Yu. V. Knorozov: Studies of Proto-Indian Texts. To the Centenary of the Birth

Abstract

Yu.V. Knorozov is known as a decipherer of the writing of the ancient Maya Indians. But his research included other historical writing systems, including Proto-Indian, much less is known about this. Yu.V. Knorozov began to study it in 1964 and continued with the Group of Ethnic Semiotics he created. Proto-Indian texts have preserved evidence of one of the greatest civilizations of antiquity, which existed in the III–II millennium BC in the northwest of Hindustan, in the valley of the Indus River. In proto-Indian writing, all the difficulties that are possible when studying a forgotten historical writing system were concentrated: neither the letter nor the language, a small number of texts, the absence of bilingualism, etc. are unknown. Nevertheless, in the study of proto-Indian texts, all the tasks necessary in such cases were consistently solved. After a deep analysis of the texts themselves, the type of writing was defined as hieroglyphic (morphemic-syllabic) with all its inherent features. On the basis of formal typological comparisons, it was proved that the language of the Proto-Indian inscriptions was Dravidian; a linguistic interpretation of a number of texts was proposed and a conditional phonetic reading of the signs of proto-Indian writing was established. Yu. V. Knorozov also  studied images and symbols accompanying inscriptions on various archaeological sites. The main types of inscriptions were identified, described and analyzed. On this basis, it was possible to reconstruct some features of the religious and mythological ideas of the inhabitants of proto-Indian cities and their calendar and chronological system. The purpose of this article is to show all stages of the study of proto-Indian texts, methodological positions and main results obtained in the course of work under the guidance of Yu. V. Knorozov. The author’s task is to acquaint the scientific community with the significant contribution of Yu. V. Knorozov into work on the study of proto-Indian writing and thereby resurrect one of the facets of the multifaceted image of the great Russian scientist.

Keywords:

proto-Indian writing, archaeological objects, type of writing, language of inscriptions, phonetic reading, iconographic texts