in ancient Near East: Corpora and a dictionary by S. Kalyanaraman 978-0982897188 Publisher: Sarasvati Research Center (April 3, 2013) Rs. 2,140 amazon.in flipkart.comhttp://tinyurl.com/lejaxkk
Researchers have wondered in awe about the royal cemeteries or ziggurats of Mesopotamia, pyramids and temples of Egypt and tomes have been written about Mesopotamian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphic writing systems.
This wonder and awe should now extend to a contemporary but more extensive Indus-Sarasvati civilization with new revelations being brought out by researches into the writing system of this civilization. The enigmatic writing system is evidenced in nearly 7000 inscriptions on seals, tablets and even copper plates.
Evidence has accumulated over the years since 1872 when Alexander Cunningham published the first reproduction of a seal from Harappa. Cunningham was Director of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1871 to 1885.
So far researchers used to describe the evidence from the Indus-Sarasvati civilization in mysterious terms, even calling Saravati River a mystic river. All this mystery should now get explained because the cryptographer from Chennai has discovered the cipher for Indus Script used by what he calls People of Meluhha or Mleccha of India.
In the early 1920s when Howard Carter opened the tomb of the young pharaoh Tutankhamen and saw glint of gold and when Leonard Woolley excavated graves at Ur revealing the wealth of Sumerians on the Tigris-Euphrates river basin in what is now Iraq, excavations in the river basin of Indus and Sarasvati, in the sites of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and Chanhu-daro, revealed astonishing evidences of the Bronze Age revolution of 3rdmillennium BCE. Chanhu-daro is on the right-bank of Vedic River Sarasvati.
One American explorer of Boston Museum of Fine Arts, EJH Mackay, was so deeply impressed by the technological excellence of metal vessels, tools and weapons, excavated from Chanhu-daro that he became thrilled and called the revolutionary industrial site as the Sheffield of the Ancient Near East in Illustrated London News of November 21, 1936 with an accompanying photograph.
This proved to be as dazzling as the gold of Egypt or wealth of Sumer. The full explanation of the achievements of Meluhha or Mleccha people had to await the decipherment of Indus Script.
During the last 100 years, explorations have revealed over 2000 archaeological sites (Rakhigarhi, Ropar, Banawali, Kalibangan, Bhirrana) of this civilization on the banks of Vedic River Sarasvati (also called Ghaggar-Hakra-Nara) which had later dried up due to plate tectonics, resultant river migrations.
Same cultural sequences were located in delta areas of Rann of Kutch, Gujarat (Dholavira, Kanmer, Khirsara, Surkotada), Lothal , Gujarat(Gulf of Khambat) and in areas west of River Indus in sites such as Mehergarh, Shahdad, Shortugai, Shahr-i-sokta, Tepe Yahya in Afghanistan-Baluchistan-Iran and across the Persian Gulf. These were centres of trade and commerce between India, present-day Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq (in areas called Elam, Bactria-Margiana, Dilmun, Magan). The trading area evidenced by the seals with Indus Script was twice as vast as the area denominated as Egyptian or Sumer cultures.
The emerging picture was that of a maritime, riverine culture with sea-faring merchants, artisans and explorers for minerals reaching far and wide upto Caucasus mountains in Europe (Altyn Depe) and Haifa, an ancient port in Israel (shipwreck yielding two pure tin ingots with Indus Script inscription).
Now over 30 years of research, accumulating the evidence of nearly 7000 inscriptions in a recent book, , Indus Script cipher has been revealed using techniques of cryptography. S. Kalyanaraman, the Cryptographer of Chennai calls the script hieroglyphic writing which used the underlying sounds of Meluhha (Mleccha) language. He finds metalcraft or stonecraft words rendered as pictographs using similar sounding words which denote pictures of crocodile, bull, rhinoceros, tiger, elephant, fish, rim-of-jar or lathe used by stone or metal-turners. This use of similar sounding words which can be represented by pictographs is called rebus method also used on early Egyptian hieroglyphs.
