1

ANNEXURE II. REFERENCE: CHICAGO IATR CONFERENCE 2019.

“DECIPHERING THE INDUS SCRIPT: PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES”
VRIDHACHALEM SUBRAMANIAM.
CHENNAI – 600085. TAMIL NADU, INDIA.
E-mail: drvsubramaniam@gmail.com. Mobile: 00 + 91 9444042771.

ABSTRACT
The famous Indian epigraphist and an expert on deciphering the script on the numerous seals
of Mohenjodaro and Harappa, Dr Iravatham Mahadevan, is no more with us but he is alive
through his monumental research work of coding, classifying all the Indus seals and other
artefacts for the future generation of research scholars. This Paper is intended to be a humble
obituary tribute to the erudite and scholarly contribution during the five decades of research
and involvement, till his last breath, besides serving the dual purpose of stocktaking and
evaluating the progress made in this field.
The hypothesis taken up here is very pithily put across by Romila Thapar: “Recent linguistic
analyses of Vedic Sanskrit have confirmed the presence of Non- Aryan elements, especially
Proto-Dravidian, both in vocabulary and phonetics. Consequently, it has been suggested that
Proto – Dravidian could have been the earlier language of northern India, perhaps the
language of the Indus Civilization, although this awaits the decipherment of the Indus script,
and that Vedic Sanskrit as the language of a particular social group, slowly spread across the
northern half of the sub-continent, with a possible period of bilingualism, in which Vedic
Sanskrit was modified by the indigenous language. It is significant that some of the loan
words in Vedic Sanskrit refer to agricultural processes. We know from archaeological
evidence that plough agriculture was practiced by the Indus settlements and from the Rig-
Vedic hymns it is apparent that pastoralism and not agriculture was the more prestigious
profession among the early Aryan speakers.”1

I. DEVELOPMENT OF INTER-DISCIPLINARY STUDY

I.1 After the initial success on the collection of actual data of the Carvings on the stone
rocks of Pugalur and early Pandya inscriptions at Mangulam during 1965 -66, Mahadevan
published the results in the form of “Tamil Brahmi Inscriptions 1966” (1968), which was well
received and quoted by scholars in the field. Further he added two more inscriptions
discovered at Mannarkovil.

I. 2. These Publications as well as his professional knowledge in the field of Epigraphy

enabled him earn the most prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship during the years 1970 –
1972, leading to the publication of his first magnum opus The Indus Script— Texts,
Concordance and Tables2. In this exhaustive document he listed out all the seals and subseals
that were made available through updated archaeological records, superseding earlier
versions.
(A) Describing the “Mohenjodaro Riddle” from the very first publication of the early seals in
The Illustrated London News in 1924, scholars have been trying to find more about the
authors. Gadd and Smith of the British Museum suggested that there seemed to be some
connection between Mohenjodaro and Sumer, which motivated Waddell to advance the theory
1
Romila Thapar,” Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early Indian History”, Oxford University Press, New Delhi. 2000.
2
Mahadevan, Iravatham,”The Indus Script—Texts, Concordance and Tables” The Director General Of Archeological Society of
India, New Delhi, 1977.
 2
that the people of the Indus-Valley were Sumerians.
(B) Sir John Marshall and his collaborators came up with their findings in 1931, with their
arguments that the inhabitants of Mohenjodaro were certainly Pre-Aryans and most probably
belonged to the race which was afterwards called Dravidian.
(C) Pran Nath, following Waddle’s suggestion, tried to find the common features between
the Aryans and the Sumerians by tracing common elements of worship in the Mohenjodaro
seals.
(D) G. R. Hunter observed, “The Indus Valley, prior to the arrival of the Aryans, was
inhabited by the Dravidians, and the ‘Brahui speakers’ of the neighborhood are a remnant of
this stock; but this is not certain, nor would it exclude the possibility of a riverine or maritime
folk of a different race being responsible for Mohenjodaro and Harappa.”
(E) R. D. Banerjee maintained that “Mohenjodaro Harappa were built by Dravidians or by
the earlier race of the proto- Dravidians.”
(F) In order to solve this riddle of “Dravidians” versus “Aryans”, or more exactly, the
relationship between the Proto-Dravidians and Proto- Aryans a more rigorous analysis of the
Indus Valley Script becomes absolutely necessary. The Origin of the Dravidians is an
essential clue to the understanding of the role of the Indus Valley script found on the
numerous Seals and Sub-seals from the valley. There are different views about their Origin.
The popular opinion prevalent among a group of Historians and Ethnologists is that the
Dravidians formed a part of the great Mediterranean race. Their original home was probably
Libya, whose people spread over the southern countries of Europe and Egypt in its pre-
Dynastic days, and which seems to have been an important center of culture in ancient times.
It is quite likely that when these people migrated towards the East and South, their culture
was mingled with the original inhabitants, who were probably Negritoes and Kolarians. Tony
Joseph in his recent book on “Early Indians”3 (The story of our ancestors and where we
came from) has given an elaborate treatment of this aspect of migration from Out of Africa to
different parts of the world. This possibility may be considered as a high probability to
account for racial mingling and consequently shared physical traits. In order to understand the
backdrop of the culture a study of the script used in the seals becomes an essential
prerequisite. Such a script is probably read from right to left when it is a single line, and left
to right when it is more than a single line of arrangement.
This aspect of direction of the written script is settled once and for all by Iravatham
Mahadevan, through statistical method. There is no doubt that the Mohenjodaro script is
picto-phonographic and has affinities with many other ancient scripts such as Iberian,
Etruscan, Libyan, Minoan, Proto- Egyptian and Sumerian. This Paper presents the results of
such comparative studies in the light of modern principles of historiography and
ethnomethodology.
Key-Words: Progress in the study of Indus Valley Civilization with special reference to the
decipherment of the script — Study of Seals – Contribution of Iravatham Mahadevan
along with other scholars of repute --- an in-depth survey – the future directions of
research.

