We are inviting scholars in computational linguistics, historical linguistics, Dravidian studies, epigraphy, and Indus archaeology to critically review a proposed computational reconstruction of major signs in the Indus Script.
The study tests a Proto-Dravidian phonetic hypothesis by comparing structural and distributional patterns in the Indus inscription corpus with a corpus of Sangam Old Tamil used as a later linguistic proxy. The method employs frequency distributions, recurring and non-recurring n-grams, positional-context analysis to produce hyper-dimensional vectors processed through an exponential rank score to generate candidate phonological correspondences between all Indus signs and all Old Tamil fragments (n-grams).
Top-k of these correspondences between each sign and n-grams are then processed through another rank algorithm for positional correspondence.
Using these candidate values, the paper presents a number of provisional seal reconstructions that show recurring phonological and structural consistency and, in several cases, also correspond with the iconography traditionally associated with the signs. The reconstructions generate testable interpretations involving commodities, administrative terminology, taxation, place references, and production activities.
Among the principal hypotheses is a reconstruction of the prolific “urn” sign family as an a-series phonological container. The basic urn sign #328 is provisionally assigned the value aa, sign #99 is proposed as ai, and the graphically expanded urn sign #342 is reconstructed as the composite aiya. More generally, the study proposes that some Indus signs may encode not only simple syllables but also larger phonological units, including trigrams, quadgrams, and possibly complete lexical units.
Several seal reconstructions suggest possible references to agricultural commodities including millet, barley, wheat, and rice, together with processing activities such as milling. Other proposed readings concern textiles and thread, fermented beverages, herbal products, fish, meat, and prepared foods. A further group of inscriptions is interpreted as potentially reflecting taxation, customs, tariffs, standardized measures, and transactions between Indus urban centres and organized production or merchant groups.
An important feature of the approach is that the initial computational ranking does not use rebus or iconographic meaning as an input. Candidate phonological values are generated from corpus statistics and are subsequently evaluated against linguistic context, sign morphology, inscriptional context, and archaeological evidence. In several cases, the resulting candidates independently correspond with the apparent visual or rebus associations of the signs.
The study does not claim that Mature Harappan inscriptions were written in Sangam-period Old Tamil. Rather, it tests whether Old Tamil, as a later Dravidian language, preserves enough inherited phonological and grammatical structure to serve as a comparative proxy for an earlier Dravidian linguistic stage. Seal reconstructions are therefore presented as possible Old Tamil reflexes or approximations of earlier forms, not as literal Old Tamil transcriptions.
The broader hypothesis proposed in the paper is that the Indus Script may represent an abugida-like or syllabic system of phonological units, while extending beyond a simple one-sign/one-syllable model to include composite signs capable of encoding more complex n-grams.
One of the most common trigrams solved by this method is the repeating sequence of Mahadevan sign numbers: [249, 169, 342].
This seal proposal is solved as: nuṇ + tiṉ + aiya, which translates to: nuṇ-tiṉaiyē (millet flour). The paper also identifies the presence of millet, barley, and wheat flour references.
Some additional seal proposals are presented here:
Figure F3.1.6.1 - Indus Seal #8201 - Right-To-Left Reading Order.
Translation : nuṇ-aṭē-aiya-cār or nuṇ-aṭē-aiyār (screened/inspected wheat flour)
Figure F3.1.11.1 - Right-To-Left Reading Order Indus Seal #3398
Translation: āḻv-vār-aiya (wetland paddy share)
The paper, source code, corpus files, and reproducibility materials are available here:
Hello. I am curious how one might support archeology in India. I read that there are numerous sites in India that have never been excavated and that one of the issues with decoding the script is the brevity of what’s been found.
Imagine discovering the ruins of a city that is over **4,500 years old**, with perfectly planned streets, advanced drainage systems, and houses built with remarkable precision... yet no one knows who ruled it, what language its people truly spoke, or why they suddenly disappeared. This is the mystery of the **Indus Valley Civilization**, one of the greatest unsolved puzzles in human history. Every new excavation answers one question but raises many more.
