Sanghāṭa Sūtra Gilgit manuscripts provide the key to the cipher of Indus Script
Mirror: https://www.academia.edu/11161501/The_Indus_inscriptions_are_collections_of_words_which_constitute_metalwork_catalogs
The key is सङ्घाट sanghāṭa which means 'lathe' read rebus: 'collection of words'.
If सङ्घाट in Sanghāṭa Sūtra meant 'collection of words' (in grammar), the key for mlecchita vikalpa is the frequently used hieroglyph: lathe for which the gloss is: sãghāṛɔ (Gujarati. Desi).
This falsifiable hypothesis is premised on the recognition of Indus Script corpora as mlecchita vikalpa (cipher writing of mleccha). It is also premised on the recognition of mleccha (cognate meluhha) as an integral lingua franca of the Indian sprachbund ca. 3500 BCE when the first potsherd with Indus writing was dug out in Harappa by HARP.
In this framework, all hieroglyphs (both pictorial motifs and signs) of the writing system (called Indus script) are read rebus using mleccha glosses (expressions).
That meluhha is cognate with mleccha is borne out by the Pali gloss: milakkha bhāsā. This gloss is attested in Pali Suttanipāta (SnA 397). milakkha is a tadbhava of meluhha, name of a language mentioned in Shu-ilishu cylinder seal in Akkadian cuneiform:
See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2015/02/proof-for-cipher-key-of-indus-writing.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2015/02/chandas-and-meluhha-mleccha-are-prosody.html
The engraving of the 'lathe' on many Indus script inscriptions, mostly in front of the one-horned young bull serves two purposes:
1. As sãghāṛɔ 'lathe', it denoted the tool which was central to the life-activity of the artisans -- lapidary and metalwork-- to work with 'turning or forging' work on metals say, infixed with semi-precious stones (polished beads drill through);
2. As sanghāta 'collection of words', it functions as a signifier or cipher key -- that the rest of the message is crypted with similar homonyms which should be read rebus to decrypt the encrypted cipher text and read the decrypted plain text. Since the engraving is carried out by mleccha, it is appropriate to call the cipher mlecchita vikalpa listed as one of the 64 arts in Vidyāsamuddeśa (purpose of education), described in a chapter in Vātsyāyana's Kāmasutra.
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![Young bull + lathe hieroglyphs on Indus seals]()
![Image result for indus hieroglyphs lathe portable furnace]()
Lathe sculpted in the round and on seals/tablets![Image result for indus hieroglyphs lathe portable furnace]()
A composite reconstruction (pace Mahadevan)![Image result for indus hieroglyphs lathe portable furnace]()
Lathe carried in a procession with other hieroglyphs on a tablet.
QED.
Mirror: https://www.academia.edu/11161501/The_Indus_inscriptions_are_collections_of_words_which_constitute_metalwork_catalogs
The key is सङ्घाट sanghāṭa which means 'lathe' read rebus: 'collection of words'.
If सङ्घाट in Sanghāṭa Sūtra meant 'collection of words' (in grammar), the key for mlecchita vikalpa is the frequently used hieroglyph: lathe for which the gloss is: sãghāṛɔ (Gujarati. Desi).
This falsifiable hypothesis is premised on the recognition of Indus Script corpora as mlecchita vikalpa (cipher writing of mleccha). It is also premised on the recognition of mleccha (cognate meluhha) as an integral lingua franca of the Indian sprachbund ca. 3500 BCE when the first potsherd with Indus writing was dug out in Harappa by HARP.
In this framework, all hieroglyphs (both pictorial motifs and signs) of the writing system (called Indus script) are read rebus using mleccha glosses (expressions).
That meluhha is cognate with mleccha is borne out by the Pali gloss: milakkha bhāsā. This gloss is attested in Pali Suttanipāta (SnA 397). milakkha is a tadbhava of meluhha, name of a language mentioned in Shu-ilishu cylinder seal in Akkadian cuneiform:
Bhāsā (f.) [cp. Epic Sk. bhāṣā] speech, language, esp. vernacular, dialect J iv.279 (manussa˚ human speech), 392 (caṇḍāla˚); KhA 101 (saka-- saka˚-- anurūpa); SnA 397 (Milakkha˚); DA i.176 (Kirātā-- Yavanâdi-- Millakkhānaŋ bhāsā); Majjhima MA i.1 (Sīhaḷa˚); Sammoha-Vinodani VbhA 388 (Pali) Pali tradition clearly defines Milakkha Bhāsā as a language, esp. vernacular dialect. This usage is consistent with Manu's reference to Mleccha vācas. The descriptive portions refer to mispronunciations, mis-spellings in mleccha vācas which vitiated against the prosodic chandas -- the Vedic diction. Speech witout mispronunciations, mis-spellings was differentiated as ārya vācas, the practitioners of chandas and speakers of grammatically correct Samskritam which was closest to chandas in form, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics.