3
Tony Joseph, “Early Indians” Or where We come from, Juggernaut, New Delhi, 2018.
 3

II. The Objectives of this Paper

Primarily, to focus attention upon the importance of the studies of the Indus - Valley
Civilization, in an effort to understand the complex problem of identifying the culture of the
natives in Pre-historic India and the possible migration routes followed by the early Proto -
Iranians and the impact on the ancient Harappan Civilization.
Secondly, to evaluate the most admirable role played by International and National Scholars
of Indology, from time immemorial, including that of Iravatham Mahadevan (1930 -2018).
Along with a number of earlier Soviet archaeologists, and Finnish experts, Mahadevan, spent
his life time in engaging all his attention to the elements of Dravidian language similarities in
the Indus Valley seals and other inscriptions.
Seignobos, the French historian, rightly emphasizes, “History is not, as has been said, a
science of observation, but a science of reasoning. In order to use facts which have been
observed under unknown conditions, it is necessary to apply criticism by analogy. The facts
as furnished by criticism are isolated and scattered; in order to organize them in to a structure
it is necessary to imagine and group them in accordance with their resemblances to the facts
of the present day, an operation which also depends on the use of analogies. This necessity
compels history to use an exceptional method. In order to frame its arguments from analogy,
it must always combine the knowledge of the particular conditions under which the facts of
the past occurred with an understanding of the general conditions under which the facts of
humanity occur. Its method is to draw up special tables of the facts of an epoch in the past,
and to apply to them sets of questions founded on the study of the present”4

In the same book quoted above, Rev. Father Heras comments about the script
development thus: “The two Brahmi scripts, one of Northern and one of Southern India,
are developments of the Mohenjo-Daro script. That of South India is the direct
continuation and development of the Mohenjo-Daro script by the Dravidian people of
South India. Several signs of the Mohenjo-Daro script are found in the prehistoric pottery
of the Tinnevelly District, in rock inscriptions in the Nilgiris, and tombs in the Hyderabad
State. The North Brahmi is not the natural continuation of the Mohenjo-Daro script. The
script was adopted by the incoming Aryas who did not know any writing at the time of
their invasion.”

Sir John Marshall and his collaborators came up with their findings in 1931, with their
arguments that the inhabitants of Mohenjodaro were certainly Pre-Aryans and most
probably belonged to the race which was afterwards called Dravidian.
Pran Nath, following Waddle’s suggestion, tried to find the common features between the
Aryans and the Sumerians by tracing common elements of worship in the
Mohenjodaro seals.
G. R. Hunter observed, “The Indus Valley, prior to the arrival of the Aryans, was

4
Signoboss, in Anderson, B., and John-Correia-Alfonso, S.J. (eds.) “Indological Studies”,
Rev. Fr. Hera’s Institute of Indian History and Culture, Bombay. 1990. pp. 12-13.
 4
inhabited by the Dravidians, and the language of the Brahui people of the neighborhood are a
remnant of this stock; but this is not certain, nor would it exclude the possibility of a riverine or
maritime folk of a different race being responsible for Mohenjodaro and Harappa.”
R. D. Banerjee maintained that “Mohenjodaro Harappa were built by Dravidians or proto-
Dravidians.”
In order to solve this riddle of “Dravidians” versus “Aryans”, or more exactly, the relationship
between the Proto-Dravidians and Proto- Aryans a more rigorous analysis of the Indus Valley
Script becomes absolutely necessary. The origin of the Dravidians is an essential clue to the
understanding of the role of the Indus Valley Script found on the numerous Seals and Sub-seals,
other artefacts of the valley. There are different views about their origin. The popular opinion
prevalent among a group of historians and ethnologists is that the Dravidians formed a part of the
great Mediterranean race. Their original home was probably Libya, whose people spread over the
southern countries of Europe and Egypt in its pre-dynastic days, and which seems to have been an
important center of culture in ancient times. It is quite likely that when these people migrated
towards the East and South, their culture was mingled with the original inhabitants, who were
probably Negritoes and Kolarians. Tony Joseph in his recent book on “Early Indians”5 (The story
of our ancestors and where we came from) has given an elaborate treatment of this aspect of
migration from Out of Africa to different parts of the World. This possibility may be considered
as a high probability to account for racial mingling and consequently shared physical traits. In
order to understand the backdrop of the culture a study of the script used in the Seals becomes an
essential prerequisite. Such a script is probably read from right to left when it is a single line, and
left to right when it is more than a single line of arrangement. This aspect of direction of
Brahmi script of Ashoka is the Mohenjo-Daro script as developed by the Aryas. That is the reason for the
difference between them, which nevertheless reveal obvious similarities with our signs.”

Rev. Fr. Heras provides numerable illustrations to justify this comparison. The importance of deciphering
the Harappan Script can never be over emphasized.
A.L. Basham observed, “The ancient civilization of India differs from those of Egypt, Mesapatomia and
Greece, in that its traditions have been preserved without a breakdown to the present day. India and China
have, in fact, the oldest continuous cultural traditions in the world.” 6

III. THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF THE

HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION.
When William Jones was posted to Calcutta as a Judge, he had already learnt the languages
of Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish and a bit of Chinese. He knew that these languages were
possibly derived from a common ancestor, which was not Hebrew.
Thanks to the initiative of Charles Wilkins, who had learnt Sanskrit thoroughly, Jones also
learnt the Sanskrit language. This led to the formation of the Asiatic Society of Bengal on 1st
January of 1784, paving the way for publications of many translations from Sanskrit to
English. James Princep, who was a genius in learning many languages, was an official at the
Calcutta Mint and interpreted for the first time the meaning and significance of the earliest
Brahmi Script in which the Harappan and Ashokan Inscriptions were written.
In 1901, thanks to the great interest evinced by Lord Curzon, the Viceroy, a young and
enthusiastic archaeologist, John Marshall, took over as the Director General of the
Archaeological Survey of India. It was under his leadership that several sites such as
Mohenjodaro, Harappa and several other projects were excavated and many interesting
ancient artefacts were unearthed for analysis. This was a turning point in recapturing the

5
Tony Joseph, “Early Indians” Or Where we Came From, Juggernaut, New Delhi, 2018.
6
Basham, A.L., “Wonder That Was India” Macmillan, New York. (Revised edition) 1954.
 5
history of ancient India and its civilization. This aspect can never be forgotten in the history
of Indological studies. Archaeology provides entirely a new light upon the thin line
separating pre-history from the most ancient part of recorded history. Even today there are
several sites all over India which produce enormous wealth of information regarding the
ancient culture of the people, who lived and were buried in huge earthern pots. It is an
interesting fact of history that the burial was the popular system and that preceded the
cremation system, wherein the dead were consigned to fire (Agni) following certain rituals.
This is a point of departure in the social customs, which provides a clue to the period of
history.
There are many other sites found in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu States.
Dholavira and Lothal are in Gujarat. Kalibangan in Rajasthan, Shravanabelagola in
Karnataka and kiizhadi and Athichanallur excavations in Tamil Nadu wherefrom remarkable
artefacts are found. They are very suggestive of a very good example of Dravidian ancestry
with very plausible proximity to the Harappan Civilization. Common features are noticeable
in areas of town planning, architecture of housing models, the artefacts, the ornaments worn
by women folks and the inscribed names of ownership on terracotta items of black and red
earthern wares, bearing strange- looking drawings, seemingly close to the Indus script. This
requires a rigorous and unbiased in-depth study, preferably an inter-disciplinary team work
based upon very good modern project planning techniques.