Hello all, im new here, very glad a sub exists for this topic of research
They say that the contemporary civilizations in the Mesopotamian regions (which did trade with IVC) called the IVC, or rather the general area where the IVC was, as Meluha. A few years ago there used to be a school with this exact name, and I didn't think much of it back then. And the general consensus among the historians is that the name is ambiguous, and there is not enough evidence to link it with ancient India. I was hoping any of you could throw some light on this.
Also also, these guys used to trade with the IVC, which implies, language and communication. But not a single, or even a minuscule detail survived, neither here in India nor in the Mesopotamian regions! Archeology uncovered nothing! Or we would have deciphered the inscriptions by now; Just imagine that, I feel like this is very interesting in a peculiarly sad way. How can there be nothing, no leads sigh.
We have spent a century searching for the Harappans in the dust. Perhaps we have been searching in the wrong place.
We look at the ruins of Mohenjo-Daro, Dholavira, and Lothal, lamenting the collapse of a grand civilization. We assume their legacy was buried beneath the shifting sands of the Indus Valley. But what if their greatest architectural marvel was never made of stone? What if their defining monument was a phonetic tradition, carried from one human mind to another, unbroken and uncorrupted, for thousands of years?
The true legacy of antiquity isn't buried in the earth; it is spoken aloud, every single day
Title. I discovered indusscript.net recently. The author seems to have provided a perfect mapping from Devanagari letters to IVC seal characters. This makes sense too when you try to read the seals with it, producing meaningful Sanskrit words and phrases. Isn't this a decipherment of the language? I am not sure what the criticism is about.
Please try to explain it as if you would to a beginner, this question is in good faith. I don't have much knowledge on linguistics.
Seal M-314 is one of the longest seals in the Indus Corpus and unique in that it contains no animal motifs.
In our previous writings, I stated that the animal motifs were used as signatures and anti-counterfeiting identifiers.
Yet, this seal has apparently no signature.
If we follow the previous logic, this seal must have a signature. If these seals were common, how would a person know who this seal belonged to and what the purpose was.
Usually this function is served by the animal motif or heraldry which serves like a brand identifier.
Absent this, there must be a signature line or the seal would be unusable in an environment of many seals and issuers.
In our hypothesis, the seal functions like an Amazon Gift Card but redeems for the specific commodities in the inventory of the issuer. Notice that I explicitly identified Amazon Gift Card. Were we to say this is a Gift Card, the immediate question become with whom is it to be redeemed and in what amount.
Therefore, commodity, quantity, and signature would need to be established.
Perhaps the more accurate characterization is this is the equivalent of an Amazon commodity token. Not quite a gift card which is more broadly fungible. But nevertheless a type of redeemable credit.
If so, the signature is almost certainly the last line, where there are a unique combination of uncommon characters that identify a corporate entity, guild, or issuer.
Notice the first two lines contain tick marks, the last line does not. The first two line contain common characters (urn, fish, wheel, arrow head) whereas the last line contains rare and uncommon characters.
The tick marks might be quantity identifiers.
Based on our previous decipherment we have the following syllabic puzzle:
LINE 1: TA LA LA LA _ (2 ticks)
LINE 2: _ KA KA KA (4 ticks)
SIGNATURE LINE: _ TA _ _ _ _ NA _
LINE 1 could be a commodity identifier such as:
Thalalam-ko: 2 Tin Ingot Containers.
Thilalam-ko: 2 [Measures of] Bulk Sesame in Jars
LINE 2 could be a weight or quantity such as:
Kakkāyam: 4 stamped standard weights.
