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Dr. FATAH SINGH

Indus Valley Script Decipherment

Symbolism of Brahmanas and Upanishdas in Indus Valley Script

Critical view of decipherment of Indus script

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Just as at other places, Indus culture also has the seed that as is in the body, the same is in the universe. One seal shows a rod type thing coming from sun towards earth, and there is an inscription on it which may mean that sky is also a praana which sows seed on the earth.This can be compared with Atharva veda where there is a realm between heaven and earth which impregnates the earth from all sides with life sustaining force.

Now let us take the symbolism of elephant in Indus seals. On the basis of inscriptions on seals having elephant figures, it can be said that these inscriptions indicate two types of triats of elephants, just similar to quotations of elephants in Rigveda. One of the triats of elephant is individualistic and the other is collective. Rigvedic mantras use word elephant in plural form for individualistic purposes. For collectivity, at one place, a mega elephant word has been used.The same thing can be said with reference to cereals also. Indus valley script will refer to 7, 11 and 16 cereals for individualistic purposes. But when one seal refers to 100 cereal, then it is appropriate that this should be considered as collective approach.

The other side of the seal bears a figure with bird mouth whose 4 staff like body parts may be symbolic of 4 directions. and it's sole human foot reminds us of the unity of collectivity of 4 directions. This can be said to be akin to single foot of Rigveda, which can transform to double, tripal or quadrupal also. Similarly, the mega bull with hump of Indus valley is symbolic of both individuality and collectivity. This is corroborated by the inscriptions on the seals. On one mega bull, the inscription refers to 11 cereals, on the other 6 cereals, which are undoubtedly symbolic of individualistic approach. On the other hand, there is a seal of mega bull which has only the word ana. And there is a vertical line around it in each direction and numeral 1 has been written. This indicates that this mega bull is symbolic of collective ana in the collectivity of 4 directions. Those mega bulls on which bear the inscription 4 fire or four types of Atri also fall under the category of colllective fire or Atri.

Now let us take the symbolism of action, mind and knowledge in Indus valley. An action can be at gross level or subtle level or knowledge level etc. The source of action - mind with dualistic nature - has been depicted by two m letters and the mind which is uniform, free from duality, has been depicted by a head type M letter. The best example of this is a seal where there is a head type M and below it, there are two rectangular joined m's - - - - - - A human figure has been formed by joining different letters with each other on both sides of this seal. The inscription on both sides is the same, but the figures have difference. On one side, there are two dancing tigers which have been shown elsewhere as fighting with each other and may be symbolic of knowledge and action.

But in this seal, instead of fighting with each other, the tigers are dancing. The fact is that here the action is with knowledge. And this action is a sort of water in vedic literature which can irrigate the body - tree of a person. The other edge of this side of seal has the figure of a person standing upside down and a stem with 4 leaves sprouts from the sacral portion of this figure. There is inscription of word Jana on both sides of this figure and the head of this figure bears the letter k. Thus this can be said to symbolize well known figure Janaka.

The other side of this seal bears the figure of a beautiful woman, in front of whom is standing a person with a mirror like thing in his hand. The inscriptions on this person personify him as Janaka. A man - like collectivity of letters has been formed near this woman, and this person seems to be going away from the woman. Thus, one one side of the seal, there is closeness of the collectivity of person with dancing tigers, which may be symbolic of closeness to the conjunction of action and knowledge. On the other side of the seal, there is detachment of person from woman. This is just like the story of Videha Janaka.

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