Event Schedule

An introduction to the possible origins of writing and the different types of writitng systems seen across history, viz., ideographic, syllabic, logosyllabic, alphabetic etc.

This talk will provide a context to the inscriptions of the Indus Civilization (2500-1900 BCE) that is possibly the only remaining major undeciphered writing system.

I will show how to use simple Python programs to extract inscriptions data from variuos sites in the web, which can be useful for building and analysing epigraphic databases. .

In this talk we shall explore how probabilistic models have shaped our understanding of linguistic sequences, focusing in particular on Markov's work that prefigures that of Claude Shannon on the entropy of written English, as well as the work of Zipf on the frequency of words and the principle of least effort.

If we look closely enough, it becomes apparent that networks are everywhere, and it turns out that a wide range of physical, biological and social interactions can be elegantly encapsulated in terms of network descriptions. I will provide a general overview of network science - a field of study focused on extracting information encoded by such networks - and will demonstrate some associated concepts in an interactive tutorial session using the network visualization software Gephi.

Contributions of four major Indus text corpora and concordances – Hunter (1934), Mahadevan (1977), Parpola (1973-2010), and Wells (1998-present) - made towards the textual and contextual analysis of the Indus script.

We will describe some basic string-matching algorithms, and introduce evolution of DNA sequence and phylogenetics, then look at applications of the same ideas in linguistics.

The grammar of the Harappan Script is now fairly well understood. However, all interpretative models about the Harappan Script have fallen short in their consistency with its grammar. The cultural context of the Indus writing is also well understood. In the present talk, we will discuss the miniatures that were used by the Harappans to express themselves in a variety of ways. We will then discuss the larger issues of the time evolution of the Harappan Civilisation and look at the possible scenarios of how it evolved and changed. We will then summarise by discussing the possible new avenues about the Harappan Script that can be pursued to gain better insights.

This is the concluding part of the talk whose first part was yesterday, focusing on how Shannon quantified information (measured by the unit of a "bit") using the concept of entropy and how it applies to language. We will also look at Zipf's law of abbreviation and the principle of least effort that he proposed to explain it.

This study uncovers an universal pattern in language, revealing asymmetric sign distribution at word boundaries, and applies this insight to deduce the writing direction of undeciphered Indus inscriptions, showing its utility in archaeological decipherment.

This talk will be a reading session on the most widely used proto=regional script of northern India called Siddhamātr̥kā.

The study of Indian epigraphy was at its infancy in the late 18th century. The initial phase began with the discovery of inscriptions and their publications by European scholars, apparently with the help of Indian pundits. They appeared in journals like Asiatic Researches and Journal of the Asiatic Society (both published by the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, established in 1784).
The foundation of researches in Indian epigraphy was thus laid and in this process of building interest in Indian epigraphy, the name of Charles Wilkins (1749-1836) stands out most prominently. Wilkins was among the earliest scholars who deciphered inscriptions at a period when those epigraphic records were unintelligible to others. When Wilkins began his study there was no idea of epigraphs as sources of history. None could read the script. How Wilkins made it possible is to decipher the inscriptions of sixth, ninth and tenth centuries is still a wonder. This talk would focus on the method of handling epigraphic data in the initial phase of Indian epigraphic studies (18th – 19th centuries).

The study introduces a segmentation method to analyze linguistic sequences, revealing a universal pattern of recurring word segments across languages. It suggests inherent cognitive or phonotactic constraints in language processing and word composition.