IV. WRITING AUTHENTIC HISTORY

How can we write a history of India when so little written documentation is available?
Kosambi7 provides a convincing answer: “The documents existed, but many words in them had
no meaning to modern people. This meaning was acquired by the comparative study of
surviving antiquities… Finally, archaeology helps documents to tell us how the people of a

vanished age actually lived, though the meaning of key words has changed. Digging up the past
and the scientific study of primitive people in other parts of the world also makes possible the
reconstruction of a culture that existed before any written records.
This is labelled ‘pre-history.”

Tracing the history of inscriptions, R. S. Sharma 8, observed, “In India, as a whole, the earlier
Inscriptions were recorded on stone. However, in the early centuries of the Christian era, copper
plates began to be used for this purpose…. Most frequently, we have many donative records,
which refer specially to gifts of money, cattle, land etc., mainly for religious purposes, made not
only by Kings and Princes, but also by nobles, artisans and merchants. Inscriptions recording
land grants, made mainly by Chiefs and Princes, are very important for the study of the land
system and administration in ancient India. These were mostly engraved on copper plates. They
record grants of lands, revenues and villages made over to monks, Even then the practice of
engraving inscriptions on stone continued on a large scale in South India. We have also in that
region a large number of inscriptions recorded on the walls of temples to serve as permanent
records.”

7
Kosambi, D. D., An Introduction to the Study of Ancient History,
Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi. 2005., p. 13.

8
Sharma, R.S., “India’s Ancient Past” O.U.P., New Delhi. 2005.
……………………………………………………….
 6

In the case of South India, topographical lists of Inscriptions have been published. Still over
50,000 inscriptions, mostly of various excavations and inscriptions in South India, await
publication.The Harappan inscriptions, which await more authentic decipherment, seem to have
been written in a pictographic script, in which ideas and objects were expressed in the form of
pictures. Most Ashokan inscriptions were engraved in the Brahmi script, which was written
from left to right, but some were also incised in the Kharoshthi script, which was written from
right to left. Brahmi continues to be the main script till the end of Gupta times.Inscriptions
found on the seals of Harappa belonging to about 2500 B.C., are considered symbolic by some
scholars. For Indian History, the earliest deciphered inscriptions are Iranian. They belong to the
sixth and fifth centuries B.C. and are found in Iran. They appear in Old Iranian and also in
Semitic languages in the Cuneiform script. They speak of the Iranian conquest of the Hindu or
(as the Iranians have it) “Sindhu” area. Of course, in India the earliest deciphered are the
Ashokan inscriptions. They are, generally written in Brahmi script and in Prakrit language in
the third Century B.C. They throw light on Maurya history and Ashoka’s achievements.
7
 8
There is no doubt that this basic corpus provided through a single source ‘Window’ is of
immense value to the researchers.

V. DISPUTED SCRIPT

Some early scholars, starting with Cunningham in 1877, thought that the script was the archetype of the
Brahmi script used by Ashoka. Cunningham's ideas were supported by G.R. Hunter, Iravatham Mahadevan and
other scholars, who continue to argue for the Indus script as the predecessor of the Brahmic family. However,
many other scholars such as B.B. Lal, S.R. Rao and others disagree, claiming instead that the Brahmi script is
derived from the Aramaic script. The Finnish scholar, Asko Parpola,9 holds the view, “Most attempts to read
the Indus script apply the unsuited method of comparing the Indus signs with similar looking signs of other
scripts and transferring their phonetic values to the Indus signs. This general error is often coupled with the
mistake of deriving Brahmi from the Indus script, though it is based on the Semitic consonant alphabet.”

And a few others led by Archaeologist S.R. Rao 10, Rajaram and others believe that the script is pre-Vedic and
hence a forerunner of early Sanskrit. So, this remains a disputed area. It is still an open-ended riddle for
researchers to arrive at a definite conclusion. This is the challenge of the Indus script.
However, researchers agree that there were three different phases of Indus Valley Civilization.

THREE PHASES OF HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION

Early Harappan: The script generally refers to that used in the mature Harappan phase, which perhaps
evolved from a few signs found in early Harappa after 3500 BC. However, the early date and the interpretation
given in the BBC report have been challenged by the long-term excavator of Harappa, Richard Meadow. The
use of early pottery marks and incipient Indus signs was followed by the mature Harappan script.

Mature Harappan: The Harappan signs are most commonly associated with flat, rectangular stone tablets
called Seals, but they are also found on at least a dozen other materials.

Late Harappan: After 1900 BC, the systematic use of the symbols ended, after the final stage of the Mature
Harappan civilization. Mahadevan’s analysis and report in “The Indus-Script: Texts, Concordance and
Tables”12 provides a complete and critical account of the texts, an improvised concordance (with a whole text
as the unit) and a set of statistical tables prepared with the help of a CDC 3600 Computer at the Tata Institute
of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bombay.

This compendium has also been upgraded so as to include the latest unpublished texts, especially from Lothal
and Kalibangan sites of 1976. The sign list and the list of sign variants have been updated in 1976 by
Mahadevan and his TIFR technical team. This provides a complete corpus of the Indus Script and Signs
material as on date. This voluminous source book will provide all the necessary Corpus for all future research
scholars on deciphering the Indus Script. It makes use of binary code system to describe exhaustively all
possible content on the Seals.

The data is amenable to be subjected to any computer- analysis. A few examples are listed below:
Note: See the Tabulated Data that follows on a fresh page.

