A spectacular exhibition opened on June 24, 2014 at the National Museum of Oriental Art (MNAO) 'Giuseppe Tucci' in Rome, Italy. Living Symbols presents a group of painted protohistoric objects from the 4th and 3rd millennium BCE, illegally excavated in Balochistan and seized in 2005 by the Italian police. Although much about their provenance is lost, they are apparently from the little know Nal Buthi and Kulli cultures that preceded (Nal) and accompanied (Kulli) the height of Indus culture. They use of the zebu bull, pipal tree, tiger and other major motifs familiar to us from Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.
These are among the most splendid objects ever found from the area, and show how vibrant the use of color was. They convey the sophistication of symbolism and art in the 4th and 3rd millenniums (4000-2000 BCE). The exhibition, organized by MNAO in collaboration with the Pakistan Embassy and with the support of Eural Gnutti s.p.a., represents a precious opportunity for a first encounter with the cultures that succeeded in Pakistan. Curated by Giovanni Lombardo (MNAO) and Harappa.com contributor Massimo Vidale (University of Padua, Italy). More at , and more about the cultures referenced at http://www.simbolivivi.beniculturali.it/english.html and more about the little known cultures referenced at http://www.harappa.com/baluch/index.html
Rita P. Wright
A closer look at the mysterious Kulli culture of Balochistan that both pre-dated and was contemporaneous with ancient Indus culture, and apparently was part of an elaborate trading network that stretched west as far as the Jiroft culture in Iran. This article by Rita P. Wright, one of the leaders of the Harappa Archeological Research Project (HARP) was originally published in Connections and Complexity, New Approaches to the Archaeology of South Asia (Left Coast Press, 2013).
The article also examines the differences between commodities and things, the types of exchange networks we might presume were active thousands of years ago, the work of the late Indus archaeologist Gregory P. Possehl, and new chronologies and interpretations of activity on the Iranian plateau and Pakistani Balochistan.
Photograph of Kulli plate by Edoardo Loliva.
Kulli. Plate. Two tigers tied to a meshed axle. Stars. Fish.
Ficus religiosa, ibexes painted on bowl/plate. + hieroglyph. Kulli.
Zebu tied to a tree trunk. Stars. Mesh, black ant on the body of Zebu. http://www.simbolivivi.beniculturali.it/english.html
Composite animal: young bull, bull, fish Mohenjodaro ca. 3 cm height
Dennys Frenez Massimo Vidale
Harappan Chimaeras as ‘Symbolic Hypertexts’. Some Thoughts on Plato, Chimaera and the Indus Civilization
Abstract
An analysis and interpretation of the so-called Harappan chimaera, one of the most peculiar and elaborate iconographies of Indus Civilization. It is represented on many stamp seals of fired steatite and corresponding clay sealings, terracotta tablets in bas-relief, copper tablets and tokens. The Harappan chimaera was composed of body parts derived from different animals, as well as humans and other fantastic beings of the Indus imagination. A detailed documentation and description of all the objects bearing chimaeras makes it possible to recognize not only a basic set of regular combinations and some aspects of their possible changes in time, but also visual associations among selected parts of the chimaera's body that could be perceived and semantically intepreted at different levels. We believe that the sophisticated structure of these images fully deserves to be considered an early form of 'hypertext', following current definitions used in computer sciences. We conclude by relating the evidence and its cognitive background to other spheres of the early urban societies in the Indus basin.
