The Script of Harappa and Mohenjodaro and its Connection with Other Scripts c9.1

c9.1

The discovery of any new script at once suggests a search among existing scripts for possible ancestors or descendants. In pursuing this search one naturally first directs one's attention to those scripts which are (a) contemporary in date and from which there may have been borrowing, and vice versa, (b) those which are found in the same locality at an earlier date, (c) those which are found in the same locality at a later date. In the present instance category (b) is entirely wanting. In category (a) we have Sumerian, Proto-Elamite, Egyptian and Minoan. In category (c) we have Kharoshthi, Brahmi, and Sabaean. With regard to Kharoshthi its descent from Aramaic is proved. Not so, I think, in the case of Brahmi. It is true that Bühler's derivation of the Brahmi syllabary¹ from the Semitic scripts has long held the field. But it was never universally accepted. Cunningham in particular believed it to be derived from a lost pictographic source. A detailed refutation of Bühler's equalisations seems unnecessary in view of the positive evidence set forth in the Comparative Table (Appendix III). It will be seen that I accept certain of Bühler's equalisations with the Phoenician, but these are precisely the cases where it seems that the Phoenician signs themselves are probably derived from Proto-Indian. Now it may be argued that the interval of time between the disappearance of the civilisation of Mohenjodaro and the first appearance of Brahmi (c. 300 B.C.) is too great to make a direct descent probable. But what do we know concerning the lower limits of the Proto-Indian civilisation? The bricks of the Buddhist stupa at Mohenjodaro lie immediately upon Proto-Indian remains. Nothing has so far come to light to suggest that the Proto-Indian civilisation came to an end before the Aryan invasion. And it must be remembered that the script that we possess is all monumental - seals, sealings and coins. It is quite possible that alongside of this there may have been a demotic approximating more closely to the script of the Eran coin and Asoka inscriptions.