Iravatham Mahadevan

Harappan Civilisation is often characterised (for example by the Director of the British Museum on a Radio 4 series) or even idealised as peaceful and without warfare or conquest, (in comparison with all other First Civilisations) with its cities linked across vast regions and unified (variously) by trade and/or religion. Rulers have even been said to be priests or a theocracy. These interpretations are often presented as facts in books or articles for general consumption.

Or were there any mediators in Iran (which had a civilization in ancient periods which was located in the southwestern part of fertile cresent region)? As you know, the Rosetta Stone was issued by Ptolemy \/ - which was due to interactions between the Greeks and Egyptians. This interaction started with settling of Ionians and Cretans as per by Herodotus. Could it be that these mediators would have used both the cuneiform and Indus valley script? What are the possibilities of finding a bilingual according to you? Submitted by Arthur Evans

If we assume that some migration did take place from Indus valley to South India sometime around 2000 BC or so, then it could have been through the sea. Could it not be possible to get some remnants of ship break or some marine fossils to substantiate this fact? Submitted by Prakash

Iravatham Mahadevan

1. Are there any findings which can possibly hint to the origin of Tantra in the IVC?
2. Which religions where practiced in the IVC and are there indications that the IVC had atheistic influences (esp. Samkhya)?
3. Are there any new discoveries about the Shiva/Cerunnos seals and is it right to suppose that it is depicting Shiva sitting in a Yôga pose?
Submitted by Christoph Dressel

How did they "pay"? I have often wondered how this took place in practice, assuming there was no currency as we understand it. How were luxury / prestige items such as gold and gemstone jewelery obtained by those who had access to them. How did ordinary people trade and obtain necessities and adornments, eg pots, cloth, food, bangles and everyday jewelery? What was the role of the rulers?

Submitted by Steve

Shereen Ratnagar
No way of knowing—but the Vedas are centuries later. I do not find much attraction in theories that conjure up Brahmanical deities, even later Puranic deities, in connection with Harappan images. We require a modicum of “chronological discipline”(—let us choose a better term for this in our discussions).

Jane McIntosh
Decipherment of the Indus script would be helpful – if nothing else, it should conclusively settle the non-Aryan/Aryan dispute – but the amount of information this would yield is severely limited.

As Iravatham Mahadevan points out, archaeological evidence makes it inconceivable that IVC's large, well-administered and sophisticated trading society would have functioned without effective long-distance communication. Unlike the clay tablets of Mesopotamia, no written records were discovered from Indus Valley sites except seals. The people of IVC might have written on cotton cloth, leaves, bark or hide which would have decayed by now, leaving no trace.

Submitted by Richard Sproat