Examples of cargo manifests in Indus Script Corpora

Field symbol: sāṅgaḍa 'joines animals' rebus: sāṅgaḍa 'Maritime canoe-float'; jangada 'double-canoe' Composed ofbarad, balad 'ox' Rebus: baran 'mixed alloys' (5 copper, 4 zinc and 1 tin) bharata bharata 'metal alloy' (5 copper, 4 zinc and 1 tin) खोंड [ khōṇḍa ] m A young bull, a bullcalf. Rebus: कोंद kōnda 'engraver, lapidary setting or infixing gems' (Marathi) खोदगिरी [ khōdagirī ] f Sculpture, carving, engraving + singhin 'forward-thrusting, spiny-horned' rebus: singin 'ornament gold' mlekh 'goat' rebus: milakkhu 'copper' Trade cargo manifest of double-canoe from circular hamlet of Mauja, village Allograph. kōṇḍa 'circular hamlet of Mauja, village' (Marathi)

Occam's razor framework for Indus Script Cipher is simple. Each grapheme is a Meluhha expression of metal-and wood-work artifice of trade guilds of Bronze Age.

Field symbols on M-717, M-164, M-850, M-839: कंठाळ kaṇṭhāḷa A double sack carried across a beast rebus. G. kãṭhāḷ 'maritime, boat’ (CDIAL 2682a) singhin ‘forward-thrusting spiny-horned’ rebus: singi ‘ornament gold’ Goat face. mr̤eka, melh 'goat' rebus: milakkhu 'copper'.Kur. melkhā throat, neck. Malt. melqe throat. (DEDR 5080) rebus: melaka 'company’; kárṇa m. 'ear, handle of a vessel' RV. (CDIAL 2830) karana ‘messenger, dispatch’; thus, copper, gold company dispatch. खोंड khōṇḍa ’young bull’ rebus: कोंड kōṇḍa A circular hamlet; a division of a मौजा or village, composed generally of the huts of one caste (guild). कोंद kōnda ‘engraver, script’ kundana ‘fine gold’ kũdār ‘turner’+Device. kunda ‘lathe’ rebus: kundana ‘fine gold’ कण्ठालः kaṇṭhālaḥ 'churning vessel’ rebus: G. kãṭhāḷ 'maritime, boat’ sãgaḍ f. ʻa body formed of two or more fruits or animals or men &c. linked together, part of a turner's apparatusʼ, ʻfloat made of two canoes joined togetherʼ rebus: jākaṛ 'sangar, jangad 'trade invoiced on approval basis’; thus, maritime trade invoiced on jangaḍ approval basis.

--An extraordinary example of citralekhanam of anthropomorph on tablet in bas relief h1144B—chief of guild and maritime metals merchant --śrēṣṭhin khār ‘guild-masterblacksmith’; Kalibangan seal k51

All graphemes are composed as trade glossary.

--John Marshall, 1931, Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilization 3 volumes set describes the first excavation work that took place in the 5 winter seasons between 1922 and 1927. The excavation was carried out under the charge of John Marshall, then director general of archaeology in India. Facsimile of 1931 edition re-published in 2024. original 1931 edition of the book is available for free at Archive.org, Volume I and Volume II. Harapa.com has put up some of the images from Vol. III. Three frequent symbols of epigraphs aredisplayed on the covers– Sign 342, Sign 391 and Sign 67 Sign 342. . karaṇa ‘rim of jar’ rebus: karaṇa ‘messenger, dispatch, accounting’ of vartaka ‘merchant’ Sign 391. څرخ ṯs̱arḵẖ, s.m. (2nd) A wheel (particularly a potter's, or of a water-mill or well). Rebus: arka ‘copper, gold’ Sign 67. ayokammaṭa ‘alloymetal mint’

