Overview for The Indus Scripts and the Rg-Veda
Since the publication of the concordances of the inscriptions of the Indus seals many scholars have been working on the solution of the riddle presented by the 5000 years old script of the Indus valley. The decipherments that were based on these similarities resulted, however, only in the reading of some inscriptions as more or less obscure names; sometimes not even a phonetic value could be given. Nevertheless they are often presented as complete decipherments to the public. On this account, the pretension that the Indus script is deciphered meets with increasing suspicion and is exposed to even ridicule. The approach to a decipherment presented in this volume makes avail of a bilingual, too but its masterkey is the discovering of the symbolic and linguistic connection of the Indus signs with the Rg-Veda. More than 200 inscriptions, among them the longest and those with the most interesting motifs, have been decoded here by setting them word after word in relation to Rg-Vedic Verses. The results that were gained by this method of comparison for the pictographic and phonetic values of the Indus signs are surprising and far beyond the most daring phantasy. They have been summarised in a complete sign-dictionary containing over 150 further inscriptions. At the same time many problems of the Rg-Veda could be solved and new insights won, for example in the issue of the age of the Rg-Veda and the origin of the Vedic poets or the nature of the Soma plant.
Egbert Richter Ushanas (Author)
Egbert Richter-Ushanas has studied Indian and Western philosophy, science of religion and ancient and modern Oriental and Indian languages for more than 40 years. He has published translations of the Bhagavadgita, several Upanisads, the Yoga sutras and other works of Indian philosophy. And a monography of Vedic cosmosophy. He traveled through India several times. In the last four years he has worked on the decipherment of the Easter Island script. At present he lives in his hometown in Bremen/Germany as a free-lanced writer.
Bagchee
