Kalibangan terracotta cake hieroglyphs deciphered. Yupa-skambha, Vedic religion in Bronze Age of Sarasvati-Sindhu civilization The Indus Script hieroglyphs on the terracotta cake are continued in the tradition of Yupa inscriptions of Rajasthan discussed in detail by Dr. Satya Prakash.

After receiving information from Smt. Kamlesh confirming the availability of the two articles of Dr. Satya Prakash, Shri Vipin Kumar ji traveled to Jodhpur Oriental Research Institute and has obtained the following camera-scanned (because the pages of the journal were very brittle) and other scanned copies of the articles in reference to the ancient Yupa Pillar inscriptions of Rajasthan.

The community of researchers in civilization studies owe a debt of gratitude to Vipin Kumar ji (vedastudy@gmail.com)

for the dediction with which he has made this treasure trove of research documents available.

I am extremely grateful to Shri Vipin Kumar ji, who is a student of Dr. Fatah Singh, former Director of Oriental Research Institute, Jodhpur. Jeevema s'aradah s'atam, Vipin Kumar ji and Smt. Kamlesh ji.

The insights provided by Dr. Satya Prakash in the JRIHR article (1968) are emphatic that the Yupa inscriptions record the performance of Vedic Yajnas.

“No other state of India has yielded as many Yajastambhas as the present united State of Rajasthan. All these pillars are dated in Krita era (Malava era) and are interesting from several points of view. The existence of these pillars in Kotah, Jaipur, Udaipur, Tonk and Bharatpur areas of Rajasthan is a definite proof of the performance of Vedic sacrifices in these areas in the early centuries of the Christian era, to which period these belong on the bsis of the times mentioned in them in the corresponding Malava Samvat. These inscriptional religious pillars were set p immediately after the performance of Vedic sacrifices. All these pillars are indicative of the performance of Vedic sacrifices (Vedic Yajnas) in various areas of Rajasthan and are inscribed in the Brahmi script and in Sanskrit language and belong to the 3^rd and 4^thcenturies of the Christian era, but we can trace the tradition of putting up inscribed pillars to pre-christian era, to which period belong the pillars and Incribed rock edict of Asoka at Bairat, which was, then a stronghold of Buddhist faith. The inscription (Dr. R. Sahni mentions in his excation report on Bairat that the Yupa devices were also found used on the Yaudheya coins of about the beginning of the Christian era) from Ghoshundi, near Nagri the old Madhyamika Nagri (in the present Cchittorgarah ditrict) of the days of Patanjali's Mahabhashya mentioning the performance of a horse sacrifice is also very interesting. This is s a proof of the fact that Nagri and its vicinity was not only the centre of Buddhist activities and Greek incursions but it was also a stronghold of Brahminical faith and horse sacrifices were performed there.It was also the centre of Samkarshana Vasudeva worship in whose honour a stone enclosure (Silaprakara) was constructed there...An inscriptional reference to the performance of Vajapeya sacrifice is also available from an epigraph of the 4^th century AD to which period belongs a Yupa pillar also. A terracotta seal found by Col. Hendley at Sambhar during excavations by him was studied by DR Sahni and he interprets the principal impression as displaying a sacrificial post (Yupa) surrounded by a railing. The upper portion of the post is bent down to about the middle of the shaft taken by Sahni to display the mystic symbol Swastika while the sixth one as showing a triangular pattern with five cross bars. This last device appears to represent the ladder by which the sacrificer and his wife ascended to the top of the Yupa and looking in the different directions silently enchanted prayers and offered by Prajapati 17 pieces of salt tied up to Pippala leaves. The setting up of Yupas in the celebration of Yajnas stands recorded in the Atharva Veda. Several ancient inscriptions on stone and other monumental evidences show the performance of such sacrifices done I the 5^th or the 6^th centuries AD also. Let us now discuss the details of the Yupa pillar inscriptions.”

Bibliography (embedded document copies):

Yupa pillars of Rajasthan, JRIHR, Vol. IV, No. 2, April-June 1968

Rajasthn ke hastalikhita grantha Bhandar; Rajasthan ka puratattva – Satya Prakash (Maru Bharti, Pilani, Vol. I, No. 2, February 1953)Bichpuria, Nagar Yupa Krita (Vikram Samvat 321 CE 264)

D. Agarchand Nagda, Rajasthan through the Ages, vol. 1, Chapter IV, 1966