Harappan script

History glossary

Also called: Indus script, Sindhu lipi · Topic: Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvati) Civilisation · NCERT: Class 6, Ch 6 "The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation"; Class 9, Ch 4 "Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation"; Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones"

Meaning

The Harappan script (also called the Indus script or Sindhu lipi) is the undeciphered writing of the Harappan Civilisation. It has about 375–400 signs and was written from right to left in short inscriptions. It matters because it shows the Harappans were a literate urban society. But since nobody can read it yet, we still cannot hear the Harappans speak in their own words.

Explanation

What kind of script it is

  • It has too many signs to be an alphabet.
  • It has about 375–400 distinct signs.
  • An alphabet usually needs only a few dozen letters.

  • So scholars think it was probably logo-syllabic. In such a script, some signs stand for whole words or ideas, and others stand for sounds (syllables).

  • It is still undeciphered. No one has read it with certainty yet.

  • No long text has been found. No bilingual inscription (the same text written in two scripts, one of them known) has been found either. This is a big reason the script is still unread.

Direction of writing

  • It was written right to left.
  • On many seals, the signs on the left side are squeezed together.
  • This shows the engraver began on the right and ran out of space on the left.

Length and surfaces

  • Inscriptions are very short. The longest single inscription has only about 26 signs.
  • The script is found on many objects:
  • seals (small carved stamps)
  • copper tools
  • rims of jars
  • copper and terracotta tablets
  • jewellery
  • bone rods
  • the monumental Dholavira signboard

The Dholavira signboard: the script in public view

  • It has 10 large symbols, and each sign is about 37 cm high [2].
  • The signs were made of white gypsum inlay (pieces of white mineral set into the wood, like a mosaic). They were fixed on a wooden board about 3 m long [2].
  • It was found at the north gate of the citadel (the raised, fortified part of the city) [2].
  • It belongs to the site's classical Stage IV phase [2].
  • Scholars think it was a civic nameplate, a sign at the city entrance [2].
  • It shows the script was not used only on small private objects. It was also shown in public.

How the script was used and what it tells us

  • On seals, it was used for trade and identity.
  • A standard steatite seal (steatite is a soft stone that is easy to carve and hardens when fired) has an animal motif, such as a unicorn or bull, and a short line of script.
  • The script line probably gave the owner's name or title.

  • Seals were pressed on clay to make sealings, which closed bags of goods. An unbroken sealing showed that the goods had not been opened and confirmed who sent them.

  • The true level of literacy is unknown.

  • People may have written on perishable materials such as cloth or palm-leaf-like material.

  • These have not survived, so we cannot know how much was really written.

  • Its result for historians: every idea about Harappan trade, government and religion has to come from outside evidence. This means objects, weights, where seals are found, and Mesopotamian records, not from the Harappans' own writing.

Time, place and evidence

  • Period: Harappan Civilisation, c. 3500–1300 BCE. Its mature (city) phase was c. 2600–1900 BCE.
  • Region: the Indus–Sarasvati region of the north-western Indian subcontinent. The script appears across Harappan sites.
  • Named site: Dholavira, where the signboard was found at the citadel's north gate, in the Stage IV phase [2].
  • Evidence:
  • inscribed steatite seals and clay sealings
  • inscriptions on copper tools, jar rims, copper and terracotta tablets, jewellery and bone rods

  • the Dholavira signboard [2]

  • Outside contact: Mesopotamian cuneiform texts call the Harappan region Meluhha. Harappan-style seals have also been found in the Persian Gulf region. So the script travelled along trade routes, but no text that translates it has been found.

Don't confuse with

  • Brahmi script: Brahmi is written left to right and has been deciphered. Ashoka's inscriptions were written in it. The Harappan script is right to left, much older and still unread.
  • Kharosthi script: Kharosthi is also written right to left, but it belongs to a much later period and has been deciphered. Do not choose it when a question asks about the "undeciphered right-to-left script".
  • Mesopotamian cuneiform: Cuneiform is wedge-shaped writing that has been read. Its tablets mention Meluhha, Dilmun and Magan. It is a source about the Harappans, not the Harappans' own script.
  • Harappan weights: these cubical chert weights are unmarked. They carry no script or numbers, unlike seals.

Prelims Hooks

  • Harappan script (Sindhu lipi) has 375–400 signs, so it is not alphabetic. It is probably logo-syllabic.
  • It was written right to left. We know this because signs are cramped on the left side of seals.
  • The longest known inscription has about 26 signs. The script is still undeciphered.
  • Dholavira signboard: 10 white gypsum-inlaid signs, each about 37 cm high, on a wooden board about 3 m long, found at the citadel's north gate [2].
  • Seals were made of steatite and combine an animal motif with a line of script.
  • Trap: the script appears on seals, tablets, jar rims, copper tools, jewellery and bone rods, but not on Harappan weights, which are unmarked.

Mains Points

  • The undeciphered script is the biggest limit on our knowledge of the Harappans.
  • We cannot read their own records about rulers, laws, religion or trade.
  • So historians rely on archaeology and on Mesopotamian texts about Meluhha.

  • Any answer on Harappan government or society should mention this limit.

  • The script shows an organised, literate city culture.

  • It was used for authentication on seals and sealings in long-distance trade.
  • It was used for marking ownership on tools, jars and jewellery.

  • It was used for public display, as on the Dholavira signboard at the city gate [2].

  • Short inscriptions and lost writing materials leave open questions.

  • Were only a few people, such as merchants or officials, able to write?
  • Or was writing more common, using perishable materials that have not survived?
  • This links to the wider debate on how Harappan society was organised.

Related concepts

Read more

Sources

  1. 1Class 6, Ch 6 "The Beginnings of Indian Civilisation"; Class 9, Ch 4 "Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation"; Class 12, Ch 1 "Bricks, Beads and Bones" (primary)
  2. 2Dholavira and Its Mysterious Sign Boardharappa.com · tier 3