The three articles detailed above on Kulli and other Balochistan site finds of ca. 4th-3rd millennium BCE validate the decipherment of Indus Script announced in the book: Indus Script - Meluhha metalwork hieroglyphs.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2014/09/indus-script-meluhha-metalwork.html
Hieroglyphs on Balochistan (Kulli) finds are read rebus:
கோள் kōḷ 'planet, graha, brilliance, light' (Tamil) Rebus: kolhe 'smelter' (Santali)
मेढ [ mēḍha ] f A forked stake. Used as a post. Hence a short post generally whether forked or not. Pr.हातीं लागली चेड आणि धर मांडवाची मेढ . 2 The polar star. (Marathi) Rebus:
meḍ 'iron' (Munda)
मेंढरूं [ mēṇḍharūṃ ] n (मेंढा ) A sheep Pr. मेलें में0 आगीला भिईल काय ? (Marathi) मेंढा [ mēṇḍhā ] m (मेष S through
Ash. mlaṅ f. ʻ mountain goat ʼ, Wg. mŕaṅ, mraṅ; Kt. mŕoṅ ʻ female ibex ʼ (→ Kal.urt. mroṅ); Pr. mā̆ṅgə, mā̆ṅg ʻ female markhor ʼ, maṅċū̃ ʻ markhor kid ʼ, Paš.kuṛ. loṅ f. ʻ markhor ʼ, Gaw. blaṅ; Dm. mraṅ m. ʻ markhor'
Dm. maži ʻ female markhor ʼ, Kal. muṣ, Kho. mažḗhttp://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2014/09/indus-script-meluhha-metalwork.html
Hieroglyphs on Balochistan (Kulli) finds are read rebus:
கோள் kōḷ 'planet, graha, brilliance, light' (Tamil) Rebus: kolhe 'smelter' (Santali)
मेढ [ mēḍha ] f A forked stake. Used as a post. Hence a short post generally whether forked or not. Pr.
meḍ 'iron' (Munda)
मेंढरूं [ mēṇḍharūṃ ] n (
Ash. mlaṅ f. ʻ mountain goat ʼ, Wg. mŕaṅ, mraṅ; Kt. mŕoṅ ʻ female ibex ʼ (→ Kal.urt. mroṅ); Pr. mā̆ṅgə, mā̆ṅg ʻ female markhor ʼ, maṅċū̃ ʻ markhor kid ʼ, Paš.kuṛ. loṅ f. ʻ markhor ʼ, Gaw. blaṅ; Dm. mraṅ m. ʻ markhor'
+ shape, hieroglyph: kaṇḍa 'furnace, fire-altar' (Santali)
ayo'fish' Rebus: aya'iron' (Gujarati); ayas'metal' (Vedic)
loa'ficus religiosa' Rebus: lo, loh'copper' (Assamese.Sanskrit)
Zebu is ligatured as distinctive high horns to create a composite hieroglyph ‘composite animal motif’ as in m0301: human face, body or forepart of a ram, body and forelegs of a unicorn, horns of a zebu, trunk of an elephant, hindlegs of a tiger and an upraised serpent-like tail:
Mohenjo-daro Seal 1927 with epigraphs on two-side is a confirmation that the horns ligatured to the composite animal on m1927b are horns of zebu.
The pictorial motif hieroglyphs message on the seal:
khũṭ ‘zebu’ Rebus: ‘(native metal) guild’ This refrain is detailed by the zebu horns affixed to the compositive animal hieroglyph. A synonym is aḍar ḍangra read rebus: aduru ḍhangar ‘blacksmith’(Santali)
The composite animal hieroglyph can thus be seen as an expansion of the message conveyed by the zebu hieroglyph expanding the blacksmith guild activities to other minerals and metals beyond aduru ‘native, unsmelted metal’. The text message seems to be identical on both sides of the seal m1927: bronze workshop; metal smithy castings; forge. The zebu side a of the seal seems to denote the work of a native-metal-smith; the composite animal side b of the seal seems to denote the expanded work of a blacksmith working with stones, minerals and metals. The composite hieroglyph on m1927b was perhaps called: व्याळ [ vyāḷa ] m (व्याल S) A serpent. Ex. जैसें पायास दंशिलें महा व्याळें ॥ तों मस्तकासीं वृश्चिकें दंशिलें ॥. 2 Applied popularly to the नाग or भुजंग.व्याल [ vyāla ] m S A serpent. (Marathi)யாளவரி yāḷa-vari n. < vyāḷayāḷi யாளி yāḷi, n. < vyāḷa. [K. yāḷi.] A mythological lion-faced animal with elephantine proboscis and tusks; யானையின் தந்தமும் துதிக்கையுஞ் சிங்கத்தின் முகமுமுடையதாகக் கருதப் படும் மிருகம். உழுவையும் யாளியு முளியமும் (குறிஞ் சிப். 252). 1 A vicious elephant; व्यालं बाल- मृणालतन्तुभिरसौ रोद्धुं समुज्जृम्भते Bh.2.6. -2 A beast of prey; वसन्त्यस्मिन् महारण्ये व्यालाश्च रुधिराशनाः Rām.2.119. 19; वनं व्यालनिषेवितम् Rām. -3 A snake; H.3.29. -4 A tiger; Māl.3. -5 A leopard. व्यालकः A vicious or wicked elephant.