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For example, on Emperor Narmer’s palette his name is shown as N’r + M’r represented by glyphs: cuttle-fish and awl (chisel), respectively.
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On Indus Script glyphs: fish + crocodile denote ayakara, metal smith.
Mysteries of the Indus-Sarasvati need not persist any longer, thanks to this cryptography research. The inscriptions which use Indus Script are a record of the beginning and evolution of Bronze Age India. Two minerals of great importance were discovered in India: tin and zinc which when alloyed with the abundant copper mineral yielded the metal alloys of tin-bronze and brass products such as vessels, pots and pans, tools and weapons. The hardened metal alloys could be used to create sharp weapons like spears, arrow-heads, daggers, farm tools like ploughshares or sickles and ornaments and jewellery combined with gold, silver and perforated beads of semi-precious stones of lapis lazuli, carnelian, agate or even ivory. The availability of metal tools also resulted in techniques for sculpting polished stone pillars and ring-stones and even for creating water reservoirs cutting through sheer-rock as evidenced in Dholavira. Even Shivalingas were found in Harappa. These together with the suggestion by some researchers that the stupa mound of Mohenjo-daro may have been a ziggurat-temple provide new avenues for archaeological exploration of the religious-belief systems of the ancient people of the region.
Ziggurat-temple of Mohenjo-daro?
Bhirrana. Potsherd. Dancing girl as hieroglyph. meḍ ‘dance’ (Santali); meṭ sole of foot, footstep, footprint (Ko.); meṭṭu step, stair, treading, slipper (Te.)(DEDR 1557). Rebus: मेढ ‘merchant’s helper’ (Pkt.) Rebus: meḍ, mẽṛhẽt 'iron'(Mu.Ho.) Scholars now describe how theories about Indus-Sarasvati culture have to be brushed aside and replaced by new evidence, a new consensus from sites like Bhirrana pointing to continuous settlements of people from 7th millennium BCE which could make the culture co-terminus with Vedic period which has left an enormous volume of literature and texts with profound philosophical enquiries and intense search for knowledge about phenomena. These observations together with ongoing debates about the indigenous evolution of cultures in India negate the wrongly-held theories about Aryan invasions or migrations into India.
The new consensus shows culture of ancient India based on Bronze Age technologies, town-planning, architecture and wealth based on minerals, metals, alloys, on agriculture and trade and a society organized into artisan-and-trade guilds.
The cipher for the Indus script now finds the interplay of physical remains with written records, thus enabling archaeological reconstruction of the lives of ancient people called Meluhha or Mleccha as practical people governed by economic interests and without centralized rulers or kings. Cuneiform records from Mesopotamia record the presence of Indus (Meluhha) merchants and ships during Sargon’s reign of Akkadian kingdom around 2300 BCE. The trade was in goods such as hardwoods, tin or lead, copper, gold, silver, shell, pearls, ivory. Many of these commodities find a mention in Indus Script inscriptions together with distinct catalogs of stoneware and metalware created by the artisans who were stone-cutters, turners, miners, smiths.
The Meluhhan organization of trade is matched by the world’s first gigantic, advertisement display board in Dholavira mounted on a gateway of the fort which describes the copper-based smithy-forge work offered by artisans working inside the fort.
The repetition of ‘nave-of-wheel’ glyph divides the announcement in three segments, each related to coppersmithy work. The word eraka means ‘nave- of-wheel’. The word also means ‘copper’.
Other hieroglyphs read rebus:
kamaṭha 'claws of crab’ Rebus: kampaṭṭam’mint’; Vikalpa: ḍato = claws of crab (Santali); dhātu = mineral (Skt.)
koḍa 'one' Rebus: koḍ 'workshop'
khū̃ṭ m. ʻ corner, direction ʼ Rebus: P. khoṭ m. ʻbase, alloyʼ M. khoṭāʻalloyedʼ (CDIAL 3931)
aḍaren, ḍaren lid, cover (Santali) Rebus: aduru‘native metal’ (Ka.)
loa, 'Fig leaf' Rebus: loh ‘(copper) metal’
khuṇṭa’peg'; khũṭi = pin (M.) Rebus: kuṭi= furnace (Santali) kundār turner (A.); kũdār, kũdāri (B.)