Extended Basic Unique Data Set (EBUDS) is created by removing from the concordance --EBUDS is a filtered corpus created from M77 to remove duplicates and ambiguities –M77 is Mahadevan I (1977) The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables. Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India-- all texts containing lost, damaged, illegible, or doubtfully read parts [Yadav N, Vahia MN, Mahadevan I, Joglekar H (2008) A statistical approach for pattern search in Indus writing. International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics 37: 39–52.]. The sign corresponding to 342 in M77, is the most frequent sign, followed by signs 99, 267, and 59. The relative frequencies have no significant change in the M77 and EBUDS corpora. In Meluhha deśī bhāṣā or ‘guild-speech’, the rebus readings of these signs are: Sign 342. karana ‘rim of jar’ rebus: karana ‘despatch, messenger, account, scribe’ Sign 99 sal ‘splinter’ rebus: sal ‘workshop’ Sign 297. kanac ‘corner’ rebus: kancu kamsa ‘bell-metal’ Sign 59. aya ‘fish’ rebus: ayas ‘alloymetal’ Sign 87 dula ‘two’ rebus: dul ‘metalcasting’ Thus the majority of the texts of Indus Script inscriptions relate to despatch of cargo; and the cargo is from workshop of bell-metal, alloymetal and metalcastings.. Ordered in a reducing order of frequency the symbols are read as: karana ‘despatch’ sal ‘workshop’ kancu ‘bell-metal’ ayas ‘alloymetal’ and dul ‘metalcasting’. Thus not more than 14 symbols are adequate to document manifests despatch details of maritime cargl.

M377. Text 3120 ayo, aya 'fish' rebus: aya 'iron' ayas 'metal alloy' (Rigveda) PLUS adaren ‘lid’ rebus: aduru ‘native metal’ (Kannada) mūṣā ‘cover’ rebus: muha ‘iron ingot’ ayo 'fish' rebus: aya 'iron' ayas 'alloy metal' (R̥gveda) PLUS khambhaṛā 'fish-fin’ rebus: kammaṭa 'mint, coiner, coinage'. śrēṣṭhin khār ‘squirrel’ rebus: śrēṣṭhin khār ‘guild-master blacksmith’+ मेंढा [ mēṇḍhā ] A crook or curved end (of a stick) Rebus: meḍ 'iron' (Semantic determinant) dāṭu 'cross' rebus: dhatu = mineral (Santali) Hindi. dhāṭnā 'to send out, pour out, cast (metal)' (CDIAL 6771) kanka, karṇika 'rim of jar' rebus: karṇī 'supercargo, scribe' कर्णिक 'steersman, helmsman’

