CONTENTS:- 1. Historiography of the decipherment of the Indus Script; 2. A pre-Harappan compartmented Terracotta Seal from Indiranagar Mound (Kanpur); 3. Pre-Harappan compartmented Terracotta Seals of the Ganga Valley; 4. Harappans in the Ganga-Gomati Doab; 5. New light on some Harappan seals and sealings; 6. Indian civilization through its earliest seals and sealings; 7. Three Harappan seals from Kalibangan (Bikaner) : an appraisal; 8. Decoding the Indus Script; 9. The significance of 'Panca' in the Harappan inscriptions; Conclusion; Bibliography; Appendices; Reading of the inscribed seals with reference number and their decipherment.
DESCRIPTION
The Indus-Saraswati script is thought to be enigmatic as regards its decipherment, but it is not so any longer. It is India's one of the most simple and easiest ancient scripts. It is the unique by-product of the Indian genius and appears to have borrowed little from any other script of the contemporary ancient world. The direction of its writing is mostly, from left to right as we have the present day 'Devanagari' script, but in rare cases it is from right to left. Certain examples of boustrophedon writing are also there. The language of the Indus-Saraswati writings is 'Prakrit' and 'Vedic Sanskrit'. Interestingly, the names of the 'Puranas' and 'Vedic Hymns' find a place in the seals. Mathematical calculations, numerals, brackets synonyms, adjectives etc. show a remarkable height in the use of semantics and prosody. Again, the use of diacritical marks and combination of letters is the chief characteristics of Indus-Saraswati writings which is not to be seen elsewhere in any other script of the old world. Present book is the lifetime achievement of the author who has devoted precious 38 years of his academic life to the pursuit and decipherment of this illusive yet interesting script of India. It is self-rewarding to taste the nectar of Saraswati-Indus streams flowing into the great ocean of knowledge and wisdom.