Other hieroglyphs read rebus:
kamaṭha 'claws of crab’ Rebus: kampaṭṭam’mint’; Vikalpa: ḍato = claws of crab (Santali); dhātu = mineral (Skt.)
koḍa 'one' Rebus: koḍ 'workshop'
khū̃ṭ m. ʻ corner, direction ʼ Rebus: P. khoṭ m. ʻbase, alloyʼ M. khoṭāʻalloyedʼ (CDIAL 3931)
aḍaren, ḍaren lid, cover (Santali) Rebus: aduru‘native metal’ (Ka.)
loa, 'Fig leaf' Rebus: loh ‘(copper) metal’
khuṇṭa’peg'; khũṭi = pin (M.) Rebus: kuṭi= furnace (Santali) kundār turner (A.); kũdār, kũdāri (B.)
These readings are matched by distinctive cubical weights used not only on Indus-Sarasvati basin but along the Persian Gulf sites (Bahrain, United Arab Emirates) and used for measuring trade transactions or even for tax assessments at toll gates of a city.
Though monuments like Pyramids were not discovered, the evidence of now understood Indus Script points to a remarkable organizing influence provided by guilds of workers and traders. There is no parallel, in history or in anthropological studies, of a civilization like this without ostentations of ideology or priest-kings or kings and queens as rulers? The layout of cities like Dholavira point to a remarkable grid for locating streets and houses, drainage system, water-reservoir system and use of standard linear dimensions pointing to standard designs of houses. Ring-stones evidence the presence of multi-storied architecture in buildings or warehouses.
Geologists have found sources for ancient tin from the work of Assur or Munda people gathering cassiterite stones from placer deposits in water-bodies and from ancient zinc mines of Zawar, Rajasthan. Both tin and zinc minerals were denoted on Indus Script inscriptions with hieroglyphs read using the rebus method.
The contribution made by the Crypographic work is remarkable for the contribution it makes to understanding a language called Mleccha or Meluhha which was the lingua franca of the civilization. This language is mentioned in the Great Epic Mahabharata where an episode describes conversation between Yudhishtira and Vidura. Mleccha-speakers are described as dasyu (Iranian daha, people) in Manusamhita. Vatsyayana’s Kamasutra lists 64 arts including an art called Mlecchita vikalpa (lit. mleccha alternative representation) which is Indus Script Cryptography.
Charles Higham, 1996, The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia, p. 295 Location map of Austro-speakers
Potsherd. Harappa. ca. 3500 BCE. tagaraka 'tabernae montana, five-petal flower' Rebus: tagaram 'tin' (Meluhha, Mleccha).There is now a consensus among Language scholars that India of ancient tmes, say 3rdmillennium BCE, was a linguistic union called sprachbund.
Words which can be identified as related to Indian sprachbund have been documented in an Indian Lexicon organized in 8000 semantic clusters. Many words show cognates (similar sounding words with similar meanings) in Munda, Dravidian and Indo-Aryan language families and these words relate also to stoneware and metalware catalogued on Indus Script inscriptions.
Words which can be identified as related to Indian sprachbund have been documented in an Indian Lexicon organized in 8000 semantic clusters. Many words show cognates (similar sounding words with similar meanings) in Munda, Dravidian and Indo-Aryan language families and these words relate also to stoneware and metalware catalogued on Indus Script inscriptions.
Harappa potshed dated to about 3500 BCE makes the Indus Script earliest writing system of the world.
