Indus script (Sarasvati)

Indus script

The survival of Sarasvati hieroglyphs is demonstrated in many symbols on early punch-marked coins. That the hieroglyphs are related to the work in mints indicate that the function and meanings of the hieroglyphs are linked with early metallurgy and invention of alloys.

In his 1890 monograph, Theobald lists 312 symbols. He revises the list to 342 symbols in his 1901 monograph. It should be noted that many of the symbols recorded on punch-marked coins also survive on later coinages, in particular of Ujjain and Eran and on many cast coins of janapadas. DR Bhandarkar’s view is that the early punch-marked coinage in Hindustan is datable to 10^th century BCE though the numismatists claim that the earliest coinage is that of Lydia of 7^th century BCE.

“The coins to which these notes refer, though presenting neither king’s names, dates of inscription of any sort, are nevertheless very interesting not only from their being the earliest money coined in India, and of a purely indigenous character, but from their being stamped with a number of symbols, some of which we can, with the utmost confidence, declare to have originated in distant lands and in the remotest antiquity…The coins to which I shall confine my remarks are those to which the term ‘punch-marked’ properly applies. The ‘punch’ used to produce these coins differed from the ordinary dies which subsequently came into use, in that they covered only a portion of the surface of the coin or ‘blank’, and impressed only one, of the many symbols usually seen on their pieces…One thing which is specially striking about most of the symb ols representing animals is, the fidelity and spirit with which certain portions of it may be of an animal, or certain attitudes are represented…Man, Woman, the Elephant, Bull, Dog, Rhinoceros, Goat, Hare, Peacock, Turtle, Snake, Fish, Frog, are all recognizable at a glance…First, there is the historical record of Quintus Curtius, who describes the Raja of Taxila (the modern Shahdheri, 20miles north-west from Rawal Pindi) as offering Alexander 80 talents of coined silver (‘signati argenti’). Now what other, except these punch-marked coins could these pieces of coined silver have been? Again, the name by which these coins are spoken of in the Buddhist sutras, about 200 BCE was ‘purana’, which simply signies ‘old’, whence the General argunes that the word ‘old as applied to the indigenous ‘karsha’, was used to distinguish it from the new and more recent issues of the Greeks. Then again a mere comparison of the two classes of coins almost itself suffices to refute the idea of the Indian coins being derived from the Greek. The Greek coins present us with a portrait of the king, with his name and titles in two languages together with a great number and variety of monograms indicating, in many instances where they have been deciphered by the ingenuity and perseverance of General Cunningham and others, the names of the mint cities where the coins were struck, and it is our ignorance of the geographical names of the period that probably has prevented the whole of them receiving their proper attribution; but with the indigenous coins it is far otherwise, as they display neither king’s head, neame, titles or mongrams of any description…It is true that General Cunningham considers that many of these symbols, though not monograms in a strict sense, are nevertheless marks which indicate the mints where the coins were struck or the tribes among whom they were current, and this contention in no wise invalidates the supposition contended for by me either that the majority of them possess an esoteric meaning or have originated in other lands at a period anterior to their adoption for the purpose they fulfil on the coins in Hindustan.” (W. Theobald, 1890, Notes on some of the symbols found on the punch-marked coins of Hindustan, and on their relationship to the archaic symbolism of other races and distant lands, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bombay Branch (JASB), Part 1. History , Literature etc., Nos. III & IV, 1890, pp. 181 to 184)

W. Theobald, Symbols on punch-marked coins of Hindustan (1890, 1901)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12919753/theobaldpunchmarkedsymbolshindustan

W. Theobald, 1890, Notes on some of the symbols found on the punch-marked coins of Hindustan, and on their relationship to the archaic symbolism of other races and distant lands, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bombay Branch (JASB), Part 1. History , Literature etc., Nos. III & IV, 1890, pp. 181 to 268, Plates VIII to XI

W. Theobald, 1901, A revision of the symbols on the ‘Karshapana’ Coinage, described in Vol. LIX, JASB, 1890, Part I, No. 3, and Descriptions of many additional symbols, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Bombay Branch (JASB), No. 2, 1901 (Read December, 1899).

Plates VIII to XI of Theobald, 1890 listing symbols on punch-marked coins...

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12921150/Survival-of-Hieroglyphs-on-Punch-Marked-Coins

Aryan-Indian invasion debunked

Kumar Chellappan (Deccan Chronicle, 27 Feb. 2009)

Indians were pioneer metallurgists and the Indo-Aryan-Dravidian-Munda division among languages is false, claims a Chennai-based Indologist, insisting that Indian culture did not owe it to the Aryan invasion.

“People speaking old versions of the languages in the country were living together and had evolved words to describe advanced metallurgy,” Dr S. Kalyanaraman, chairman, Saraswathi Research Foundation, told Deccan Chronicle.

The deciphering of the 4,000-year-old writing system prevalent during the Indus civilisation proved the close link between metallurgy and the writing system, he said.

