The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and its Connection with Other Scripts c10.s23: Analysis of Table XXIV
The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and its Connection with Other Scripts c10.s23
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Analysis of Table XXIV
c10.s23.1
Both the shape and position of π and π in the texts and the fact that each is normally followed by π leads us to infer that they are graphic variants of one and the same sign. The forms of this sign appearing in Nos. 47, 48 are probably defective. It is not likely that they are other than variants. Cf. 46 with all the texts containing ππ and also with No. 1; 47 with 61; in the case of 49 the three interior strokes were lightly incised on the original and may have been accidental scratches.
c10.s23.2
No. 50 would appear to be a modification of π by prolonging the element π to provide a base for adding short strokes at right angles. Compare the modification of the base form in Table XV.
c10.s23.3
The sign π is probably pictographically independentΒΉ. It is perhaps an ideogram for 'heaven'; the circle representing the sky and the interior lines a star. Or it may be a wheel. Functionally it resembles π, π. It is not likely however that it is phonetically allied. At least no such conclusion could be based on any assumption of euphonic variation, since like 0, β it is initial, and like them followed by " It is probably then quite unconnected, like β and β which also seem functionally to correspond. We must now endeavour to ascertain this function since so many of our texts begin with " 0, " β, " β . Now it will appear from an analysis of the sequences Nos. 8-43, 46, 51-91, 102, 104-127, that " marks a halt in the sense. What follows is quite independent of what precedes, and constitutes a complete word or words in every case; words which are sometimes found as complete texts in themselves; while no less than fifty are found as initial in other texts. If we turn to the analysis of Table XXX we shall find that there also what follows " is invariably a name complete in itself.
c10.s23.4
ΒΉ It is certainly not identical with π, π since it occurs on the same Text, M. 139, whereas π, π are never found on the same Text.
c10.s23.5
" 0 etc. is therefore not a prefixed element in certain proper names but an element unconnected with proper names yet regularly placed before proper names on seals. What sort of an element is this? If we may be guided by the Babylonian analogy we may assume that this element was a dedicatory formula. "To the god X." Compare also the Herat seal, geographically so near to the site of the Proto-Indian civilisation. (Antiquity 1927. p. 206). 0 and β may then provisionally be assumed to be names of deities and " the dative suffix. When we have several signs before " we may have as well as divine names some phrase like 'for his life'. Now it will be observed that " 0, ' 0, ' β appear in the same position in the texts; that the first occurs 24 times, the second 10 times, the third 7 times. Furthermore a comparison of Nos. 104 and 128; 107 and 129; 105 and 136; 106 and 138; etc. shows that the selection of any one of the three was not made on grounds of euphonic harmony with the subject to phonetic variation. That its normal value was π and that this value was invariable after syllables whose vowel was a, such as π, π but was variable after a syllable containing a liquid vowel, as, I suggest, was the case with π. The suffix would still normally be π which I will take to have the value Δ«, but might be π (which we will assume to be the vowel i) or π (which we will assume to be the vowel αΉ· pronounced with a labial glide - uj or wi). Let π = AN. Let π = BIL. Then 'To AN' is always AN-Δͺ. 'To BIL' is normally BIL-Δͺ, but optionally BIL-π and BIL-π . The use of π as a dative suffix does not appear to be confined to π : see analysis of Table XL. The reason for taking π, π, π to be simple vowel sounds is based on an analysis of Table XXIX, which show π to be the vowel i or u, and probably the former, taken in conjunction with the evidence already noted of π and π representing vowel modifications when inserted in π and elsewhere. If π is a vowel there is strong reason to believe that π is also a vowel. And if π and π which can both stand as the dative suffix, are vowels, there is reason to suppose that π which is also a form of the dative suffix, is also a vowel.
c10.s23.6
We have now to consider Nos. 5-7, 93-97, 146-148. In these cases π, π, π are initial and there is no ground for assuming that their function is other than when followed by π. What then has become of the dative suffix? I take it that in these cases the sign following π, π, π began with a vowel, and that in consequence the dative suffix was absorbed or elided; in other words that π, π, π, π are closed syllables. In the case of π this can be demonstrated (See analysis of Table XXIX).
c10.s23.7
The last two signs of Col. IV are clearly compounds of π and π and variants of one another. The form π as simplification of π is not perhaps surprising, but it is interesting as giving us an exact approximation to the Phoenician.