archive: Language of Indus seals is Vedic Sanskrit: new book
Language of Indus seals is Vedic Sanskrit: new book
Sridhar Krishnaprasad
The Times of India
April 26, 1999
Title: Language of Indus seals is Vedic Sanskrit: new book
Author: Sridhar Krishnaprasad
Publication: The Times of India
Date: April 26, 1999
A new book by two scholars N.S. Rajaram from Bangalore and Natwar Jha
from Farraka, West Bengal, based on readings of over 2,000 seats of
the Indus Valley civilisation sourced from the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro
and Harappa, will present the conclusion that the language of the
Indus seals is Vedic Sanskrit, of the Sutra period of Vedic
literature.
The remnants of the Indus Valley civilisation still generate
controversy ever since they were first discovered in 1921, when the
Aryan invasion theory had already been formulated by European
scholars. Subsequently, they had decided that the Indus Valley must be
an earlier, "Dravidian" civilisation, destroyed, pushed southwards, by
the Aryan migrants. Over the last few years, the Aryan invasion theory
is being seen as just that by many scholars -a theory without basis in
fact.
Mr Rajaram, a former consultant to NASA, U.& in the field of computer
science and artificial intelligence, told The Sunday Times of India
that the book, scheduled to be out later this year, shows that the
decipherment does not support the popular view that the Harappan
civilisation is different from the Vedic, that the language of the
seals is Proto-Dravidian (a theoretical construct for which not a
single syllable has been found), or even that it is the ancestor of
the Vedic (proto-Indo-Aryan).
"The language of the seals is Vedic Sanskrit, with a significant
number of them containing words and phrases traceable to the ancient
Vedic glossary Nighantu, compiled from still earlier sources by Yaska.
The language is less archaic than that of the Rigveda, and corresponds
closely to that of the later Vedic works like the Sutras and the
Upanishads," he said.
Despite the shortness of most messages, the rules of Vedic grammar and
phonetics are clearly discernible in the structure of the Indus
script, he said. Consonants are used but there is a deficiency of
vowels - making them difficult to read without a knowledge of the
context. Symbols for the "sa" and "ma" sound for example, can be read
as either "soma" or "sama." In style, the messages are similar to the
cryptic aphorisms for which the Sutra literature is famous. "Those
familiar with the Sutras (Panini, Ashwalayana, Baudhayana) will
recognise this immediately."
In addition, the images on the seals are often symbolic representation
of Vedic themes. The written messages often serve as Sutras or short
formulas that when elaborated, serve to explain the symbolism of the
image.
"For example, the famous horned deity known as the Pashupathi seal has
the message Ishya Dyata Mara -forces of destruction controlled by
Iswara. Read along with symbolism, it means that the forces of
creation and destruction of the universe belong to the Supreme," he
said.
Mr Rajaram and Mr Jha, a traditional Vedic scholar, have come together
for this book. Mr Jha first made the announcement that the writings on
the seals were Sanskrit in the World Archaeology Conference in
December 1994. "I first encountered Mr Jha when he published his
'Vedic glossary on Indus seals connecting the writing to the Shulba
Sutras, in October 1996. I am a mathematician and familiar with the
Shulba Sutras. Every other month, there is someone claiming a
decipherment. But I new this had substance," says Mr Rajaram.
A major outcome of the decipherment is a clearly- defined historical
context for the Harappan civilisation, radically different from
conventional history. "It further demolishes the myth of the Aryan
Invasion, a creation of European scholars with their own vested
interests, using an artificial Biblical chronology. It has only served
to divide the Indian people and pit one against another," he said.
It also takes care of a paradox. There is a great body of Vedic
literature, but no archaeological evidence. There is the
archaeological evidence of the Indus valley, but no literature. How
can that be?" asks Mr Rajaram.
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