From: sen@sun2.vlsi (Subhajit Sen)
Subject: Deciphering of the script of the ancient Harappan civilization
Originator: sen@sun2.vlsi.waterloo.edu
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 22:23:23 GMT

The following article is about the deciphering of the Harappan scripts
by two "amateur" archaeologists from India. For those who are not aware,
the Harappan civilization dates back to approximateley 3000 BC and
was discovered by John Marshall in 1921 (as I recollect). Excavations
from this civilization have been located mostly in northwestern India (Gujrat,
Punjab,Haryana) and Pakistan(Sind,Baluchistan). A rich collection of seals
and pottery have been unearthed bearing a script which had remained
undeciphered since then. The article is a news item from Times 
of India daily newspaper and has been transcribed by Deepak Srivastava
(DXS23@PSUVM.PSU.EDU).


Times of India: July 5, 1992

A district transport officer, in the most backward regions
of Bihar, helped by a senior IAS officer claims to have
deciphered ancient Harappan script thus opening the gate
way to understanding the ancient indus vally civilization.

Mr. N. K. Varma, the district transport officer in Bhagalpur,
and Mr. Arun Pathak, a senior IAS officer, have been working
on this for last 15 years. Mr. Varma has finally succeded on
the cost nearly going blind.

According to him the script is still living and finds frequent
mention in the languages, ritual symbols and festival prayers
of Santhal tribe people of south Bihar. Armed with his research
Mr.Varma claims to have deciphered all the intact Mohanjodaro
inscriptions. He can decipher almost all of the inscriptions
but their are some words whose meaning he is not equipped to
define. For him this is then a job of linguists.

It all began in 1978 when he started researching on social,
religious and cultural heritage of Santhals. He found many
of the diagrams in their religious and festival prayers had
remarkable similarity with those found in Harappan inscript-
ions. Over a period of years he collected about 2000 such
diagrams and got them painted and bound in two volumes. Intense
interactions with tribal leaders revealed that these diagrams
had 'sound values'. After putting the diagrams and their
sound values together Mr. Varma has pieced together a series
of alphabets and their phonetic values.

Using this information he has deciphered many inscriptions in
consultations with scholars from Calcutta and Bombay. A signi-
ficant inference is that the sound values of the letters and
Devnagri script are almost same. It is noticed that one specific
letter contains one specific sound value but one letter can be
represented or written in different diagrams. Every letter has
a legend and most of them are connected to deities.

Several Indus script words are used by Santhal tribes in their
folk songs, which also talk about their migration from indus
vally civilization. Scholars are full of appreciation of Varma-
Pathak duo's work but sound some caution. Mr. Joshi, the direc-
tor general of the Archeological Society of India says that the
scholarly world like to see more incotrovertible proof in the
form of photographs, video recordings and slides of resemblence.

Experts would like to archeologically establish that Santhals
indeed migrated from the indus vally to as far as Bihar, and
also its route. Secondly if the tradition of transcript was
carried over from the indus vally to Bihar, the evidence of
food habits in the form of potteries belonging to the period
should be found in several places but yet to be unearthed in
areas inhabited by the Santhals.

"But the interest by non-professionals is appreciated and if
only a fraction of the claim is found to be true it could me-
an a major breakthrough" said Mr. Joshi.


ps: The article is not reproduced verbatim. For brevity I
have used my language at places. Enjoy it.
regards..                                  Deepak