1/16/2006 7:28:44 AM HK Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Indus valley script, an enigma for scholars for over 130 years, has been deciphered by Dr S Kalyanaraman, a Chennai based scholar. Ever since the first Indus seal with script was discovered in 1870 by Alexander Cunningham, efforts were on to decipher the script."The decipherment of the script is central to unraveling the true chronology and history of Indian civilization and culture," Dr Kalyanaraman told Haindava Keralam.


Dr Kalyanaraman, a former senior executive with the Asian Development Bank at Manila quit his job to devote full time for the research on Inter-linking of Indian rivers and deciphering the script of the Indus seal. Over the last 26 years, Dr Kalyanaraman has compiled a multi-lingual comparative dictionary for over 25 ancient Indian languages with about half-a-million words and has put it up on the internet.



It was a journey in a Pakistan International Airlines flight which made Dr Kalyanaraman to quit his high paying ADB job. "I was presented with replicas of two seals, really paper-weights, by the PIA sincve I was travelkling by the first class on that day," said Dr Kalyanaraman. Curiosity forced Dr Kalyanaraman to ask the PIA staff about the replicas. He was literally shocked by the reply gioven by them. "They said that the seals were from Mohenjodaro and it established the 5,000-year old history of the civilization of Pakistan. They kept silent when I pointed out to them that ther was no Pakistan at that time," Dr Kalyanaraman explained.


"About 5000 years ago, there was only Bharat mentioned in the Rigveda. Visvamitra, a Rigveda rishi, refers to the people of Bharat as Bharatam Janam (that is, people of the nation of Bharata),"pointed out Dr Kalyanaraman, author of a major book "Saraswathi".


He pointed out that the word Bharatiyo in Gujarati means 'caster of metals' and goes on to present an array of evidence from about 4000 epigraphs on a variety of objects from what he calls "Sarasvati Civilization". The epigraphs appear on seals, tablets, potsherds, ivory rods, copper plates, even on metallic weapons.


The breakthrough in confirming his decipherment has come from two sources: 1. the presence of Sarasvati hieroglyphs on two pure tin ingots discovered in a ship-wreck in Haifa, Israel; and the presence of Sarasvati hieroglyphs on artefacts in archaeological sites of Jiroft (Iran) and Adichanallur (Tirunelveli, South India).


According to Dr Kalyanaraman, the glyphs are pictorials connoting homonyms (similar sounding words which could be depicted pictorially) of metals, minerals, alloys and furnaces. "For example, a jar with a rim, an antelope, an elephant, a rhinoceros, a heifer (bull-calf) can be depicted pictorially. The words related to these glyphs are homonymous with words for varieties of minerals, metals, alloys and furnaces," Dr Kalyanaraman explained.


Dr Kalyanaraman, claims that the code of the script or writing system has been decoded simply as representation of the repertoire of smiths, smithy, mines, and metal workshops. The artefacts are gathered from many sites; there are about 2,000 archaeological sites on the banks of a desiccated River Sarasvati (representing about 80% of the 2600 total archaeological sites of the civilization dated to between 3500 to 1900 Before Common Era, BCE).


Some of the sites are: Rakhigarhi (near Delhi), Kunal, Kalibangan, Banawali, Ropar (near Kurukshetra, Chandigarh), Dholavira, Lothal, Surkotada, Prabhas Patan, Dwaraka (Gujarat) and of course, Mohenjodaro, Harappa (Pakistan), Mehergarh (Afghanistan). A woman's burial found at Mehergarh contained ornaments including a wide bangle made of s'ankha; the surprise was that this burial was dated to 6500 BCE. The s'ankha industry continues even today in Tiruchendur, near Gulf of Mannar, South Indian coastline where West Bengal handicraft corporation obtains s'ankha to make bangles which are a must for every Bengali bride to wear during marriage. A remarkable continuity of culture and an industry unbroken for the last 8500 years !


