Dr. FATAH SINGH

on

Indus Valley Script Decipherment

Indus Valley Script

Vedic Basis of Indus Culture

Symbolism of Brahmanas and Upanishdas in Indus Valley Script

Critical view of decipherment of Indus script

 

 

First written on : 9-5-1993 AD; First published on interent : 29 May, 2008 AD( Jyeshtha krishna dashamee, Vikramee samvat 2065)

MIC, CXII, 387

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Ahura Mazda, from the Louvre Museum

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/westasia/religion/ahuramazda.htm

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THE VEDIC BASIS OF INDUS CULTURE

"There is one uniform and universal transition of mankind” says late René Guenờn, the French savant, and that “it has been best preserved in the Sanskrit texts, like the Vedas and Upanishads”. This accords with the vedic concepts of viśvamãnuşa and viśvãyu, both meaning universal man. The Atharva-Veda moots out the idea of Brihad Samveshyam Rãştram,[1]  that is, the broad-based comprehensive nationhood. Accordingly, there is a long hymn[2] to the Motherland where the mother Earth is described as nourishing the people speaking difference languages and following different faiths, but all living like the members of one and the same household. Thus the Veda is indeed the basis of the multi-racial, multilingual and multi religious Indian society that, in spite of so many onslaughts from within and without, continued to stay until now like rock of granite. This is something which the modern world, torn as-under by racial, linguistic and religious differences, ought to have envied and investigated for its own good.

MODERN TREND - The modern world has, however, chosen to do the opposite, European scholars and Indians trained in their modern sceptical and evolutionary mode of thought have looked the Indian tradition with their eyes tarnished by racialism, which Julian Huxly rightly condemned as "a myth and a dangerous myth." This is particularly germane to the controversy regarding the relationship between the Veda and Indus valley culture. Before this problem is discussed here, the learned audience is requested to keep in mind the following few facts which speak for themselves : -

1.    The so-called Indus valley culture is an All India culture. The greatest proof is the Indus script which is also found on punch-marked coins, discovered almost in all parts of the country.

2.    Late Dr. R. D. Bannerjee, who is credited with the discovery of Mohenjodaro was the first to point out that is was a relic of the Vedic age. His boss, Sir John Marshall, however, took his assertion as an offence and got him dismissed from the government service.

3.    Prior to that, Bishop Coldwell had proposed the theory that Sanskrit words found in the southern languages were the reminiscence of the remote past when the Brahman of the North imposed his language and religion on the people of the south. "This started anti-Brahmin and anti-North movement in the South.

4.    Also, Sir John Marshall and Reverend Father Heras passionately propagated that Indus valley civilization was proto=Dravidian and non-Vedic, and that the cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappa were destroyed by Aryan invaders.

5.    It was the period of twenties when Gandhiji published his 'Hind-Swarãjya' and said that Swarãjya was a vedic word which means much more than home-rule. He also appreciated Swami Dayanand who was the first to emphasize the need for Swarãjya and also for going back to the Vedas.

6.    After our anti-British uprising in 1857, the alien rulers had made a vigorous effort to push up the policy of 'divide and rule'. Missionaries and scholars were used to advocate separatism on the basis of region, religion, race, language and caste or tribe. I do not mean to name them, as they are too many.

7.    Most of this work was done at Government cost. A glaring example may be seen in the huge book, written by Sir Chocklingam Pillai, who tried to prove that Aryans and Dravidians (formerly known as Velans and Surans) who had fought bloody battles, ultimately got mixed up with each other, but the people of Madras in India and those of British in Europe can still claim to be pure Dravidians.

8.    Unfortunately, even in free India , this trend of separatist thinking continued to get more and more impetuous, with the result that our people were never divided so mush as they are today. Scholars of different disciplines seem to have vied with each other in trying to prove that India has throughout been a great museum of races and languages, religions and beliefs, without any common bond to make her a nation or a paramount power.

INDUS VALLEY CULTURE - This nefarious trend has particularly misguided our scholars with regard to the so-called Indus valley civilization. Father Heras and John Marshall had said that the worship of Mother Goddess was unknown to Vedic people. This is totally falsified by the books of Gyana Sahney and Dr. S. M. Gulethi and the scholars or Pondichery including Shri Aurobindo himself (2). The plea that the horse, so popular in vedic tradition, was unknown to Indus people stands now contradicted by the discovery of horse-bones in the later excavation of Indus sites. Similarly, the statement that cow deified in the Vedas was conspicuously absent on the relics of Indus valley is hardly tenable, when we find different kinds of bulls depicted on Indus seals. (3) Sacrificial altars, peculiar to Vedic tradition have been found at Kalibanga and several other later excavations of Indus sites. (4) The discovery of furrowed land at Kalibanga disproved the theory that Indus valley civilization was only urban and not rural like Vedic civilization. (5) The view that the Vedas have no worship of Shiva as known to Indus people stands exploded by following evidence :

