“Rudra” was the most important God of the Indus Valley Civilization.

Abstract

Earlier, I had given the name of ‘Karkinos’ for the God who carried the bow and arrow. Now, the time has come to correct the name of this God as ‘Rudra’. After due verifications, I am reasonably convinced that this God is Rudra, a Rig Vedic god and a precursor to later day ‘Shiva’.

Reference and acknowledgements to Asko Parpola, Page.no.234, Deciphering the Indus Script (Book). (1)

The above-given pictures show a male figure of a hunting god, engraved on a copper tablet, found from Mohenjo Daro. The explanation given by Asko Parpola is that this figure could be the image of hunter god Rudra. The backside of the same plate contains some inscription, which could be the name of God.

Earlier, I read the inscriptions in a syllabic way (giving sound to symbols). Still, no specific name of God appeared either in the Dravidian language or the Aryan language.

Iravatham Mahadevan observed that Indus inscriptions are written in ‘Ideogramic way’ (Idea). (2) I applied the same ‘Ideogramic’ principle to Indus symbols, and there emerged a proper meaningful interpretation to the name of this God.

The crab symbol could be indicating –’ Karkinos.’

The above-given symbols mean the crab, the crab constellation and a god. Asko Parpola gives the name ‘Grahaka’ for this symbol/god (1). But my opinion is that it could have indicated ‘God Karkinos’ (3). Karkinos was the Greek name, and in Indus Valley civilization, he could have been called ‘Rudra’, the rig Vedic name of later day ‘Shiva’.

Symbols courtesy – Asko Parpola (1)

The above-given picture shows the variations of the crab logo; where ever these symbols appear, it should be read as ‘god Karkinos/ Rudra’ or ‘month of Karkida.’

Symbols courtesy – Asko Parpola (1)

This God Karkinos/ Rudra lives in the Pipal tree. The Pipal tree symbol indicates the tree in which Karkinos typically resides. He is a village god and called ‘Muneeswaran’ in South India. Refer to the article, ‘Three different tree gods of IVC’ for more information (4).’

Symbols courtesy – Asko Parpola (1)

The above-given crab symbols variants also indicate the ‘god Rudra’. All these variants show that God Rudra was the most popular God of IVC.

The Karkida symbol also indicates the ‘Karkida month.’

The new moon day in the month of Karkidakom (July-August) is the time for the ‘Karkidaka Vavu’ ceremony in Kerala. This ritual is famous for Bali (Sacrifice/paying homage) to the departed soul of ancestors. It is believed that the souls will attain salvation if Bali is performed on this day.

Therefore, Karkidaka Vavu became famous for performing Bali to ancestors. Thousands of people will throng on the riverbanks and beaches to offer holy prayers and Bali for the departed souls of their fathers. In North Kerala, it is believed that the dead souls will visit the homes on the day of Karkidaka Vavu.

Bow and arrow symbol indicates ‘God Karkinos’(Rudra)

God Rudra has been depicted as carrying a bow. The branch symbol stands for the word “sastha”, meaning thereby “god”. It is a composite symbol, and both these symbols should be read together as ‘Rudra Sastha’.

Rudra is called ‘the archer’ (Sanskrit: Śarva) (5), and the arrow is an essential attribute of Rudra. (6)The word is derived from the Sanskrit root śarv– which means ‘to injure’ or ‘to kill’. (5) The names Dhanvin (‘bowman’) and Bāṇahasta (‘archer’, literally ‘armed with a hand-full of arrows’) (7) (8)also refer to archery. (9)

Rudra was a relatively minor Vedic god and one of the names of Śiva, a major god of later Hinduism. Śiva is considered to have evolved from Rudra, and the two share a fierce, unpredictable, destructive nature. In the Vedas, Rudra is known as the divine archer. He shoots arrows of death and disease and has to be implored not to slay or injure in his wrath. (10) The most critical role of rudra is disease and death, and his arrow causes them; because of that, only he was the most feared god of the Rig Vedic period.

Along with the above-given symbols, some other symbol is also indicating ‘God Karkinos/Rudra’. That symbol is as given below:

The crab within the pipal tree specifies ‘god Karkinos/ Rudra’. Analysis and discussion about these symbols are given in the following paragraphs.

Picture courtesy – (11)

The above-given seal inscription shows the God Rudra with Bow. The symbol next to him is ‘’branch symbol’’ which indicates the word ‘’sastha(God)’’.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7

identifying the objects	Germinating seed —seedling	Two Bangles	Crab constellation symbol	Branch symbol	Embryo/ Or Mother goddess	Kedaga symbol means protection	Bull’s head -Symbol of sacrifice
Sanskrit name	BijaGkura		Karkida month	Zakha (Branch) Zakhastha – means God living in a branch	embryo	Kedaga	Sacrifice
Meaning	The embryo in the womb	Protection/ (or) Maybe indicating mother goddess	Karkida Sastha. (column 3&4 should be read together	Zakhastha is transformed into ‘Sastha.’	Embryo/ Or Mother goddess	Protection	Sacrifice

Rudra name on one side of the copper tablet, and the other side shows the symbol of Rudra (i.e. crab within the Pipal tree).

Pictures reference and courtesy – the book of Asko Parpola (Page-no. 112)

The above-given seal inscription appears on one side of the seal, and the reverse side shows a crab within tree’. The engraving can be read as indicating God Rudra; this symbol also should be construed as suggesting God Rudra.

Crab constellation means death and passage to the underworld

The modern symbol for Cancer represents the pincers of a crab, but Cancer has been portrayed as many types of creatures, usually those living in the water and always those with an exoskeleton (12).