Maritime trade by seafaring Meluhha merchants is a key contributor to the wealth of Bharata nation handling distribution of the cargo of tin ingots from Ancient Far East to the Ancient Near East. This monograph posits this as an addendum to: Evidence for economic history, Indus Script Corpora, Arthaśāstra, wealth of the nation of Bharat of R̥gveda times https://tinyurl.com/y887x9y2 AFE- Ancient Far East (beyond Malaka (Straits of Malacca), Meluhha) ANE - Ancient Near East On the cylinder seal which shows a Meluhha merchant and his associate, Shu-ilishu interpreter's transaction with the Meluhha (Malaka) merchant may have invoved a boat-load of tin ingots from Ancient Far East routed through Mohenjo-daro's seafaring merchant. This is evidenced on a prism seal of Mohenjo-daro which shows a boat with cargo of 'ox-hide' type ingots and with Indus Script Hypertexts. meḍho 'helper of merchant' rebus: meḍ 'iron' (Mu.Ho.) med 'copper' (Slavic) Face of the lady accompanying the Meluhha merchant. She carries a ranku 'liquid measure' rebus: ranku 'tin'. The bearded man, merchant carries a mlekh 'antelope' rebus: meluhha, milakkhu, mleccha 'copper (merchant)', meluhha speaker. A crucible occupies the field; kuṭhāru 'crucible' rebus: kuṭhāru 'armourer'. The Akkadian merchant is apparently an armourer who needs the tin traded by the seafaring Meluhha merchant. Shu-ilishu cylinder seal of eme-bal, interpreter. Akkadian. Cylinder seal Impression. Inscription records that it belongs to ‘S’u-ilis’u, Meluhha interpreter’, i.e., translator of the Meluhhan language (EME.BAL.ME.LUH.HA.KI) The Meluhhan being introduced carries an goat on his arm. Musee du Louvre. Ao 22 310, Collection De Clercq 3rd millennium BCE. The Meluhhan is accompanied by a lady carrying a kamaṇḍalu. The goat on the trader's hand is a phonetic determinant -- that he is Meluhha. This is decrypted based on the word for the goat: mlekh 'goat' (Brahui); mr..eka 'goat' (Telugu) Rebus: mleccha'copper' (Samskritam); milakkhu 'copper' (Pali) Thus the sea-faring merchant carrying the goat is a copper (and tin) trader from Meluhha. The jar carried by the accompanying person is a liquid measure:ranku 'liquid measure' Rebus: ranku 'tin'. A hieroglyph used to denote ranku may be seen on the two pure tin ingots found in a shipwreck in Haifa. That Pali uses the term ‘milakkhu’ is significant (cf. Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10.16) and reinforces the concordance between ‘mleccha’ and ‘milakkhu’ (a pronunciation variant) and links the language with ‘meluhha’ as a reference to a language in Mesopotamian texts and in the cylinder seal of Shu-ilishu. [Possehl, Gregory, 2006, Shu-ilishu’s cylinder seal, Expedition, Vol. 48, No. 1http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/48-1/What%20in%20the%20World.pdf] This seal shows a sea-faring Meluhha merchant who needed a translator to translate meluhha speech into Akkadian. The translator’s name was Shu-ilishu as recorded in cuneiform script on the seal. This evidence rules out Akkadian as the Indus or Meluhha language and justifies the search for the proto-Indian speech from the region of the Sarasvati river basin which accounts for 80% (about 2000) archaeological sites of the civilization, including sites which have yielded inscribed objects such as Lothal, Dwaraka, Kanmer, Dholavira, Surkotada, Kalibangan, Farmana, Bhirrana, Kunal, Banawali, Chandigarh, Rupar, Rakhigarhi. The language-speakers in this basin are likely to have retained cultural memories of Indus language which can be gleaned from the semantic clusters of glosses of the ancient versions of their current lingua francaavailable in comparative lexicons and nighanṭu-s. The antelope, in Sanskrit mlekh, may confi rm the man as a speaker of Meluhha, in Sanskrit mleccha (Kalyanaraman, S. 2006. Bronze Age Trade and Writing System of Meluhha (Mleccha) Evidenced by Tin Ingots from the Near Vicinity of Haifa. [For Bronze Age Trade Workshop in 5ICAANE, April 5, 2006]. www.ebookuniverse.net/bronze-age-tradeand-writing-system-meluhha-(mleccha)-pdf-d218620, 30.05.2013, p.6). It is possible that the hypertext of crocodile PLU fish signified on m1429 Mohenjo-daro prism tablet, which reads aya 'fish' rebus aya 'metal alloy' PLUS karā 'crocodile' rebus: khār 'blacksmith' may also extend semantically to Akkadian kārum, seaport (merchant) to reach tin from AFE to its destination in Anatolia. It is remarkable that the hypertext of crocodile PLUS fish is also signified on a cylinder seal of Rakhigarhi. I suggest that the hypertext is a signifier of