(a)  There is a Vedic Mantra addressing God as Shiva :

f'koks ukek∙flA Lof/kfrLrs firkA ueLrs vLrqA (yaju. 3.63)

(b) Normally, the word shiva is used for the Supreme deity, called Agni.

vXus% l[;q% f'koL;A (Rv. 10..4 cf. 10.124.9)

(c) The Shiva is the “old home, the wealth, and the friendship having the potentiality to be many” (Rv 3.5 & 6)

The adjective Shiva in superlative is used for the Godhead, called Indra (Rv. 8.96.10) : eg mxzk; rols lqo`fDra izsj; f”korek; i”o%

In fact, it is the flame of Agni that figures as Shivalinga, that is, the characteristic mark of Shiva conceived as the great red whitish organ of the brahmachari God. The invisible one is supposed to sprinkle retas that gives life to the four quarters of the earth. (R.V. 11-5-12)

(e) Likewise, the plea that the term Purandara used as an epithet of Indra signifies that anti-urban ethos of the Vedic people has no validity, because Indra is known as the Pura-eta, the leader of cities (RV. 6.47.7) and a paura (citizen). Moreover, all Vedic gods have a city named Ayodhya to live in. It is the city of nine doors and eight circles :-

v’Vpdzk uo}kjk nsokuka iwj;ks/;kA

INDUS SEALS AND PUNCH-MARKED COINS -  Now we can take up the evidence of punch-marked coins and Indus seals. For the time being I shall not however take the help of all the four scripts which I discovered on Indus seals. I will only confine myself with the few characters of Armenian script which are found on Indus seals and punch marked coins alike. These are like O, M, U, V and ^. Comparable to those of Roman script with which we are so familiar.

    First of all, here is a monogram composed by O and M. This is found in two forms as   and    . The first occur on punch-marked coins and rarely on the Indus seal with a peepal tree (plate No.1). The second is available on a peculiar picture of Ahur Mazda of 500 B.C. (plate No. 2) who represents Iranian god, originally the Asura Mahat of the Veda. Accepting the phonetic value of O and M according to Roman script and proceeding from downward to upward, the first monogram would read as OM , and the second one as MO of the Vedas. OM is well known as the name of God, though occuring only thrice in the Vedas. Mo, on the other hand, has been used at least 23 times in the Rigveda alone. Also it is conspicuously present as a part of Ahura mazda in the aforesaid picture.

The Vedic Mo[3] is, in fact, an ante thesis of OM and figures as an indeclinable like OM. In the majority of cases, MO is accompanied by another indeclinable, Su. and, at least in one mantra, MOSU is used as a contrast to O-Su.

vks’kq ?k`f"ojk/klks ;krukU/kkafl ihr;sA

bek oks gO;k e#rks jjs fg da eks"kq vU;= xUruAA ¼RV. 7-59-5½

OSU means the transcendental seat of OM within man. It is also described as a Svaraga, wrapped up in effulgence, where Brahman is united with Atman : -

rL;ka fgj.;;% dks'kks LoxZ% T;ksfr"kko`r%A

;fLeu~ ;{ka vkReUor~] rn~ oS czãfonks fonq%AA

This position is obtainable by the ascent of the lower consciousness to the supramental stage to bring the Swarga down to the human body, and turn that 'house of clay' into MoSu of Lord Varuna :-

Ekks "kq o#.k e`Ue;a x`ge~ jktu~ vga xee~A (RV. 7.89.1)

          In other words, MoSu corresponds to the heaven brought down on earth (body) which is otherwise called Moki[4], the consciousness. The Mo is destroyed after death, or when one uses the spiritual Agni for selfish end. The ego (Aham) hurts Mo, otherwise it has a tendency to withdraw the consciousness from without and to ascend upward. This withdrawal normally leads to Moki (night), signifying the state of sleep, but is can also lead to Oki, the divine brightness in

[1] vFkkLeH;a o#.kks ok;qjfXuc`Zgn~ jk"Vªa laos ';a n/kkrq ¼AV.3-8-1½

[2] tua fcHkzrh cgq/kk fookpla] ukuk /kekZ.ka i`fFkoh ;FkkSdle~ ¼Av. 12.1.45½

[3] RV 8.103.13

[4] RV. 2.38.3