Indus Script: A Study of its Sign Design

Nisha Yadav and M. N. Vahia

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

The Sindhu Unicorn

The Abstract:

The Indus script is an undeciphered script of the ancient world. In spite of

numerous attempts over several decades, the script has defied universally

acceptable decipherment. In a recent series of papers (Yadav et al. 2010; Rao et

al. 2009a, b; Yadav et al. 2008a, b) we have analysed the sequences of Indus

signs which demonstrate presence of a rich syntax and logic in its structure. Here

we focus on the structural design of individual signs of the Indus script. Our study

is based on the sign list given in the concordance of Mahadevan (1977) which

consists of 417 distinct signs. We analyse the structure of all signs in the sign list

of Indus script and visually identify three types of design elements of Indus signs

namely basic signs, provisional basic signs and modifiers. These elements combine

in a variety of ways to generate the entire set of Indus signs. By comparing the

environment of compound signs with all possible sequences of constituent basic

signs, we show that sign compounding (ligaturing) and sign modification seem to

change the meaning or add value to basic signs rather than save writing space. The

study aims to provide an understanding of the general makeup and mechanics of

design of Indus signs.

The Svastikas

From Conclusions:

The signs have been designed with care and combining signs with

other signs or modifiers seems to have been a practice known to all sites.

Indus people seem to employ several interesting techniques such as using

a set of modifiers to modify the basic sign and sign compounding. We also

find instances of doubling and mirroring in the design of Indus signs. The

usage of a similar set of constituent basic signs in different configuration in compound signs seem to convey different information. The designers of the

Indus signs also placed a special emphasis on symmetry and there seems to

be an underlying effort to retain the overall aesthetic value of Indus signs.

All this makes it clear that like all other writing systems, Indus writing is

an intellectual exercise of great significance and a lot of thought, planning

and utility issues have been taken into consideration while designing these

signs. The Indus civilisation was spread over an area of about a million

square kilometres and yet, the sign list over the entire civilisation seems to

be the same indicating that the signs, their meaning and their usage were

agreed upon by people with large physical separation. This arrangement

worked satisfactorily for about 700 years. Hence the understanding of

Indus signs and their meaning must have been robust and yet versatile and

easy to use. This is also reaffirmed by the fact that Indus script has been

found on seals discovered in West Asia with a different grammar (Rao et

al., 2009b). The usage of modifiers at almost all sites (Table 4) suggests

that the manner of sign modification was universally agreed over the entire

area of the Indus valley civilisation and was not intended for a small group

of people.

yog

If some one asks me I will say beside the uniquenesses that can be found from the above research and other related ones,the script was most probably a hybrid script where the principals of Hieroglyphs and Linguistic grammar were combined....