21. ci da ca pa Su / 2665.
    
    One says: the heat causes storm.
    
    This meaning is valid only when the reading of the text is correct.
    
    It may be supposed that ci da was raised to *ceda at the beginning of the inflexional stage and, when the final a was lost due to the preceding accent, céd became the conjunction ‘if’. But in lively discussions in Sanskrit, e.g. in Brahma-sUtra, céd reverts back to its clause-form, meaning IF YOU SAY.
    
    The syllable ca meaning heat is not authentic, but it has been conceived from ca for ‘light’. In the Sanskrit root pac ‘to cook’, this meaning of ca somehow reflects. The voiced variant of pac, namely bhaj, reflects the same meaning in bhak-ta ‘cooked rice’. The voiced variant of capa too, namely jabh, has a harmful sense (to crush), which somehow confirms the meaning of ca.

22. ci ha ra gha va Na Sa / 4075.
    
    Truly said, the bright sun nourishes the plant.
    
    This text is a combination of three clauses which, now at the agglutinative stage, have partly become phrases and built a new sentence.
    
    ci ha: This clause occurs more than 600 times, but the meaning varies from place to place. As a simple clause, standing alone, it means : Do speak the truth. In longer texts, it variously means ‘truly said, truly speaking’, etc.
    
    Its phonetic aspect is more revealing. It appears that the sound c was an affricate, that is ts'. Then ci ha was raised to * ts'eha and then reduced to teh, as we find in Greek and Punjabi te (and). It was contracted to ca (and) in Sanskrit. Benfey quotes sa-h (and he) from Gothic, where it has been reduced to just -h. In Latin, it has changed to que through a different phonetic change. Its meaning ‘and’ was occasioned by its coming between and joining two clauses. Thus this ci ha has suffered phonetic and semantic changes to such an extent that it is unrecognisable.
    
    ra gha: This phrase meaning ‘bright sun’ is the abridged form of some clause (ra gha sa or ra gha dha = the bright sun shines).
    
    The clause va Na Sa is already familiar to us. But here vaNa is just a phrase like ragha and both are joined through the verb Sa.
    
    Thus the meaning given above is confirmed. This statement relates to the science of weather and botany. The Indus people observed nature, because their harvest depended on sun-shine and rain.

23. va Tha Sa / 9102.
    
    From the dwelling the foetus comes out.
    
    This reading is correct as far as possible. The central sign is bracketed in the original to avoid its being taken to be two numeral signs. Here the first syllable va means ‘dwelling’ only figuratively. The dwelling is nothing more (or less) than the womb of an animal.
    
    The central syllable Tha was dentalised and deaspirated to ta (as in many other cases), and the clause was contracted to vatsá by the loss of the medial a. It naturally means ‘calf’.
    
    This word is otherwise underivable.

24. Sa Tha / 8013.
    
    The embryo rolled forth.
    
    This simple and small bisyllabic text is a wonderful coin of the Indus treasury. It is not known whether the Indus sages had heard the big bang or had seen the rolling embryo, but they knew about it. This little clause says like this.
    
    This is a clause of the typically isolating stage. At the agglutinative stage of Indus, the two syllables came together, were dentalised as *satha and were also deaspirated as *sata. On the threshold of the inflexional Indus, the phrase *sata (the rolling embryo) bore the accent on the first syllable and the final a was lost. The reduced form sát became a lexeme (the rolling embryo), but it was still as heavy as a full clause. Therefore, when the RSis of the RV received this idea in the reduced phonetic form they expanded it once more to the size of a clause.
    
    hiraNya-garbhaH sam-avartatAgre RV.
    
    "A golden embryo rolled forth in the beginning". Because it was fiery in look, it was rightly called `golden’. Though there was a big gap of time between the clause Sa Tha and the lexeme sát, the tradition did not break at any stage. But by the time of the composition of the NAsad-iya hymn of the RV, the physical aspect of the event was becoming vague, as reflecting in nAsad AsIn na sad AsIt tadAnIm".
    
    The RSis of the Upanisads had received the information in a somewhat abstract form. However, when they said ‘sad eva somyedam agra AsIt’ (O dear one, in the beginning it was only a rolling embryo), they had definitely some idea about the physical conception of the universe. But gradually this idea became too much abstract. Therefore, the Ait. Up. replaced sat by Atman (AtmA vA idam agra AsIt).
    
    By that time, another sát, being the present participal form of as ‘to be’, had appeared. This created confusion. The commentators of the Upanisads received a confused explanation from their teachers, because the older sát (the rolling embryo) and the new sát (being, existing) were not prepared for easy reconciliation. However, the participal sád made its forced entry into the philosophical thinking, and the golden embryo was forgotten.
    