He quotes profusely from the great Indian epics to substantiate his claims. "The language of the epigraphs is said to be mleccha (Meluhha, mentioned in cuneiform records of Mesopotamia). Vatsyayana refers to cipher writing as mlecchita-vikalpa ( alternative representation by copper workers)," according to Dr Kalyanaraman.


Mleccha is also referred to as a spoken language in Mahabharata; Yudhishthira and Vidura converse in Mleccha about the shellac palace (lakshagriha) constructed to trap the Pandavas with metallic and non-metallic killer devices. An example of mleccha is 'helava, helava' comparable to the 'elo,elo' boatmen's song by seafaring and river-faring navigators who navigate hugging the coastline and along rivers which were the highways of ancient times, enabling long-distance trade over very long distances exceeding 3,000 kms., making the Sarasvati civilization the most extensive civilization of its times.


"Languages of present-day India can be explained from a common source and the theory is called 'Proto-Vedic Continuity Theory', "says Dr Kalyanaraman.

These claims could have a significant effect on the study of languages and contribute to historical studies emphasizing the essential continuity and unity of Indian civilization and culture as a continuum from 6500 BCE to the present-day.

haindavakeralam.org/PageModule.aspx

See also: spaces.msn.com/members/sarasvati97
protovedic.blogspot.com (S.Kalyanaraman and Mayuresh Kelkar)
www.hindunet.org/saraswati
kalyan97-AT-gmail.com
haindavakeralam.org/PageModule.aspx

PS: svastika is satthiya in Punjabi; rebus zasta, satthiya 'zinc' (Hindi)

TEHRAN, July 12 (MNA) -- The discovery of a number of shards bearing a swastika motif astonished a team of Iranian archaeologists working at Sabz Tepe in the Elamite site of Arjan, Khuzestan Province, the director of the team said on Tuesday.

"Our team found the shards during operations conducted to save the site from being destroyed by farming activities," Mahnaz Sharifi added.

Located 10 kilometers north of Behbahan in eastern Khuzestan Province, Arjan contains many ancient mounds which are believed to be various sections of an Elamite city.

"Farmers plow the ground in Arjan, destroying the ancient site. A cluster of shards bearing unique motifs and inscriptions can be seen scattered on the ground," Behbahan Cultural Heritage and Tourism Office expert Farzad Mesbah said.

Agricultural officials of Behbahan gave the land to the farmers.

"The farmers have said that they will continue working on the land, but Khuzestan cultural officials have filed a lawsuit against the farmers, in an attempt to solve the problem through the judicial
process," said Saeid Mohammadpur, an official of the Khuzestan Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department.

In 1983, the first bronze coffin ever found in Iran, was discovered in Arjan. The U-shaped coffin contained a large inscribed golden ring, 98 bracteate coins, a dagger, some textile fragments, and a
silver rod, which came from the treasury of the Elamite king Kidin-Hutran.

Archaeologists plan to conduct additional research on the newly discovered shards in order to learn why the swastika motif was used.

The origin of the swastika symbol is unknown. For thousands of years, it has been used as a symbol of the revolving sun, fire, infinity, or continuing recreation, as well as a decorative motif in the Americas, China, Egypt, Greece, and Scandinavia. Swastikas have been found in the catacombs of Rome, on textiles of the Inca period, and on relics unearthed at the site of Troy. The swastika has also been important in Eastern religions; to Buddhists, it represents resignation; to Jains, it represents their seventh saint; and to Hindus, a swastika with arms bent to the left represents night, magic, and the
destructive goddess Kali.

In the mid-20th century in Germany, a swastika with arms bent to the right became the symbol of the Nazi Party. Some members of the German Free Corps, who later formed the nucleus of the early Nazi Party, are believed to have brought the swastika to Germany from Finland and Estonia, where it had been an official and decorative emblem.

From March 1933, a few weeks after the ascent of Adolf Hitler to power in Germany, the swastika flag flew side by side with the German national colors. From September 1935 until the downfall of the Nazi
regime in 1945, the swastika flag was the official flag of the Third Reich and was prominently displayed. The swastika is still used as a symbol by supremacist and separatist hate groups.
www.mehrnews.ir/en/Archive.aspx