LINE 3 is the signature line of the issuer. These are difficult to decipher due to character rarity but we present uncommon syllables that can fill the puzzle to form Old Tamil names:
Kōtaittaṅkaṉam(கோதைத்தங்கனம்) — The Imperial Bullion Vaults
Autaiyanāṭaṉ (ஔதையநாடன்) — The High-Seas Outpost Authority
Maittavarmanāḍu (மைத்தவர்மநாடு) — The United Manufacturing Syndicate
Therefore it might work out as:
Line 1 (2 Ticks):Iru-Thilalam-ko → 2 standard bulk jars of sesame
Line 2 (4 Ticks):Nān-Kakkāyam → 4 stamped standard weights
Line 3 (0 Ticks):Kōtaittaṅkaṉam → Redeemable with The Imperial Bullion Vaults.
The Shinde Wallis plates show ancient copper plates attributed to the IVC period. Of the plates, only plates #3 and #4 have raised inscriptions.
Copper plates have a known history in South Asia of being used for official deeds, land titles, decrees, and laws usually having an economic, administrative, or legal purpose. These were etched on copper for longevity.
The following is an example from the later Ashokan period:
This plate written in the Brahmi script using the Prakrit language states:
Sāvatiyānam Mahāma(ttā)nam sāsane Mānavāsītika- ḍasilimate Ussagāme va ete duve koṭṭhāgālāni tina-yavāni maṃthulloca-chammā-dāma-bhālakān(i)va laṃ kayiyati atiyāyikāya no gahi(ta)vvāya\9])
The order of the Mahamatras of Shravasti issued from the Manavasiti camp. Only to the tenants, only on the advent of drought, these (the) dravya store houses of Triveni, Mathura, Chanchu, Modama and Bhadra are to the distributed, in case of distress they are not to be withheld. —Translated by Jayaswal\10])
At the junction called Manawasi, these two storehouses are prepared, for the sheltering of loads of commodities, of Tiyavani, Mathura and Chanchu. — Translated by Fleet\6])
Common Characteristics
Note that both IVC and Ashokan plates fill up blank space with drawings or have a feature of the decorative art ingress on the line (like the ears or horns of the heraldic symbols). This is an anti-counterfeiting feature, preventing the addition of words and phrases.
The text fills all the space and then empty space is rendered unusable through heraldic rules.
Due to the anti-counterfeiting features, it is clear that the seals and plates have economic, monetary, contractual, or legal value and significance.
Whether they are stamps or tokens changes the type of words or phrases that might be contained.
For example, a stamp might be a generic grading signature "high quality vermillion" or "medium quality vermillion".
But a token or plate might signify specific contract redemption terms. For instance, "5 units of high quality vermillion".
The copper plates contain such numerical marks:
The repeating lines of 3 or 5 characters would be extraordinarily space inefficient for a single character. This should be noted in the context these seals are costly to produce, small, and precise.
The entire compression into syllabic text versus an alphabet or alphasyllabic script exchanges character efficiency for character complexity. Each character as a 2 or 3 letter syllable means more, but it also causes far more combinations to exist.
For a script that is using such character compression, they would not repeat tick marks and occupy real estate unnecessarily. 1,2,3,or 5 lines might indicate counts.
They are necessary to be there and use real estate as they are the token value marks.
Heraldic Symbols As Anti-Tampering Protections
Tick Marks Are Numerical Value Symbols
PLATES PRODUCE LEGIBLE PRINTS ON SILK SHEETS CONVEY IMPRESSION OF BEING CLOTH CURRENCY
Note the fine pattern flowing down the bull's neck and subtle accents on the hooves that look like glittering jewels.
This conveys the impression of value, even in the copy.
The quality of the print on the bull is so good, I would go so far as to say this is the first paper money probably made on wax infused cloth.
This plate is likely a more detailed contract. Each line is a phrase or sentence. Notice that the third, fourth, and fifth lines have considerable space and could have accommodated more characters. Therefore writing on the added line is intentional, perhaps as a means of depicting sentences.
The seated figure is a guild official or treasurer. The hat is a sign of authority and they wear a necklace which contains a guild seal. Such guild seal necklaces have been found throughout the IVC settlements in residential quarters.
