Context:
Tamil Nadu CM announces $1 million prize for deciphering Indus Valley scripts.
Indus Valley Scripts:
- Discovery and Sites:
- Found at around 60 excavation locations.
- Currently, approximately 3500 examples of this script survive in various forms, including stamp seals carved in stone, moulded terracotta, and faience amulets.
- Also discovered in pottery fragments.
- Writing Direction and Style:
- An undeciphered writing system.Inscriptions are notably short, typically containing five or fewer signs.Generally inscribed from right to left.
- Longer texts sometimes employ Boustrophedon style (alternating directions).
- Script Composition:
- Includes partially pictographic symbols.
- Features human and animal motifs.
- Showcases a unique ‘unicorn’ symbol.
- Emphasizes artistic designs reflecting “controlled realism”.
- Materials and Methods:
- Writing found on seals, tablets, and copper tablets.
- Utilized materials such as terracotta, ceramics, shell, bone, ivory, stone, metals, and perishable items like fabric and wood.
- Techniques included carving, incising, chiseling, inlaying, painting, molding, and embossing.
- Numerical System:
- Based on the decimal system.
- Single strokes represent units.
- Semicircles denote tens.
- Seals and Animal Motifs:
- Seals typically showcase the script at the top and an animal motif in the center.
- Likely used for identification and administration.
- Trade Networks:
- Clay tags with the Indus script have been found in Mesopotamia.
- Indicative of the extensive trade networks of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Challenges in Decipherment:
- Concise Inscriptions:
- The texts of the Indus Valley script are typically short, averaging around five characters, with the longest known text containing only 26 characters.
- Lack of Bilingual Inscriptions:
- Unlike the Rosetta Stone that facilitated the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, no bilingual inscriptions have been found to help decode the Indus script.
Significance of Deciphering
- Historical Significance:
- Deciphering this script could unveil the relationship between the Indus Valley Civilization and subsequent Vedic practices, as well as their interactions with other contemporary civilizations.
- Linguistic and Ethnic Connections:
- Successfully decoding the script could establish connections between the languages spoken in the Indus Valley and current languages from the Dravidian and Indo-European language families.
Read more about Indus Valley Civilization
Source: TH
Previous Year Question
Regarding the Indus Valley Civilization, consider the following statements:
1. It was predominantly a secular civilization and the religious element, though present, did not dominate the scene.
2. During this period, cotton was used for manufacturing textiles in India.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
[UPSC CSE – 2011 Prelims]
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer: (c)