Language of the Bronze Age civilization of the Indus Valley
Harappan
Indus Valley, Mohenjo-Daro
Region
Indus Valley
Extinct
c. 1300 BC, or later
Language family
unclassified, possibly a Dravidian language
Writing system
Indus script
Language codes
ISO 639-3
xiv
Linguist List
xiv
Glottolog
hara1272
Impression of an Indus stamp seal, showing a string of five "Indus script" glyphs; the Indus script is interpreted by some scholars as the writing system of the Harappan language.Impression of an Akkadian Empire cylinder seal with inscription: "Shu-ilishu, interpreter of the language of Meluhha";[1] Louvre Museum, reference AO 22310.[2]
The Harappan language is the unknown language or languages of the Bronze Age (c. 2nd millennium BC) Harappan civilization (Indus Valley civilization, or IVC). The Harappan script has long defied attempts to read it, and therefore the language remains unknown.[3] The language being unattested in any readable contemporary source, hypotheses regarding its nature are reduced to purported loanwords and substratum influence, the substratum in Vedic Sanskrit and a few terms recorded in Sumerian cuneiform (such as Meluhha), in conjunction with analyses of the undeciphered Indus script.
There are a handful of possible loanwords from the language of the Indus Valley civilization. Sumerian Meluhha may be derived from a native term for the Indus Valley civilization, also reflected in Sanskrit mleccha meaning non-Vedic or native, and Witzel (2000) further suggests that Sumerian GIŠšimmar (a type of tree) may be cognate to Rigvedic śimbala and śalmali (also names of trees).[4]
^Parpola, Asko (2015). The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization. Oxford University Press. p. 353. ISBN 9780190226930.
^"Meluhha interpreter seal. Site officiel du musée du Louvre". cartelfr.louvre.fr.
^"India - Agriculture and animal husbandry | Britannica". 2023-03-06. Archived from the original on 2023-03-06. Retrieved 2023-06-02.
^An Indus loanword of "para-Munda" nature in Mesopotamian has been identified by Michael Witzel, A first link between the Rgvedic Panjab and Mesopotamia: śimbala/śalmali, and GIŠšimmar? In: Klaus Karttunen and Petteri Koskikallio (eds.) Vidyarnavavandanam. Essays in Honour of Asko Parpola. 2000 (Studia Orientalia, published by the Finnish Or. Soc. 94): 497–508. See also Witzel, The language or languages of the Indus civilization Archived 2011-07-20 at the Wayback Machine, July 2007.
The Harappanlanguage is the unknown language or languages of the Bronze Age (c. 2nd millennium BC) Harappan civilization (Indus Valley civilization, or...
whether or not they constituted a writing system used to record a Harappanlanguage, any of which are yet to be identified. Despite many attempts, the...
World Heritage Site in 2021 as "Dholavira: A Harappan City"), and Rakhigarhi in Haryana. The Harappanlanguage is not directly attested, and its affiliations...
the Indus Valley Civilisation was divided into Early, Mature, and Late Harappan by archaeologists like Mortimer Wheeler, newer periodisations include the...
assumption. Linguist Asko Parpola writes that the Indus script and Harappanlanguage are "most likely to have belonged to the Dravidian family". Parpola...
unclassified Harappanlanguage small language families and isolates of the Indian subcontinent: Burushaski, Kusunda, and Nihali. The Vedda language of Sri Lanka...
site in Pakistan, about 25 km (16 mi) north of Sahiwal. The Bronze Age Harappan civilisation, now more often called the Indus Valley Civilisation, is named...
considered as an Early Harappan and Mature Harappan site (Indus Valley civilization). There are no indications that a Late Harappan phase existed. In the...
alluvial sottar plain. Rao, who excavated Bhirrana, claims to have found pre-Harappan Hakra Ware in its oldest layers, dated at the 8th–7th millennium BCE. He...
Pearson Education. pp. 151–155. ISBN 978-81-317-1120-0. "Dholavira: a Harappan City". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2022-01-14. Singh, Upinder...
called "Early Harappan or antecedent Harappan". Other nearby sites belonging to IVC include Balu, Kunal, Banawali etc. This Early Harappan phase (also called...
script (speculated to record a "Harappanlanguage") Cretan hieroglyphs and Linear A (encoding a possible "Minoan language") the Cypro-Minoan syllabary Earlier...
Late Harappan culture and the Vedic culture. Archaeologist Akinori Uesugi considers it as an archaeological continuity of the previous Harappan Bara style...
assumption. Linguist Asko Parpola writes that the Indus script and Harappanlanguage are "most likely to have belonged to the Dravidian family". Parpola...
Dholavira's location is on the Tropic of Cancer. It is one of the five largest Harappan sites and the most prominent of archaeological sites in India belonging...
Afghanistan, was a trading colony of the Indus Valley civilization (or Harappan Civilization) established around 2000 BC on the Oxus river (Amu Darya)...
Sabarmati river on the trade route. This trade route stretched between Harappan cities in Sindh (Pakistan) and the peninsula of Saurashtra where the surrounding...
gateway of the city, and is generally known as the Dholavira Signboard. The Harappans had arranged and set pieces of the mineral gypsum to form ten large symbols...
to the Indus Valley civilisation, being part of the pre-Harappan (7000-3300 BCE), early Harappan (3300-2600 BCE), and the mature phase (2600-1900 BCE) of...
the process. The new Pakistani authorities requested the return of the Harappan pieces excavated on their territory, but the Indian authorities refused...
common elements, later they came in contact with Harappan culture and fully developed into Harappan culture. Earliest examples of artifacts belonging...
cities, befitting a post-Harappan time frame. In particular, Indo-Aryan words for plants stem in large part from other language families, especially from...
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