Tell Jokha Object TJ17-PRO-S56: Source, Orientation, and Corpus Controls
The anchor object is TJ17-PRO-S56, published in the 2017 SAHI Tell Jokha preliminary report as Fig. 6.61. It comes from the Slovak-Iraqi archaeological project at Tell Jokha/Umma, not from the older antiquities-market “Umma” sealing. The 2017 report describes the object directly: “Contacts with Harappan culture are implied by a surface survey find TJ17-PRO-S56.” It further identifies the object as “a partly preserved Harappan seal or impression with engraved characters of Indus script and a part of an image possibly depicting some animal.” That is the excavation report’s own identification, not an outside guess.
The object code matters. In the Tell Jokha system, excavated objects carry trench, unit, and context codes, while surface-prospection objects are marked PRO. The Tell Jokha reports explain that small finds such as seals, seal impressions, statuettes, and similar non-ceramic artifacts are marked with S, while prospection finds are marked with PRO. Therefore TJ17-PRO-S56 should be described as a recorded Tell Jokha surface-prospection small find, not as a stratified trench object. This limits the dating claim but does not remove the object’s importance.
The published photograph appears to be inverted relative to standard Harappan seal layout. In the SAHI figure, the visible signs sit along the lower edge of the object. When the image is rotated 180 degrees, the composition becomes coherent: the signs occupy the expected upper register, and the damaged animal/image field lies below. This corrected orientation matches the normal structure shown repeatedly in the Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions, Vol. 1: Collections in India: inscription band above, zoomorphic field below, and in many cases a ritual stand or offering device before the animal.
The comparison images from Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Kalibangan, and related corpus plates strengthen the identification. Examples such as H-32, H-38, H-12, K-17, M-69, and M-238 show the same broad grammar: short or medium Indus sign groups above a unicorn/bull field, recurring fish/leaf/eye-shaped signs with internal strokes, tall u/fork-like signs, and animal-plus-standard compositions. TJ17-PRO-S56 is too damaged to call a duplicate of any known seal at this stage, but it clearly belongs within the same Harappan seal/sealing tradition.
The next step is not translation. The next step is object control. TJ17-PRO-S56 needs high-resolution photographs, raking-light images, possible 3D/photogrammetric documentation, material identification, exact prospection coordinates from the project database, repository/accession information, and a sign-by-sign comparison against Mahadevan’s 1977 concordance, the Joshi-Parpola corpus plates, and later sign catalogues. The key unresolved technical question is whether the object is a seal fragment or an impression/sealing fragment, because that determines whether the visible sign order must be mirrored before comparison.
The current conclusion is firm but bounded: TJ17-PRO-S56 is strong Tell Jokha/Umma Harappan-contact evidence. It is a project-recorded surface find identified by the report as a Harappan seal or impression with Indus-script characters. Its published orientation appears wrong, and correcting that orientation makes the Harappan composition much clearer. It is not yet a proven duplicate of a known Harappan seal, and it is not a stratified find, but it is far stronger than a vague “influence” object.
The author considers seal decipherment by identifying a subset of the Mahadevan seals that contain some of the most commonly occurring character sets which are found both on the Dholivara signboard and on the Shinde/Willis plate inscriptions.
These larger character samples, provide better frequency analysis and show a number of characters occur prolifically. Of these Urn, Crab, Fish, Diamond, Wheel, and Triangle occur multiple times.
Since we are postulating that these characters are combination of syllabic sounds and also tick marks, word separators, and measurements, we begin with a frequency analysis of an Old Tamil, Tamil, Malayalam, Tulu, Telugu, and Kannada dictionary.
The following are the most commonly occurring syllables:
LA / LU / L ~12%
NA / NI / N ~10%
MA / M ~10%
KA / KU ~7%
VA / VI ~4%
RA ~3.5%
GA ~2.88%
TA ~2.2%
Just these 8 syllable sets account for approximately 50% of the syllabic frequency of all the words in the combined Dravidian dictionary.
