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Page: Indus Script Dictionary--SIGNS
INDUS SCRIPT DICTIONARY
LAST UPDATE:
1/13/2011
copyright S. M. Sullivan 2010
Indus inscriptions are read from left to right as with any inscription in Brahmi or Devanagari script. However, when you read a seal, you are looking at a reversed image, so it is read from right to left. (The impression made by the seal is read left to right, however.) To make things even more confusing, some of the photos show reversed images, and the Harappan people seem not to have followed their left to right writing orientation very consistently. I include directional arrows with seal images to reduce confusion. Signs are after Mahadevan.
"EX ORIENTE LUX"
Table Of Contents
By examining Sumerian pre-cuneiform signs (at left), it is possible to find links between Sumerian and Indian writing. The Sumerian sign for 'god' probably evolved into the Indus script spoked wheel 'ra' sign. The Sumerian signs for water ('a') and day ('ud') used in 3000 BC are identical to the Indus script signs 'ha' and 'dhu'.
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a
Related to Tamil 'al', (man, servant), per Iravatham Mahadevan. Related forms in Brahmi and Devanagari script are rotated onto side. The ancient Tamil treatise 'ThirukkuRaL' begins,   '"A" leads, is prime of the letters; the ancient Lord leads, is prime of the world."
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ag
The 'ag' sign depicts a fire-bow, used for kindling a need-fire.
The lines on either side of our man are diacritical marks indicating the vowel 'a'. Sometimes they stand alone, and sometime they are underneath a sign such as 'y' to change it to 'ya'.
aa
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am
aksh
Related to Sanskrit 'aksh', (eye).
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an
Related to Dravidian 'amp' or 'anth', (jar), per Iravatham Mahadevan.
ar
Related to Sanskrit 'arya', (noble, fair, just).
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Related to Sanskrit 'ashta', (eight). This sign depicts spiders or crabs. There are many alternate forms which generally resemble bugs, several show the head and body of the original spider (which still appear in the Hindu-Arabic numeral 8). The sign was identified from a Tamil child's counting song lyric, which says that a spider has 8 legs.
ash
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ba
Related to Sanskrit 'bharja', (birch), the square sign shows a sheet of birchbark paper, a writing medium known to have been used in ancient north India. (The Semitic sign 'beth', which means house, may have been borrowed from ancestors of Latins or Celts, as 'betulus' or 'beth' means birch in these language families).
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bi
'Bi' is 'ba' with a diacritical mark indicating a short 'i' vowel follows the consonant.
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bra
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cha
Related to Sanskrit 'chahur', (four). This stroke tally numeral depicts four fingers.
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chi?
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dasa (10) or da
Related to Sanskrit 'dasa' (ten), this sign is also called double-bangle, and has been noted inscribed on bangles. The sign was identified from study of a Tamil childrens' counting song lyric which says, 'two hands have ten fingers.' There is an alternate form of this sign which resembles an hourglass on its side; this may have developed later into the Roman numeral 'X' (ten). Writer Gyan Gupta connects this sign with the deity Vishnu and the Sumerian number 20, and gives it the phonetic value 'vinsh' .
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de1
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de2
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Related to Sanskrit 'deva' (god). The lower rake may symbolize the world of men, and the upper one, the deva realm.
deva
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Related to Sanskrit 'devaka' (of a god), this sign combines the signs 'deva' and 'ka'. The Yiddish word 'dybbuk' (person possessed by a devil) may be cognate, if one assumes the word 'devaka' entered Akkadian as a loan word, and passed into Hebrew and then Yiddish.
devaka
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Related to Sanskrit 'chief of the god'.
devendra
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dha
Related to Brahmi script 'dha', and the Sanskrit word 'dhanush', (bow).
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dhu
Related to pre-cuneiform Sumerian sign 'ud', (day), this sign originally showed a horizontal orientation of the sun rising, but was upended for use in Indus script.
Sumerian pre-cuneiform sign 'ud' (day)
(image: Indus Script Cipher by S. Kalyanamaran)
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dhva
Related to Sanskrit 'banner'.
dra
Related to Sanskrit 'daru', (tree).
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eka
Related to Sanskrit 'eka', (one), this sign sometimes precedes a personal name on a seal.
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ga
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Pre-cuneiform Sumerian sign 'a' (water)
(image: Indus Script Cipher by S. Kalyanaraman)
ha
This sign may derive from 'halu', (Kannada for milk), but the Sumerian pre-cuneiform sign for water, 'a', is identical except for having a horizontal orientation instead of vertical.
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Related to Sumerian 'hada' (dried fish).
he
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in
This is the 'an' jar with an internal diacritical mark indicating a short 'i' vowel.
