July 3, 2004

One of the greatest problems that world archaeologists, historians and antiquarians face today is the continued inability of experts to read the Indus script which has been found written on artifacts unearthed in Moenjodaro and Harappa. For them, it is a most frustrating state of affairs.

Compilation of the story of man’s various stages of development is based, among other things, on samples of early languages discovered in various parts of the world. They provide clues to the way of life of early humans, and even their laws and system of government. The Indus script has so far defied the efforts of experts to decipher it and thus a large gap in Pakistan’s early history is still left unfilled.

Despite that, cultural experts like our Dr Ahmed Hasan Dani are still at it, undeterred by failure. So are archaeologists in India, according to an article I read recently, because they too would like to close the gap that applies to their ancient history also. Dr Dani has been joined in the past years by archaeologists from Europe, America and India, but their combined efforts have not yielded fruit.

One reason perhaps is that there is no little material to work upon. Unlike similar discoveries in other parts of the world, the Indus script has so far been found inscribed on small objects only and the quantity available is hardly substantial. If this enigma goes on, experts will have to pray that someone may come across something like the Rosetta Stone on the Indus to solve the mystery of this so far inscrutable script.

For those not familiar with the story, here it is. Till the beginning of the 19th century, no one could read the extensive hieroglyphics, the picture language, found in the tombs of the pharaohs, and also written on numerous tombs and temples in Northern Egypt. Then scholars and antiquarians whom Napoleon took with him on his Egyptian campaign in 1799, discovered the Rosetta Stone near Alexandria. This stone carried a 196 B.C. decree on the coronation of Ptolemy V in two languages, but three scripts — Greek, elite hieroglyphic, and popular Egyptian. Thus, by comparison, experts were able to read the hieroglyphics and a vast panorama of ancient history was opened up for mankind.

Both scholarship and archaeology have failed to make sense out of the Indus writings. Some years ago, Prof Asko Parpola of Helsinki University and head of the Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies was in Pakistan and stayed here for quite some time. He has devoted a lifetime to the study of this subject but has so far success has eluded him, as it eluded the late Prof Walter Fairservis of the USA and Prof Mahadevan of Madras University.

Everyone of these scholars has his own view of what group of languages the Indus script belongs to. From Dr Dani’s opinion that it relates to the Turkic group of Central Asia to the Indian Professor Rao’s assertion that its origin is Dravidian, there are half a dozen versions. Since no two experts agree with one another, the variety of opinion makes the matter even more abstruse and mysterious.

Some time ago. there was an article in the newspapers by a gentleman called Syed Ayaz Shah, who seemed to have made a particular study of the efforts made to decipher the Indus script which was first found on seals dug out at Harappa and Moenjodaro.

According to him, these seals date from 2150 B.C. to 1600 B.C. and the script itself is made up of just 300 characters. It is very difficult to say whether it is indigenous in origin or is imported, for it resembles no other script discovered anywhere else in the world.

Syed Ayaz Shah’s article is scholarly and so are the views expressed by him, although I regret to have to admit that I do not know his antecedents, nor were they mentioned in the article, but it is not for the ordinary reader who is at best interested in the broad details of the problem. He has been thorough in discussing the matter to its finest points, and since we are at it, it might be appropriate to quote some features of it for the information of readers.

He says that along with the problem about the script we have no idea what the language was like and how that civilization expressed itself. The material discovered during the excavations, i.e. tools, utensils, toys, statuettes and seals, only tells us about the general life of the people who belonged to that civilization. We do not know how they communicated with one another in addition to the spoken word. There is also the possibility that there was no language because so far only signs and symbols and pictures have been unearthed. There are no apparent or usual indications of an alphabet. These are Syed Ayaz Shah’s conclusions, but I don’t think any authoritative expert in the world will agree with him.

According to Dr Dani, in the material available for study, there are 537 symbols, of which he believes eight form categories of living beings and 19 of stylized objects. The rest of the symbols are different geometric figures. He has arrived at some conclusions but they are too technical for the layman to understand. Other historians and archaeologists from other parts of the globe have also formed ideas of their own but these too are meant for academicians.

All this discussion shows that, based on past knowledge of old deciphered scripts, every effort has been made by international experts and scholars, a labour that is still continuing, to read and understand the Indus script, though it has escaped their learned attacks. It is indeed gratifying that none of them has given it up as a lost game.

God knows whether there was a written Indus language or not, and whether what has been found during the excavations does actually represent written words or is just a collection of pictures used to embellish the artifacts. Another odd feature, according to Dr Dani, is that sometimes the writing appears to start from the left and sometimes from the right.

All said and done, the Indus script constitutes one of the unsolved mysteries of archaeology and history. It continues to baffle those who are interested in it. Maybe, it could help to fill many pages in Pakistan’s ancient history if it could be deciphered. Meantime the struggle goes on. What would not experts give to find a solution!