http://varnam.org/blog/2009/05/undeciphered-scripts/ History, Current Affairs & Books Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:39:01 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://varnam.org/blog/2009/05/undeciphered-scripts/comment-page-1/#comment-12025 Kedar Thu, 28 May 2009 16:09:04 +0000 http://varnam.org/blog/?p=2236#comment-12025 I happened to read a paper on the science of deciphering unknown scripts in ancient India. The paper was based on a rather sombre poem (11th century I believe) about the scene after the destruction of the universe by Shiva. The whole universe is strewn with the skulls and bones of all the people, animals, gods, etc with names of the deceased written in an extinct language written on the skull with blood. And the Shiva-gaNAs are having fun deciphering the extinct language, with one of them figuring out to his delight that the skull he is holding is that of Indra's. I happened to read a paper on the science of deciphering unknown scripts in ancient India. The paper was based on a rather sombre poem (11th century I believe) about the scene after the destruction of the universe by Shiva. The whole universe is strewn with the skulls and bones of all the people, animals, gods, etc with names of the deceased written in an extinct language written on the skull with blood. And the Shiva-gaNAs are having fun deciphering the extinct language, with one of them figuring out to his delight that the skull he is holding is that of Indra’s.

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