• ISBN13: 9788126913350
• Binding: Hardcover
• Subject: History
• Publisher: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd
• Publisher Imprint: N/A
• Publication Date: July 25, 2010
• Pages: 420
• Original Price: INR 1095.0
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 680 grams

The book presents a decoding of the script of proto-historic civilization of the Indus valley which flourished in the north and west of the Indian subcontinent between 3000–1850 B.C. This decoding comes after several failed attempts.
According to this book, the script belongs to the earliest type of writing invented and used by man to keep accounts. It is classified as logographic which means it is oriented to meaning rather than to sound or language. The other contemporaneous scripts in Egypt and Sumer were also of the same type. The tie-up between language and a set of symbols was not yet conceptualized. Consequently, the inscriptions found on the seals of the Indus civilization only enlist things and their quantities transacted. The contents are thus totally mundane and secular.
The author relates the script to the earlier and later scripts and unravels the system of the script as well as the making of signs individually. Thus, when related to the iconic original, every sign yields its authentic meaning. The method and argument take the decoding to its logical end, viz. to unravel the economic system of the Harappans.
With the decline of the Indus civilization, the script is assumed to have gone out of use, which is not confirmed by this study.
The approach is altogether innovative, objective and professional. The meanings of signs—the most crucial element in the decoding—are supported by tracing the scientific traits in the icons and usage confirmed in archaeological data. With this methodology, this probably is the final decoding.

Malati J. Shendge is an established Indologist. She is a prolific writer and has devoted several books to the understanding of the Indus civilization. Amongst the books she has published are: The Civilized Demons: The Harappans in the Rigveda (1977); The Songs and the Ruins: Rigveda in the Harappan Setting (1995); The Aryas, Facts without Fancy and Fiction (1996); The Language of the Harappans: From Akkadian to Sanskrit (1997) and Rigveda: The Original Meaning and its Recovery (1989). Besides, she has to her credit over seventy-five research papers published in scholarly journals of repute.
She has truly situated the Indus civilization as the beginning of India’s history and culture. The Rigveda, Sanskrit language, and India’s culture, according to her, have descended from the Indus civilization.
Shendge is a multidisciplinarian. She has worked on Buddhist Tantrism, the science tradition of India, the origin of writing, etc. Presently, she is director, RDV Centre for the Study of Indian Tradition in Pune.