INDUS SCRIPT - Deciphered Indus Texts

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All the basic signs of the Indus script ,except a few, have been recognised. All the phonemes of the Sanskrit language, except a few, have been identified with the Indus signs. The reading based on this identification proves that Sanskrit is genealogically related with the Indus language through its isolating, agglutinative and inflexional stages, because the Indus clauses and phrases peep through the wornout and decayed Vedic vocables. The language of the Indus inscriptions is at the isolating stage with its move towards the agglutinative stage, evidently clear by the emergence of at least two or three affix elements. The agglutinative stage of Indus has virtually gone unrecorded. The prime stage of the inflexional Indus may be said to represent the Indoeuropean, the declining form of which is represented by the early vedic language. The other cognate languages, though having the original bases, have added their own suffixes, apart from their own innovations. For example, the basic Ha for 'horse' was extended by -shva in Indoiranian, by -kva in Latin, by -pva in Greek, and by -rsa in Germanic. Therefore, we have a-shva in Sanskrit, a-spa in Avesta, equus in Latin, hippos in Greek and Hors in Germanic. The vedic a-rvA too goes to the same source.

The following deciphered texts are presented by the way of examples. For more deciphered texts they may be looked into the books concerned.

In transcribing the Sanskrit words, the capital letters are cerebrals, R being the vocalic r, and, if vowels they are long, A like a in Market, I like ee in seen, U like u in rule. Besides, H is Visarga finally & a voiceless h initially & medially and M is Anusvara.

1. ta na Sa 2659,2374,1365,4464

From the womb gems come out. cf. ta'nas (child) RV 5,70,4.Further reduced to tars: Gothic Thars,Sanskrit tarS / tRS 'to be thirsty'. ta na Sa Tha in English 'thirst', German 'Durst'.

2. va Na Sa 4650

From the water life comes. cf. vanas in -pati 'plant'.vanas further reduced to vars : Sanskrit vRS 'to rain'.

3. ca Na Su va Na Sa 2263

ca Na Su = The moon may give knowledge.cf. ca'nas in cano-dadhAti. Further reduced to carS in carSaNi'.

4. sha ma yo Sa 1013

Let evil die; let comfort be there. cf. RV sha'M yo's (Wellbeing and Welfare).

5. va Na ra 8011

Into the dwelling the creatures go. cf. vanar- in vanar-gu, -sad (resting place).

6. Sa Tha 8013

The embryo rolled. cf. RV sa't (the rolling embryo) confused with the participal sa't (existing). Reparaphrased in the RV 10, 121, 1 hiraNya-garbhas samavartatAgre (a golden egg rolled forth in the beginning).

7. ta gra Sa ra gha 4325

Of the god, of the sun, the lustre will shine (The lustre of the divine sun will shine). At the inflexional stage,ta gra Sa ra was reparaphrased: devasya savitur vareNyam bhargas with dhImahi added. cf. RV 3, 62, 10.

8. Ha Tha sa 1123

In the empty space appeared an embryo. cf. RV sat'as in sato'-vIra, -mahat, -bRhat (strong, great, big like satas =Universe).

9. Ha Dha Sa 5280

In the empty space a drum appeared. Its reduced form sadha- in -mAda, -stha (rejoicing in or situated on the highest abode).

10.Na ga 5094

The light goes away = The darkness comes. cf. na'g (night) RV 7, 71, 1.

11.Sa ra Sa 4094

From the embryo runs (and) stops (the waters flowing from the mountain stops). cf. Vedic sa'ras (lake), saras-vat-I.

12.la Tha 2124, 3083, 1268

The time turns round. In the vedic language, initially reduced rata, and due to accent further reduced to Rta' (The regular order of the Universe). Even Rtu' (Season) goes to some la Thu (The time changes). cf. Avestan ratu (time).

13. THE SIGN BOARD TEXT OF "DHOLAVIRA".

The text runs from left to right with the following signs : 391- 256- 327- 391- 261- 134- 98-391-391-53. Some people read 134 as 124, but elsewhere it never makes any pair either with 261 or with 98.Therefore, it is 134. The text may be read thus: ci re pau ci ca i pa ci ci bha. There are 5 groups, each of two syllables; namely :

(i) ci re reflecting in the Vedic adverb cire "for a long time".

(ii) pau ci reflecting in the dialectal poc "vile, wicked".

(iii) ca i has contracted to ce in a Tantric formula "cAmuNDAyai
vic-ce".

(iv) pa ci reflecting in the verb pac "to cook".

(v) ci bha reflecting in the dialectal verb cibh "to crush under the
teeth".

Based on these reflections,

the clause ci re may mean : the time was passing slowly.

pau (wind) ci (be) may mean : there was a storm. The destruction caused by the storm may have brought the meaning to 'destructive', then to 'vile'.

ca (light) i (move) is doubtful, but it is perhaps some kind of blessing.

pa ci refers to some fiery accident, and means : there was a conflagration.

ci (be) bha (light) means : there was a lightning-blow.

