The Scripts on the Indus Valley Seals

Summary

In this installment of Dr. Pran Nath’s ongoing investigation into the inscriptions on the Indus Valley seals, the author continues his attempts to decipher the undeciphered scripts. Building on theories presented in a previous article, he proposes that many signs represent the names of deities worshipped in the Indus civilisation. The paper opens with a prefatory discussion, citing examples where the names Śrī, Kṛṣṇa and Hṛa appear in Jain texts as beginnings of sentences, suggesting these divine names might have been common in northwestern India. Nath then analyses a seal inscription that he reads as “Go-Bhūrīśa-Nin-Naga Īśvara,” linking each element to gods such as Go (cow goddess), Bhūrīśa (lord of earth), Nin (Sumerian deity) and Naga (snake god). He examines compound signs and compares them with South Indian pottery marks, Vedic references and Tantric diagrams. Several passages from Vedic, purāṇic and tantric sources are quoted to support the interpretation of ka, sri and other syllables as divine epithets. Nath introduces a comparative table matching Indus signs with analogous symbols from Egyptian hieroglyphs, Southern Indian symbols, Trojan scripts, Indus signs, Cretan Linear A and Spanish rock carvings, positing that cultural contacts may explain similarities. He argues that the swastika represents the name Niḥ or Nin and that recurring signs denote deities such as Naga, Śeṣa, Śri and Ma. Discussions of tantra‑piśācinī yantras lead him to suggest that seals could have functioned as amulets inscribed with yantra‑mantras. The article includes detailed plates illustrating seal impressions and tables correlating signs with proposed phonetic values. While acknowledging that many of his readings are conjectural, Nath maintains that considering religious names and symbols provides a promising line of inquiry. He concludes that the Indus people likely worshipped a pantheon that included proto‑forms of Hindu and perhaps Mesopotamian deities, and that understanding these cults may unlock the meaning of the seals.