Inscriptions are carvings on stone or metal. Unlike writings on perishable materials, these survive the passage of centuries or millennia. The earliest inscriptions in the Indian subcontinent are the Indus script from the Indus Valley civilisation, 3300-1300 BCE (1). In its mature phase, 2600-1900 BCE, there were cities and villages of the civilisation in north-western India from Sokhta Koh (Balochistan, Pakistan) to Daimabad (Maharashtra, India) to Rakhi Garhi (Haryana, India) to Manda (Jammu & Kashmir, India) (2). More or less fully standardized Indus script was in use at all major sites during the mature phase according to Parpola, Asko (2008) (3).
About 4000 inscriptions in the Indus script (also named ‘Harappan script’ after the first discovered Indus site) were found by 1992 (4). The longest single inscription is on a copper plate with mirrored characters. The mirroring was meant for printing the inscriptions on other surfaces (5). See the image of the inscription below:
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Image of a seal found in Khirsara, Gujarat:6
After the late Indus phase (1900-1300 BCE), numerous artifacts, particularly potsherds and tools, bearing markings inscribed into them have been found in Central India, South India, and Sri Lanka dating to the Megalithic Iron Age (Ray, 2006). 1300-300 BCE is named the Iron Age in the timeline of Indian history. In 1960, archaeologist B. B. Lal found that a majority of the megalithic symbols he had surveyed were identifiably shared with the Indus script, concluding that there was a commonness of culture between the Indus Valley Civilisation and the later Megalithic period. (Ray, 2006).
The dominant view of scholars since the archaeological excavations of the Indus Valley began in the early 20th century till the present is that the Indus scripts are indecipherable and have no relation with the Brahmi script (parent of most scripts in India today) that developed in India in the later half of the 1st millennium BCE. They also suggest that Brahmi originated from or was influenced by Aramaic (Persian). Louis L. Merriam in his paper “Brahmi Script: Origins in the Indus Valley (2023) says, “One proposal is that Brahmi emerged from the Aramaic script of the Achaemenid Empire (Salomon, 1998). According to this theory, when the Achaemenids invaded India in 535 BCE (Curtis & Tallis, 2005), they introduced their writing system, which then evolved into Brahmi and was altered to match Prakrit sounds (Salomon, 1998). A competing proposal holds that Brahmi emerged from the Indus script, a Bronze Age writing system used by inhabitants of the Indus River Valley Civilization (Salomon, 1998)” (7).
According to Subhajit Ganguly’s paper ‘Relation Between Harappan And Brahmi Scripts’ (2012), Harappan signs were being used in ancient India until around 400 BCE and there seems to be “a gradual and natural transformation of these signs to Brahmi, later on” (8). Inscriptions in Brahmi script have been discovered in ancient India from the 5th century BCE. It was used for inscriptions in Tamil, Prakrit, Pali, and Sanskrit languages (9). Brahmi in Sanskrit means Vani, Sarasvati, word, language, etc (10). Brahmi is the consort of Brahma, the Hindu god, and is known as Sarasvati, the goddess of knowledge, music, art, speech, wisdom, and learning. Subhajit in his paper referred to above has listed 10 signs in Indus script that have the maximum frequencies of occurrence and shown their equivalent Brahmi script. He says, “Many of the signs in this list are the same or very similar to the corresponding Brahmi signs.”
Dr. Somesh Chandra Shrivastava illustrates how characters of Brahmi script had their origin in the Indus script in his paper “Evolution of Brahmi Script From Indus Script” (11). His method identifies the spoken Sanskrit word for an Indus sign and relates it to the first letter of the word written in Brahmi script. He also shows that the Brahmi character resembles the Indus sign as a whole or by halving it vertically or horizontally. Devanagari script in which Sanskrit was widely used in medieval and modern India and in its much evolved form presently in independent India is given by the author as a reference. Copied below is a selection from the illustrations.
Horizontally halved hieroglyphs
“All Indian and southeast Asian scripts are evolved from Brahmi script which is derived from Indus script which is developed from pictographs of household utensils and agricultural tools”, says Srivastava. He published a book titled "Decipherment Of Indus Script By Retracing Brahmi” in 2018 (12).
Note: River Sarasvati mentioned in the Rig Veda, and other ancient Indian literature, flowed from the Himalayas through Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Gujarat to the Arabian Sea, millennia ago but dried up at least about 1900 BCE. This is corroborated by satellite image-based research (13). The name Indus was derived from the River Sindhu mentioned in the Rig Veda flowed, and still flows, from Tibet through northwestern India to the Arabian Sea mentioned in the Rig Veda. Its present name the River Indus seems to have derived from the Greek word Indos. The region where the river meets the Arabian Sea is known as the Province of Sindh (Pakistan), derived from the Sanskrit word Sindhu. About 70% of the Indus Valley civilization sites found till 1992 are in India where Saraswati flowed and 30% are in Pakistan where Sindhu flowed/flows several researchers find it more appropriate to re-name the civilization as Sarasvati or Sarasvati-Sindhu or Sindhu-Sarasvati civilization.
References:
2. Indus Valley Civilisation, Mature Phase, 2600-1900 BCE, Map
3. Is the Indus script indeed not a writing system?
4. Indus Script
6. Evidence from an Indus archaeological site Khirsara, Gujarat, western India
7. Louis L. Merriam's “Brahmi Script: Origins in the Indus Valley (2023)"
8. Relation Between Harappan And Brahmi Scripts by Subhajit Ganguly
11. Evolution of Brahmi Script From Indus Script by Dr. Somesh Chandra Shrivastava
12. Decipherment Of Indus Script By Retracing Brahmi
13. Saraswati River - The Source of Quenching Thirst of Thar Desert
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