The whole event may be summarized thus :

The time was passing slowly. Suddenly, there was a terrible storm. God forbid the evil. There was a fiery accident and a blow of lightning.

The isolating stage of a primitive language is not capable of conveying such lengthy message, but the requirement of an urbanised society had necessitated the use of language beyond its capacity.

14.THE TEXT AROUND "PASHUPATI".

The text runs with the signs 3-216-229-343-59-342-1 , and reads thus: ru i yU Si na Sa ra.

The first syllabic group ru (fire) i (move) makes a phrase : put on fire. The following syllabic group

yU Si reflects in the Vedic vocable yUs (soup, broth, sauce). In the urban culture this 'soup' would have been some (chemical) 'liquid'.

In the last group of three syllables, na (gem) is the object of the verb Sa (embryo) with the pluperfect affix ra : na Sa-ra = gems had been produced.

The whole text means:

The put-on-fire (decocted) chemical liquid had produced (= used to produce) gems.

15. THE LONGEST TEXT no. 1623 / 2847.

It consists of 26 signs, and may be thus transcribed:

lu bha dhe Sa-Tha, ga ga ga Na

ya gha Su, bra sI, cha ra

Su Na ga, ci ra, Dha Na, ta gra Sa.

In the first line, the first five syllables make a clause, bha (sky) qualified by lu (foggy) is in oblique case, meaning : in the foggy sky (lu bha) light ( dhe) be-past (Sa-Tha). The next clause is connected by 'because' : the stars (ga pl.) were shining (Na).

In the next line, there are three parts: the first clause , ya (loud) gha (sound) Su (embryo) seems to say : as a loud sound was produced...... It is related to the following clause, indicated by u-bending. The next clause bra (water-fire = the cloud with the lightning) sI (bird) means : the lightning cloud flew around. Then cha (unsteady) ra (speed) means : moved unsteadily.

In the last line, Su Na ga is an injunction : do know the truth. Then, ci ra (the time passed slowly, cf. Sanskrit ciram) is a phrase here: for a long time. Dha (sound) Na (knowledge) = It is well-known. ta gra Sa = the bright sun shone.

The whole statement may be summarised thus :

In the foggy sky there was light, because the stars were shining. As a sound was produced, the lightning cloud flying around moved unsteadily. Know it well. For a long time, the report goes on, the sun was shining brilliantly.

It may be supposed, this statement was issued when a great natural catastrophe had taken place and its warnings had remained unnoticed.

16. RbI'sa .

This word is restricted to the RV and means 'an abyss' (in the earth, from which hot vapours arise). In the 'vapours arising from an abyss', fire and water are involved. In the Indus inscriptions, there is a text 5086 of which the first part reads like ra (fire) bI (vapour) Su (embryo), meaning (because/ when) the fire generates / generated vapour ,........ .

The next clause of the same text, syntactically related, reads ni (interior) Sa (all) ra (speed), probably meaning : from the interior all men should runaway \ ran away.

The fossilised Vedic form of the first clause may be RbI'sa (ra becoming R due to accent on the following syllable). The same of the next clause may be nisara', which is obscure as to its meaning VS 30,14. However, in that stanza, because ayas-tApa' (iron-smith) is a professional for manyu (spirit), nisara' may be a similar professional for krodha (anger), probably a fireman.

In another text 4304 too, the first clause is the same ra bI Sa, but the second syllable has a slightly different sign. Perhaps both are duplicates. Its next clause va (dwelling) Na (light) Tha (circle) means: in the dwelling the fire turns round. It refers to a situation in the countryside just 50 years ago when a girl had to run from house to house in search of fire. This clause has fossilised as vana'd (domestic fire) in the RV, now derived as van-ad (wood-consuming).

Through some of these examples, we can imagine how the urban Indus culture is linked underneath with the pastoral Vedic culture. A centrally heated room of the urban Indus culture has become an abyss; the chemical liquid has become soup, and so on. As the form of the society changes, there is a perceptible change in the phonetic aspect of the language, but semantically it makes a frog's jump. Aravinda says: ....the vocabularies of primitive languages must have varied from century to century......many savage tongues change their vocabulary almost from generation to generation.. (The secret of the Veda, p.556). Because the Vedic words peep into the Indus texts we say that the Vedic and Indus form one stream of language.

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BOOKS ON DECIPHERMENT

REVIEW OF OTHER ATTEMPTS OF DECIPHERMENT

THE SOCIETY REFLECTING IN THE INDUS SCRIPTS

THE CONCEPT OF SARASVATI

THE BASIS OF THE VEDIC MYTHOLOGY

A HISTORY REWRITTEN