The text message on the seal:
kanac ‘corner’ Rebus: kañcu ‘bronze’
sal ‘splinter’ Rebus: sal ‘workshop’
|| dula ‘pair or two’ Rebus: dul ‘cast metal’
||| kolom ‘three’ Rebus: kolami ‘smithy, forge’
kolmo ‘paddy plant’ Rebus: kolami ‘smithy, forge’
Bronze alloy workshop kañcu sal starting with bronze which is a tin + copper alloy or tin bronze (as distinguished from arsenical bronze, i.e. naturally occurring copper + arsenic).
dula ‘two’ Rebus: dul ‘cast metal’
dolom ‘three’ Rebus: kolami ‘smithy, forge’
kolmo ‘paddy plant’ Rebus: kolami ‘smithy, forge’. Vikalpa: mogge‘sprout, bud’ Rebus: mū̃h ‘ingot’
m0300 Zebu horns on composite animal. Native metal smith guild. Text 2521
ingot (from) iron smelter, tin smelter merchant guild.
Focus on ‘serpent’ tail: nāga ‘snake’ Rebus: nāga‘lead’ (Sanskrit) anakku ‘tin’ (Akkadian) Kur. xolā tail. Malt. qoli id. (DEDR 2135). Focus on human face: mukha, mū̃h ‘face’ Rebus: mū̃h ‘ingot’. Zebu horns: khũṭ ‘zebu’ (Gujarati) Rebus: khũṭ ‘(native metal) community, guild’ (Santali) kola ‘tiger’ Rebus: kolhe ‘smelters’ kol ‘working in iron’ ibha ‘elephant’ Rebus: ib ‘iron’ body of an ox: balad ‘bull’ Rebus: baran, bharat‘mixed alloys’ (5 copper, 4 zinc and 1 tin) (Punjabi) dhatu ‘scarf’ Rebus: dhatu ‘mineral ore’.
āra 'spokes' Rebus: āra ‘brass’. cf. erka = ekke (Tbh. of arka) aka (Tbh. of arka) copper (metal); crystal (Kannada) Glyph: eraka’nave of wheel’ Rebus: eraka ‘copper’; cf. erka = ekke (Tbh. of arka) aka (Tbh. of arka) copper (metal); crystal (Kannada)
Read in context, the composite hieroglyph is assumed to be a combination of a slanted stroke ligatured to a notch,which provide possible rebus readings of a smithy/forge: notch+slanted stroke reads rebus: ḍhālako kāṇḍa ‘ingot, tools, pots and pans and metal-ware’
dhāḷ ‘a slope’; ‘inclination of a plane’ (Gujarati); ḍhāḷiyum = adj. sloping, inclining (Gujarati) Rebus: ḍhālako = a large metal ingot (Gujarati) ḍhālakī = a metal heated and poured into a mould; a solid piece of metal; an ingot (Gujarati)
PLUS
खांडा [ khāṇḍā ] m A jag, notch, or indentation (as upon the edge of a tool or weapon). Rebus: kāṇḍa ‘tools, pots and pans and metal-ware’
Thus, the first pair of sign hieroglyphs from r. read rebus: copper, bronze ingots, metalware
| खांडा [ khāṇḍā ] m A jag, notch, or indentation (as upon the edge of a tool or weapon). Rebus: kāṇḍa ‘tools, pots and pans and metal-ware’
ranku ‘liquid measure’ Rebus: ranku ‘tin’
kanka ‘rim of jar’ Rebus: karṇīka ‘account (scribe)’ karṇī ‘supercargo’
kolmo ‘paddy plant’ Rebus: kolami ‘smithy, forge’.
