Description

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Context:

Tamil Nadu CM has announced a $1 million prize for deciphering the Indus Valley Civilization script, a mystery since its discovery by Sir John Marshall over a century ago. The civilization thrived in the Indus Valley between c. 3300 and 1300 BCE.

About Indus Valley Scripts

It is also known as the Harappan script, it is a collection of symbols created by the Indus Valley Civilization. It is one of the oldest writing systems in the Indian subcontinent.

Timeline: Early Harappan (3500-2600 BCE), Mature Harappan (2600-1900 BCE), Late Harrappan (1900-1300 BCE).
Discovery: By John Marshall in 1924.
Major sites: Harappa, Lothal, Dholavira, Rakhigarhi, Kalibangan, etc.

Aspect	Details
Script	Boustrophedon (written right to left in one line, left to right in the next line).
Time Period	Used from about 2,500 BC to about 1,900 BC.
Language	Unknown; may represent Dravidian, Mundari, Indo-Aryan, Sino-Tibetan, and Neolithic “Language X”.
Symbols	Approximately 400 symbols known.
Found On	Pottery, seals, bronze and copper tables, bronze tools, bones, clay tablets.
Development	Early incised pottery marks, geometric button seals, animal motifs with signs above them.
Purpose	Likely used for commercial purposes; seals as tax stamps, tablets for permits for tax collection, craft making, or trading.

Significance of Deciphering the Indus Valley Script

It could reveal the relationship between the Indus Valley Civilization and later Vedic practices and their interaction with other contemporary civilizations.
Linguistic and Ethnic Connections can make connections between the languages of the Indus Valley and contemporary languages from the Dravidian and Indo-European families.

Challenges in Deciphering the Indus Script

Lack of multilingual inscriptions: Unlike the Rosetta Stone, no bilingual artefacts have been found.
The script likely represents an unknown language, complicating phonetic assignments.
With only 3,500 seals discovered, each having an average of five characters, the available material is insufficient for comprehensive analysis.
More archaeological excavations and analyses are essential to provide scholars with data to unravel the script.

Connecting Indus Valley and Tamil Nadu

A study documented over 15,000 graffiti-bearing pot shards from 140 Tamil Nadu sites and compared them to 4,000 Indus Valley artefacts.

Key findings include

Identification of 42 base signs, 544 variants, and 1,521 composite forms.
60% of Tamil Nadu signs had parallels in the Indus script, and 90% of graffiti marks in both regions were comparable.

Significance of similarities

The study, focused on key Tamil Nadu sites like Keeladi, Sivagalai, and Thulukarpatti, suggests:

Evidence of cultural contact between the Indus Valley (Copper Age) and Tamil Nadu (Iron Age).

Possibility of direct or intermediary cultural exchanges, warranting further material evidence.

Conclusion

The integration of archaeological findings into political narratives highlights a broader effort to recast Indian history from a Dravidian perspective.

Source:

INDIAN EXPRESS

PRACTICE QUESTION

Q.Despite being one of the earliest known writing systems, the Indus script remains undeciphered. Discuss the challenges in deciphering the Harappan writing system and the impact of its decipherment on our understanding of the Indus Valley Civilization. (250 words)