The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and its Connection with Other Scripts c10.s56.2

c10.s56.2

The sequence [symbol] R suggests that the first two signs in Col. IV may be variants. Since the first four signs are all initial and all represent birds (or a bird) they may all be variants. Regarding the next three no evidence is forthcoming from the sequences, except that the fifth and sixth are quasi-initial: and the seventh initial, though doubled. This would suggest that if indeed they are all variants they are to be read as ideograms. For since the dual is almost certain to be phonetically distinct from the singular its initial position as a phonogram would be coincidental, whereas if we read the sign ideographically it would be rational. An ideographic reading would also help to explain why, in a script so highly conventionalised, this sign has retained its pictographic aspect.