Harappan Script
Among the biggest mysteries about the Harappan civilisation are the language the Harappans spoke, and their writing system. What language they spoke, and what they read and wrote, is still not very clear to us — we have discovered the written script of the Harappans, but it has not yet been deciphered.
- The messages on the seals have proved too short to be decoded even by computer.
- Each seal has a distinctive combination of symbols, and the symbols accompanying the images (pictographs) vary from seal to seal — making it impossible to derive a stable meaning for the symbols from the accompanying images.
- It is likely that people living in various parts of the Harappan culture zone spoke different languages and dialects; the writing on the seals was probably in the language of the ruling elite.
- Some scholars have suggested that this language belonged to the Dravidian family of languages, while others have argued in favour of the Indo-Aryan family.
- However, there is, as yet, no consensus on the affiliation of the Harappan language, or on the decipherment of the script.
The Corpus of Harappan Writing
- A total of about 3,700 inscribed objects have been found at Harappan sites.
- Most of the writing appears on seals and sealings, with some found on copper tablets, copper/bronze implements, pottery, and other miscellaneous objects.
- About half of all inscribed objects have been found at Mohenjodaro, and the two sites of Mohenjodaro and Harappa together account for about 87 per cent of all inscribed material.
- Most of the inscriptions are very short, with an average of five signs. The longest known inscription has 26 signs — the famous Dholavira “signboard.”
Features of the Script
- The script seems to have emerged in a fully evolved state, and does not show any significant changes over time.
- There are 400–450 basic signs, and the script is logo-syllabic — that is, each symbol stood for a word or a syllable.
- It was generally written, and meant to be read, from right to left (this direction is reversed on the seals themselves). There are, however, a few instances of writing from left to right.
- Longer inscriptions, consisting of more than one line, were sometimes written in the boustrophedon style — with consecutive lines starting in opposite directions.
Seals
- Writing appears very frequently on the seals. Some seals were impressed onto small, moist clay tablets known as sealings, probably by merchants, to authenticate their bales of merchandise.
- The evidence of textile impressions on some sealings supports this interpretation.
- However, more seals than sealings have been found, and the seals themselves are generally worn at the edges, rather than in the middle — suggesting that some seals may have had other functions as well:
- They may have been tokens, used in the buying and selling of goods.
- They may also have been worn as amulets, or used as identification markers (like modern identity cards) by well-to-do people, such as landowners, merchants, priests, artisans, and rulers — possibly used to symbolise families or clans.
- Those no longer in use must have been intentionally broken, so that they could not be misused by anybody.
- Tablets with narrative scenes may have had a religious or ritualistic function.
Miniature Tablets
- Writing also appears on miniature tablets made of steatite, terracotta, and faience.
- Since these objects were not used to make impressions, unlike the seals, the writing on them was not reversed.
Copper Tablets
- Rectangular copper tablets, with writing and animal motifs, were found at Mohenjodaro, while a few tablets with raised writing were found at Harappa.
- The limited number of places where they occur suggests a restricted use.
Writing on Pottery
- The evidence of writing on pottery suggests a wider use of writing in craft production and economic transactions.
- Even if the potters who made the marks on their pots were themselves illiterate, they must have been able to recognise the symbols.
- Pointed goblets sometimes carry seal impressions, which may have indicated the name or status of the person for whom the pot was made.
- Items like copper and bronze tools, stoneware bangles, bone pins, and gold jewellery were also sometimes inscribed.
- A copper vessel found at Mohenjodaro contained a large number of gold objects, including four ornaments with tiny inscriptions, all apparently written by the same hand — probably giving the name of the owner.
- Some of the writing inscribed or painted on personal possessions, such as bangles, tools, beads, and bone rods, may have had some sort of magico-religious or ritualistic significance.
- The Dholavira “signboard” may or may not indicate a high level of urban literacy, but it does indicate a civic use of writing.
What the Script Tells Us
- It is likely that only a very small proportion of Harappan written material survives, and that people also wrote on perishable material.
- The evidence of a common script across the vast Harappan culture zone shows a high level of cultural integration.
- The virtual disappearance of the script by c. 1700 BCE suggests both a close connection between writing and city life, and the lack of sufficient downward percolation of writing into the wider population.
- One notable feature of the script is that it did not change throughout the life of the Harappan civilisation.
- All other ancient scripts show distinct changes over time — this indicates that the Harappan script was not in common use, and that perhaps only a very small section of privileged scribes held a monopoly over the written word.
- Whether they had some kind of school for teaching, as was the case in contemporary Mesopotamia, is not known to us.
Conclusion
The Harappan script remains one of the great unsolved puzzles of ancient history — a fully formed, logo-syllabic writing system, widely and consistently used across an enormous cultural zone, on seals, tablets, pottery, and personal ornaments, yet one that changed remarkably little over its lifetime and vanished almost entirely with the decline of Harappan urbanism. Its brevity, its concentration among a narrow, privileged class of literate elites, and its resistance to nearly two centuries of decipherment attempts together mean that, until the script is read, much of what we can say about Harappan language, administration, religion, and society will continue to rest on inference from material remains rather than the Harappans’ own words.
