Indus script epigraphs decoded

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(Free-Press-Release.com) August 7, 2009 -- Indus script decoded: mleccha smith guild tokens

Dholavira sign-board (1)
Inscribed metal weapons and tools, copper tablets (over 200)
Pictorial Motifs or Field Symbols on Seals and Tablets (c. 3000)
Smith guild tokens (writing system encoding speech)

Abstract

Indus script is depicted with glyphs, using about 150 pictorial motifs and about 400 signs. The glyphs are decoded as hieroglyphs read rebus in mleccha. All the pictorial motifs relate to smith-guild repertoire of the bronze age. The smiths working with metals to experiment with alloys also invented the writing system using hieroglyphs.

• Most of the ca. 550 glyphs and glyptic elements have been identified with precision (without ambiguity) thanks to the brilliant work done by Mahadevan, Parpola and other scholars who have contributed to unraveling the orthography and structure of the writing system
• Each glyph is a potential resource for relating the glyph to glosses of Indian languages to identify mleccha glosses in the linguistic area
• Isoglosses will help reconstruct proto-mleccha and proto-vedic.

• Glyptic semantic clusters decode the writing system using the simple rebus method -- occam’s razor (rebus: A representation of words in the form of pictures or symbols, often presented as a puzzle. From Latin rebus, ablative pl. of res, thing. – bartleby.com) and relating them to one semantic category: early workings in mines, early workings with minerals and metals – an industrial revolution of those ancient times.
• “Rosetta stones” for the decoding are:
o Akkadian cylinder seal showing a Meluhhan (who needed an interpreter)
o Two pure tin ingots cast with Sarasvati hieroglyphs discovered in a pr ship-wreck
o Scores of inscriptions found on metal and on metallic celts, weapons (following slides)
o Continuity of tradition in devices punched by punch-marked/cast coin mints from Takṣaśila to Anuradhapura. (Sarasvati hieroglyphs continue to be used together with kharoshti/brahmi syllables)

o Sohgaura copper plate; Rampurva pillar copper bolt with Sarasvati hieroglyphs
o Ur cylinder seal with tagaraka shrub; rebus: tagromi ‘tin alloy’ (Kuwi)

Invention of alloying necessitated invention of a writing system. The epigraphs relate to metal work/trade.

Read more…

Mirror sites for ebook (60mb pdf):

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/9536635/Decoded-smith-guild-tokens

https://share.acrobat.com/adc/document.do?docid=a526a2a8-d8e2-4911-bbe9-5fcddf7aac5d

Supporting documents: 1. ppt; 2. resources from ancient Indian epigraphs and texts:

http://www.esnips.com/nsdoc/916a21ae-dff2-4ad7-a039-473ba5a1a2ca/?action=forceDL ppt slides

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13267649/Resources-Hieroglyphs-Ancient-Indian-Tradition pdf document

S. Kalyanaraman, Sarasvati Research Centre (August 6, 2009) kalyan97@gmail.com

ancient writing system     indus script     mleccha     sarasvati     smith guild     smithy