Tamil Nadu CM Stalin announces $1 million prize for deciphering Indus Valley Script

Tamil Nadu CM offers $1 million prize for deciphering Indus Valley scripts, grants for research and awards for experts.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Sunday (January 5, 2025) announced a $1 million prize for experts or organisations that succeed in deciphering the scripts of the Indus Valley Civilisation for everyone to understand.

“We are not able to decipher the script of the Indus Valley Civilization that flourished once. It remains a mystery even after 100 years. Archaeologists, Tamil computer software experts and computer experts across the world have been making efforts to decipher the script. To encourage the research, the government will offer one million dollars,” he said while participating in the centenary of the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilisation by Sir John Marshall in Chennai.

The Chief Minister also announced ₹2 crore grant for setting up a chair in the name of noted archaeologist and epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan to continue the research on the Indus Valley Civilisation jointly by the State Department of Archaeology and the Indus Research Centre at the Chennai-based Roja Muthiah Library.

He said the government would institute two awards to honour and encourage numismatists and epigraphists who had been working to highlight the ancientness of Tamil culture.

Pointing out that the symbols in the seals used for commercial purposes in the Indus Valley Civilisation had possessed 60 per cent similarities with the symbols found during archaeological excavation in Tamil Nadu, Mr Stalin said archaeologists had established symbols in the pots of the Indus Valley Civilisation and the symbols found in the mud pots of Tamil Nadu had 90% similarities.

The Chief Minister, who laid the foundation stone for the statue of Sir John Marshall, said his discovery was a turning point in the history and completely changed the understanding of the past. “Many used to argue that it was a figment of imagination that Aryan and Sanskrit were the origin of India. John Marshall’s discovery completely changed the perception. His argument that Indus Valley Civilisation predated Aryan Civilization and the language spoken in the Indus Valley could be Dravidian has been strengthened further,” he said.

Mr Stalin said there were bulls in the Indus Valley which were Dravidian symbols. “Bulls have spread from Indus Valley to Alanganallur (where jallikattu is held) in Tamil Nadu. Ancient Tamil literature talks about taming bulls and it is called Kolleru Thazhuvuthal. In the symbols of Indus Valley also there are images of bulls which lift away the youth who tried to tame it,” he said.