Call of the Lost Ages - A Study of the Indus Valley Script

Indus script

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The Harappan script and the language question is shrouded in mystery. Hindutva ideologues have tried to draw links between Sanskrit and the Indus Valley script. This is not the case. It appears from things like certain signs occurring often at the ends of inscriptions, which indicate grammatical suffixes, which could mean that the language encoded by the script was a Dravidian one. Can this be proven scientifically?

Relation Between Harappan And Brahmi Scripts | Zenodo

How have historians resolved the language question? Much of archaeological reasoning remains inferential. Inference is different from speculation and most people do not realise this. There is a renewed interest among a large section of the Sangh parivar to draw similarities between the Rgvedic Age and the Indus Valley civilisation, both in terms of chronology and culture. Most professional historians believe that the two civilisations did not coincide and culturally they did not resemble much.

What is your opinion? These are tiresome old questions — scholars should, by now, have moved on. In the Bronze Age we have an urban civilisation organised at the level of the state.

The Rgveda is a collection of hymns to be recited at the time of ritual conducted by priests for individuals. What we can cull out from the Rgveda text — which is hard to understand, it being in Vedic and not classical Sanskrit — is a society organised on kinship.

Rakhigarhi was known even when I wrote that book. It is not the only site on the alleged ancient Sarasvati.

I do not say that one site, however large, will make a difference. In your book you have also explored a range of possibilities as reasons for the decline of the civilisation — from natural calamities to the end of overseas trade.

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However, the film definitively shows a devastating flood as the reason, following which some survivors migrated to the Indo-Gangetic plains, from where the Vedic age emerged. For reasons of visual narrative, I suppose floods would be easier to show. While no civilisation can cease because of a single flood, we cannot for our part become orthodox and say not this, not that.

We know that the Indus Valley civilisation was an evolved urban economy as opposed to a largely rural, pastoral Vedic Age. The knowledge of iron in the Rgvedic Age also marks a departure point from the Bronze Age civilisations prior to that. You have researched about the Mehrgarh site to establish continuities between pre-Harappan and Harappan periods. With the continuity aspect between the Vedic Age and Harappan period making a political comeback, could you tell us a little about how historians themselves have dealt with the change or continuity question during this long period? Some insist that weights, for instance, show a continuity, but cubical weights are not known in the early historic period, just the system of counting or measuring — and it is evident centuries after the end of the Harappan period.

What happened in the interim? Again, the iconic long carnelian beads were not made any more. The system of writing vanished — one or two resemblances to Harappan signs is not tantamount to a writing system.

Call Of The Lost Ages Quotes

People did not use long chert blades for agricultural and household work after BC or so. Most importantly, there is a large scale desertion of Harappan towns and villages instead of continued occupation until the Iron Age. There is no slow and gradual cultural transformation at sites and in any case there are different regions of occupation, different crops too in some place. This is something most archaeologists refuse to do — either because it requires a lot of reading or out of some misplaced sense of superiority saying our that civilisation is unique,.

Any conversation about the Harappan civilisation brings about the politically controversial topic of Aryans — whether they migrated, invaded or were autochthonous. The film clearly veers towards them being indigenous. This question has become so important that DNA samples of excavated dead bodies have been sent to test. Do any skeletons have surviving DNA? And how big a sample would we need? Today, various excavations and its findings in Harappan sites are turned and twisted according to different political interests.

As an archaeologist, what do you think are the most important or relevant questions about the Indus Valley civilisation that need to be the focus, something that will help us understand the period better. We need to reinstate warfare as an aspect of Harappan life.

They are there at Mohenjo-daro, at Surkotada and at other sites — and can no longer be brushed under the carpet. Evidence of 'Vedic Yajna' in Indus inscriptions. F Dholavira - Bhoot Pradesh. G Dholavira sign board deciphered.

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H Aryan Invasion theory is wrong. Name of the Priest King of Mohenjo Daro. New copper plates from Pakistan. Power point presentation on IVC. Weighing of heart ceremony. Zakhastha Sastha was the ancient name of modern god 'Ayyappan'. Kalan' name - evolutionary changes. Moon God of Indus people. Ram God of Indus Civilization. Shiva's - Back bone - controller.

Animal Hoofs burnt in Yagna. Fourth quarter -of- an animal. Hundredth animal to be sacrificed. Seven fold seven - Tortoises -Sacrificed. Karkida - Maga - Pazu. Sacrifice to satisfy souls of Pithru's Ancestors. Brick symbol indicates Istikrta ceremony. Manimekalai and Chakravala symbol. Various allographs of'ka' syllable.

Tra-Mirga of Indus seals. Ancient weights and measures -Dongre. Bee symbol indicates - boat man -charon.

This was a very interesting and unique book. The author must have done a tremendous amount of research over extensive years before putting his findings on paper. It's a study of the Indus Valley script and its civilization. I must admit, I don't usually read books with genres that I have no knowledge about but reading the synopsis, it sounded fascinating. I'm glad I did, it made me realize that there are many civilizations around the world that are declining fast It's extremely sad to say the least. What Subhajit has done is reawaken and bring back to life at least one of these ancient peoples worlds and make us aware of the "Call of the Lost Ages".

Dec 20, Terry Graap rated it it was amazing. A well research history of the Indus Valley scripts. Pallavi Prasad rated it it was amazing Mar 17, Garner rated it it was amazing Mar 22, Jaisurya Banerjea rated it it was amazing Mar 30, Deepak Rana rated it really liked it Jul 19, Priyanka rated it it was amazing Mar 22, Somnath Mahalanabis rated it it was amazing Mar 06, Arkadeep Banerjee rated it it was amazing Oct 07, Good work Nicely written facts and compilation of research. Stunning Mess marked it as to-read Aug 14, AryaTheFangirl added it Sep 14, Pradeep added it Jul 16, Wordsl Dreamsl marked it as to-read Sep 12, Ian Donnelly marked it as to-read Jan 31, Lynn marked it as to-read Feb 25, Blaine Allison marked it as to-read Dec 06, Stephanie Snyder marked it as to-read May 12, Nicolas Perrault is currently reading it Jun 13, Jordan Kennedy marked it as to-read Oct 25, Karenacuff marked it as to-read Nov 11, Paige marked it as to-read Nov 13, Somyajeet marked it as to-read Dec 02, Ioan-Alexandru marked it as to-read May 03, Hafeel Nasir marked it as to-read Oct 23, Art marked it as to-read Oct 27, Dawn Green marked it as to-read Oct 30, Krishna marked it as to-read Nov 18, Andrew marked it as to-read Mar 26, Stunning Mess marked it as to-read Aug 19, Vamsi marked it as to-read Oct 18, Alan marked it as to-read Oct 11,

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