VI.-Harappa Seals and Antiquity of Writing in India (with plate)*

By Rai Bahadur Bishun Svarup.

In the foregoing chapter mention has been made of three ancient Indian writings, viz. (1) the letters on the pottery found in the cairns in Southern India, (2) the writing on the rocks at Rájgír in the Patna District of Bihar and (3) the writing on the seals found in the north-west of India, which are better known as Harappá seals. None of these has yet been deciphered. It is a pity the pottery recovered from the cairns was reduced to such a state of disintegration that only a copy of the letters could be taken, without their arrangement, so it is impossible to read this remnant of perhaps the most ancient Asiatic writing.

The inscriptions at Rájgír (Patna), probably engraved when the old town of Rajagriba was in a flourishing condition, are comparatively modern. No serious attempt seems to have been made to read these inscriptions.

The same may be said of the Harappâ seals. Five seals have up till now been discovered. 1 Three of these (marked A, B, C) have been described by Dr. J. F. Fleet in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1912, pages €99 to 701. The other two were discovered lately by Sir John Marshall, the DirectorGeneral of Archæology. The accompanying plate gives approximate copies of the facsimiles of the five seals. Of the first *To be read in connexion with the author's paper published J. B. O. R. S. 1922, ending at page 119.

Since writing this some more seals have been unearthed by Archeological Department in strata decidedly pre-Mauriyan.

three, the inscription on the seal marked B has been tentatively read by Cunningham from left to right as "La-a-chh-mi-ya; and that on C by Fleet, starting from the same side as “Ka-lomo-lo-gu-ta"; Mr. K. P. Jayaswal, in an article in the Indian Antiquary of July 1913, reads the seal A as "di-vya-ba-lo " reading from right to left. He also suggests C to be read from right to left and makes the legend as "ta-pu-lo-mo-lo-go". None of these readings, except that of Mr. Jayaswal of the seal A, has any meaning. No interpretation has yet been offered of the other seals.

It will be found that in reading the seals it has been assumed that the script is either Bráhmí or allied to it and the interpreters could not think of any other method of writing. They evidently believed in the theory of Bûhler and others that the Indian writing started with Bráhmi letters which had their origin in Semitic scripts. This theory we have seen has no real foundation to stand upon, and must be given up before we try to read these seals. The writing here is clearly pictorial and we cannot decipher them unless we keep this in mind; also it exhibits clear vowel signs added to the letters which is, so far as known, an exclusive Indian feature and shows that the script is Indian. It is therefore possible to read the letters if we can hit upon the proper Sanskrita names of the articles represented, and in what follows an attempt will be made to do this.

In the five seals we have the following letters, removing the possible vowel marks:

In seal B there is another letter at the end which is

not very distinct.

The vowel or other marks are given below :

Now number (1) is the figure of a star, which is represented by the single lettered word hence this letter is ✈ (bh).

No. 2 looks like a crown called "Makuta " in Sanskrita. Hence this letter is (m) ♬ The single lettered word means moon, and as this sign is generally used for in words like Om and is known as "chandra vindu", it is probable the shape of a crescent and dot is given to the letter for that reason.

No. (3) is a stick called "danda" in Sanskrita. Hence this letter is (d).

No. (4) represents a piece of cloth hanging from the shoulders (worn by Hindus and now known as chádar). It is therefore (v), the single letter word meaning cloth. The figure might have been meant to represent a rope hanging from pegs. The Sanskrita word "vata" or "vati" rope. In this case also the letter is a ☎ (v).

means a

No. (5) is not quite distinct in the seal and cannot well be deciphered.

which is called

No. (6) looks like the blade of an arrow "Sara" in Sanskrita. The letter is therefore (S). lettered word also

means a weapon.

The one

No. (7) is difficult to make out. The figure represents two wheels, the word for a wheel being "chakra" the letter may be (ch); but it cannot be said why two wheels have been shown. It is possible this is either 1 or lingual and is the origin of the present Devnágarí letter or which do not seem to have been derived from the Bráhmí.