41. ha Na Sa / 4670.
    
    Pleasure is life.
    
    The various meanings of ha present a confusing state of affairs in interpreting this clause, but because it has emerged in Sanskrit as harS (hRS) ‘to be pleased, happy’, the meaning proposed above may be provisionally accepted.
    
    In our texts, this clause is also preceded by ni, la and ci ha at different places.
    
    In another text, the clause is represented as ni ha na Sa, which may show a slight deviation in meaning. However, both have emerged as harS (hRS) in Sanskrit.

42. ma na Sa / 2683.
    
    The moon is a gem (The moon shines like a gem).
    
    This reading is available in a damaged text. Its reduced form mánas ‘mind’ is well attested, and moon’s relation with mind may also confirm the meaning of the clause. The further reduced form of mánas is marS (mRS) with a palatal variant mars' (mRs') ‘to think, reflect’.
    
    On the basis of karS (kRS), ghaS (ghRS), dars' (dRs') and parS (pRS)/ in Sanskrit, we may also imagine ka na sa, gha na Sa, da na Sa and pa na Sa in Indus, but they are unquotable.

43. ga ra / 4560.
    
    The fire moves.
    
    This is an example of the verb preceding the subject, as if it highlights the special kind of fire, which is the sun itself. At the agglutinative stage, semantically it became a phrase ‘the moving fire’, phonetically it contracted to gra, and graphically it was represented as a ligature, occurring more than 100 times as subject.
    
    The clause gA va is an example of a verb + an oblique case (goes inside the pen), becoming a phrase (going inside the pen) and then a lexeme gAva (cattle). Through the pl. form gAvaSa, becoming gAvas at the inflexional stage, it was analysed as gAv-as. Its basic form was fixed as go- for the weak and gAu- for the strong cases. The clause bI ja is an example of an oblique case followed by a verb (in the water it is born), later becoming the lexeme bIja (seed).
    
    The syllable gra was later devoiced to kra in dadhikrA (the ball of the rising sun).

44. Sa ra Sa / 4094.
    
    The flowing water comes to an end.
    
    This meaning is evidently based on the phonetically fossilised form of this clause, namely sáras ‘pond, lake’. We may derive this meaning from ºa ‘embryo’ (= reservoir of water) and ra ‘speed’ (= to flow), the former being an oblique case: from the embryo (the reservoir of water) it flows. When construed with the following Sa (end), sara becomes a phrase (the following water, or, flowing from the reservoir).
    
    This clause has also a future form: sa ra sa gha (the flowing water will come to an end). It may also have some abstract meaning.

45. sa ra / 1273.
    
    The bird flies. The wind blows.
    
    These meanings are purely hypothetical and arbitrary, though based on the available meanings in the lexicons.
    
    A contracted and reduced form of this clause may be seen in sR-ka (RV 1,32,12. 10,180,2) meaning vajra (SAyaNa) or lance (Roth and Geldner). If the lexical meaning ‘wind’ of sRka has any authority, the second meaning of the clause may be guaranteed. The syllable ka has diverted the meaning of the ‘blowing wind’. Another lexical meaning ‘vANa’ (arrow) is also appropriate.

46. la Tha / 2124 , 3083 , 1268.
    
    The time turns round.
    
    This text is inscribed in three graphic forms of the syallable la, though the final syllable Tha represents only the animal figure through its various stages.
    
    In the traditional lexicons no definite meaning has been assigned to la. In Sanskrit it often alternates with ra phonetically, while in MAgadhi it had ousted ra from the syllabary, but no semantic relation can be established between ra and la.
    
    The meaning ‘time’ has been assigned to la on the basis of Panini who conceives the whole gamut of tenses and moods through la. It appears that la representing ‘time’ is an old concept, which was known to PÙ¾ini through his teachers. The syllable Tha meaning ‘disc’ stands for ‘revolving, turning round’.
    
    After a certain stage in the history of the Indus language, Tha was dentalised and deaspirated to ta (as in certain other cases), while the initial syllable la underwent rhotacism. This la Tha changed into *rata on the threshold of the Vedic language, where it was reduced to Rtá due to accent on the final syllable. It has various meanings centering round ‘the regular world-order with special reference to time’.
    
    Even Rtú ‘the regular order of time’ has similarly originated from *ratu (Avesta ratu ‘time), and Rtí from some *rati. The traditional lexicons give the meaning ‘speed’ for ra, and from the Vedic times Rta, Rtu and Rti stand for the regularity of the time concept’. As la Tha, at the isolating stage of Indus, kept on crawling towards rta upto the Vedic stage, the meaning reached unexpected destination through frog’s jump. The changing graphic representation of this clause too is not less remarkable.

47. ha ma na nda cha bu Sa / 1211.
    
