About Vishasita

Vishasita started off as a desire to apply Machine Learning and NLP techniques to the Indus Script. However, there was no electronic corpus of seal text that was available to the public. So we decided to make one from scratch and share it with the public.

One is unfortunately led down the path of trying to figure out what it takes to decipher the seals. Even the act of mapping signs on seals to characters is an interpretation where one needs to do the equivalent of deciding between (a vs A) or (a vs b). When one cannot read the text, these choices are taken blind.

Another problem is that it is not possible to know what is written. One does not know whether the text on the seals represent addresses on mailing receipts, words in a quotation, etc. Any of these could exhibit similar information signatures and all of them are valid interpretations. There is no question of finding the right decipherment because that is not possible. With a Rosetta Stone one can learn from someone who knew. In its absence, the best that one can do here is guess.

Given this situation, a scientific approach is better than a logical one. Open it up so that anyone can come up with a theory. And chances are that the most elegant one, the theory which requires the least leap of faith but explains the maximum number of the facts, is most likely to be correct. At least until something better comes along.

Vishasita aims to make this process more efficient by cracking open the relevant pieces of the puzzle and making it available to the public. It will also attempt at creating a new conceptual framework for decipherment and render its own interpretation so that people who are interested can take a look at it and see what works for them. The hope is to create a sufficiently relevant context so that others can reasonably leverage it in their attempts at decipherment.

Goals

To share a representative set of resources of the Indus Script in a Free and Open manner to the public. This includes the photos of original seals that have gone out of copyright as well as useful resources like an Indus font for efficient sharing online; an electronic corpus of seal text that caters to machine learning and other algorithmic analysis; as well as a seal image search engine so that people can efficiently navigate what is out there.
To create and share a reasonable-ish decipherment. This will appear in the form of decisions taken to create the above resources all the way to reading names of peoples, towns, mountains and rivers in the Seals themselves. The hope is to do so in a transparent fashion so that others can leverage our experience.
To increase awareness of the mysteries of Indus Civilization among the public. It is today a mute civilization of prehistory; the silent heritage from an unknown people. Perhaps one day we will be able to read what they have written; and see their legacy within ourselves.

Non-Goals

To prescribe technical solutions. As an example, the Indus Font will at best be a rough and ready solution for writing Indus text but not much more. Although it is hoped that Vishasita's efforts can inform a future attempt at standardization, our users should not expect that other solutions will resemble the one that is being made available here.
To be a general repository of public domain resources in this field. While we encourage all parties who have resources relevant to the Indus Script to release them in the public domain, they are not expected to do so in Vishasita. We lack the legal resources to help in such an effort and the technical solutions do not need anything we do.
To be a complete repository. There is nothing about Vishasita that is anything more than a sample and it is at best a somewhat representative one. We will never have the resources to present a complete picture.
To champion a single solution or decipherment. We see Vishasita's role as a facilitator rather than an activist or critic. Even our own attempt at decipherment aims for validity rather than truth. Instead of just giving an answer, we hope to share a framework that will help others find their answers.

Contact Details

to vishasita at gmail dot com.