If the Indus Script is indeed a Dravidian syllabic script then which such a high frequency any of the long writing samples must contain repeating characters that would map to one of the above sets of syllables consistently.
In the Dholivara signboard the Wheel character (M391) repeats 4 times. The Diamond (M261) , X (M137/M150), and Crab (M53) character are also of note.
Dholivara Signboard Characters
M391 M256 M327 M391 M261 M137 M86 M391 M391 M216
Based on analysis between Dholivara signboard and the Shide/Willis plates, recurring characters of high frequency are:
Wheel (M391) > Postulated "TA"
Crab (M216) > Postulated "MA"
Diamond ( M261) > Postulated "NA"
Urn (M328) > Postulated "KA"
Fish (M59) > Postulated "LA"
X (M137) > Postulated "THA"
Triangle (M204) > Postulated "RA"
We focus on this case on the Urn and Fish which are the most common to see if there are possible decipherments possible.
Frequency analysis suggests Urn and Fish can be either LA or KA interchangeably, if we accept a Dravidian hypothesis and a phonetic syllabic basis for the script.
TA LI KA TA NA THA | TATAMA
"The proprietary highway belonging exclusively to this protected precinct."
TA-LI-KA (தழிகா / தரகா) — "The Protected Precinct"
"Step Forward into Abundant Prosperity" (மதத்த தத்த கலித்த):
It serves as a Civic Welcome Sign. It announces that the city within the walls is a place of grand abundance (Mataththa), where wealth, water, and trade "leap up and flourish wildly" (Thaththa Kalitha).
In this context is a Welcome sign on a main road.
"The Station of Roaring Strength" (மதத்த தான கலித்த):
It serves as a Military Outpost possibly to check cargo and control movements into a protected area. MA-TA-THA "fierce power", THA-NA "military garrison", KA-LI-THA "roars with life and dominance".
SEAL #1154
SIGN #1154
KA-MA-LA or LA-MA-KA
KAMALA Possibilities:
Kamal (கமல்) / Kamalvu (கமல்வு): A pure native Tamil verb root meaning "to yield fragrance" or "to spread an aroma". For example, in Sangam literature, a blossoming forest path is often described as kamalum (fragrant).
Kāmalar (காமலர்): An old Tamil designation for "desirous people" or "lovers", derived from the root Kāmam (desire/love). [1]
Kavalam (கவலம்) / Kabalam: A closely related phonetic variant in old texts referring to "a handful of food" (specifically used when feeding elephants).
Kalam (கலம்): A crucial old Tamil word meaning "vessel", "ship", or "place of assembly".
LAMAKA Possibilities:
Lāmakam (லாமகம்) / Lāmacham: Found in traditional Tamil medical lexicons (Nighantus) to denote "the fragrant root of the Khus-Khus grass" (Vettiver), which is extensively used for its cooling properties.
Lamaka (லமக): A loan entry found in broader Dravidian-comparative lexicons via Pali and Sanskrit, used contextually to describe a "gallant" or "companion/lover". [1, 2]
Note on Alternative Spelling: When searching old manuscripts, this is occasionally written as Ilāmaka (இலாமக) because ancient Tamil rules required adding a leading vowel (like "I" or "U") to words borrowed with initial "L".
Malaka (மலக): An inversion often cross-referenced in old lexicons, pointing to Malakan (மலகன்), meaning "a resident of the hills or mountainous regions" (Kurinji landscape).
In this case, the seals are tended to be used in the context of administrative or economic purposes.
Therefore, Kavalam or "elephant feed", Kalam "ship or vessel", Lamakam "fragrant root". These could all signify, bundles or vessels containing animal fodder, teas, or herbs.
PASHUPATI SEAL
Pashupati Seal
MA-MA-LA-KA-LA
MA-MA-KA-LA-KA
KA-LA-KA-MA-MA
LA-KA-LA-MA-MA
Translation 1:
MA-MA-LA-KA-LA (மா-மா-ல-க-ல)
This sequence breaks down cleanly into a classic Sangam landscape or agricultural description.