    The summer ends; the creature make noise; the frogs (will) bring rain.
    
    The reading of the text is correct as far as possible, the first sign recognised only from this text.
    
    We may take up the text from the end, because the last clause is somewhat known to us: Dha bu Sa = the frogs (will) bring rain. If this meaning of the last clause is doubtless, the preceding clause should give some coherent meaning. As inferred from the derivatives of cand-, chand-, nand, mand- and vand-, nda has the sense of ‘sweet sound’ (the syllable da meaning ‘to make sound’ as in gad, vad, nad, etc.). The preceding syllable na may be the subject, referring to some living beings, animals and birds taken together. Then na nda means: the creatures make sweet noise, perhaps referring to the natural conditions at the beginning of the rainy season, all creatures crying for water.
    
    We have read the first clause as ha ma. If it is the same as the Avestan hama, then it represents the Vedic sama, and, therefore, its ha is the first or the voiceless ha of the Indus syllabary or the last ha of the Mahesvarasútras. We have pointed out earlier that the voiceless ha of the Indus syllabary was dialectically spoken s in the east and h in the west. Then the first sign of this text is the geometrical version of the voiceless ha of Indus.
    
    If this is the case about the voiceless ha of the Indus syllabary, hima ‘cold, coldness’ of Sanskrit represents the voiced ha of Indus, becoming zima in Avesta and old Slavonic and xima in Greek.
    
    We may formulate that the initial voiceless Indus ha became sa in Sanskrit but remained ha in the western dialects, while the initial voiced Indus ha remained ha in Sanskrit but developed variously as x, z in the western dialects.
    
    In other words, the voiceless ha of Indus is recognisable by the correspondenca of s : h in Sanskrit and Iranian. Similarly, the voiced ha of Indus is recognisable by the correspondence of h : z in Sanskrit and Iranian. The laryngeal H represents the voiced ha.
    
    In Sanskrit, the lexeme sama (summer) was extended to samA cf. meaning ‘year’, ‘duration of a year’ (from summer to summer).

48. Da Ta / 1903.
    
    Repulse fear (Do not have fear)
    
    Though the first sign is identifiable due to its numeral value (Da), the second is doubtful. So far, the following phonemes could not be noticed in the geometrical figures: 3-na  5-na  jh  Dh  D   ch  ph  kh  th  T  s. Among them only Ta seems to make a readable pair with Da, namely Da Ta. Therefore, the second sign represents Ta. This Da Ta also is attested only in Hindi DaT-nA (to face fearlessly, resist), DaT-kar (fearlessly, with challenge), etc.
    
    Our workable Indus glossary gives the meaning ‘fear’ for Da, which may be confirmed from Hindi Dar (fear). The second syllable Ta is said to mean ‘sound’, which may stand for ‘abuse, scold, rebuke, challenge’, etc. Then the Indus clause Da Ta may mean: Do not have fear, repulse fear, drive out fear. Perhaps the second syllable Ta itself may have emerged as r (in Dar).
    
    The phoneme T appears in phaT in the Tantric rituals and has such meanings. This Ta is also associated with pa and na in other Indus texts, but the meaning does not come out easily.
    
    Because the cerebrals were in abundance in the early phase of Indus, we are embarrassed not to find them in the texts. It is also difficult to find them, because they cannot be verified from the Sanskrit words. It is true that by the time the numeral script was devised, the cerebrals had dwindled in numbers and they had been surpassed by the dentals, but because the phoneticians of the RV-Pratishakhya see dentals as alveolars, the dentalisation of the cerebrals was still continuing, till they were totally outnumbered.
    
    It is meant to say that the cerebrals must be there in the animal and geometrical figures of the Indus script. Therefore our identification of Ãa in the text may be taken for granted. Its animal counterpart is perhaps the small zero (in s-ta). The syllable Tha is already identified (12 ) as also na (59 ). But Ta  and Dha  are still doubtful.

49. cha ra Sa / 7797.
    
    In fear there is love.
    
    There is no doubt about the reading of the text. But meaning requires some phonetic analysis.
    
    If /ch/ was pronounced as an affricate, being consonant cluster /ts'h/, proved by its not being preceded by -c- even in the RV (ga-cha-ti), it may have various representations later on as taras, s'aras or haras. Only the first is quotable in Vedic, meaning ‘strength, velocity’. A reduced form of taras is tras ‘to fear’, because the strength or velocity causes fear.
    
    The cha may be an oblique case: In fear there is love. This is a very old Indian saying, because any love or devotion is caused or preceded by fear. The Rudra-hymns of the RV are full of such instances.

50. ga cha Sa / 1257.
    
    The movement is advancement.
    
