I am an admirer of the painstaking scholarly endeavours of Shrikant Talageri ji, Koenraad Elst ji, Michel Danino ji, Vishal Agarwal ji, Manogna Shastry ji, Megh Kalyanasundaram ji, Gyaneshwer Chaubey ji and scores of others who have delved into the roots of Hindu civilization and in the process, debunked successfully the bogus invasion/migration postulates which were taken for granted even by savants like PV Kane ji, Tilak ji, Bhandarkar ji. Each scholar has joined the debate using multi-pronged discilinary focuses. It is not easy to reconcile genetics with language with archaeology with ancient texts.The challenge has been brilliantly joined.

I submit for consideration a source from another sub-discipline: Art history of the world. The 'unicorn' has been an enigmatic puzzle in literary studies. Surprise! The hieroglyph dominates the Indus Script Corpora which has now reached a cipher-breaking sample of over 8000 inscriptions (Unicorn is signified together with a standard device on 90% of inscriptions making the hypertext a signature tune of the ancient writing system). Why is the composite animal so important that it dominates the metaphors of the writing system of ca. 3300 BCE? The hieroglyph continues to enthrall people of Ancient Near East right upto 6th cent. BCE evidenced by the Ishgtar Gate brilliantly reconstructed by archaeologists and now kept in many museums including Pergamon Museum, Berlin. Aha! Unicorn (and also muṣuṣṣu composite animal) dominates the gate walls and pathways of the festival processions. The decipherment of Indus Script is one unsolved issue which should receive attention and debate. The 'unicorn' signified something of value; in fact, it is offered (as a symbol) as a tribute from Musri to Shalamanaser III on the Black Obelisk now in British Museum.Unravel the significance of the 'unicorn'. I have suggested that it reads in Meluhha phonetics, खोंड khōṇḍa, kunda singhin 'horned young bull' rebus: kunda singi 'fine gold, ornament gold'; kō̃da कोँद 'kiln, furnace' (Kashmiri) I have also posited that this leads us into the roots of the Global Gold Standard for Fiscal transactions. Here are two leads: 1. Lydia electrum coin showing 'unicorn' and 'lion'; 2. Monograph posted on academia.edu

Join the challenge. It looks as though the Indus Script holds the secrets of documented evidence for the wealth of a nation, the Rāṣṭram of RV 10.125, thus enabling the writing of Ancient Economic History and Wealth of Nations, pace Adam Smith and Angus Maddison. 

Namaskaram. Kalyanaraman