Indian Antiquary Vol 62

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 226

214
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ NOVEMBER, 1933
Confining ourselves here to the script found at Mohenjodaro, we may note that it contains signs in common with the Vikramkhol inscription, and with old inscriptions found especially in Central Asia, Mesopotamia and Egypt. For some of the signs an Asiatic provenance has been unmistakably established. Certain signs, again, have been interpreted as meaning
son', sun', 'moon', 'temple', 'king', 'god '; others as representing charms. In particular Prof. S. Langdon has noted that:
(1) the Indus inscriptions are to be read from right to left; (2) some of the signs must be independent of the phrases or words; (3) certain signs are similar to those of ancient inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Egypt, etc.; (4) these it may be possible to interpret with the aid of old Sumerian; (5) the Indus script is predominantly syllabic.
It is indeed interesting to find linguistic affinities with words of the Sumerian, Elamite and other kindred tongues, and between certain signs and letters of the Brahmi script. Take the instance of the Indian (Sans.) word mudra, Gk. Múdpos, a lump of (hot) metal', Sumerian mudru, comb'. Now the sign representing a comb occurs frequently both on the ancient Hyderabad pottery and on that found in the Indus Valley.
In the CIE. also we find a syllabic script predominant, reading from right to left a prevalent feature, and in certain inscriptions several signs which should be regarded as independent or separate from the lines of script, etc.-a few coincidences, not fortuitous, these, which must not be overlooked. Nor must we forget the "Etruscan affinities in a Ras Shamra tablet " pointed out by the late Dr. A. H. Sayce, where that illustrious scholar agrees with the present writer in some of his grammatical and lexical remarks, and where he considers the Etruscan words aisar, aesar, eiser, god ', quoting in evidence kiooi. Geoi, ünÒ Tup'pinov (Hesychius), as related to A. 8.7 of the tablet referred to.
In this connexion reference should be made also to the cases of material correspondence between, for example, the Etruscan iluu of the famous Devotio' of Monte Pitti (Campiglia Marittima) and the Akkadian l-lum, a family or clan name, which also occurs frequently in Sumerian epigraphs; with the Hittite láni, the name of a divinity in several hieroglyphic inscriptions ; with the Chaldean Ilou, a name for the supreme deity found in inscriptions in Asia and Mesopotamia ; with the Yoruba Ilo-, Ilu-, roots of place and family names in Northern Nigeria
Availing of the decipherment of some signs of the Indus script which decorate some pieces of pottery excavated at Mohenjodaro and Harappa, we shall try to interpret the corresponding signs of the CIE. For the present the following brief notes are recorded for consideration
(a) The signs II, VI, X, XXXVIII, XLII, XLIII in col. A are numerals. These signs occur respectively under the base of a small vase", CIE. 3316 ;" on a piece of broken tufa stone", CIE. 5019; " under the base of vases", CII. 2260e; "on the upper side of a weaver's weight ", CIE. 8368 ; in the Cavone di Fantibassi, “just half-way along the trench", CIE. 84270;" on the neck and on the middle of an oinochoe", CIE. 8304;" under the base" of the saucers, CIE. 8302 and 8303 ; "on the walls of the excavated way", CIE. 84270 ;
6 Indian Antiquary, LXII (1933), p. 58 f. 7 JRAS., 1932, Pt. I, p. 43 f.
8 Cf. my paper on the "Metodo etimologico-combinatorio per l'interpretazione dei testi etruschi " in the Actes du deuxième Congrés International de Linguistes, Geneva, 1933.
The sign IIa (col. A) engraved, for instance, on the cup CIE. 8066 is usually confused with the sign IIb or the sign VI. Hero, however, we have to deal with two different signs, inasmuch as that of CIE. 8066 is a syllabic sign, while those of CIE. 5089, CII. 2260V, etc., aro numorals, rather than "lapidary's marka," as will be seen when I deal with this question.