This tablet from Mohenjo-daro shows four standard-bearers in a procession advertising the products and technologies offered by them: perforated beads, mineral (ores), turner (wood-metal-shell-stonemason), from fortified workshop, consignments offered jāṅgaḍ, approval-basis, which is a unique commercial transaction practiced even today among diamond merchants of Surat. This is referred to as the Meluhha standard providing rebus readings of Meluhha words:
Kalyanaraman, August 20, 2013
Cumulative list of blogposts on Indus Script as of August 20, 2013
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/08/meluhha-standard-exchange-market-of.htmlMeluhha standard – stones, ores, metals exchange market of Ancient Near East
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/08/professions-on-ancient-near-east.htmlProfessions on Ancient Near East writing systems
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/08/monumental-architecture-as-hieroglyphs.htmlArchitecture on Ancient Near East writing systems
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/08/visible-meluhha-invention-of-writing-in.htmlVisible Meluhha. Invention of Writing in Ancient Middle East. Maybe, Chanhu-daro rattles will produce evidence for visible Meluhha
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/08/dholavira-gateway-to-meluhha-gateway-to.htmlDholavira: gateway to Meluhha, gateway to Bronze Age Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/08/bronze-age-kanmer-bagasra.htmlBronze Age Meluhha, smithy/lapidary documents, takṣat vāk, incised speech
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/08/hieroglyphs-of-ancient-near-east-as.htmlHieroglyphs of Ancient Near East as Indus Meluhha ...
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/ancient-near-east-indus-writing-lokhad.html Ancient near East Gudea statue hieroglyph (Indus writing): lokhãḍ, 'copper tools, pots and pans' Rebus: lo 'overflow', kāṇḍa 'sacred water'.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/discovering-khirsaras-harappan-glory.html Discovering Khirsara’s Harappan glory: Seals with Indus writing read rebus.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/ancient-near-east-evidence-for-mleccha.html Ancient Near East evidence for meluhha language and bronze-age metalware
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/ancient-near-east-writing-systems.html Ancient Near East writing systems: Indian sprachbund and Indus writing
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/ancient-near-east-scarf-hieroglyph-on.html Ancient Near East 'scarf' hieroglyph on Warka vase, cyprus bronze stand and on Indus writing
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/ancient-near-east-jangad-accounting-for.html Ancient Near East jangaḍ accounting for mercatile transactions-- evidence of Indus writing presented.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/ancient-near-east-bronze-age-legacy_6.html Ancient Near East bronze-age legacy: Processions depicted on Narmer palette, Indus writing denote artisan guilds
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/ancient-near-east-art-indus-writing.html Ancient near East lapidary guilds graduate into bronze-age metalware
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/indus-writing-in-ancient-near-east-on.html An ancient Near East proto-cuneiform tablet with Indus writing
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/06/indus-writing-on-dilmun-type-seals.html Indus writing in ancient Near East (Failaka seal readings)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/indus-writing-on-gold-disc-kuwait.html Indus writing on gold disc, Kuwait Museum al-Sabah collection: An Indus metalware catalog
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/did-indus-writing-deal-with-numeration.html Did Indus writing deal with numeration? No. The writing dealt with metalware accounting as technical specs. in bills-of-lading.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/tokens-and-bullae-evolve-into-indus.html Tokens and bullae evolve into Indus writing, underlying language-sounds read rebus
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/see-httpbharatkalyan97.html Indus writing in ancient Near East (Dilmun seal readings)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/bahrain-digs-unveil-one-of-oldest.html Bahrain digs unveil one of oldest civilisations -- BBC
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/indus-writing-as-metalware-catalogs-and_21.html Indus writing in ancient Near East as metalware catalogs and not as agrarian accounting
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/on-perceiving-aryan-migrations-by.html On perceiving aryan migrations by Witzel misquoting vedic ritual texts. Explaining mleccha vācas in Indian sprachbund.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/ancient-ivory-metal-traces-on.html Indus writing and ancient Ivory. Metal traces on Phoenician artifacts show long-gone paint and gold
