The Tamil Nadu government on Sunday announced that it will offer a prize of $1 million, or Rs 8.5 crore, to any expert or organisation that succeeds in deciphering the script of the Indus Valley Civilisation, The Hindu reported.

“We are not able to decipher the script of the Indus Valley Civilisation that flourished once,” Chief Minister MK Stalin said at a centenary event celebrating the discovery of the civilisation by English archaeologist John Marshall. “It remains a mystery even after 100 years.”

The Indus Valley was home to one of the world’s earliest civilisations. It began nearly 5,000 years ago in an area of modern-day Pakistan and North India. There were more than 1,400 towns and cities in the valley. The biggest were Harappa and Mohenjodaro. Around 80,000 persons are believed to have lived in these cities.

The civilisation was first identified in 1921. Marshall, who was the director-general of the Indian Archaeological Survey and was responsible for the large-scale excavations that revealed Harappa and Mohenjodaro, announced its discovery in 1924.

However, the Indus script used by the civilisation has not been deciphered. In the past century, more than 100 attempts have been made by archaeologists, epigraphists, linguists, historians, scientists and others to decipher the script.

The inscriptions of the civilisation are found on seal stones, terracotta tablets and some metal objects. These inscriptions typically consist of pictograms, often combined with motifs of animals or humans.

The politicians of the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu have for long claimed that the residents of the Indus Valley Civilisation could be ancestors of the Tamils. Several experts have also speculated that the Indus script is a set of symbols used to represent an early Dravidian language.

However, archaeological and genetic evidence to establish the link has not been strong so far.

“Archaeologists, Tamil computer software experts and computer experts across the world have been making efforts to decipher the script,” Stalin said on Sunday. “To encourage the research, the [state] government will offer $1 million.”

Additionally, Stalin said that the state government will provide a grant of Rs 2 crore to establish a chair in the name of archaeologist and epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan to continue research on the Indus Valley Civilisation, The Hindu reported. Mahadevan was an expert on the Indus script.

The research will be conducted by the State Department of Archaeology and the Indus Research Centre at the Roja Muthiah Library in Chennai.

Stalin also announced the founding of an annual award for two scholars in archaeology, epigraphy and numismatics, The Times of India reported.

The chief minister also released a book by the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology, which found that 60% of the signs and 90% of the drawings unearthed from excavation sites across Tamil Nadu had parallels with those found in the Indus Valley Civilisation, the Hindustan Times reported.

In his speech, Stalin said that Marshall’s discovery of the civilisation was a turning point in history.

“Many used to argue that it was a figment of imagination that Aryan and Sanskrit were the origin of India,” The Hindu quoted him as saying. “John Marshall’s discovery completely changed the perception.”

Stalin added: “His argument that Indus Valley Civilisation predated Aryan Civilisation and the language spoken in the Indus Valley could be Dravidian has been strengthened further.”

The origins of the Indus Valley Civilisation and the Aryan migration theory are deeply contentious subjects in India.

The theory of Aryan migration was first put forward by Western scholars during the colonial age. The theory postulated that a race of European or Central Asian “Aryans” swept into the Indian subcontinent, displacing the indigenous Indus Valley Civilisation.

While some historians support the Aryan migration theory and contend that the Indus Valley was pre-Vedic, others argue that Aryans were indigenous to India.

On Sunday, Stalin also noted that there were bulls in the Indus Valley.

“Bulls are Dravidian symbols,” he said. “Bulls have spread from Indus Valley to Alanganallur [a village near Madurai where jallikattu is held] in Tamil Nadu. Ancient Tamil literature talks about taming bulls and it is called ‘Kolleru Thazhuvuthal’.”

He added: “In the symbols of Indus Valley also there are images of bulls which lift away the youth who tried to tame it.”

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