An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c25.s4.16

v1.c25.s4.16

The latest approach towards the decipherment of Indus inscriptions is by Walter A. Fairservis Jr. (Sankalia, 1978, pp. 28-35; Fairservis, 1976, as cited in Possehl, 1979; original not seen by the writer) who is also working on the assumption that the language of the inscriptions is Proto-Dravidian. Fairservis has given the reading of about 175 signs which, according to Sankalia, appears to be quite consistent. In his work Fairservis has also taken into consideration the graffiti on the pottery of Chalcolithic cultures of c. India, Maharashtra and Karnataka [4.14.5, 6, 8] which may have been derived from the sings on Indus seals and which also shows ‘that the Proto-Dravidian Culture of the Indus Valley had gradually filtered through the heart of India and ultimately became the dominant culture in the South, while the North, the original home of the Proto-Dravidian, became Aryan’ (Sankalia, 1978, p. 33).