    The syllable ga or gA is a very old verb in Vedic (gA-ti, gA-si, gA-mi; a-gA-t; ga-dhi, ga-hi, etc.). Later it was supplemented by adding -cha and -ma to its short form
    ga-. While gA could not come down to Sanskrit, except to represent the verb i in aorist, ga-cha is restricted to the present system and ga-ma to the rest, including the primary word-formation. But perhaps ga-cha is older than ga-ma. Though ‘movement’ is the basic sense of ga, it also refers to plants and animals due to their growing faculty or reproductivity.
    
    If cha means ‘fear’, it may slightly move towards ‘trembling’ or may just intensify the idea of movement. Then ga cha Sa may be supposed to mean: the movement causes advance. If ga is an oblique case, it may mean: in the movement there is advance. As a matter of fact, gacchati in Sanskrit indicates ‘actual, physical going’ as distinguished from the ‘abstract or mental going’. Thus ga-cha is ‘to go physically, not mentally’.
    
    Later, -cha- became the modal affix after ga- for gam, which became the basic form of the verb. The final m is artificially turned into sonant nasal to come back to ga by the Indoeuropeanists.

51. Hao ma Su dhi Sa ra ci vu / 2518.
    
    In the first sign the central part is a consonant, probably Sa. The same sign from two sides is a long vowel, probably u, because the following ma makes a later identifiable Vedic word soma (a drink). Then this composite sign in itself is sa-Û. Thus the first three signs make a clause Hao ma Su. Because the first two make soma, sau may be supposed to mean ‘juice’ and the following ma may be modified semantically.
    
    If we take the correspondence of Su and Sa into account, Hao ma Su dhe sa may make one unit of two related clauses. The syllable ra after Sa of the second clause is an affix for pluperfect. Then the meaning comes to this: (Because) the juice may be intoxicating or exhilarating, the intellect had sharpened. This meaning is essentially based on what we later know about the Some drink and its effects.
    
    At some stage, Su was dropped because Hao ma itself could mean: the juice intoxicates or exhilarates. At the agglutinative stage, it could, as a phrase, mean ‘an intoxicating or exhilirating juice’ and would have referred to the plant from which the juice was extracted. The clause dhe Sa would similarly have been reduced to the phrase ‘the sharpened intellect’, which may be seen in dhiS cf. (attention, zeal) (RV. 1,1738. 4,21,6).
    
    The last two syllables, ci and bu, intentionally well spaced, make two clauses by verbs alone. The meanings cannot be guessed.

52. ra va Na Su ra na bha Sa / 1081.
    
    This text may be rearranged as ra (va Na Su na bha Sa), where ra is a pluperfect affix common for the two connected clauses. The clause within the brackets may be translated thus: the water may give life; in the sky there is light. The origin of life is the combined action of water and heat, which this text tries to emphasise. The pluperfect affix ra transforms it into an eternal activity: the water caused life as the light came from the sky.
    
    This primitive concept of the origin of life is still true.
    
    The clause va na sa becoming vánas (plant) and later varS (to rain) is easier to conceive phonetically than semantically. The clause na bha ºa has become nábhas (sky), but its extended from na bha Sa-Tha becoming napAt cannot be easily realised even phonetically. Literally, na bha Sa-Tha (in the sky there was light) being napAt simply means ‘lightning’. Then apAm napAt is nothing more than ‘the lightning of the cloud’.

53. rau ci / 6402.
    
    This is a line of a longer text. Even if we keep ‘fire’ as the usual meaning of the first syllable, and the second syllable means ‘light’, the intended meaning does not come out.
    
    If we give affricate value to ci, taking it as the cluster /ts'i/ the degenerated form of /rau tSi/ may be the colloquial lutti ‘the sparkle of the fire’.
    
    Then a possible meaning of the clause is: the fire sparkles.

54. ni ni ni Sa Tha / 4283.
    
    There were three heavens.
    
    This meaning is attested through the RV. 1,35,6, though it is an enigma, the reality not known to the singers themselves.
    
    If the repeated signs just indicate pl., it may mean : there are many skies, the seers having the idea of the vast universe, of the millions of the solar systems. It cannot be doubted, because they were Yogins having spiritual powers.
    
    A ligature used isolatedly in the texts is the contracted form of a bisyllabic clause. The following are a few examples.

55. tra / 2058.
    
    Protection
    
    If the Vedic trA (to protect) reflects in it, the original bisyllabic clause ta ra (gives protection) may be supposed to have contracted to tra meaning ‘protection’.

56. tra cu / 2546.
    
    Protect the truth.
    
    If we give affricate value to c, tra tsu may be original form of tR-tsu (the name of a Vedic tribe).
    
    As a matter of fact, these are forced interpretations and may be put up with till the truth comes out.

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