11

9
Parpola, Asko.,” A Dravidian Solution to The Indus Script Problem”, Central Institute of Classical Tamil,Chennai.2010.p.9
10
Rao, S.R..” The Dawn and devolution of the Indus Civilization”, Aditya Prakashan, New delhi,1991. Also: “Lothal and the Indus
Civilization”, Asia Publishing House, 1973.
11
.Mahadevan, Iravatham.,” Concordance,Texts of The Indus Script”, The Diretor General of Archaeological Society of India, New
Delhi, 1977.
 9

--- Code. -------- ---Description of the Seal ----- --- Frequency---

01 Unicorn, generally facing a special cult object 1159

02-----Bull with two long horns, generally facing cult object 5
03-----Humped bull 54
04-----Short horned bull, generally with head lowered over a trough 95
05-----Two short horned bulls, standing face to face 2
06- - - -Buffalo, generally with a trough in front 14
07----Elephant, sometimes with a trough in front 55
08-----Horned elephant 1
09----Tiger, generally with a trough in front 16
10-----Horned Tiger 5
11-----Rhinoceros, generally with a trough in front 39
12-----Two rhinoceroses, one at either end of the text 1
13-----Goat-antelope with a short tail 3
14 ---- Ox-antelope with a long tail, generally with a trough in front 26
15 ---Two goats flanking a tree 1
16 --- Hare facing a bush 10
17 --- Inscribed object in the shape of a hare 5
18 --- Row of animals in file (a unicorn, an elephant & a rhinoceros from right;
19 --- A gharial with a fish held in its jaw above the animals; a bird at right-1.
20 --- Bull mating a cow 1.
21 --- Uncertain bovine animal above, and an elephant below 1

Similarly, there are several entries under different groups such as:
1.“Fabulous and Composite Animals”;
2.“Reptiles, Fish and Birds”;
3.“Trees and leaves” & Anthropomorphic animal figures”
4.“Trees and other objects” and
5.“Various Symbols and Motifs”.

In plates I to VII, Mahadevan has amply illustrated the seals and signs through a set of
photographs. (1 to 145.)

These provide most reliable data of great value to anthropologists.

 10
Ancient inscriptions that are claimed to bear a striking resemblance to those found in Indus
Valley sites have also been found in Sanur near Tindivanam in Tamil Nadu, Musiri in Kerala
and Sulur near Coimbatore. Mahadevan and several other archaeologists have reported several
instances of unearthing seals and terracotta artefacts throughout Tamil Nadu.

Substantiating Videos have been uploaded on YouTube about Kiizhadi excavations. This
confirms an earlier work carried out by Mathivanan who traced proper names in the Indus
script. Historians such as P. Rajaraman 12 have pointed out, “The graves at Adhichanallur on the
southern bank of Tambaraparani in Tirunelveli district can be dated to the early Iron Age which
succeeded the Neolithic age in South India. … Remarkable parallels are seen in the sites near
the villages of Annavasal, near Pudukkottai, in the Palani and Anaimalai ranges, along the
Western ghats and the Nilgiris and in the districts of Coimbatore, Salem and former North
Arcot and South Arcot.”

These require further careful field research in order to arrive at more definite results.

VI. SOME DETAILS OF THE INDUS SCRIPT

The writing system in the Indus script is intensely pictorial. The script is written from right to left, and
sometimes follows a boustrophedonic style. That is to say that the direction can be both ways, depending upon
the numerical order and line of arrangement. Since the number of principal signs is about 400-600, midway
between typical logographic and syllabic scripts, many scholars accept the script to be logo - syllabic. Several
scholars maintain that structural analysis indicates an agglutinative language underneath the script.

VII. THE DRAVIDIAN HYPOTHESIS

The Russian scholar Yuri Knorozov13, who has edited a multi-volumed corpus of the
inscriptions, surmises that the symbols represent a logosyllabic script, with an underlying
Dravidian language as the most likely linguistic substrate. Knorozov is perhaps best known for
his decisive contributions towards the decipherment of the Maya script, a pre-Columbian
writing system of the Mesoamerican Maya civilization. Knorozov's investigations were the first
to conclusively demonstrate that the Maya script was logosyllabic in character, an interpretation
now confirmed in the subsequent decades of Mayanist epigraphic research.

The Finnish scholar Asko Parpola15 repeated several of these suggested Indus script readings.
The discovery in Tamil Nadu of a late Neolithic (early 2nd millennium BC, i.e. post-dating
Harappan decline) head-stone adorned with Indus script markings has been considered to be
significant for this identification. However, their identification as Indus signs has been disputed.
Iravatham Mahadevan, who supports the Dravidian hypothesis wished, "we may hopefully
find that the proto-Dravidian roots of the Harappan language and South Dravidian languages
are similar. This is a hypothesis. But I have no illusions that I will decipher the Indus script,
nor do I have any regret."
Gift Siromoney14 et al., stressing the urgent need for an awareness of the historical importa-
nce of the inscriptions point out the progress made by the Tamil language script over
several centuries in the past. “Choosing an ancient and well- known work like Tirukkural,
we have written the verses in the different styles of writing so that the reader could follow
the evolution of the Tamil script from the Tamil-Brahmi script which is linked with the

Rajaraman, P., “Historical Speeches and Writings”. 81-st Birthday Commemoration

12

Volume, 2018. Poompozhil Publishers, Chennai. 2018. pp.15-16.

13
Knorozov, Yuri., (ed.)
“Corpus of The Indus Valley Inscriptions” Proto-India, Moscow, 1975.
Gift Siromoney, S. Govindaraju, M.Chandrasekaran, “ Thirukkural in Ancient Scripts”,
14

Department of Statistics, Madras Christian College, Tambaram, Chennai.1980.

 11
Brahmi script of Ashoka. The Tamil script which was prevalent in 1500 A.D., closely
resembles the modern Tamil script… During the time of Tiruvalluvar, Tamil was written in a
script called Tamil – Brahmi or Dhamili and it closely resembled the Brahmi script of Emperor
Ashoka. Brahmi is the parent of all modern Indian scripts.” Please refer to the table of ancient
Tamil script. (Annexure I).

Siromoney et al., also asserted that, “Brahmi was invented and many of its signs can be derived
from a compound symbol found in the Tamil – Brahmi inscriptions, viz., a cross super-imposed
on a square. Tamil Brahmi script sometimes makes use of a pulli (.) or a dot as a consonant
marker to denote pure consonants. This practice was prevalent from very early times and a pulli
can be seen in Anaimalai inscription. This practice is not followed in the Asokan Brahmi system
where a pure consonant is combined with the following letter and written one below the other.
The letter on top would represent a pure consonant. The modern Tamil script gradually evolved
from the Tamil Brahmi pulli system to the Pallava Tamil script, the Chola Tamil script and to
the Vijayanagar script which is quite similar to the modern script. …Side by side with the Tamil
script, another script called vaTTezhuthu developed for the writing of Tamil language. Late
Brahmi letters and early vaTTezhuthu letters are practically indistinguishable from one another.
Many Hero Stones belonging to the Pallava period have been discovered in North Tamil Nadu
with vaTTezhuthu inscriptions. This script was used in general during the Pandya regions till the
Cholaas took over that territory. It was adopted later for writing Malayalam and a degenerate
form of the script was called Koleezhuthu.” 15 This observation sets a close link between Indus
script and the Tamil Brahmi script.

