the proto shiva seal and indus script
The proto Shiva seal
An introduction to Indus script
By Tom van Bakel
The
five Prana’s
the
proto shiva seal and indus script
The
Prashna Upanishad verse 4, 5 appears to be a useful introduction
to the proto Shiva seal. It says;
Prana led Apana rules the organs of excretion.
The Prana self dwells in eye, ear, mouth and nose.
Samana dwells the navel and rules digestion. (….)
The Self dwells in the heart, whence radiate a hundred and one nerves, (….), in all these moves the Vyana.
The
Udana leads the virtuous man upwards, the sinful man downwards,
and the man who is both virtuous and sinful to the world of men.
This verse marks that five Prana’s are active within the body. They can be recognized within the yogi’s body. Udana is represented by the horns, Prana by the face, Vyana by the breast, Samana is represented by the lingam and Apana is represented by the feet.
Original
picture; www.maravot.com/Banquet1.html
The
five Prana’s outside the body
The
next verse explains that these five Prana’s were also
existent and active outside the body.
Outside Prana is the sun, it rises to help the Prana in the eye.
The power of earth maintains the Apana in man.
The ether between the sun and the earth are Samana.
Vyana is the wind.
The
Udana is fire, and therefore he whose bodily heat has gone out
dies, after which his senses are absorbed in the mind, and he is
born again.
It is obvious that the five Prana’s agreed with the five elements. On the seal these elements were represented by animals;
Original
picture; www.maravot.com/Banquet1.html
The
five elements and the animals
Apana
rules the organs of excretion. The power of earth maintains the
Apana in man.
The
gravitation of the earth attracted rain and with the rain it
attracted life. When its activity was “dominating” the
world became revitalized. From July until December the earth
dominated the Valley as the monsoon usually entered it in July and
the winter rains felled down from October until December. When the
monsoon moves into the Valley it did not rain all day; usually it
came down in the evening. So when the earth “attracted”
the descending sun and sun and earth “unified” and the
earth “attracted” the rain at the same she became
revived. Traditionally the water buffalo represents the earth. On
the seal he was placed south-west: in the direction of the
descending sun.
Samana
dwells the navel and governs digestion. The ether between the sun
and the earth are Samana.
On
the seal Samana has the meaning of fertilizing. In September and
March soil got usually fruitful after the river had flooded its
banks in August and February. As mud was left behind grain and
barley could be sowed. The rhinoceros represented both September
and March as he likes to roll over on the river banks and let mud
dry on his skin.
The
Self dwells the heart, whence radiate a hundred one nerves. (….)
In all these moves the Vyana. Vyana is the wind.
The whole year through the wind was blowing. It followed the bed of the Indus River.
Traditionally
the elephant represented air. He is placed north east on the seal,
as the Indus ran from about north east to about south west.
The
Prana dwells in eye, ear, mouth and nose. The sun is the Prana of
the universe. It rises to help the Prana in the eye of men to
see.
In
February the melting snow led the rivers flood it banks. As mud
was led behind in March the rhinoceros represented his month too.
The Indus year was divided in a “dark” period and a
“light” period. The “dark” period started
when the monsoon moved into the Valley and ended after the winter
rains in December or January. The “light” period
usually lasted from January until June. As the rhinoceros
represented March too he represented the “light”
period at the same time. According to the Prashna verse light was
related to Prana.
The Udana leads the virtuous man upwards to higher birth, the sinful man downwards to lower birth, and the man who is both virtuous and sinful to rebirth in the world of men.
The
Udana is fire, and therefore he whose bodily heat has gone out
dies, after which his senses are absorbed in the mind, and he is
born again.
These sentences tell that Udana was related to fire and that fire leaded a man after his death to other worlds. The summer was the season of death; May, June and July were unbearably hot. Traditionally the tiger represented death. He was placed south-east; in the directing of the rising sun.
The
four quarters
All
this information can be put in a scheme.
The writing on the seal
On
this seal the five elements were depicted on different levels.
They were carved on the body; they were expressed by the animals,
by the quarters and they could also be expressed by the seasons.
It is evident that the five signs indicated them too.
