The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and its Connection with Other Scripts c10.s5: Analysis of Table V
The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and its Connection with Other Scripts c10.s5
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Analysis of Table V
c10.s5.1
The principle reason for including the signs in Col. IV under one Table is their shape. With regard to the 2nd and 3rd we have also the community of the suffixed 𝒱 . The similarity of shape between these two signs is also most marked. The additional stroke in the second of them recalls the addition of strokes to the base form of the sign in Tables I, II, IV, VI, and suggests that here also we have the modification of a sign to serve as the symbol of an allied sound. The 4th sign in Col. IV is sufficiently like the 2nd and 3rd signs, and sufficiently unlike any other sign in our texts to warrant its inclusion in the Table. We may take it provisionally then as a simple variant of the 2nd sign.¹ The inclusion of the first sign 𝒱 has less to support it as regards shape, and the sign would not have been included at all but for the fact that it is preceded by 𝒰 . This sign belongs to a comparatively rare group (Table LXXI) and the fact that it is twice found preceding 𝒲 suggested the possibility that 𝒱 (which was otherwise unconnectable with any sign) might be a later and simplified or cursive form of 𝒲 .
c10.s5.2
¹ Or as a gunu variant, from intermediary forms 𝒵 𝒵