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ja
Writer Gyan Gupta gives this sign the value 'esh' and the meaning of 'deity'. If so, the name I have rendered as 'Jatharan' actually reads 'Eshtharan'.
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ka
Related to the Brahmi sign 'ka'.
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kam
kan
This sign depicts a room, and may be derived from an Indo-European root, ancestral to such words as Latin 'camera' or German 'Kammer'.
This sign depicts a sweet wrapped in banana leaf.
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kar
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ko
Related to Tamil 'kombu', horn.
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ku
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la
Related to Brahmi 'la'.
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li
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ma1
Related to Dravidian 'meen' (fish), per Father Heras. Varied forms of this sign have a bar or dot internally, or upward pointing pectoral fins. The Brahmi form of this sign is inverted, tail up.
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ma2
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Related to Tamil 'nangal' (plow).
Na1
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na2
Related to Sumerian 'nang' (drink), this sign shows a cross-section of a cup with a drinking tube in it. Such copper tubes have been found at   Harappan sites.
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naa1
Related to 'naan', (bread), and possibly a loan word from the pre-cuneiform Sumerian 'ninda', (bread), a sign that also looks like a pizza slice. Naan bread is often cut into pizza-slice type pieces before it is served.
Pre-cuneiform Sumerian sign 'ninda' (bread)
(image: Indus Script Cipher by S. Kalyanaraman)
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naa2
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ndra
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nga
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ni
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nsa
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nta
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nu
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Related to Brahmi script 'o'.
o
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pa
This sign is identical to the Greek capital letter 'pi', but the Brahmi form of   Harappan 'pa' is inverted.
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pri
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pu
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ra
Related to an Indo-European root ancestral to Latin 'rota' (wheel) and German 'Rad'(wheel), this common sign is frequently used along with the 'vi' sign to spell the name of the Hindu sun god 'Ravi.'
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From an Indo-European root ancestral to the German word 'Roggen' (rye) and similar words, this sign also appears in Linear B as 're'. (Rye is a favored food grain in the Slavic regions of Europe, where men tend to carry the M172 marker gene, a gene also common among Greek and South Asian men.) There may be a punning association between rye and royalty in European languages; the 're' sign is used to spell the word 're-ja', the Harappan form of 'raja', or king. 'Rya' is the older pronunciation of 're'.
Linear B 're'
re, rya
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ri
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rNa
rta
Related to Sanskrit 'rta', order, rule, truth.
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ru
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Related to Tamil 'Selv' (son).
s'elv
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sa
Related to Sanskrit 'Shash' (six).
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sau
Related to Sanskrit 'sapta' (seven). The Harappan form of this word was possibly 'saumpta'.
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sh
Related to the Sumerian pre-cuneiform sign 'she' (barley, seed). The Harappan version has a fat oval around it, perhaps to represent a barleycorn, or differentiate it from the sign 're' (rye). The Hebrew letter 'shin' bears a resemblance to the central part of the Harappan sign 'sh', and the two symbols may share a common origin in Sumer.
Pre-cuneiform Sumerian sign 'she' (barley)
(image: Indus Script Cipher by S. Kalyanaraman)
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shi
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shu
Related to the Sumerian sign 'shu' (hand). This sign is identical to Linear Elamite 'shu', in which the thumb and palm have been dropped, and only the twelve (or in an abbreviated form, nine) segments of the four fingers remain.
Pre-cuneiform Sumerian sign 'shu' (hand)
(image: Indus Script Cipher by S. Kalyanaraman)
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sur?
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ta
Related to the Brahmi script sign 'ta'.
t?
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Th
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Tha
This sign depicts a pipal leaf.
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tha
Related to the Brahmi script sign 'tha'.
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tri
Related to the Sanskrit 'tri' (three).
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trik?
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u
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va
Related to the Brahmi script sign 'va' and the Tamil word 'vel' (spear).
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vah
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vahi
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vi
Related to the old form of Sanskrit 'dvi' (two). Although pronunciation of this glyph in later forms of Sanskrit may have been 'vi', the oldest form was likely pronounced 'dwee.'
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y
Related to the Tamil 'aintu' (five), this sign once depicted a closed fist. Lateral compression has turned it into a comb-like sign, however. The Sanskrit word for 5, 'pancha' is obviously related to 'panika' (hand), but this was not a good fit.
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ya1
This is the comb sign 'y' with a diacritical mark indicating an 'a' vowel.
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The 'a' glyph with a 'y' comb.
ya2
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yama
Related to the Hindu deity Yama, god of death. Legend has it that Yama was the first man, and had a twin sister called Yami. The Yamuna river is named for them.
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