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A myth-based understanding of the Indus script

There are no known Harappan myths. Parpola believes the ancient Indian and Mesopotamian religions can be used to unravel the Indus Age faith [1]. The four common allographs of the fish sign can be explained on a mythological basis. The Indian flood myths may have trickled down from Harappan traditions and originally from Mesopotamia [2]. The fish-God had the rescue-boat moored to a horn on its back [3]. The horn is shown as a very short vertical line on the body of the fish sign. All the versions of the fish sign had either two or four fins to signify the limbs. In Vedic-Brahmanism, images of a deity may have multiple limbs to suggest their various attributes [4]. Matsya, the flood-rescuing fish-God, was the very first manifestation of Vishnu [5]. The fish sign was used to indicate Vishnu-related myths. Wearing a head-dress was apparently common in the Indus Age women [6]. A fish sign with an overhead cap suggested a divine consort. This allograph was often paired with each one of the other fish signs. Her pedestal was a lotus [7]. It was indicated was a Y with a short central vertical line or in a stylised version, a symbol suggestive of a tree. A U with five short lines at both ends represented her feet. In the churning of milk-ocean myth, the Gods and the demons used a snake, roped around a stick, held up by tortoise [8]. In a common ideograph, a U shaped container signified the ocean; a central suspended vertical line the stick, and the round lower end of the stick the tortoise. Finally in this myth, Vishnu wore the snake as a girdle. A long line across the body on the fish sign indicated this snake. Vishnu reclines on a serpent with its 7 heads forming a canopy [9]. The heads are symbolised on the “harrow sign” by the “prongs”, arising from a vertical line, which implied the serpent’s body. The same image, seen sideways, is described by Mahadevan as the “comb sign” [10]. This symbol was most frequently inscribed at the end of a line [11], where little space might be left to indicate the serpent’s body. Seven short separate strokes along the fish sign, as the only symbols on a seal, convey the same notion of Vishnu and the serpent’s 7 heads. Vishnu rides a half-bird half-man figure [12], suggested by bracketing a fish sign with a bird sign. The most common bull-like animal inscribed on the seals were probably a mythical beast [13]. According to the Rig Veda, it was astride a bull, that Vishnu “measured out the earth’s broad expanses” in 3 steps [14]. The “jar sign”, signifying His feet, had either one, two or three short strokes in the centre, to indicate 3 foot-steps. It is likely that a pre-Vishnu deity was the most worshipped God and Matsya the flood-rescue fish-God, His most relevant incarnation. “Vishnu” is a part-Aryan and part-Tamil word for a “sky-God” [15]. At the time, these myths were sacred facts. Clusters of religious symbols would not yield a language but may reveal it construction. It is unlikely that there would be a “Rosetta stone”. This approach is coherent. It also clarifies the subject in the present confused debate on the language issue.

NOTES:

[1] Parpola, Asko (2009) Deciphering The Indus Script (p. 237) Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 79566 4 [2] Thapper, Romila (2002) Early India (p. 100) Allen Lane ISBN 0 713 99407 X [3] Ions, Veronica (1983) Indian Mythology (p. 48) Chancellor Press ISBN 1 85152 970 5 [4] Thapper, Romila (2002) Early India (p. 276) Allen Lane ISBN 0 713 99407 X [5] Ions, Veronica (1983) Indian Mythology (p. 48) Chancellor Press ISBN 1 85152 970 5 [6] Majmudar R.C (1951) The Vedic Age (p. 175) Allen & Unwin London [7] Ions, Veronica (1983) Indian Mythology (p. 87) Chancellor Press ISBN 1 85152 970 5 [8] Ions, Veronica (1983) Indian Mythology (p. 113-114) Chancellor Press ISBN 1 85152 970 5 [9] Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology (1959) (no editor) (p. 378) Paul Hamyln London [10] Possehl, Gregory (1996) The Indus Age Writing System (p. 120) ISBN 0 8122 3345 X [11] Mahadevan, I. (1977) The Indus Script (p 719) Archaeological Survey of India [12] Ions, Veronica (1983) Indian Mythology (p. 102) Chancellor Press ISBN 1 85152 970 5 [13] Ratnagar, Shrereen (2006) Understanding Harappa (p. 110) Tulisa Books ISBN 81 89487 02 7 [14] Dominic, Goodall (1996) (editor) Hindu Scriptures (p. 4) J. M. Dent ISBN 1 85799 772 7 [15] Majmudar R.C (1951) The Vedic Age (p. 162) Allen & Unwin London