The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and its Connection with Other Scripts c8.7

c8.7

M. 450. The sequence "𐀅" on the right of the first line is one of the commonest in the script. It occurs in this position in single line inscriptions thirty times, or if we treat 𐀆 as a variant of 𐀅 sixty-eight times (see Table XXIV). It is clear then that the second line is to be read to the left, not to the right, of the first line, therefore the reading of all single line inscriptions with "𐀅" or "𐀆" on the extreme right are to be read from right to left. Taking these inscriptions together with those ending in 𐀄, we have no less than 247 inscriptions which demonstrably read from right to left. This may be accepted as conclusive evidence of the normal direction of the writing at Mohenjodaro and Harappa, at least as regards single-line inscriptions and the first line of multiple-line inscriptions. It remains to consider the direction of the writing of the second line in the remainder of the inscriptions with more than one line, i.e. to determine how many of them are, like Hittite, boustrophedon. In regard to no. M. 450 there is virtually no evidence. 🜁 is never found followed by 🜂 and only once by 🜃 (M. 40) and that in a context where the latter sign clearly associates with the sign preceding it and not with the 🜂 . Still in this, as in all cases where no evidence is obtainable from sign sequences in other texts, I have for purposes of transcription assumed a right to left reading, as this is the reading on the majority of second lines where the direction can be determined.