Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India

encyclopedia

ARCHAEOLOGY

The seal no.

307 from Har-

appa depicting a

God with a tri-

dent like head-

gear and stand-

ing in a niche

from

which

tongues of flame

are

blazing

(fig:26)

inscribed

bhag-

rk-a

bhaga

Arka

conveying the sense 'Lord

(or God) Arka' who stands here

for Agni as indicated by the

flames. Another seal (no. 320)

from Harappa with a so-called

motif of brazier, which is really a

fire altar of the Iranian type, is

inscribed

pag bhag-rka-ha = paga

bhaga arkaha

meaning” (seal) of

the mighty God Arka" which

again stands for Agni and not sun.

The so-called Pasupati figure in

seal no. 420 (fig : 27) of Mohenjo-Daro surrounded by animals and

Agni (

Fire God)

who has three faces symbolizing his three

forms(tridha)

fire, sun and lightning or fire in water as described

in the

Rig Veda.

The fire-altars of Kalibangan, Lothal and Banawali

built of bricks and containing terracotta cakes

(purodasas)

men-

tioned in the Vedic literature confirm that the Harappans were Fire

worshippers. In the

Satapatha Brahmana

one of the names of Agni

is Pasupati as he is the sustainer of animals which depend on

plants. The seals mention names of sacrifices, such as

ekaha, sap-

taha, astaka asvasattra

which are also Vedic sacrifices. Actual re-

mains of animal sacrifice have been found in the altars of Lothal and

Kalibangan. The names of Vedic seers occurring in seal-inscrip-

tions are

Atri,

Kasapp, (Kasyapa), Baka, Mana (Manu), Bhad-

rasva etc. The Kalibangan seal reads

bhadrama dvappa

(

dvipa)

conveying the sense ‘most auspicious or holy region’. This town is

noted for fire altars and is situated on the Sarasvati river of yore.

The vocabulary, syntax and grammar of the Harappan language

decoded from inscriptions are compatible with those of old Indo-

Aryan. The nominal compounds (

samasas

) are similar.

The inscription on the Bet Dwaraka jar (fig:28) signifies the

evolution of Brahmi script from the Late Indus script. Similarly the

Semitic script was evolved from the Late Indus Script and much

later vowels were added. Its Egyptian origin is unconvincing.

The Harappan skeletal remains from Harappa, Mohenjo-Daro

and the Lothal show the same ethnic features which the present

population of Punjab, Sind and Gujarat show respectively (Rao S.R.

1991). There is therefore no reason why the Harappan population

should be termed as non-Aryan if at all the racial element has any

connection with the language spoken. The Harappans knew the

horse and rice. They spoke an Aryan language and followed the

same religious rites which the Aryan speakers of the Vedic period

did. As regards the date of the

Rig Veda,

its composition could not

have taken place later than 2000 B.C. in the Sarasvati valley.

Mathematics, Science and Technology

of the Indus Civilization

METROLOGY

Accuracy in measuring mass and space is essential for prog-

ress in mathematics and physics. The usefulness of the metric

system with a decimal graduation in measuring length or mass as

been widely recognised in recent years. The credit for introducing

decimal graduation must go to the Harappans. They had two types

of stone weights, one a hexahedron or cubical (fig:29) and the

other, truncated spheriod, both occurring in large numbers at Har-

appa, Mohenjo-Daro and Lothal besides other sites during the

period 2500 B.C.-1600 B.C. V.B. Mainkar, Director of the Indian

Standards Institution who studied the Harappan weights, has di-

vided them into 2 groups. The unit weight of 27.584g of the first

series is 50% higher than the unit weight 18.1650g of the second

series. Normally there are two basic weights in a series namely the

lower unit weight used for weighing small quantities of precious

objects like gold and silver and the higher unit weight meant for

weighting objects of daily use. The lower unit in the first series was

27.584 g and the higher unit was 546.70g. The smaller denomina-

tions are in the decimal divisions of 1:2: 5:10:20:50:100:200:500:

etc. The smallest division is 0.05 times the lower unit weight. The

karsa-o

suvarna

of the

Arthasastra

(8.720g) is related to the Indus

weight of (8.575g) in the second series. Furthermore it is the Har-

appans who determined the weight of the

Gunja

at lOOmg which is

more accurate than 109mg given to

Gunja

by Mainkar who however

admits that the weight of the seed

Gunja

used by goldsmiths

differs from region to region and from season to season. The

Lothal weights of small gold discs run in very small divisions