The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and its Connection with Other Scripts c8.28

c8.28

In the remainder of these inscriptions the writing is in the same direction on each face and that right to left for the most part. Those in which the writing is from left to right (principally Harappa) are so indicated in the Tables by placing an asterisk against the inscription. For the most part the inscriptions on the different faces seem to be independent of one another. This is clearly the case in no. M. 132, noted above, where the inscription on one side is an abbreviation of that on the other. An extreme form of this is M. 439, where the sign on the reverse seems to stand much as an initial does to a name. Again in some cases the inscription on either side is identical, viz. M. 16, 18, H. 145. A large proportion of the inscribed objects at Harappa have VIII or VIIII on the reverse. It is clear that in these cases the reverse has no syntactical relation with the obverse. Returning now to the inscriptions with two or more lines on a single face: only in two instances M. 303 and 391 have we reason to suppose from the sequences that the signs in the second line form part of the word or phrase in the preceding line; while in some cases, notably M. 139, 193, 230, 453, it is almost certain that the sense of the first line is complete in itself, and that what follows is an additional name or title.