See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2015/02/proof-for-cipher-key-of-indus-writing.html
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2015/02/chandas-and-meluhha-mleccha-are-prosody.html
The engraving of the 'lathe' on many Indus script inscriptions, mostly in front of the one-horned young bull serves two purposes:
1. As sãghāṛɔ 'lathe', it denoted the tool which was central to the life-activity of the artisans -- lapidary and metalwork-- to work with 'turning or forging' work on metals say, infixed with semi-precious stones (polished beads drill through);
2. As sanghāta 'collection of words', it functions as a signifier or cipher key -- that the rest of the message is crypted with similar homonyms which should be read rebus to decrypt the encrypted cipher text and read the decrypted plain text. Since the engraving is carried out by mleccha, it is appropriate to call the cipher mlecchita vikalpa listed as one of the 64 arts in Vidyāsamuddeśa (purpose of education), described in a chapter in Vātsyāyana's Kāmasutra.
várṇa-saṃghāṭa [ varNasaMghATa ]
Alternative form: várṇa-saṃghāta [ varNasaMghAta ]
( Patanjali. ), m. ' assemblage or aggregate of letters, ' the alphabet.
Since
várṇa is also used in context to refer to expressions in Dhātupāṭha, it will be appropriate to explain the samāsa: várṇa-saṃghāṭa as 'assemblage or collection or aggregate of pada or words'.
http://www.sanskrita.org/wiki/index.php/varNa
Jaina tradition. Tattvarthasutra (V:28) says: bheda-sanghAtAbhyAm cakshushah. The bhAshya is: the perceptibility of a thing does not arise by sanghAta, bedha or SanghAta-bheda which re mentioned to produce skandhas in sutra 26. In this context, sanGhata is 'a combination'. (cf. NK Singh and AP Mishra, eds., 2007, Encyclopaedia of Oriental Philosophy, Delhi, Global Vision Publishing House, p.39.)
Jaina tradition. Tattvarthasutra (V:28) says: bheda-sanghAtAbhyAm cakshushah. The bhAshya is: the perceptibility of a thing does not arise by sanghAta, bedha or SanghAta-bheda which re mentioned to produce skandhas in sutra 26. In this context, sanGhata is 'a combination'. (cf. NK Singh and AP Mishra, eds., 2007, Encyclopaedia of Oriental Philosophy, Delhi, Global Vision Publishing House, p.39.)
The fragments of the text of Sanghāta Sūtra use the phrase: Dharma paryāya. The cognate Pali gloss: Pariyaya [cp. Epic Sk. paryaya, pari+i; the usual P. form is pariyāya, but at the foll. passages the short a is required metri causa] revolution, lapse of time, period, term J iii. 460 (=kālapariyāya C.); v. 367 (kāla˚). Thus, dharma paryāya can be interpreted as: 'dharma revolution'. The concept of 'revolution' is also evoked by the functions of a lathe which is used by artisans to perforate stone-beads or to infix precious stones in metal artifacts.
The central message of the text Sanghāta Sūtra has various interpretations in Bauddham tradition. It is a direct recording of Buddha Shakyamuni on Vulture's Peak in Rajagriha. Shakyamuni reports that this was heard from a previous Buddha.
See: Ārya Saṅghāṭasūtra Dharmaparyāya
http://cdn.fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/teachers/zopa/advice/sutras/sanghata_sutra_c5_0411.pdf?94fd25
The use of the phrase Dharma paryāya points to the metaphor of a 'lathe' used in the life-activity of 'turning' by a lapidary or metalworker. In a philosophical framework, the Mahayana Mahāyāna Bauddham text refers to the continuum or cycle of births and deaths in the record of the Buddha's discourse in prose and verse detailed in the text. Apparently, the purport of the text is to emphasise the eternal nature of dharma-dhamma.
