Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao

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Shikaripur Ranganatha Rao (born 1922) is an Indian archeologist who led teams credited with the discovery of a number of Harappan sites including the famous port city of Lothal in Gujarat.

1 Biography and career
- 1.1 Indus script decipherment claim
- 1.2 Mythological identification of Dwaraka
2 References
3 Bibliography
4 External links

[edit] Biography and career

Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao completed his education from the Mysore University. He worked in the Archaeological Department of Baroda State and subsequently served the Archaeological Survey of India in various capacities. Dr. Rao has led excavations of many important sites such as Rangpur, Amreli, Bhagatrav, Dwaraka, Hanur, Aihole, Kaveripattinam and others. One of his most important works were leading the research and excavations at Lothal, the earliest known port in history and the most important Indus-era site in India. Dr. Rao was the recipient of Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship and a doctorate of literature from Mysore University. Rao had supervised excavation of several historic sites across the country in the West and South. He was also associated with conservation of monuments such as Taj Mahal and forts. Despite officially retiring in 1980, Dr. Rao was requested to work for the ASI Director General in leading Indian archaeological projects. It was under the initiative of Dr Rao that the NIO opened a marine archaeology research centre in 1981, under the stewardship of then director Dr S. Z. Quazim, which grew into a world recognised body. He was the founder of the Society of Marine Archaeology in India. Rao has been at the forefront of Indian archaeology for many decades - he was involved in extensive research into India's ancient and often mythical past, from the sites of the Indus Valley Civilization to excavations pertaining to the Kurukshetra War.

[edit] Indus script decipherment claim

Ancient Lothal as envisaged by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Rao (1992))^[1] claimed to have deciphered the Indus script. Postulating uniformity of the script over the full extent of Indus-era civilization, he compared it to West Asian alphabets, and assigned sound values based on this comparison. His decipherment results in an "Sanskritic" reading, including the numerals aeka, tra, chatus, panta, happta/sapta, dasa, dvadasa, sata (1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 100).

While mainstream scholarship is generally agreement with Rao's approach of comparison, the details of his decipherment have not been accepted, and the script is still generally considered undeciphered. John E. Mitchiner, after dismissing some more fanciful attempts at decipherment, mentions that "a more soundly-based but still greatly subjective and unconvincing attempt to discern an Indo-European basis in the script has been that of Rao".^[2]

In a 2002 interview with The Hindu, Rao asserted his faith in his decipherment, saying that "Recently we have confirmed that it is definitely an Indo-Aryan language and deciphered. Prof. W. W. Grummond of Florida State University has written in his article that I have already deciphered it."^[3]

[edit] Mythological identification of Dwaraka

At Kushasthali (Bet Dwaraka) Rao and his team found a wall (560 metres long) visible on the shore itself. Dating of pottery found here gave a date of 1528 BC^{[citation needed]}. Further unearthed was a seal (mudra). Rao asserted the three-holed triangular stone anchors found in large numbers in Dwarka waters suggested a continuity in evolution of the anchors in Lothal and Mohenjodaro, which had a single hole, and that the Dwaraka anchors of late Harappan phase are a couple of centuries older than the identical anchors of late Bronze Age used in Cyprus and Syria.

Rao asserts^{[citation needed]} that the unearthed remains at were the mythical city that was home to Krishna, the eighth Avatara of Vishnu. According to the Mahabharata, Krishna built Dwaraka at Kushasthali - a fortress in the sea which is in ruins. Then he built another city at the mouth of the Gomti river. The Mahabharata refers to how Krishna wanted every citizen to carry some sort of identity - a mudra.

[edit] References

^ see Koenraad Elst, Remarks in expectation of a decipherment of the Indus script
^ J.E. Mitchiner: Studies in the Indus Valley Inscriptions, p.5, with reference to S.R. Rao: Lothal and the Indus Civilisation (ch.10), Bombay 1973.
^ referring to the statement of W. W. De Grummond's, Department of Classics, Florida State University, that "Dr. Rao's decipherment of the Indus script has met with considerable acceptance and will serve now as a basis for further and continuing study of the language of the ancient Indus Valley civilization." in "Linguistic Affinities of Old Indo-Aryan with Classical Greek and Latin", B.U. Nayak, N.C. Ghosh (eds.) New Trends in Indian Art and Archaeology: S.R. Rao's 70th birthday felicitation volume, Aditya Prakashan (1992), pp. 133-139

[edit] Bibliography

Lothal (published by the Director General, Archaeological Survey of India, 1985)
Lothal and the Indus Civilisation ISBN 0-210-22278-6
Lothal: A Harappan Port Town (1955 - 1962) (Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India) ASIN: B0006E4EAC
The Lost City of Dvaraka 1999, xxii, 157 p., ISBN 81-86471-48-0
Rao, S.R. (1991). Dawn and Devolution of the Indus Civilization. ISBN 81-85179-74-3.
Marine Archaeology in India (2001)
New Trends in Indian Art and Archaeology: S.R. Rao's 70th Birthday Felicitation Volumes, edited by B.U. Nayak and N.C. Ghosh. 1992, 2 v.