VIII. AN ONGOING DEBATE ABOUT SCRIPT OR IDEOGRAPHIC SYMBOLS

If the Indus signs are purely ideographical, they may contain no information about the
underlying language spoken by their creators, i.e., they would just be logographic script, or
pictograms. Just like traffic signs used for guidance of road users and at the International
airports, where communication transcends linguistic systems.

In 2004, Steve Farmer,16 an independent scholar along with a computational linguist Richard
Sproat and Indologist Michael Witzel published an article asserting that the Indus Script
symbols were not coupled to oral language. Witzel17 had earlier presented his "Para- Munda"
Hypothesis, that the spoken language of the northern Indus civilization was distantly related to
the Austro-Asiatic family, though not identical with Proto-Munda (Witzel,1999).

Intervening in the debate in a newspaper article, Iravatham Mahadevan has called the Indus
"non-script" a non-issue, listing a variety of archaeological and linguistic arguments in support
of his thesis.18

A computational study conducted by a joint Indo-US team led by Rajesh P N Rao 19 of

University of Washington, consisting Iravatham Mahadevan and others from Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research, was published in April 2009 in Science. The conclusion arrived at was
that "given the prior evidence for syntactic structure in the Indus script, (their) results increase
the probability that the script represents language". (Italics added for emphasis).

IX. TESTING DIFFERENT THEORIES ABOUT INDUS SCRIPT AS A LANGUAGE.

Following are the different views held on the Indus script:

(1) The language is completely unrelated to anything else, meaning 'an isolate'. This is
15
Ibid., 1980.
16
Vide observation by Wikipedia.org under “Indus Script”
17
Ibid.
18
Mahadevan, Iravatham: In an interview given to the Local Daily in Chennai on this topic of “non-script”
19
Rao, P.N., Article published in Science Journal (2009) supporting Mahadevan’s contention that the script is a Language.
 12
linguistically untenable and therefore rejected at the very outset.

(2) The language is "Aryan" (some form of Indo-Iranian/ Indo-European). The historical
languages spoken in Northern India and Pakistan all belong to the Indic branch of Indo-
European, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Punjabi, etc., so may be the people of the Indus valley
spoke a very old Indo-European language. There is very little evidence for supporting this view.

(3) The major problem with this model is the fact that horses played a very important role in all
Indo-European cultures. After all, they were mostly people constantly on the move in search of
pasture lands and needed the horse for swiftness. "There is no escape from the fact that the
horse played a central role in the Vedic and Iranian cultures..." (Parpola, Asko 20:1994). There is
definitely no horse depicted in the Indus signs, whereas all other Indian animals find a repeated
mention. Once again this has been disputed by some scholars like B.B.Lal and his colleagues.

(4) The language belongs to the Munda family of languages. The Munda family is spoken
largely in eastern India, and related to some Southeast Asian languages. Like Aryan, the
reconstructed vocabulary of early Munda does not reflect the Harappan culture. So, its
candidacy for being the language of the Indus Civilization is rather dim.

(5) The language is Dravidian. The Dravidian family of languages is spoken in Southern India,
but Brahui is spoken in Balochistan, located in modern Pakistan. So far this is the most
promising model, as indicated in the following details. There are many Dravidian influences
visible in the Vedic texts. If the Aryan language gradually replaced the Dravidian, features from
Dravidian would form a "substratum" in Aryan. One of these features is the appearance of
retroflex consonants. The Indo- Aryan * while the Indo-European* hasn’t got it.

Another possible indication of Dravidian in the Indus texts, is from structural analysis of the
texts which suggests that the language underneath is possibly agglutinative, from the fact that
sign groups often have the same initial signs but different final signs. The number of these final
signs range between 1 to 3. The final signs possibly represent grammatical suffixes that modify
the word (represented by the initial signs). Each suffix would represent one specific
modification, and the entire cluster of suffixes would therefore put the word through a series of
modifications. This suffix system can be found in Dravidian, but not Indo-European. Because
like Sanskrit, most of the Indo-European languages are inflectional in its grammar.
X. PICTOGRAMS

But can we actually read (not interpret) any symbol or sign on the seals? We should then
start with "pictograms", as this one:

Many scholars (Knorozov21, Parpola, Mahadevan) decipher this sign as a ‘fish’. Fish in
reconstructed Proto-Dravidian is *miin. Coincidentally, *miin is also the word for star. On many
pots from Mohenjodaro, an Indus site, there are drawings of fish and stars together, and so
affirming this linguistic association.

Going further, often the numeral six appears before the fish. Either it means 6 fish or 6 stars.
Old Tamil (a classical version of this Dravidian language still spoken today) texts from just
around the 1st century AD recorded the name of the Pleiades, a star cluster visible during
autumn and winter just Throughout the world, titles with celestial connotations are very
common, and the clause Six Stars forming part or whole of a Harappan title is not unreasonable.
20
Parpola, Asko., “Deciphering the Indus script”, Cambridge, U.K., 1994.
21
“ Knorozov, Yuri., (ed.) “Corpus of The Indus Valley Inscriptions” Proto-India, Moscow, 1975.
 13
(Parpola,1994)24
The 'fish' signs

Figure 1: Number and Fish Signs

Still, in south Indian languages, such as Tamil, Fish is called as "miin" and star as "vin-
miin" matching exactly the same words as used in Indus script. Hence applying the
Rebus principle of reading,

Can be read as < aaru miin > implying six stars which is also the same as Pleiades.

Sometimes symbols are added to the basic sign to make new signs. Of these, the one that looks
like a circumflex accent placed on top of the fish is quite interesting. It is theorized to mean
"roof". This is phonetically similar to Proto-Dravidian word for "black",
*may. Together with fish, it spells out <mai-m-miin>, or "black star", which in Old Tamil means
the planet Saturn. In Sanskrit texts as well, Saturn is associated with the colour black. The God
of death, Yama, is the presiding deity of this planet, and is usually depicted as riding on a dark
buffalo. Worshipping Saturn God especially on Saturdays is a Dravidian custom. But this has
been refuted by Professor R. Mathivanan, in his Blog. He does not contribute to the theory that
the Harappans were very astronomically oriented in their culture. So consensus becomes
elusive.

