SmartSurat  #  Hinduism

The Indus valley script

Knowledge of the religion of the Indus valley culture has to remain conjectural. This is because, while there is evidence of writing from the thousands of seals which have been found, the Indus valley script defies understanding. Since the only evidence of writing comes from the inscriptions on these tiny seals about two or four centimetres square, it is very difficult to combine such inscriptions in a way which would present a coherent pattern of language. Many consider the script to be unrelated to any known language; others see it as the common substratum of Indian languages, the so-called Proto-Dravidian. Since the script has about 400 characters it cannot be alphabetic and is more likely to be syllabic, or, most probably, logographic, that is to say each character indicates a whole word - the first stage of writing in most cultures. It is written in boustrophedon, that is to say it is read from right to left and then left to right. The fact that this script is difficult to decipher means that there is no way in which the more abstract ideas about the religion of the Harappan culture can be ascertained. And this is something which must be borne in mind constantly in examining this period. The only evidence which obtains to give any indication of religious beliefs of the culture are the archeological art facts - seals, figurines, masks and the structural remains of edifices, to name some. Such physical evidence is open to a variety of interpretations, and while much can be inferred in relation to the subsequent Hindu tradition, over-identification between the early and later cultures should be cautionary.