The Indus Script and the Rg-Veda

The Indus Script and the Rg-Veda presents Egbert Richter-Ushanas’s proposed approach to deciphering the inscriptions of the Indus Valley Civilization through their symbolic and linguistic relationship with the Rg-Veda.

The author examines more than 200 inscriptions, including longer texts and seals bearing narrative, anthropomorphic and composite-animal motifs. By comparing individual signs and sign sequences with passages from the Rg-Veda, he develops proposed pictographic and phonetic readings and explores their possible connections with Vedic mythology, ritual and cosmology.

The study addresses subjects including the unicorn standard, the Soma plant, the Lord of the Beasts, the sacred marriage, Pururavas and Urvasi, the Asvamedha, the development of Brahmi and Tamil scripts, and the symbolism of the swastika. It concludes with a seal index, Vedic references, a sign dictionary containing additional inscriptions, a bibliography and a general index.

The Indus script has not been conclusively deciphered. This volume should therefore be read as the author’s distinctive interpretive theory and contribution to the continuing debate surrounding the script rather than as an established decipherment.

Author: Egbert Richter-Ushanas

Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass

Edition: Second revised edition

Year: 2001

Language: English

Binding: Hardcover

Pages: 326

ISBN: 81-208-1405-3

ISBN-13: 978-81-208-1405-9

Condition: Book and dust jacket are in very good condition.