To be sure these signs of the writing can be compared with signs of similar writings.
(1)
Original picture;www.maravot.com/Banquet1.html
(2)(3)(4)
Original
pictures;www.archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/photo-gal...
It seems that the fish sign was used to symbolize both water and air, as fish was swimming and breathing at the same time.
On the same way longer writings could be put in a time table.
Placing the writings together the agreements caught the eye. After studying the writings, with the signs basically known, it became obvious that the writings handled about the weather, about hunting and fishing, about cattle and farming. Never the less one very important issue was missing: the birth of a son. Conceiving a son was the first thing a Brahman had to do. If he was not able to do so his life was worthless; even Buddha had gotten a son. Then the idea rose that a seal was a birth document stating by itself that a son was born.
The next activity was to look at signs in the writings that marked birth. It is important to know that in Hinduism coitus is regarded as a religious act and a person is believed to be existing and alive after conception. So to signs of both coitus and birth must be looked at.
Some seals tell this message rather clearly, like this one;
This second seal tells it symbolic
Original pictures; www.hindunet.org/.../signs/script2.html
It should be no surprise that the conception was important in the Indus culture, since coitus has been considered to be a religious act in Ancient India. Also a person has been considered existing and alive after the conception. Proof of this idea can be found in the Ramayana, where was described how the god Vishnu decided to be born as son of Dasaratha, in order to beat the unbeatable Ravana. Vishnu appeared to Dasaratha in an offering fire, looking like a tiger, gave him rice that was boiled in milk and told him to share that with his wives. Nine months later they gave birth to four sons, all incarnations of Vishnu himself. It is reasonable to assume that the idea that one exist after conception, was common in the Indus culture.
L
ooking
at the longer writings, we can now discover the data of conception
and birth on the longer writing.
When
the seals in the Indus culture generally were understood to be
birth documents, then you didn’t even have to mention a date
of conception or a date of birth; you even can talk about the
weather or anything else. As you can see this has happened on some
of the longer writings.
Looking
at this scheme it looks as if the Indus script is generally
deciphered.
An introduction to the identity seals
About four-thousand seals, found in the ruins of towns and villages like Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, give us a glimpse of a culture as it existed in the Indus Valley four-thousand years ago. These seals appeared to be identity seals. On these seals animals or man were carved as well as very short inscriptions. These inscriptions, usually no more than a few signs, expressed the months of conceptions and births of about four-thousand sons.
In Hinduism coitus is considered a religious act and a person is considered existing and alive after conception. In the Indus Culture these two events may have had the same importance as they were carved on these identity seals.
Like in present a father registers his newborn son at the city hall; in the Indus-culture a father may have ordered a birth seal from a seal master. The son may have received this seal when it was grown up.
Personal
information
If such seal would only hold birth data, many of these seals would look alike. People who were conceived in the same month were likely to be born in the same month nine months later. This would mean that the information on the seals would be equal. Nevertheless almost each seal somehow was unique. In this study we will see that March was expressed in eight different ways.
Sheep in on Indus seals
Gemini
in the Indus Valley
February and March in the Indus Valley
At that time the constellation Man, which is now called Cancer, was the background of the sun in June.
June in the Indus Valley
The zebu in the Indus Valley
In the Indus culture both October and June could be represented by the zebu, given that he started mating in October and that his calves started to be born in June. The conception and birth of the sons were in this way embedded in the sequence of the zebu.
Pictures of the seals see: www.hindunet.org/hindu_history/sarasvati
In the Mahabharata the Pandavas were the offspring of gods. Three of them, Dharma (justice), Yayu, (wind), and Indra, (thunder), fertilized Kunti and the two Ashvins caused Madri to give birth to twins. So the five heroes’ of this epic were sons of gods. The carved animals were not just simple illustrations, but might had shown the “divine” fathers of the sonren or at least under which influence they were born. These sonren thus could have had physical fathers, who were farmers, fishers or hunters, and “divine” fathers who were gods of light, wind or thunder.
Tom van Bakel
17 October 2006
The Netherlands
other sites:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indusvalley/
Interview Spirituele Radio MP3: tom-van-Bakel--7-8-2006