Telugu related to Indus Valley ‘script’?

An interesting case of archaeology being used to strengthen ethnic identity is reported in The Hindu, where researcher Iravatam Mahadevan is claiming that some Telugu words used in early Andhra history can be directly linked with certain symbols in the Indus Valley ‘script’.  The aim of this claim is evidently to push back the antiquity of the Telugu language, and thus of Telgu occupation of areas such as Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

This research is outside the margins of current mainstream scholarly opinion however, which holds that the symbols on the Indus Valley seals etc. found at Harappa are most likely to be simple transactional recordings, and not directly related to language at all. There is also a large gap in the archaeological record that does not back this claim up – the most recent Indus Valley seals date to around 2000 BC, while the earliest known Telugu script dates to the 4th century BC.

Published: 4.27.08 / 11pm
Tags: archaeology, identity, india