News: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has announced a prize money of $1 million for experts or organisations that are successful in deciphering the scripts of Indus Valley Civilisation.
About Indus Valley Script
- Evolution:
- During the early Harappan phase (3500-2700 BCE), the earliest examples of script signs are found on Ravi and Kot Diji pottery excavated at Harappa.
- During the urban period (2600-1900 BCE), the script was fully developed, and longer inscriptions were recorded.
- Though the script remains undeciphered, experts say that it was not alphabetical as it had too many signs, ranging from 375 to 400.
- The script was written from right to left (Boustrophedon Style). This is evident as some seals show a wider spacing on the right and cramping on the left.
- Evidence of writing has been found on a variety of objects including seals, copper tools, jewelry, terracotta tablets etc.
- The script was pictographic and contained iconographic motifs like realistic pictures of animals.
| Key attempts to decipher the Indus Valley Script 1932- Flinders Petrie attempted to decipher the script based on supposed similarity of pictographic principles between Indus Valley Script and Egyptian hieroglyphs. Early 1970s- Iravatham Mahadevan found that an average inscription contained five symbols and longest inscription contained only 14 symbols in single line, establishing the direction of writing being from right to left. 1982- SR Rao argued for a Sanskrit based decipherment of script. He traced the gradual changes in the Harappan script from a picture cum linear script to a purely linear one. |
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