Indian Hieroglyphs, a book by Dr. S. Kalyanaraman on Indus script

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Herndon, Virginia, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) January 14, 2012 -- Library of Congress Control Number LCCN: 2011963130 798 pages.
The book links the invention of writing to the inventions of bronze-age technologies.

The book reaffirms Tolkappiyan’s dictum and makes a significant contribution to language studies – to general semantics, in particulars: all words are semantic indicators. The book is a hermeneutic interpretation of Indian hieroglyphs in the context of invention and evolution of writing systems c. 3500 BCE, general semantics of Indian linguistic area (sprachbund, language union) and cryptography. Semantics (plain text) and cipher (glyphics) are presented. As an exercise in cryptanalysis, the cyphertext is unraveled with specific, matching evidences of plaintext of Indian linguistic area, in an archaeo-metallurgical context. Identifying the lingua franca of the Indus age and using hermeneutics as the science of discovering new meanings and interpretations interpretive effort leadsto the decoding of most of Indian hieroglyphs as the repertoire of miners and metalsmiths of the civilization in a linguistic area. Indus script is claimed to be one of the earliest writing systems of the world dated to c. 3500 BCE.

The underlying language was Meluhha (Mleccha).

Indus Script was hieroglyphic.

Vivid graphics were used, pictures were embellished with ligatures to convey specific technical meanings related to bronze-age metallurgy.

Messages recorded the repertoire of artisans, lapidaries and smiths who had started working with minerals and metals together with shell, ivory,semi-precious stones to make and to trade in ornaments, tools and weapons.

Meluhhans using Indus script inscriptions traded across the Persian Gulf, and interacted with regions of Bactria-Margiana, Elam and Mesopotamia.

The vast interaction region across Ancient Near East and Indian subcontinent was Harosheth Hagoyim, ‘smithy of nations’.
The book claims that Indian language union (sprachbund or Indian linguistic area) dates back to the period when Indus script was used. About 1000 lexemes of Meluhha (mleccha) have been identified and explained in the context of ciphertext of Indian hieroglyphs. These substratum glosses are the foundation for further studies in the evolution of languages and linguistic features absorbed from one another, in Indian language union (sprachbund).

Using evidence from almost all hieroglyphs in the 6000 + inscriptions, this book makes a contribution to an understanding of the middle phase in evolution of writing systems, a phase which bridged pictographic writing with syllabic writing to represent sounds of a language called meluhha (mleccha) in Indian language union – lingua franca of Harosheth hagoyim, smithy of nations.

The continuum of hieroglyph tradition in Indian linguistic area is evaluated in the context of continued use of Indian hieroglyphs on thousands of punch-marked coins together with syllabic scripts of kharosti and brahmi .
The book establishes that ancient India was a language union with speakers of Munda, Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages learning technical words related to bronze-age metallurgy from one another. They used these words in the writing system.

The book draws heavily from a multi-lingual dictionary of over 25 ancient languages called Indian Lexicon for unraveling the cipher of the Indus script, as an exercise in solving a cryptography problem.

The writing system was called mlecchita vikalpa (Cryptography of Meluhhas/Mlecchas) and is mentioned in an 8th century BCE work by Vatsyayana. The Indian hieroglyphs find their echoes in the goat-fish hieroglyphs on a ritual basin of Uruk (Sumer) and the Egyptian hieroglyph for Bat showing a mudhif reed symbol which also occurs on Uruk basin. The 'reed' read rebus denotes Glyph: eruva ‘reed’. Rebus: eruva ‘copper’. Also discussed are some Egyptian hieroglyph parallels from the statue of Hathor-Menkaure-Bat triad of the fourth dynasty and the continued tradition of building reed huts by Todas comparable to the mudhifs of ancient Sumer.

This book is a sequel to the author's Indus Script Cipher (2010). http://tinyurl.com/7dflhyq

About the author

Dr. S. Kalyanaraman is Director, Sarasvati Research Center, President, Ramasetu Protection Movement in India and BoD member of World Association for Vedic Studies. His research interests relate to rediscovery of Vedic Sarasvati River, roots of Hindu civilization, decoding of Indus Script, National Water Grid and creation of Indian Ocean Community. He has a Ph.D. in Public Administration from the University of the Philippines. He is a multi-lingual scholar versed in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit, Hindi. He was a senior financial and IT executive in Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines and on Indian Railways. His 18 publications include: Indian Lexicon - a multilingual dictionary for over 25 Indian languages, Sarasvati in 15 volumes, Indian Alchemy - Soma in the Veda, Indus Script Cipher, Rastram. He is a recipient of many awards including Vakankar Award (2000), Shivananda Eminent Citizens’ Award (2008) and Dr. Hedgewar Prajna Samman (2008).
Website: http://sites.google.com/site/kalyan97 Sarasvati Research Center kalyan97@gmail.com

bronze age     hermeneutics     Hieroglyphs     indus civilization     indus script     Meluhha     sarasvati river