Recently, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu announced the prize for experts and organizations for deciphering the scripts of the Indus Valley Civilization.

About Indus Valley Scripts

• Distribution and length: Found at approximately 60 excavation sites. Currently, ~3500 specimens of this script survive in stamp seals carved in stone, in moulded terracotta and faience amulets, in fragments of pottery.
• Writing direction and style: Indus script is an unknown writing system, and the inscriptions discovered are very short, comprising no more than five signs on the average.
  • Generally written right to left, longer texts sometimes used Boustrophedon Style (alternating directions between lines).
• Composition of the script: Partially pictographic signs, contains human and animal motifs, distinctive 'unicorn' symbol, artistic designs showing "controlled realism", etc.
• Writing media and methods: Use of seals, tablets, and copper tablets, Materials included terracotta, ceramics, shell, bone, ivory, stone, metals, and perishable materials like fabric and wood.
  • Applied through carving, incising, chiseling, inlaying, painting, molding, and embossing.

Significance of Deciphering Indus Valley Script

• Historical: Could reveal relationship between Indus Valley Civilization and later Vedic practices and their interaction with other contemporary civilizations.
• Linguistic and Ethnic connections: Could establish connections between the languages of the Indus Valley and contemporary languages from Dravidian and Indo-European families.