See: Ārya Saṅghāṭasūtra Dharmaparyāya
http://cdn.fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/teachers/zopa/advice/sutras/sanghata_sutra_c5_0411.pdf?94fd25
The use of the phrase Dharma paryāya points to the metaphor of a 'lathe' used in the life-activity of 'turning' by a lapidary or metalworker. In a philosophical framework, the Mahayana Mahāyāna Bauddham text refers to the continuum or cycle of births and deaths in the record of the Buddha's discourse in prose and verse detailed in the text. Apparently, the purport of the text is to emphasise the eternal nature of dharma-dhamma.
A folio from Sanghāṭa Sūtra Gilgit manuscript in National Archives, India. (Tara Dhar Hasnain, India's oldest extant manuscripts -- found in Gilgit, in: Passage, May/June 2014, p.15 http://www.fom.sg/Passage/2014/05manuscripts.pdf )
See: Color photo of a Gilgit manuscript at http://www.namami.org/kriti%20rakshana_7vol/kirtia13m14/Kriti%20Rakshana-April13-March14.pdf
See: Report of a visit by Chandrabhal Tripathi to Sri Pratap Singh Museum and Central Asian Museum in Srinagar in 1982 and reference to Sanghāṭa Sūtra manuscript.http://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/21216/1/21216.pdf
A reconstructed text version in Devanagari script is presented at http://www.sanghatasutra.net/sanskrit_devanagari.pdf The text is in Samskritam, also referred to as Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. The gloss used is धर्म 'dharma' NOT 'dhamma' in the phrase or samāsa: Dharma paryāya which indicates the transitional phase of evolution of Pali versions of the Indian sprachbund.
"This critical edition of the Sanghata in its original Sanskrit was prepared by Professor Dr. Oskar von Hinüber, drawing on several manuscripts of the SanskritSanghata found at Gilgit. The edition was input electronically courtesy of theNagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods."
Bibliographic reference:
"von Hinuber, Oskar (1973). Das Sanghāta Sūtra, Ausgabe und kommentierte Ubersetzung eines nordbuddhistischen Lehrtextes in Sanskrit und Sakisch. Unpublished Habilitationsschrift, mainz. This work, very sadly left unpublished, contains a German translation of the Sanskrit." http://www.sanghatasutra.net/bibliography.pdf
For Sakisch, cf. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakische_Sprache Sakisch is South East Iranian language of the Sakas (altpers. Saka , Greek. Σάκαι ) and also in East Turkestan. It is also called Indian Saka or Indo-Scythian.
For purposes of the hypothesis framed on this monograph, it is apposite to infer the meaning of the word: sanghāta 'collection of words'.
In a series of rebus readings of about 7000 Indus script inscriptions (treated as mlecchita vikalpa evidences), almost all hieroglyphs deployed in the writing system relate to metalwork. Such an inference is consistent with the purpose served by the 'lathe' as a turning device in a smithy or lapidary. The consistency is further reinforced by the rebus reading of the one-horned young bull as a hieroglyphic signifier for 'engraver, brass-worker workshop' (plain text signified).
Thus, sãghāṛɔ (Gujarati. Desi) cognate with sanghāta 'collection of words' becomes the key to the cipher which is given the name mlecchita vikalpa by Vātsyāyana.
Mlecchita vikalpa is the Indus writing system used by seafaring merchants of Meluhha-speech area. This speech-area is coterminus with Indian sprachbund identified in language studies related to Austro-Asiatic, Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and Tibeto-Burman and Dravidian languages and glosses attested in the language lexicons of the language area (sprachbund).
Lathe + young bull one-horned hieroglyphs on Indus seals:
Lathe carried in a procession with other hieroglyphs on a tablet.The 'dotted cirles' in the bottom register of the hieroglyphic composition indicate 'perforated beads'. The top register has 'wavy lines' as an orthographic convention to denote circular motion to turn the lathe; the pointed end of the top register is sharp and is symbolised above a flat 'bead'. The 'smoke' emanating from the bottom register and the staff to hold the device, point to the object as a portable furnace. This is confirmed by a Gujarati gloss: sagaḍī portable hearth (Gujarati.Desi.)
Mlecchita vikalpa is Indus writing. The hieroglyphs engraved are read rebus in Mleccha (Meluhha) expressions. The Indus inscriptions are collections of words which constitute metalwork catalogs.
QED.
S. Kalyanaraman
Sarasvati Research Center
February 28, 2015