    The modern Vedic scholars too, in the absence of this seed-idea, have remained confused, and neither Roth nor Macdonell nor Geldner has been able to see the truth. They have manipulated the participal sát to suit the different interpretations. Then the Indus valley was covered with dust.

25. s'a da bha Sa / 4331.
    
    The evil perishes; the good comes out.
    
    This text has two clauses: sa da and bha Sa.
    
    There is a verb sad in Vedic, which means ‘to excel’ as well as ‘to fall down’, and both the meanings, though on two ends, belongs to the same scale.
    
    Corresponding to the second clause, there is a Vedic verb bhas ‘to crush’. This harmful sense in Vedic is derived from the fact that ‘the good comes out when the evil is crushed’. That is why, perhaps, the two clauses have come together in a natural sequence: When the evil perishes, the good comes out.

26. ta gra Sa ra gha  / 4325. 
    
    Of the god, of the sun, the brilliance will shine.
    
    In a bisyllabic or trisyllabic clause, it is easy to identify the subject, object and verb. But in a longer text, this identity is lost or at least, confused. The last syllable of the text, gha, is obviously a future affix. Then ra preceding it should be a verb, and ºa preceding a verb must be its subject. The syllable ºa stands for ‘brilliance’. The syllable gra preceding the subject is naturally an oblique case, most probably genitive, which may have a natural relationship with ‘brilliance’ as its possessor. The syllable preceding gra (sun), ta, is an adjective, appropriately qualifying the sun. Now the whole clause should be bound with a coherent meaning: Of the god, the sun, the brilliance will shine. In a straight forward language it says: the brilliance of the god sun will shine.
    
    At the agglutinative stage, the verbal idea was merged with the phrase. Then Sa ra meant ‘the brilliant light’. The preceding gra (sun) became it possessor and ta qualified it somehow.
    
    If we suppose that some part of the RV 3,62,10 is the paraphrasing of this Indus text, the following equation may be established: ra ‘light’ = bhargas, Sa ‘brilliant’ = vareNyam, gra ‘of the sun’ = savitur, ta ‘of the god’ = devasya. Then ta gra sa ra = devasya savitur vareNyaM bhargaH (the brilliant light of the god SavitA). When the sentence was thus crippled due to the absence of a verb, a "filler" dhImahi (we would receive) was brought at the inflexional Vedic stage. In the new set-up of the stanza, tat (that) was imported, and devasya was transferred to the second verse:
    
    tat savitur vareNyam
    
    bhargo devasya dhImahi
    
    The last verse of the Vedic stanza belongs to some other text.

27. na ka Sa Tha / 2519.
    
    From the highest head the heaven rolled forth.
    
    The syllable na (sky) qualifying ka (head) slightly changes its meaning.
    
    This text finds a reflection in the RV (10,127,14b):
    s'IrS No dyauH sam-avartata (from the head the heaven rolled forth).

28. ca gra Sa / 3223.
    
    From the eye the sun was born.
    
    The first syllable ca (eye) is an oblique case. The second syllable gra (sun) is the subject of the verb Sa (be).
    
    This is exactly equivalent to the RV (10,90,13b): cakSoH sUryo ajAyata
    
    The reduced form of this clause in Vedic is cakra (wheel) which was imaginable through the rolling ball of the sun.

29. rau mu ra / 1069.
    
    The fire brings comfort.
    
    This clause seems to have contracted to rumrá, which means ‘red, beautiful’. But it is unattested.

30. ra gha Sa / 1714.
    
    From the fire heat comes.
    
    The contracted form of this clause is rakSA ‘ash’ which also gives warmth.
    

31. Ha Tha Sa / 1123.
    
    From the empty space rolled forth the embryo.
    
    The syllable sa meaning ‘empty space’ is here based on its meanings ‘wind’, ‘bird’, ‘meditation’. In this clause, the verb Tha has preceded the subject (Sa), for which no syntactical reason can be assigned.
    
    Its phonetic transformation in Vedic is satás, which forms the first member of the following compounds: sató-bRhat, sató-mahat and sató-vIra. In all these cases, satás appears to mean ‘embryo’ or ‘foetus’.

32. ha Ha gha Sa / 3165.
    
    In the highest empty-space there was a big-bang.
    
    The last two syllables, gha (sound) and Sa (be), appear to say: there was a big bang. The preceding two syllables, ha (heaven) and Ha (empty space), appear to be present as adjective-substantive in locative: in the highest empty space (= heaven).
    
    Though ‘in the highest empty space there was big bang’ is the most modern scientific concept, we have reasons to believe that the ancient people of different cultures, who are lost for ever, were not less scientific. Apart from having scientific knowledge, they had yogic powers to see the past and future.