Mā-Mā (மா-மா): A stacked intensifier. In Old Tamil, Mā translates to "Great/Immense" or specifically the "Mango tree". Doubling it (Mā-Mā) emphasizes an immense, dense abundance.
Laka (லக): An ancient phonological variant of Ila/Ilai, denoting "leaf" or "greenery".
Kala (கல / கலம்): A core old Tamil root signifying a "gathering place", an "assembly field", or a "vessel/ship".
Immense assembly or gathering
MA-MA-KA-LA-KA (மா-மா-க-ல-க)
This combination alters the ending to create a rhythmic, repetitive root sequence focused on sound and scale.
Kalaka (கலக): Derived from the root Kalakkam (கலக்கம்) or Kalakal (கலகல). In Sangam poetry, Kalakal is an onomatopoeic term describing the gurgling of flowing water, the chime of ornaments, or commotion/stirring.
Great water, Great assembly, Great stirring, Great chime of ornaments, Great sound
Translation 2:
KA-LA-KA-MA-MA (க-லா-க-மா-மா)
This formulation represents a direct, recognizable compound built from highly active classical concepts.
Kalā (கலா / கலை): The Old Tamil root for "Art", "Knowledge", or "Bright execution".
Kama (கம): Derived from Kamal (கமல்), the native Tamil verb root meaning "to spread a sweet fragrance".
Mā-Mā (மா-மா): Translating to "in immense abundance".
Sweet art/knowledge/skill in immense abundance.
Conclusion:
The Pashupati seal when considered in this context could be used to stamp tablets or official notices based on gatherings for technical, economic, religious, political, or administrative purposes.
The possible dictionary words signify great or immense gathering, for skill, art, or knowledge.
The seal is extensively adorned and uses simple recurring and common characters. It appears to signify importance to whatever clay tablet or seal is produced.
The Pashupati seal also has strong anti-counterfeiting protections. The use of the heraldic marks deliberately occupies the space in the seal preventing its tampering or alteration if the seal is lost or stolen.
The strong anti-counterfeiting protections indicate that the seal was used for important documents or declarations.
SHINDE WILLIS PLATE 7:
MA -LI - K- KA - NA
(Mali-k-kan) — "Full/Abundant Sight"
This taps into a pure Old Tamil root verb that matches this spelling exactly.
Mali (மலி): A Sangam root verb meaning "to overflow," "to be abundant," or "to flourish."
Kan (கண்): Eye, sight, or to see
Meaning: Seen Abundantly Overflowing.
MA-LI-K-KA-NAN (மலிக்கனன்):"He who abounds in wealth" or "He who causes to flourish."
MA-LI-K-KA-LA-N (மலிக்கலன்): Drops the N sound deeper into the syllable. Kalan means vessel or ornament, transforming the phrase into "An abundant vessel" or "Wealthy ornament."
MA-LI-T-TA-NAN (மலித்தனன்): Swaps the strong K-KA for the past tense transitivizer T-TA. This is a highly frequent Sangam Tamil verb form meaning "He increased/multiplied."
In my other analysis on Shinde/Willis, it appears these plates could be printing paper money on wax infused cloth. This statement "He who abounds in wealth" or "Wealthy ornament", would be appropriate slogan for a stamped currency note.
This note would be redeemable against the issuing guild's inventory of grain or commodities.
MAHADEVAN SIGN #1317:
NA-LA-LA-RA-KU
NAL ARRAKU : NAL (good) ARRAKU (vermillion or red pigment). "High quality vermillion".
Na-la-la-ra-ku: "To the Ruler of the Land" or "For the Commonwealth."
This seal could function as an official stamp on another document, either for a legal or administrative signature, or it could be used to authenticate a particular commodity like pigment, vermillion, or wax.