contact with Karum, seaport in Kanesh, Anatolia. The Indus Script inscription of Rakhigarhi seal has been deciphered. Prism seal of Mohenjo-daro m 1429 Three sided molded tablet. One side shows a flat bottomed boat with a central hut that has leafy fronds at the top of two poles. Two birds sit on the deck and a large double rudder extends from the rear of the boat. On the second side is a snout nosed gharial with a fish in its mouth. The third side has eight symbols of the Indus script. Material: terra cotta Dimensions: 4.6 cm length, 1.2 x 1.5 cm width Mohenjo-daro, MD 602 Islamabad Museum, NMP 1384 Dales 1965a: 147, 1968: 39 bagala ‘pleiades’ Rebus: bagalo = an Arabian merchant vessel (G.) bagala = an Arab boat of a particular description (Ka.); bagalā (M.); bagarige, bagarage = a kind of vessel (Kannada) This Mohenjo-daro prism tablet signifies on Side A a pair of palm trees flanking two oxhide ingots. It has been suggested that the hieroglyphs on all three sides of the tablet are read rebus to signify a metalwork catalogue of cargo carried on the boat (bagala?). Side A; tāḷa 'palm trees' rebus: ḍhāḷa 'large ingot (oxhide)' karaḍa 'aquatic bird' rebus: karaḍa 'hard alloy' Side B: ayo, aya 'fish' rebus: aya 'iron' ayas 'metal' PLUS karā 'crocodile' rebus: khār 'blacksmith', thus aya-kara 'metalsmith' Side C: from l.to r. Part 1: karaNika 'spread legs' rebus: karṇī 'supercargo' kanka, karṇaka 'rim of jar' rebus: karṇī 'supercargo, script, engraver' dula 'pair' rebus: dul 'metal casting' muh 'ingot' khāṇḍā 'notch' rebus: kaṇḍa 'implements, fire-altar' Part 2: kanka, karṇaka 'rim of jar' reebus: karṇī 'supecargo, script, engrave' ayo, aya 'fish' PLUS khambhaṛā 'fish-fin' rebus: kammaṭa 'mint' kolom 'three' rebus: kolimi 'smithy' PLUS mũhã̄ kolimi 'ingot smithy, forge'. Thus, the inscription on the three sides signifies mint, metalwork, hard alloys,metalcastings ingots, metal implements from smithy/forge. 1.. Sign 389, bun-ingot shape (oval) + 'twig', i.e. ingots produced from a smelter. This indicates that copper plates on which this hypertext occurs with high frequency are accounting ledgers of products produced from a smelter. 2. Sign 387, bun-ingot shape (oval) + 'riceplant', i.e. ingots worked on in a smithy/forge. This hypertext DOES NOT occur on copper plates. This indicates that Sign 387 signifies ingots processed in a smithy/forge, i.e. to forge ingots into metalware, tools, implements, weapons. The two distinctly orthographed Indus Script hypertexts signify 1. mũhã̄ kuṭhi 'ingot smelter', 2. mũhã̄ kolami 'ingot smithy, forge'. Hieroglyph: tamar 'palm' (Hebrew). Rebus: tamba 'copper' (Santali) tamra id .(Samskrtam)See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2016/07/indus-script-hieroglyphs-on-ancient.html Cylinder seal found at Rakhigarhi Fish+ crocodile: aya, ayo 'fish' rebus: aya 'iron' ayas 'metal'; karA 'crocodile'rebus:khAr 'blacksmith' dATu 'cross' rebus: dhAtu 'ore,mineral' śrētrī ʻ ladder ʼ.rebus: seṭṭhin -- m. ʻ guild -- master (Pali) sal 'splinter' rebus: sal 'workshop'. Sign 186 *śrētrī ʻ ladder ʼ. [Cf. śrētr̥ -- ʻ one who has recourse to ʼ MBh. -- See śrití -- . -- √śri]Ash. ċeitr ʻ ladder ʼ (< *ċaitr -- dissim. from ċraitr -- ?).(CDIAL 12720)*śrēṣṭrī2 ʻ line, ladder ʼ. [For mng. ʻ line ʼ conn. with √śriṣ2 cf. śrḗṇi -- ~ √śri. -- See śrití -- . -- √śriṣ2]Pk. sēḍhĭ̄ -- f. ʻ line, row ʼ (cf. pasēḍhi -- f. ʻ id. ʼ. -- < EMIA. *sēṭhī -- sanskritized as śrēḍhī -- , śrēṭī -- , śrēḍī<-> (Col.), śrēdhī -- (W.) f. ʻ a partic. progression of arithmetical figures ʼ); K. hēr, dat. °ri f. ʻ ladder ʼ.(CDIAL 12724) Rebus: śrḗṣṭha ʻ most splendid, best ʼ RV. [śrīˊ -- ]Pa. seṭṭha -- ʻ best ʼ, Aś.shah. man. sreṭha -- , gir. sesṭa -- , kāl. seṭha -- , Dhp. śeṭha -- , Pk. seṭṭha -- , siṭṭha -- ; N. seṭh ʻ great, noble, superior ʼ; Or. seṭha ʻ chief, principal ʼ; Si. seṭa, °ṭu ʻ noble, excellent ʼ. śrēṣṭhin m. ʻ distinguished man ʼ AitBr., ʻ foreman of a guild ʼ, °nī -- f. ʻ his wife ʼ Hariv. [śrḗṣṭha -- ]Pa. seṭṭhin -- m. ʻ guild -- master ʼ, Dhp. śeṭhi, Pk. seṭṭhi -- , siṭṭhi -- m., °iṇī -- f.; S. seṭhi m. ʻ wholesale merchant ʼ; P. seṭh m. ʻ head of a guild, banker ʼ, seṭhaṇ, °ṇī f.; Ku.gng. śēṭh ʻ rich man ʼ; N. seṭh ʻ banker ʼ; B. seṭh ʻ head of a guild, merchant ʼ; Or. seṭhi ʻ caste of washermen ʼ; Bhoj. Aw.lakh. sēṭhi ʻ merchant, banker ʼ, H. seṭh m., °ṭhan f.; G. śeṭh, śeṭhiyɔ m. ʻ wholesale merchant, employer, master ʼ; M. śeṭh, °ṭhī, śeṭ, °ṭī m. ʻ respectful term for banker or merchant ʼ; Si. siṭu, hi° ʻ banker, nobleman ʼ H. Smith JA 1950, 208 (or < śiṣṭá -- 2?)(CDIAL 12725, 12726)