Let us now look at the structure of these seals very closely.

Invariably they consist of a logo or a picture of an animal or a set of animals surrounded by

flora and fauna of the period. These are clearly embossed obviously with metallic frames and
designs of that age. Above these are found a set of peculiar script often short as much as only
five in number and occasionally longer up to an extent of fourteen. The problem faced by the
epigrapher is to relate the two and find a meaning in its context. I would like to call it a set of
“Archemes” implying different meanings in different contexts, but we will refrain from
indulging in innovative metalanguage to avoid additional complication to our problem, at this
stage. However, we will stage a comeback later on while dealing with lexis of architecture.

XI. Seal impression showing a typical "inscription" of five "characters"

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Zebu Bull
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This Indus seal depicts a male deity with three faces (tri-murti, Brahama- God), seated in a lotus
position on a throne, perhaps wearing bangles on both arms and an elaborate headdress.

Five symbols of the Indus script appear on either side of the headdress which is made of two
outward projecting buffalo style curved horns, with two upward projecting points.

A single branch with three pipal (hindu/ bhartiya pious tree) leaves rises from the middle of This
Indus seal depicts a male deity with three faces (tri-murti, Brahama- God), seated in a lotus
position on a throne, perhaps wearing bangles on both arms and an elaborate headdress.
Five symbols of the Indus script appear on either side of the headdress which is made of two
outward projecting buffalo style curved horns, with two upward projecting points.
A single branch with three pipal (hindu/ bhartiy) tree considered sacred to the Hindu beliefs.
18
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A team led by the University of Washington researcher, Rajeshwar Rao 22, has used computers to
extract patterns in ancient Indus symbols. The study, published in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, shows distinct patterns in the placement of symbols in
sequences and creates a statistical model for the unknown language. "The statistical model
provides insights into the underlying grammatical structure of the Indus script," said lead author
Rajesh Rao, a University of Washington Associate Professor of Computer Science. "Such a
model can be valuable for decipherment, because any meaning ascribed to a symbol must make
sense in the context of other symbols that precede or follow it.”

That is to say that the syntax carries the clue to the meaning of the Script. This is a
breakthrough in our search for meaning as well as significance.

Yet another team consisting of Nisha Yadav23 and Mayank Vahia of the Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research and Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences in Mumbai, Hrishikesh
Joglekar of Mumbai, R. Adhikari of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai and
Iravatham Mahadevan of the Indus Research Centre in Chennai went in to the structure of the
seals systematically.

Even though the aesthetic creativity of the people of Harappan Civilization was not of a very
high order, their most commendable attainment was in the form of Seals.
These engravings represented different animals and the love shown by the people towards them.
Chief among them was the great urus bull, with its many dew laps, the rhinoceros with knobbly
armoured hide, the tigers, and many other animals and creatures of wide range. Also, we find
models of monkeys and squirrels, used as pinheads and beads, but not that of a horse.

Some of the figures on the Seals are very suggestive of Gods. There are a few in terracotta of
bearded men with coiled hair. Their visage and stance are resembling closely to the yogic
position of the Jinas Kaayatsarga, in which meditating teachers are often found. This figure is to
be found with the horn of an animal as a headdress. There are different views about this image.
One of them is that the figure represents Lord Shiva, a devout lover of different animals. The
Hindus worship such an image as “Pasu-pathi” – Lord of animals.
That is to say that the syntax carries the clue to the meaning of the Script. This is a
breakthrough in our search for meaning as well as significance.

Yet another team consisting of Nisha Yadav24 and Mayank Vahia of the Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research and Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences in Mumbai, Hrishikesh
Joglekar of Mumbai, R. Adhikari of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai and
Iravatham Mahadevan of the Indus Research Centre in Chennai went in to the structure of the
seals systematically. Even though the aesthetic creativity of the people of Harappan Civilization
was not of a very high order, their most commendable attainment was in the form of Seals.
These engravings represented different animals and the love shown by the people towards them.
Chief among them was the great urus bull, with its many dew laps, the rhinoceros with knobbly
armoured hide, the tigers, and many other animals and creatures of wide range. Also, we find
models of monkeys and squirrels, used as pinheads and beads, but not that of a horse.
Some of the figures on the Seals are very suggestive of Gods.
There are a few in terracotta of bearded men with coiled hair. Their visage and stance are
resembling closely to the yogic position of the Jinas Kaayatsarga, in which meditating teachers
are often found. This figure is to be found with the horn of an animal as a headdress. There are
different views about this image.

One of them is that the figure represents Lord Shiva, a devout lover of different animals.

22
Rajeshwar Rao, Leader of The Washington University Researchers: Vide report in Wikipedia.Org. Under”Indus Script”.
23
Nishank Yadav, Mayank Vahia,Hrikesh Joglekar, Adhikari.,H.,” Proceedings of the IATFR” Mumbai,…. .
24
Nishank Yadav, Mayank Vahia,Hrikesh Joglekar, Adhikari.,H.,” Proceedings of the IATFR” Mumbai,…. .
 20
XII. THE JAINA PHILOSOPHY AND INFLUENCE ON INDUS SCRIPT

An entirely different interpretation is provided by a trained professional Scientist, Sneh Rani

Jain25. She interprets the significance of the seals as solely representative of a Jina view, guiding
human beings towards the holy path of a detached way of life, as advocated by the highly
philosophical Jain monks, trained in the philosophical doctrines of Sage Mahavir. She links it
with the historical details of Emperor Chandra Gupta Maurya of that period, who became a Jain
monk under the influence of his Guru and moved Southwards. In her elaborately researched and
well- documented book, she analyzes the Indus script as follows:

“The signs appear pictorial as well as conventional themes or ideograms. The method of Rebus
was applied to read them. But that requires an awareness of the Indian cultural background.
Rebus application, however, could not work with drastically differing regional languages when
words from same object differ phonetically. That explains why none could read a single text
meaningfully conveying any satisfactory information. R. Mathivanan has deciphered most of
the Indus texts but only as names. Please visit:
[https://sites.google.com/site/induscivlizationthethird/home]. Mahadevan very systematically
gave out his concordance classifying the texts and their signs with suffixes and prefixes, sorting
out some signs for their most recurring combinations but he too could not grasp meaning of
many signs convincingly.
According to her interpretation, Jainism is a Sanatan way of living and carries traditional
symbolic expressions for themes, instead of long narrations since hoary past, especially by the
shramans, who mostly practice silence or ‘maun’.” She adds that, “An inventory of cave
temples of Tamil Nadu has revealed many facts on prevalence of Jain Shramanism. The
Meenaakshi temple of Madurai, the Nagerkovil temple, Kanchipuram temple center and the
famous Balaji temple were originally all famous Jain temples in the South with images of Jina
therein. Tanjore was a big center of the Jains in the pre-Mahavir period.”