33. Ha nu Sa / 1707.
    
    In the empty space the time pervaded 
    
    Just as the syllable sa has reference to the ‘empty space’, nu has reference to ‘time’ and its continuity. The Vedic sanutár, etc. are related with this clause.

34. va Na Tha / 4304.
    
    In the dwellings the light turns round.
    
    This refers to the domestic fire which, in the countryside, was carried from one house to another. Based on it, there is some proverb in the countryside that ‘a certain lady ran across the whole village feigning to fetch the fire’.
    
    This clause seems to have been reduced to vanád, which may be supposed to mean ‘the domestic fire’. Exactly referring to this situation, there is a stanza in the RV (2,4,5):
    
    A yan me abhvam vanadaH pananta
    
    us'igbhyo nAmimIta varNam
    
    sa citreNa cikite raMsu bhAsA
    
    jujurvA yo muhur A yuvA bhUt
    
    "When (people) extol the importance of mine, the domestic fire, that makes a praise, as if, for the house-holders. It is identified through the brilliant lusture in the ashes, which even though grown old become young again."
    
    It was a typical Indian situation in the countryside only fifty years ago, when there were no lighters and a few homes used to preserve fire in the ashes for its rekindling in the evening.

35. Ha Dha Sa / 5280.
    
    In the empty space a large drum appeared.
    
    The statement relates to the story of the universe just after the big bang.
    
    The meaning ‘large drum’ for Áha in the lexicons is figurative. This probably refers to "the glowing cloud, millions of miles in diameter, which blossomed out in space" (Arthur Mee: The Children’s Encyclopedia, p.12). One may be astonished with this reference, but the Indus sages had seen it through their yogic vision. While the clause gradually condensed into a phrase and then into an unpredictable lexeme semantically, it was phonetically reduced to sadhas (which does not exist) and further to sadhá, as we find in sadhá-stha, sadhá-mAd, etc. Thus sadhá is some abode in the empty space, conceived as heaven and making the duality sadhé with the earth.

36. Na va Tha / 7049.
    
    In the body of the creature (Na) the wind (va) revolves (Tha)
    
    It should have been reduced to *navat or navad and further contracted to not/nod at the Vedic stage. But how and why the accent was lost is not clear. It is an enclitic (AV 5,19,1). Roth takes it to mean ‘almost’.

37. Na ga / 5094.
    
    The light goes away.
    
    If this reading of the text is correct, the phoneme na has been seen in the animal figures of the Indus script, and it is a great discovery.
    
    The meaning implicitly indicates that ‘the darkness is coming’ and apparently refers to the coming of the night.
    
    At the Vedic stage, this clause was reduced to the lexeme nag and means ‘night’ (RV 7,71,1), which is doubtless.

38. rAu ka Sa / 2341.
    
    The fire causes light.
    
    The first syllable has been read rAu. It is not rau for which there is another sign.
    
    In Vedic it has appeared as rókas ‘light’ (RV 6,66,6).

39. Dha bu Sa / 2214 , 5081.
    
    The frogs bring rain.
    
    The reading of this text is correct, but it may be doubtful on the central syllable. If it is really true, it brings us near a Hindi word restricted to certain dialects. The word is DhAbus, which refers to frogs, specially those appearing at the beginning of the rainy season.
    
    It is only on the basis of the Hindi word that the said meaning of the clause has been proposed. The syllable ba is semantically associated with the water, and the meanings of the two other syllables have been brought from the context.
    
    The Rigvedic equivalent of this creature is maNDUka, which has a parallel rustic form meDhak.
    
    The clauses of the type ta na Sa, va Na Na and ca na Sa, discussed in the early part of this chapter, are some more in number in the extant texts. They are discussed below, though there are also some others in our imagination.

40. dha na Sa / 4377 , 4490.
    
    The wealth causes arrogance (The wealth makes arrogant).
    
    One can say that the lexical meaning ‘wealth’ for dha has been deduced from the word dhana (wealth). That is really so, because dha-na is an agglutinative formation by assembling dha and na. It may also be abbreviated form of dha na Sa itself. At the agglutinative stage of Indus dha-na would certainly have meant something which contracted to ‘wealth’ later on.
    
    The syllable na means ‘gem’, and its brightness may figuratively refer to ‘arrogance’ which bristles on the face of a wealthy man. Whatever the original meaning of the clause, the clause itself had reduced to *dhanas at the inflexional stage (which is unquotable) and further still to dhars (dhRS) meaning ‘to be bold, arrogant’. This meaning attests the proposed meaning of the clause.

The Evolution of The Indus Language and its transition into Sanskrit: 1 | 2 |3