The Indus Civilization (Cambridge History of India, Supplementary Volume) c18.1

c18.1

The seals and tablets have introduced examples of the pictographic script which still constitutes one of the major mysteries of the Indus civilization. We cannot yet read it;³ at present we can only predicate certain rather arid principles about it. The first of these is that, as represented by the seals, tablets, pottery-stamps and graffiti, it is uniform throughout the considerable period which its usage is known to have covered. Secondly, prior to this phase must be postulated a lengthy process of evolution during which the signs were standardized and weeded out:⁴ 396 signs have been listed, whilst the Early Dynastic Sumerian script employs more than twice that number, and it is fair to suppose that the disparity (which may well be even greater than is represented by these figures) indicates a considerable measure of maturity in the Indus script. On the other hand, the script “remains in what may be called, on Egyptian analogy, the hieroglyphic state; it has not degenerated nor been worn down by use to conventional summaries like the Egyptian hieratic, the Babylonian cuneiform, or the Chinese writing”.¹ Even graffiti roughly scratched on potsherds preserve the monumental pictographic form. Thirdly, the inscriptions begin from the right, but where there is a second line this begins from the left, i.e. the sequence is boustrophedon. Fourthly, the number of signs sufficiently indicates that the script cannot be an *alphabet*; it is probably syllabic, with the admixture of some pictorial representations or ideograms and perhaps determinatives, on the lines of cuneiform. Fifthly, accents are added to a large number of letters, a remarkable feature which in itself emphasizes phonetic maturity. Sixthly, the script bears no ascertainable relationship with any contemporary or near-contemporary script. It has been claimed as the parent of the Brahmi script of early historic India;² but until some bridge is found in literary no less than in oral tradition across the dark millennium which at present separates the Indus period from Indian proto-history, such speculations are not free from difficulty.