XIII. A DEBATE ON THE PERIOD OF THE INDUS SEALS.

There is no doubt that this remains still an open question left unanswered. Historically speaking,
the period belongs to “Pre-history”. Hence there are no records by which we can conclude that
the Mohenjadaro and Harappan seals belong to a specific era. Linguistically speaking, we are
equally handicapped because this is not the language that was in vogue or in speech at that time
of the early Harappans. Certain scholars are of the view that the seals represent the ideas that
were in common with the concepts of Rig Veda. And hence this belongs to an early Vedic period
in creation. But let us also recall that Rig Veda was an oral practice, never put down in a script
form.
In a recent book, “Which of Us are Aryans?”, Romila Thapar 26 (2019) observes: “In terms of
archaeology the more extensive earlier reach was that of Harappan culture or the Indus
Civilization. From Shortughai in the Pamirs, evidence of Harappan settlements extends all the
way South to the Indus plain and further to the Arabian Sea, westwards into Baluchistan and
Makran and touching the Indo – Iranian borderlands and eastwards into Punjab and Haryana.
More recently finds have been located in Oman in the Arabian Peninsula, particularly in the
vicinity of copper mines. The Harappans were known to have had trading relations with the
Gulf and Mesopotamia. People of the ancient past did not confine themselves to one place. They
traveled, migrated, traded and communicated across vast distances.

This would probably have been too vast an area to host a single, unified culture. We have to
consider the possibility of a multiplicity of cultures and societies, some fairly isolated and
others in close contact but possibly functioning under a recognized and similar sociopolitical
rubric.”

25
Sneh Rani Jain, “The Guidebook to Decipher the Indus Script”, Vishram, Sagar. 2006.
26
Romila Thapar.,” Which of Us are Aryans?” Aleph Books, New Delhi, 2019.
 21

XIV. CONCLUSION

To sum up, we have to inevitably accept that the riddle of deciphering the Indus Script continues its
formidable challenge to the world of global scholars. The structure and meaning of the Harappan script
continue to be a riddle. Like the peaks of The Himalayas, it beckons the combined strategies of
ethnomethodological global research inputs, including modern scientific tools of Genetics, abetted by the
High- Tech- codes and AI. However, for the benefit of the band of future researchers, the monumental
concordance work completed by Dr. Iravatham Mahadevan and his logical comparisons, will provide
the much- needed beacon light. In the light of what is stated above, it would be in the fitness of things if
a Globally representative Committee of multi-disciplinary scholars come together and put up a proposal
to the UNESCO for an international research Project on identifying the script, the language and culture
of the Indus Valley Civilization. Such an International Project would be the best memorial matching the
eminence of an internationally respected ep NOTES AND REFERENCES

Romila Thapar, Interpreting Early India, Oxford. New Delhi. 2000.

Anderson, B and John Correia – Alfonso, (eds.) Indological Studies, Bombay,1990. Gadd, in
British Museum.
Bannerjee, R. D., was the first person to discover Mohenjodaro near the banks of the Indus in
the Larkana district of Sindh, in 1922. (According to the Blog by Br. Dr.
Sneh Rani Jain). This was later taken up for excavation by Cunningham.

Hunter, G.R., in British Museum, was one who prepared an earlier Concordance
List, “The Script of Mohenjodaro” in 1934.

Kosambi, D. D., “The Culture and Civilization of Ancient India in Historical Outline”. Vikas
Publishing House, New Delhi, 2005.

Mahadevan, Iravatham, Tamil- Brahmi Inscriptions, 1968,

InThe Proceedings of IATR Conference held in Paris. (Ed.) R.E. Asher.

------------------------------, “The Indus Script, Text, Concordance and Tables”, The Director
General of Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi. 1977.

------------------------------, “Early Tamil Epigraphy: From the earliest of Times to the 6th
Century A.D.,” Crea-A: Chennai and The Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies,
Harvard University, 2003.
“We may hopefully find that the Proto-Dravidian roots of the Harappan language and the South
Indian Dravidian languages are similar. This is a Hypothesis. But I have no illusions that I will
decipher the Indus script nor do I have any regrets.”

Asko Parpola: “Deciphering the Indus Script”, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,1994.

Times of London, “The Illustrated London News” 1924 (1) Published by the Times (Inc.)

Max Muller, Sir “Studies of India’s Past” (Oxford).

Marshall, John (Sir) et al. “Mohenjo Daro and Indian Civilization” in 3 Vols. London 1931.

Rajaraman, P. “Historical Speeches and Writings”, 81st Birthday Commemoration Volume

2018. Poompozhil Publishers, Chennai 2018. Pp. 15-16.

Smith and Gadd, British Museum, in MIC, Vol. III, Pls. CXIX -CXXIX. (Quoted by
Mahadevan).
 22
Sharma, R.S., “India’s Ancient Past” O.U.P., New Delhi. 2005.
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Archaeological Society of India, Report 1923-1924., Pl. xix, No.18 (M.D) Lal, B.B., The
Rigvedic People, The Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2015.
Yuri Konorov (ed.) Multi--Volume Corpus of The Indus Valley Inscriptions. Moscow. 1999.

Steve Farmer, Richard Sproat and Michael Witzel: - A team of Harvard Researchers
who stated that “Indus Script Symbols were not coupled to Oral Language.”

---------------------------------------- “Indus – Script is non – linguistic.”, 2004.

Asko Parpola in 2005 stated that “The above arguments of Steve Farmer et al., ‘Can easily be
controverted’. According to him, “the presence of a large number of signs in Chinese and
emphasizes that there is ‘little reason for sign repetition in short seal texts written in n early
logo- syllabic script.”

In May 2009, Asko Parpola considered it a Proto – Script -- (during the Kyoto Conference.)

In the Kyoto Conference held in Japan and later in Singapore:

“The New Kyoto paper promises its final version in detail and present a General F A Q on
developments in the field over past 5 years. This paper will be jointly published in full in early
2010, by Harvard Oriental Series (Opera Minora) and the Research Institute for Humanity and
nature (Kyoto). [ I am not sure whether this has been completed.]