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2018

This article argues that most of the inscribed objects (seals, miniature-tablets etc.) of ancient Indus valley civilization were essentially administrative-commercial tools (tax-tokens, tradelicences, metrological records, etc.) used for controlling the complex trading economy spread across the Indus settlements. It also argues that the inscriptions logographically encoded a commercial sublanguage to convey information about kinds of taxes/tithes, tax-receiving entities; tax-rates and modes; and activities (such as cultivation, manufacture, and trading of specific commodities) that these taxes covered and authorized. Building on the functional classification of Indus logograms performed in the author's previous structural analysis of Indus inscriptions and analysing various script-internal, archaeological, historical and linguistic evidence, this article seeks to interpret the semantic functionalities of different sign-classes. It proposes that: i) The numerical and metrological signs were used to represent certain taxcollection rates fixed for certain commodities, whereas the lexeme-signs following them () represented those taxed commodities. ii) The Crop-signs () represented different harvested grain-based taxes. iii) The phrase-final/terminal logograms () encoded certain metrological modes (volumetric, weight-based, reedmeasure-based etc.) of tax-collection, and thus metonymically encoded certain broad taxcategories. iv) The lexeme-signs appearing in the initial parts of the grammatically complex inscriptions () represented the tax-collector entities and purpose of tax-payment. v) The signs mostly occurring in pre-phrase-final positions () represented the mode of tax-payments through predefined equivalencies. vi) The bird-like logograms () represented different precious stones including lapis lazuli, cornelian, agate etc.; while the fish-like logograms () signified different apotropaic "fish-eye-beads", which were one of the most precious exported Indus commodities, coveted in ancient Near East. Analysing the related lexical roots of such commodities-e.g. ivory ("piru"); lapis lazuli whose colour was compared to the iridescent pigeon-neck ("kāsaka hya kapautaka"); and "eye-beads" (maṇi), in Mesopotamian lexicons, Amarna letters, ancient texts in Old-Persian language, BMAC languages, Sanskrit, Pali, Tamil etc.-this study claims that such words had originated in the Indus valley, and had spread to the languages of other civilizations through trade networks. Tracing out more such ancient metrological and revenue related terminologies (droṇa, bhāra, kṛṣṇala, raktikā, śara etc.) this study finally offers decipherment of a few Indus inscriptions.