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/05/functions-served-by-terracotta-cakes-of.html Functions served by terracotta cakes of Indus civilization: Like ANE tokens for counting metal and alloy ingots
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/04/bronze-age-writing-in-ancient-near-east.html Bronze-age writing in ancient Near East: Two Samarra bowls and Warka vase
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/04/bronze-age-glyphs-and-writing-in.html Bronze-age glyphs and writing in ancient Near East: Two cylinder seals from Sumer
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/04/indus-writing-in-ancient-near-east.html Indus Writing in ancient Near East: Corpora and a dictionary and Akkadian Rising Sun: two new books (April 2013)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/proto-indian-in-harosheth-hagoyim.html Proto-Indian in harosheth hagoyim (S.Kalyanaraman 2012)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/07/between-mesopotamia-and-meluhha-ancient.html Between Mesopotamia and Meluhha: an ancient world of writing
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/05/spinner-bas-relief-of-susa-8th-c-bce.html Spinner bas-relief of Susa, 8th c. BCE -- message of wheelwright guild
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/04/indian-hieroglyphs-indus-script-corpora.html Indian hieroglyphs -- Indus script corpora, archaeo-metallurgy and Meluhha (Mleccha)(S. Kalyanaraman, 2012)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/04/heifer-lathe-hieroglyphs-on-indus-seals.html Young bull + lathe hieroglyphs on Indus seals
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/03/protovedic-continuity-theory.html Protovedic Continuity Theory (Kalyanaraman, 2012)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/03/decrypting-sangar-fortified-settlement.html Decrypting sangar, fortified settlement on Indus script corpora (Kalyanaraman, March 2012)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/03/trefoil-as-indian-hieroglyph.html Trefoil as an Indian hieroglyph: association with veneration of ancestors, sacredness (Kalyanaraman, March 10, 2012)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/02/indian-hieroglyphs-meluhha-and-archaeo.html Indian hieroglyphs, meluhha and archaeo-metallurgy
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/02/dr-s-kalyanaramans-recent-contribution.html Dr. S. Kalyanaraman's recent contribution to archaeo-metallurgy - Jayasree Saranathan
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/12/indus-script-hieroglyphs-composite.html Indus script hieroglyphs: composite animal, smithy
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/12/indus-valley-mystery-and-use-of-tablets.htmlIndus valley mystery. Archaeology and language: Archaeological context of Indus script cipher.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/12/acarya-hemacandra-1088-1173-ce.htmlDecoding 'ram' glyph of Indus script, meḍh: rebus: 'helper of merchant'
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/syena-orthography.htmlśyena, orthography, Sasanian iconography. Continued use of Indus Script hieroglyphs.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/assyrian-goat-fish-on-seal-interaction.htmlAssyrian goat-fish on a seal; compared with crocodile-fish hieroglyphs on Indus Script
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/susa-ritual-basin-decorated-with.htmlGoat and fish as hieroglyphs of Indus script: Susa-Meluhha interactions. Meluhhan interpreter 'may have been literate and could read the undeciphered Indus script.'
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/indus-script-examples-of-free-hand.htmlIndus script: examples of free-hand writing. A professional calling card on gold pendant.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/decoding-longest-inscription-of-indus.htmlDecoding two long inscriptions of Indus Script (Kalyanarman, 2011)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/mohenjo-daro-stupa-great-bath-modeled.htmlMohenjo-daro stupa & Great Bath - Modeled after Ziggurat and Sit Shamshi (Kalyanaraman, 2011)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/decoding-indus-scipt-susa-cylinder-seal.htmlDecoding Indus Script Susa cylinder seal: Susa-Indus interaction areas
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/11/decoding-fish-and-ligatured-fish-glyphs.htmlDecoding fish and ligatured-fish glyphs of Indus script (S. Kalyanaraman, November 2011)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/10/itihasa-and-eagle-narratives.htmlItihāsa and eagle narratives
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2011/10/road-to-meluhha-dt-potts-1982.htmlMleccha, linguistic area; Meluhha -- Locus and interaction areas