Deciphering the Indus Script as a Cryptogram | Yajnadevam | #sangamtalks

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Published 2022-07-27
Lets delve into the Indus script, its history & evolution alongwith different scripts. An approach will be built to solve it as a cryptogram & determine the language & its decipherment. Also, its abugida nature, base & composite signs, word boundaries, relationship with Brahmi script & evolution of 81 allophones & variants will be discussed. Then, the Indic/Vedic concepts inscribed on seals & correctness & falsifiability of approaches will be done.

Speaker:
Yajnadevam is a cryptographer & computer programmer interested in political theory, linguistics, ancient manuscripts & history. Combining his broad experience in languages & scripts together with programming & regular expressions, he will present his decipherment of the Indus script.

For more of Yajnadevam's work, please visit: independent.academia.edu/yajnadevam

Sub-Topics:
0:00 Introduction to the topic
0:41 The Indus Script - A Background
3:17 Indus Script Problem
4:38 Parpola's decipherment as Tamil
5:45 S.R. Rao's segmental as Sanskrit
6:18 Speaker's Decipherment Approach
7:14 Kinds of Scripts that exist
12:48 Indus Script : Segmental/Syllabic
14:23 Deciphering messages made of unknown symbols
15:35 Cryptograms
16:36 Using Regex to find words
18:33 Regular Expressions - Short words
20:14 Evolution of Signs and Sign classification
21:55 Sign variants
23:46 What if the sign identifications are wrong?
24:41 Language : Try them all...the right one will fit
25:28 The first 2 Signs of the Indus Script and its decipherment by the Speaker
26:39 Evolution of Science over 1500 years
27:59 Ordering by phoneme
29:12 Directional and word boundary marker
29:52 Brahmi script for decipherment
30:46 Some interesting inscriptions
31:49 The Dholavira signboard
32:15 The Magadha coin
32:33 Black buck inscription
32:58 Usha Tamra inscription
33:15 Chariot inscription
33:38 Wedding inscription
33:50 Vedic terms
34:06 Pashupati seal
34:26 Vedic altars
34:56 Deities in the inscriptions
35:28 Correctness of Speaker's decipherment of the Indus Script
38:04 Criticisms of Speaker's decipherment of the Indus Script
39:41 Falsifiability of Speaker's decipherment of the Indus Script
42:02 Implications of Speaker's decipherment of the Indus Script
Q&A
43:55 Connections drawn between symbols and Brahmi would help bridge the Aryan-Dravidian divide problem?
48:34 Is it guesswork? What about numbers in the Indus script?
52:03 Is mainstream academia interested in Speaker's decipherment? How is the conclusion drawn by the Speaker that India is the homeland of early Indo-Europeans?
55:15 Are there more long descriptions available? In terms of language Brahmi was used as a base for many other languages apart from Sanskrit, so how can that be segmented?
57:42 Whether these symbols match with other contemporary civilizations of those times?
58:56 Why is it that we have different symbols representing the same syllable in the Speaker's decipherment?
1:00:47 Does the semitic family include the Aramaic and Finnisian as well which claims that the Brahmi script was modelled on it? Indus valley script and Harappan script are co-terminus?

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All Comments (21)
  • @playhard719
    The guy who deciphered it as Japanese is an absolute maniac, and must have had a great sense of humour.
  • He is so unassuming about his achievement. For him it was just a cryptogram. His work needs to be recognised and brought to the mainstream.
  • This is so brilliant and passes the scientific test. This actually provides space for falsibility which is an essential test for it to be scientific. Another jolt to Aryan invasion/migration/tourism dogma. Bharat is a continuous existing civilisation for atleast 12000+ years
  • When I was first studying ancient History of India, it was no brainer That Indus valley Civilization did not end and is a continuous civilization till present day. Recent DNA studies only confirms this further. This deciphering is cherry on the top. Thank you for your outstanding work.
  • @jksandesh
    At last the Indus Script is meaningfully deciphered Wish the ancient locations and Artefacts were in india and preserved well.
  • Brilliant presentation and analysis! The scientific methodology adopted and use of probability that we use to solve cryptograms, and after all that hard work to confirm that Brahmi evolved from this! It has been "staring" at us for years!
  • @pmanek
    My two cents, this is brilliant and much more refined than anything I have seen on this topic. Again, with full respect, needs to be tested by multiple researchers to validate it like any other scientific discovery. , I would keep implication away from this scientific work here.
  • @AB-vx4hk
    Absolutely fascinating. The tradition of learning, thought, and analysis, leading to intellectual excellence is a continuation of the model settled by our ancient rishis
  • What a wonderful way of using reg ex and other constructs to mathematically and logically decipher. Thanks
  • @rajshimum
    Superb work. This has to be quickly examined. Has the potential to retell history
  • @ksinha88
    This is absolutely groundbreaking material and needs to be urgently recognised in India and the World. I would recommend this be presented to the PM of India, it is worth of a Padma Vibhushan and even Nobel Prize. I hope this is being propagated in the archeology worlds. I would be interested to know if you have tried using this system for Dravidian Language. Also what is your take on the recent research on the word Peelu discovered in Mesopotamia (word for elephant tusk).
  • @sspunch9886
    It took several hundred years to break the mayan code as per documentary in amazon prime “breaking the mayan code”after watching that I believe this way of deciphering is rational.
  • @shantanudutt8844
    I think this is brilliant work. However, the clarity and structure in his explanations could be improved so that they are crystal clear. I got the gist of his explanations and his claim of matching with Brahmi, that it would not have been possible unless this is actually what the Indus script is for (his regular expression based decipherment being self correcting, and thus would have a reached a dead end if the language of the Indus script was not Brahmi). However, he could have made a stronger case for the correctness of his decipherment, had he given: 1) alternative but reasonable guesses of the sounds of some symbols to show that they reach a dead end assuming Brahmi to be the language depicted. 2) Try the same for other ancient languages of the time including Sanskrit, ancient Farsi, etc., and show that his method/code reaches dead ends for each of these other languages he tried. Finally, on a sminor negative note, is the issue of a lack of transparency in this presentation: a) his name was not revealed; b) he did not provide a link to his (apparently unpublished paper); c) he also seems a bit too blase about the fact that his paper was (apparently) rejected; just for the sake of establishing this decipherment as the correct one for the sake of human-kind, he should make revisions to it to better explain his method and rationale so that it is published in a prestigious journal. For this, one possibility is collaborating for just the paper writing/revision with Prof. Rajesh Rao from the U. Washington (CS/CSE department?) who has done some work in Indus script decipherment--available on youtube--(though not as comprehensive as here). If that does not work out or is not a good option for him, I offer to collaborate with him to write a better paper (I can just be a minor co-author--my main aim is to get this published, not being a co-author--I have enough paper of my own)--I am a professor of ECE at UIC, have published about 90 well regarded papers in prestigious journals and conference proceedings, and my research areas fall in the related fields of computer engineering and science. My name is Shantanu Dutt, and my univ. email is [email protected] (please no unsolicited emails from anyone else), in case my offer interests him (and I hope it does for the benefit of humanity).
  • @jamesraymond1158
    Deciphering: What an amazing puzzle and demonstration of human ingenuity.