“The sub-continent had its own indigenous writing and culture. Postulations that our culture is indebted to the Aryan invasion are wrong,” he said. Dr Kalyanaraman says he has deciphered the Indus writing system through research spanning three decades.

“These scripts were found on nearly 4,000 seals and objects with the first seal excavated by archaeologist Alexander Cunningham in 1875,” he said.

The anxiety to prove the existence of the great Saraswathi Civilisation made him to take voluntary retirement from the Asian Development Bank.

“I could track the course of Saraswathi river from Manasarovar through Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and beyond. A progressive civilisation existed along the Saraswathi’s banks and it was what historians termed as the Mohenjodaro-Harappan civilisation. The course of the Saraswathi was substantiated by satellite images from ISRO,” he said.

The inscriptions from the region had pictures and pictorial writings.

“A close study indicated that the ancestors of the present-day speakers of all Indian languages were living together in a linguistic area, where speakers of different dialects borrowed language features from one another and made them part of their own dialect,” he said.

According to Dr Kalyanaraman, this decoding had proved that more than 30 per cent of agricultural words and most of metallurgical words in Indian languages did not have any links with Indo-European languages.

http://www.dc-epaper.com/DC/DCC/2009/02/27/Photographs/004/27_02_2009_004_009_011.jpg

Decoding Indus Script

-- Mleccha, mlecchita vikalpa in Sarasvati hieroglyphs

Monograph http://www.scribd.com/doc/12752530/mlecchamlecchitavikalpa

Ppt slides http://www.scribd.com/doc/12823723/Hieroglyphs

Lecture at Rojah Muthiah Library at 5 PM on 26 February 2009 by S. Kalyanaraman

Invitation http://www.divshare.com/download/6610967-d98

Abstract

Script is decoded as sarasvati hieroglyphs composed of all pictorial motifs -- over 100 -- and signs -- over 400 – and read rebus in mleccha vācas (as distinct from arya vācas -- Manu). The context is: miners' and smiths' repertoire (not unlike the viśwakarma working on utsava bera in Swamimalai following the cire perdue technique of Sarasvati civilization bronzes or asur/agaria working in iron ore smelters in Ganga basin of 18^th century BCE).

Sarasvati hieroglyphs are in mleccha, mlecchita vikalpa (Vatsyayana). Hypothesis posited: Language X + Proto-Munda = Proto-mleccha (with borrowings in Sarasvati Linguistic Area).

Rebus readings of almost all glyphs (pictorial motifs as well as signs) relate to mine workers’ and metalsmiths’ repertoire. The writing system is a vikalpa (alternative representation) of their vernacular, mleccha, cognate: meluhha. Presented in 15 e-books at http://sites.google.com/site/kalyan97

In view of the essentially pictographic nature of the writing system, the presentation is made in three parts:

a. monograph on vernacular (deśī), the linguistic area and the continuity of proto-mleccha vernacular; structure and semantics of hieroglyphs of mlecchita vikalpa, the decoded writing system;

b. powerpoint slides with selected glyphs and readings; and

c. Epigraphica Sarasvati of about 4000 inscribed epigraphs on photo albums. http://sites.google.com/site/kalyan97/epigraphica-sarasvati

Two fundamental questions should be researched further: 1. the continuity of the civilization evidenced by cultural markers all over India and the neighbouring regions; 2. the formation and evolution of languages in a linguistic area of the Sarasvati civilization continuum in India, proved by the decoding of the Indus script (Sarasvati hieroglyphs) See http://sites.google.com/site/kalyan97

Additional resources:

(i). Resources for decoding Sarasvati hieroglyphs and identifying mleccha glosses

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12708912/Resources-for-Decoding

(ii) Hieroglyphs of historical periods

Sarasvati hieroglyph tradition continues in the Jaina and Bauddham art heritage. http://www.scribd.com/doc/12708929/Hieroglyphs-of-Historical-Periods

(iii)Gundestrup cauldron and Sarasvati hieroglyphs http://www.scribd.com/doc/12708962/gundestrupcauldronsarasvatihieroglyphs

(iv) E-books --Vedic River Sarasvati and Hindu civilization by S. Kalyanaraman Downloads at: http://sites.google.com/site/kalyan97/sarasvati-hindu-civilization

Sarasvati -- Vedic river and Hindu civilization (12 Sept. 2008) 89 pages

Sarasvati hieroglyph dictionary (Update 31 March 2008) 348 pages
Reading new Bhirrana seals with Sarasvati hieroglyphs (Addenda 2 March 2008)

Sarasvati: Vedic river and Bharatiya civilization (March 2008) -- 332 pages
River Sarasvati -- Legend, myth and reality (1999)
Sarasvati (2000) -- 1281 pages

Sarasvati in 7 volumes (2003)

   Civilization Volume 1
      Rigveda Volume 2
   River Volume 3
   Bharati Volume 4
   Technology Volume 5
   Language Volume 6 [lingua franca of Sarasvati civilization. mlecha, meluhha. essential semantic unity of all bharatiya languages]

Epigraphs Volume 7
Indus script encodes mleccha speech 5 volumes (2008)