Mayank Vahia

Ancient Indus questions answered by Mayank Vahia, an astronomer and Indus script expert at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He has numerous articles on this website, and the essay TIFR Indus Script Research.

70. Did they play mancala in the ancient Indus Valley? if so, what did their game boards look like?

Mayank Vahia

Mayank Vahia
We do have some evidence of patterns that look like a board game but the evidence is sparse and we really have no good idea about what they played. We can only speculate based on locations that look like stadia, that may be they had races and other competitive games, but we have no clear idea.

69. Are there connections between the Ramayana epic and the Indus Valley Civilization?

Massimo Vidale

Mayank Vahia

Shereen Ratnagar

Three experts respond to a question from one of our users.

71. Is there any reason to believe now that there might be a connection between the IVC script and the Easter Island Rongorongo?

Some similarities have been found in the glyphs between Rongorongo and Indus writing. As well, the direction of writing (boustrophedon) might be the same/similar to Indus. What do scholars say?

72. Were seals also used as art objects and were they influenced by Sumerian seals?

"There can be no doubt that some Indus seals are fine artistic achievements. Probably one of the main functions of the seal's iconographic motifs, and the quality of their carving, was to convey the status of the seal owner."

74. Are there tablets or seals having paragraphic Indus Script or is it just used for decorations and captions?

Asko Parpola

Mayank Vahia

The Babylonian texts like Code of Hammurabi in Akkadian and Sumerian seals of Urukagina state legal codes and regulations. Although the Indus script hasn't been deciphered, have any of the excavations resulted in similar seals which contain major textual references or is the Indus script just used as a tool for decoration?