Dr. FATAH SINGH on Indus Valley Script Decipherment Symbolism of Brahmanas and Upanishdas in Indus Valley Script Critical view of decipherment of Indus script
|
|
Page1 Page2 Page3 Page4 Page5 Page6 Page7
residuum
(śeşa) and the final negation (neti neti
) of all
that is manifest, just as all the linear signs of the alphabet are reducible to
a zero, the indivisible. Conversely, it is the Zero that evolves or manifests
itself into all linear signs called letters or Varņas. How
does the unmanifest manifest itself ? “By its inherent power of self
expression” is the answer which seems to be implied in the Thus,
if one were to trace the history of this ellipse, the mother of all lines, one
would find it present not only in the manifested forms of the letter v ‘a’ and all other
Varņas, but also inherent in the ‘unmanifested’ zero, its ultimate
resort, origin and the constant constituent in all
its linear manifestations called Varņas. In the same way, Parā,
the power of self-manifestation inherent in the unmanifest ‘self’ can be
found in all its manifested forms, represented by the three forms of the first
Varņa (av)
mentioned above, and in fact of all the Varņas. In other words, the self,
both manifest and unmanifest, as also its power to manifest may be conceived to
have three subtle states, namely the unmanifest a v or zero, (2)
inclined to manifest and (3) the manifested, respectively known as a v] at vr~ and ‘man’ eu~ which
combine to form the word ‘Atman’ signifying the inner ‘self’. Following
the pratyahara system of Sanskrit
Grammar, the last two or the three together may also be called An (vu~) formed by combining the first and the last letter of the group.
This in its negative form (i. e. not-An) is In
spite of this essential unity, An (vu~)
and Anna (vUUk)
represent the two poles of the human personality, and the two together
signify the dichotomy in man. Therefore, An and Anna occur frequently in the At
all the three stages of manifestation,
An (vu~)
has three aspects respectively[4]
known as Indra, Soma and Agni As an inseparable companion, his power of
manifestation also assumes three forms signified respectively by double u m
with ib] the su u lq
m and the aigni u ,sfXu +m. An illustration of the same may be seen in seal[5]
489 (plate XCVI) of As
opposed to this Avara, UM or Indra, there is also a para Indra[8] ( ij banz ) written with elliptical P inscribed at its foot.
Obviously, the elliptical letter P stands for the Parā, his power of
self-manifestation in its supreme form who when bifurcated turns into the pair
of the letter U called SU and Aigna, associated with the trinity mentioned
above. The power of self-manifestation associated with this Parā Indra or
UM is also known as Indrā and Umā, because it belongs to Indra or Um;
the same Umā as also its cognate UM may derive its name from the letter U
as suggested in a seal[9] of
Mohenjodaro published by Mackay in his book, “Further Excavation at
Mohenjodaro”. Here the inscription reads[10]
as Sā Indrā Umā ( )
and beside this inscription, there is a human
figure presenting a letter U to a
tree which is the symbol of physical manifestation (creation)[11]
in microcosm as well as macrocosm and is also called Varņa as stated above.
Thus the word Umā comes in
close association with U and suggests thereby that, most probably, the word Umā
is somehow derived from the Now
U is equated with the epithet ‘Vŗtra Agni’ in one seal[12]
and with triple A (vertical stroke) in another. Thus indeed, the letter U seems
to represent the manifested trinity of Indra, Soma and Agni (signified by triple
U of An) mentioned above and is additionally called the ‘Vŗtra Agni’
which in Indus terminology, seems to signify ‘the covered fire’
alternatively known as Varņa, the manifested aspect of human personality in
its variety of trios (Indra, Soma and Agni). For clarification, it may be added
that the word Vŗtra and But,
it is not only the ‘power’ that covers the ‘powerful’, but the vice
versa is also true. The powerful, vu in its role of
‘covering the power (Umā) is known as Varuņa[13] is a cognate of Vŗtra
and from Thus,
it will be seen that the above seal depicts a symbolic representation of human
personality with distinct polarization into the introvert and the extrovert
which seem to act as positive and negative sides of the manifested self. In
their unmanifested stage, they are symbolized in zero where both of them have
one and the self-same identity with no trace of dualism. To
signify the relationship of the two in this state, the symbol of cross is
employed in the What
may appear to be a strange thing is that the word Agni[21]
as well as the figure of a bird[22]
in the above sense is often, found accompanied ( or rather qualified ) by the
word Vŗtra. This shows that the
curves forming the bracket or the circle to encompass the bird or Agni are
supposed to be the binding ropes or snares of Vŗtra to captivate the bird
or Agni. This inference is corroborated by an inscription[23]
where the word qualifies two parallel curves and the animal figure below the
inscription bears a wave-like curve on the head and several curves encircling
its neck, besides one small curve serving as the tail. To prove itself as a
cognate of the word Vŗtra, Varuņa in several inscriptions is
accompanied by animal figures which seem to be fettered with rope-like curves.
That the word Varuņa bears some relation to these curves may seem from the
fact that the number of
curves is in proportion to the numerical sign put before the word Varuņa
in the inscription. Thus at two places[24]
where the word Varuņa in the inscription is prefixed by 1, the animal
hardly bears one or two curves at the neck whereas the animal[25]
occurring with Varuņa prefixed by number 11 has a large number of curves at
its neck, and the one found with that prefixed by the letter N signifying
negation has a clean neck[26]. Like Varuņa, the word
Vŗtra also when suffixed by the word meaning ‘No triple U’ describes
the animal with a clean neck[27].
As stated above, the triple U indicate the three aspects of manifested self
known as Indra, Soma and Agni; therefore it is natural to suppose that the stage
indicated by the phrase “ No triple U” points to the fourth aspect of the
self where Vŗtra is conceived without its snares. In case of Varuņa
also, its nooseless stage may be guessed to exist at that very fourth stage of
human self. [2] ibid [3] lbid. [4] lbid. [5] lbid. [7] lbid. [8] lbid. [9] M FEM., Plate XC, 23-a a 7 b [10] "She is Uma, the power iof Indra."" [11] See "Swaha', Dec. 68 [12] ibid. [13] ibid. [14] See "The tree symbol" in Swaha Dec. '68 [15]
[16] MIC 93; MFEM 28, pl LXXXIII; 696 pl. LXXXCl; 576 XCVILL [17] MFEM 688, PL lXXXII; 7 PL.XCIII [18] MEH546, pl XCVII; 489, pl. XCVI, 573, pl. XCVII [19] Ibid 635, pl. XCIX; pl. XCVII. [20] MIC pl. CII, b [21] MEH, 546 pl. XCVII; MIC.551 CXV; MIC.148, pl CVIII [22] MIC.93 pl.CVI; MFEM. 28, pl. LXXXIII. 696 pl. LXXXII; 576,XCVI. [23] MFEM,606, pl. XCVIII [24] Ibid 511 and 535 pl. XCVI [25] Ibid 492 pl. XCVI [26] Ibid 340, pl. LXXXIX [27] Ibid 340, pl. LXXXIX [28] MFEM. 340 pl LXXXXIX.
|