Rajesh P. N. Rao (University of Washington) led a team consisting of Iravatham Mahadevan

and others from the T I F R and published it in Science, April 2009, the following Conclusion:
“… given the prior evidence for syntactic structure in the Indus Script, (their) results increase
the probability that the script represents language.”

Fairservis, studied the use of numerals and sign markings up to 7. ‘ ‘ ‘ ( 1983)

He does not approve of the reading of the Fish symbol as “miin” or a Black Star, a Saturn
Planet. Tradition in India has it that Saturn is associated with ‘Black’.

Sneh Rani Jain, “The Guidebook to Decipher the Indus Script” (2006) Published by the Author
in Sagar, 2006. Takes a Jainism perspective in interpreting all the Seals, Sub- seals and signs.
She relates each Seal to a symbol existing actually on the premises of Jain’s Caves and their
temples of Worship.

Romila Thapar, Michael Witzel, Jaya Menon, Kai Friese, Razib Khan. “Which of Us Are
Aryans?” (Rethinking the concept of our origins). Aleph Book Company, New Delhi. 2019.
 20
Habib, Irfan. “Pre-History -1” and “The Indus-Civilization – 2” Aligharh
Historians Society, Tulika Books, New Delhi, 2002.
Habib, Irfan.“Technology in Medieval India” c. 650 – 1750. Aligarh Historians Society,
Tulika Books, 2008.

Kumkum Roy and Naina Dayal (Editors) “Questioning Paradigms, Constructing Histories”,
A Festschrift For Romila Thapar, Aleph in association with The Book Review Library Trust,
New Delhi, 2019.

Kosambi, D.D., “ Combined Methods in Indology and Other Writings” Compiled, edited and
introduced by Brajudulal Chattopadhyaya. Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002.

Radhika Mongia., “ Indian Migration and Empire” ( A Colonial Genealogy of the Modern
State), Permanent Black, Duke University Press. First Indian Printing, 2019.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, B and John Correia -Afonso, S.J., (eds.) “Indological Studies”. Rev. Fr. Hera’s
Institute of Indian History & Culture, Bombay, 1990.

Basham, A.L., “The Wonder that was India” (A Survey of the Culture of the Indian Sub-
Continent before the coming of the Muslims) Grove Press Inc., By arrangement with The
Macmillan Company, New York. 1954.

Cunningham, A., (Sir) in S. Majumdar (ed.) The Ancient Geography of India, Calcutta, 1924.

Lal, B.B., Of the Archaeological Society of India, in Ancient India.

Lal, B.B., and S.P. Gupta, (eds.) “Frontiers of Indus Civilization: Mortimer Wheeler
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Majumdar, R.C., and others. “Ancient India”. Benares, 1952.

Mahadevan, Iravatham. “Tamil Brahmi Inscriptions”, in R.E.Asher (ed.)The Proceedings of the

III IATR Conference held in Paris, 1968.

=================, “The Indus Script: Text, Concordance, Tables”. The Director

General of Archaeology, Government of India, New Delhi, 1977.

-----------------------------, “Inscriptions at Mannarkovil” December 2000. Mackay, E. and others.

“Further excavations at Mohenjadaro”, Delhi, 1938. Mackay, E. “Early Indus Civilization”, 2nd
edition., London, 1948 Martimer Wheeler, “Harappa”, Ancient India, 1947.
Martimer Wheeler, “The Indus Civilization”. Cambridge, 1953. Max Muller, (Sir), “Studies of
India’s Past”, Oxford, ….
Parpola, Asko. “Deciphering the Indus Script”, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994.

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2018, Poompozhil Publishers, Chennai. 2018

Rajesh P. N. Rao., et al., in Science, April 2009.

Sharma, R.S., “India’s Ancient Past”, Oxford University of India, New Delhi, 2005.
 18

Siromoney, Gift, S. Govindaraju, M. Chandrasekarn. “Tirukkural in Ancient Scripts”,

Department of Statistics, Madras Christian College, Madras.1980.

Srinivasa Iyengar, P. T., “History of the Tamils to 600 A. D”., Asia Publishing House, Bombay.
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Thapar, Romila, “Cultural Past: Essays in Early Indian History”, Oxford University Press, New
Delhi. 2000.
--------------------, Early India from the origin to A.D. 1300. New Delhi. Penguin, 2001. Romila
Thapar, Michael Witzel, Jaya Menon, Kai Friese, Razib Khan. Which of Us
Are Aryans? Rethinking The Concept of Our origins. Aleph Book Company. New Delhi. 2019.

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to oral language” in The Kyoto Conference, Tokyo and Singapore. Source: From Wikipedia.

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VIDEOS ON EXCAVATIONS IN INDIA

Rise and Fall of the Indus Valley Civilization (VC3 Productions).

In Search Of Meluhua: The Story of Mohenjodaro (Blackcrow productions):2016.
Keezhadi: Archeaology : DINAMALAR
Madurai Researchers : Archeaology: Kiizhadi
Similarities Between Indus Valley Civilization and Kiizhadi in Tamil Nadu
Script Time Travel: Cuneiform Story
The Indus Civilization: The Master of The River: The mysterious India.Net
Raghigarhi : Biggest Indus Valley Civilization site : Historically Urs
The Aryan Invasion Theory – Parts I & II : India Inspires
 19

1. Timeline of 17,000+ Years of Unbroken Civilization : Nilesh Nilkanth Oak

2. “Rowthiram Pazhagu”: Kiizhadi Agazhvaayvu in Tamil: Puthiyathalaimurai.Com

E – SOURCES
1. Https://www. Wikipedia.org/ Wiki/-Indus_Script.
2. Https://www.sites.Google.com/site/induscivilizationthethird/home
3. Https://www.jeyakumar.IndusCivilization/ ( updated 23Apr2018).

NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES.

1. The Times, London: “The Illustrated London News” 1924 - (I).

2. The Hindu, New Delhi Edition, Dated Monday, February 11, 2019,
OPED.P.9. Cols. 1-4. Websource: thehindu.com

ANNEXURE - 1

Source: Google.Com and Gift ANNEXURE II.

MAANGULAM INSCRIPTION OF 3RD CENTURY B.C., BY
IRAVATHAM MAHADEVAN.
 20

(source: www. Google. Com)

Siromoney et al., Madras Christian College.
 21

ANNEXURE III

Source: “Science” 324.1165 “Signs of Meaning” April, 2009.

© Dr.Vridhachalem Subramaniam.
e-mail: drvsubramaniam@gmail.com.
Contact / WhatsApp: +91 9444042771.
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