balad m. ʻ ox ʼ, gng. bald, (Ku.) barad, id. (N. Tarai) Rebus: bharat (5 copper, 4 zinc and 1 tin)(Punjabi) pattar ‘trough’ Rebus: pattar‘guild’. Thus, copper-zinc-tin alloy (worker) guild.
खोंड [khōṇḍa] m A young bull, a bullcalf. (Marathi) Rebus: kõdār ‘turner’ (Bengali); कोंद kōnda ‘engraver, lapidary setting or infixing gems’ (Marathi) G. sãghāṛɔ m. ʻlathe’ ; संघाट joinery; M. sãgaḍ ‘double-canoe’ Rebus: sangataras ‘stone-cutter, mason’
kola'tiger' Rebus: kolhe'smelter'; kol'working in iron'; kole.l'smithy'; kole.l 'temple' dula 'pair' Rebus: dul 'cast metal'
*அக்கசாலையர் akka-cālaiyar
kola'tiger' Rebus: kolhe'smelter'; kol'working in iron'; kole.l'smithy'; kole.l 'temple' dula 'pair' Rebus: dul 'cast metal'
akho m. ʻmesh of a netʼ Rebus: L. P. akkhā m. ʻ one end of a bag or sack thrown over a beast of burden ʼ; Or. akhā ʻ gunny bag ʼ; Bi. ākhā, ã̄khā ʻ grain bag carried by pack animal ʼ; H. ākhā m. ʻ one of a pair of grain bags used as panniers ʼ; M. ã̄khā m. ʻ netting in which coco -- nuts, &c., are carried ʼ, ā̆khẽ n. ʻ half a bullock -- load ʼ (CDIAL 17) అంకెము [ aṅkemu ] ankemu. [Telugu] n. One pack or pannier, being half a bullock load.
अक्षः [अश्-सः] 1 An axis, axle, pivot; अक्षभङ्गे च यानस्य....न दण्डं मनुरब्रवीत् Ms.8.291,292; दृढधूः अक्षः Kāś. V. 4.74; Śi.12.2, 18.7; ज्योतिश्चक्राक्षदण्डः Dk. 1Axle-pole. -2 The pole of a cart. Rebus: -पटलः[ष. त.] 1 a court of law. -2 depository of legal documents. -3 = अक्षि- पटलम्, q. v. -लः [अक्षाणां व्यवहाराणां पटलमस्त्यस्य अच्] a judge. -4 record-office (GI). -5 account-office (RT). -पटलाधिकृतः superintendent of records and accounts. Thus, the gloss 'akho' also connotes that the writing system was a method of accounting for materials produced from smelters/furnaces/smithy/forge. அக்கசாலை akka-cālai, n. < arkaW.)
, n. < id. +. Goldsmiths, jewellers; தட்டார். (பிங்.) The cognate arka relates to smithy work: eraka 'copper'
Conclusion:
The Balochistan finds of Indus Script inscriptions are metalwork catalogs of Sarasvati-Sindhu (Hindu) civilization artisans. For these artisans of the Bronze Age, kole.l'smithy' was kole.l 'temple'.
Kalyanaraman
September 5, 2014