Scholar finds engravings of Indus script on stones in Khirthar mountains

Indus script and its variant have been discovered etched in stones in Khirthar Range of mountains near Wahi Pandhi town by research scholar Prof Aziz Kingrani.

The script has so far been found only in Moenjodaro and it was the first time it had been discovered outside the ruined city, according to the professor.

He told Dawn on Sunday that he had discovered 60 symbols resembling those Indus seal script engraved on rocks in Khirthar mountains and said according to Asko Parpola, the Indus script was invented during 2600 BC to 1900 BC.

He said that the area where the Indus script was found was approximately at a distance of 200 kilometres from Moenjodaro along the old trade routes that were in use at that time and led from Sindh to western countries.

He said the Indus seals script and its variant including its inverse and obverse signs inscribed on rocks could be considered a piece of evidence for existence of linkage of urban society of the Indus Valley Civilisation with its towns, villages and other remote areas.

He explained that probably, Indus seal script or writing system of Indus Civilisation was prevalent in these localities during the period of Indus Civilisation in the third millennium BC.

And possibly, later, due to invention of other early scripts like as Brahmi script the trend of the usage of Indus writing system gradually disappeared, he suggested.

He proclaimed that it was the first time the Indus script had been discovered engraved on rocks in Sindh by him and believed that the inscriptions of Indus script had been commissioned from Bronze Age to early Iron Age.

Originally published in Dawn, September 9th, 2019