3 Review(s)

This paper is meant to read together with the paper ‘The reconfirmation and reinforcement of the Indus script thesis: a logical assessment and inquiry as to the elusive and enigmatic nature of this script‘, published in the ICFAI Journal of History and Culture in January 2011. In the aforementioned paper, we had clearly shown that the Indus script used in the Indus Valley civilization which flourished from 2600 BC to 1900 BC, was a logo-syllabic script. In this paper, we show that the case for the lost manuscript hypothesis has never been stronger than it has been in the past one decade. This hypothesis has had many adherents even in the West even earlier when very little of the Indus had been excavated, but few will now deny that no other scenario is likely. This hypothesis was earlier based on hunches, now its adherents can base it on science and valid epistemology. The Indus Valley Civilization has always amazed legions of archeologists since the 1920’s and has been taught to students all over the world: it can now take its pride of place among old world civilizations. This paper also introduces Logo-syllabic thesis B as opposed to the older logo-syllabic thesis A and lays bare the differences between the two. We insist that only approaches such as those detailed in this paper can be applied for the study of the Indus script given the low quantum of archaeological data in relation to the total known size of the IVC. (This ratio is the lowest for all known civilizations).