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

Jane McIntosh

This case is being made on the basis of circumstantial evidence. Did the people of Indus Valley Civilization interact with people of the Rigveda? What is the relationship between the Indus Valley people and Vedic people? Submitted by Shubha Khandekar and others

I would also like the experts to throw some light on the irrigation systems prevalent in South India, especially in Kerala till the middle of this century, where system of open channels linking ponds were prevelant. Ponds again were small types for domestic use and bigger ones for agriculture in addition to deep wells for drinking water and the entire system was integrated part of the village life which appears common with what existed in Harappa and IVC.
Submitted by Prakash Pk

There is an image common to the Indus, Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian river cultures of a female deity standing with arms outstretched, holding two apparently deadly animals at bay. In the case of the Indus, the animals have been identified as 'tigers', in Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian they are crocodiles. What are the current theories on the iconography(ies) of these images; the reasons for their presence in three civilizations and what their presence might indicate in terms of the interrelationships between these cultures? Submitted by Ian Whitney