Decoding the Undeciphered: India's Global Conference on the Harappan Script

Decoding the Undeciphered: India's Global Conference on the Harappan Script

India's Ministry of Culture is set to host a major international conference in New Delhi, bringing together a diverse group of archaeologists, scientists, and scholars. Scheduled for September 11-13, 2025, the event, organized by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), aims to present new findings and continue the centuries-long effort to decode one of history's most enduring mysteries: the Harappan script.

The Enigma of the Indus Valley Script

The undeciphered script of the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) has puzzled scholars since its discovery by Sir John Marshall's team in the 1920s. Flourishing between 2600–1900 BCE, the IVC was the world’s largest urban culture of its time, spanning roughly 800,000 sq. km across modern-day Pakistan and northwest India. Despite its advanced urban planning, trade, and drainage systems, the written language remains a complete mystery.

Inscriptions are found primarily on seal stones, terracotta tablets, and occasionally metal, often featuring a combination of pictograms and animal or human motifs. A significant point of debate is the total number of signs in the script, with scholarly estimates varying widely:

S.R. Rao (1982):62 signs

Asko Parpola (1994): 425 signs

Bryan K. Wells (2016):676 signs

Conflicting Theories and Scholarly Debates

The script's linguistic roots are highly contested. Sir Alexander Cunningham, who first reported a Harappan seal, proposed a connection to the Brahmi script. However, Indologist Asko Parpola rejects this, arguing that Brahmi evolved from the Aramaic script, not the Harappan.

The upcoming conference will feature papers that highlight these competing theories, illustrating the lack of a definitive breakthrough. The primary theories include:

Sanskrit and Vedic Linkages:Some researchers claim the script is based on Sanskrit or contains Rig Vedic mantras, suggesting a religious purpose for the seals. This theory links the Harappan civilization to later Vedic people.

Dravidian Roots:A few experts argue that 90% of the script has been deciphered as Gondi, a Proto-Dravidian language.

Santali Connection:Many scholars, influenced by Parpola's work, link the script to the Santali language.

Historians emphasize that decoding the script is made difficult by the absence of bilingual inscriptions and the vast geographical and temporal span of the civilization, making a single, unified language unlikely.

The Politics of Deciphering

The quest to decipher the Harappan script is not just academic; it is also deeply intertwined with political and cultural narratives in India.

Southern Roots Argument: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin** has offered a $1 million reward for a credible decipherment. A Dravidian-origin conclusion would strengthen the claim that the subcontinent’s oldest civilization has southern roots.

Vedic-Harappan Continuity:Conversely, various groups view the script as a way to challenge the Aryan migration theory. If the language is proven to be Sanskrit, it would support the argument of a continuous Vedic-Harappan culture, particularly given the link between the Ghaggar-Hakra River and the Rig Vedic Saraswati River.

The ongoing debates and diversity of claims underscore why the Harappan script remains one of history’s greatest unsolved puzzles, with experts agreeing that a systematic and comparative study is still required for a credible breakthrough.