The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and its Connection with Other Scripts c10.s23.5

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 ⊛ 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, ' ⊛ 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 𐀂 and that this value was invariable after syllables whose vowel was a, such as 𐀀, 𐀁 but was variable after a syllable containing a liquid vowel, as, I suggest, was the case with 𐀃. The suffix would still normally be 𐀂 which I will take to have the value ī, but might be 𐀄 (which we will assume to be the vowel i) or 𐀅 (which we will assume to be the vowel ṷ pronounced with a labial glide - uj or wi). Let 𐀆 = AN. Let 𐀇 = BIL. Then 'To AN' is always AN-Ī. 'To BIL' is normally BIL-Ī, but optionally BIL-𐀄 and BIL-𐀅. The use of 𐀅 as a dative suffix does not appear to be confined to 𐀇 : see analysis of Table XL. The reason for taking 𐀂, 𐀄, 𐀅 to be simple vowel sounds is based on an analysis of Table XXIX, which show 𐀄 to be the vowel i or u, and probably the former, taken in conjunction with the evidence already noted of 𐀄 and 𐀂 representing vowel modifications when inserted in 𐀈 and elsewhere. If 𐀄 is a vowel there is strong reason to believe that 𐀂 is also a vowel. And if 𐀄 and 𐀂 which can both stand as the dative suffix, are vowels, there is reason to suppose that 𐀅 which is also a form of the dative suffix, is also a vowel.