The Egyptian records of about 2000 BC described it as Scarabaeus (Scarab), the sacred emblem of immortality. In Babylonia, the constellation was known as MUL.AL.LUL, a name that can refer to both a crab and a snapping turtle. On boundary stones, the image of a turtle or tortoise appears quite regularly. There also seems to be a strong connection between the Babylonian constellation and ideas of death and a passage to the underworld, which may be the origin of these ideas in later Greek myths associated with Hercules and the Hydra (13). In the 12th century, an illustrated astronomical manuscript showed it as a water beetle. Albumasar writes of this sign in Flowers of Abu Ma’shar. A 1488 Latin translation depicts Cancer as a giant crayfish (14), which also is the constellation’s name in most Germanic languages. Jakob Bartsch and Stanislaus Lubienitzki, in the 17th century, described it as a lobster (12).

Karkinos(Crab) pinching the foot of Hercules.

Picture courtesy -Wikipedia (12)

Battle of Karkinos and Hercules:

The second labour assigned to Herakles was the killing of the Lernaian Hydra. The beast was nurtured in Lerna and lived in the marshes. Herakles attacked the Hydra, and she hung on to him by wrapping herself around one of his feet, and he was unable to kill the monster by striking her with his club, for as soon as one head was pounded off, two others would grow in its place. Then a giant crab came along to help the Hydra and bit Herakles on foot. For this, he killed the crab.”

“Cancer. The crab was put among the stars by the favour of Juno [Hera]. Because, when Hercules was fighting against the Lernaean Hydra, the crab snapped at his foot from the swamp. Hercules, enraged at this, had killed it, and Juno [Hera] put the crab among the constellations.” (15)

Scriptures of Delphi (3)

According to the Scriptures of Delphi, a giant crab named Crios guarded the sea nymphs in Poseidon’s (Greek mythology) kingdom. He was enormous and robust, and Poseidon himself had blessed him with immortality.

When the god/monster Typhon (Greek mythology) terrorized the gods of Olympus, Poseidon, along with most of the other gods, went into hiding. He left Crios in charge of protecting the sea nymphs, who were considered as Poseidon’s daughters. The crab took his role as protector seriously and wouldn’t let any sea nymphs outside his reach. After a while, some of the sea nymphs became restless and convinced that they were in no danger from Typhon, escaped into the open sea (3).

Crios could not chase them as he was charged with protecting the other sea nymphs, so he enlisted the help of the giant squid, Vamari. Little did he know that Vamari (whose name translates to “Vampire Squid”) had ill intentions, and when he caught up to the sea nymphs, he devoured them.

When Vamari returned to Crios, he told the crab that he could not find any of the missing sea nymphs despite a valiant effort. Crios knew that he was lying and attacked him. They battled for hours until the crab finally won. But he had sustained such severe injuries that he was crippled from that time forward. Since he was immortal, though, he could not die but had to live in pain.

When Poseidon returned, he saw the bravery that the crab had shown and relieved him of his suffering, but not his immortality, by placing him in the sky as the constellation Cancer (3).

The relevance of citing the above mythology is that this is the only mythological story where crab is given due importance. It is relevant to note that Crab (Karkinos) was the most important God of the Indus valley civilization. How can this fact be correlated with other civilizations? There are two similar ideas available. One is the ‘scarab’ beetle of Egyptian culture, and the second is the above said ‘Crios’ story of Poseidon. These stories indicate that the IVC was heavily influenced by the Egyptian civilization (or) the sea-based culture of Greece, where Poseidon was one of the principal gods.

The third possibility is that this god ‘Karkinos’ might have come from Babylonians who were contemporaries to the Egyptians of ‘Scarab story’ (around 2000 BC). There is a strong connection between the Babylonian constellation and ideas of death and a passage to the underworld. This Babylonian idea might have percolated into the Indus Valley Civilization (circa 2000BC).

Inverted fork – symbol indicates ‘God Karkinos.’

$C:\Users\user\Desktop\ivc-logos-indus - 3\yajna-3.jpg$

This inverted fork –symbol indicates the crab star constellation. The modern symbol for Cancer represents the pincers of a crab, but Cancer has been portrayed as many types of creatures, usually those living in the water and always those with an exoskeleton (12).

Picture courtesy – Sue Sullivan (11)

The second symbol (Right to the left) looks like an inverted branch symbol. My opinion is that this symbol looks like the crab constellation. It probably meant the ‘god Karkinos’ as well as the month ‘Karkida Masam’. This inverted branch symbol correctly corresponds to the crab constellation pictures. The sky map showing the crab constellation has been reproduced below for verification. Further, the crab symbol also meant immortality, which corresponds well with the death and rebirth theory of mine, which is the constant theme of Indus seal inscriptions. The majority of the Indus seals shows the crab symbol and this crab constellation symbol.

$C:\Users\user\Desktop\crab constellation picture.png$

Skymap showing ‘crab constellation’: Note that the crab constellation looks like an inverted branch.

Picture courtesy – Sue Sullivan (11)

The above-given seal inscription shows the crab constellation symbol $C:\Users\user\Desktop\ivc-logos-indus - 3\yajna-3.jpg$ along with the branch symbol $C:\Users\user\Desktop\ivc-logos-indus - 3\zakhastha - 8.png$ . These two symbols should be read together as ‘Karkida Sastha’, thereby ‘Karkinos god’.

The arrow symbol indicates the word ‘Astaka.’

In addition to the above, the arrow symbol is the most frequently used symbol for the word ‘Astaka’. It is the symbol of God Karkinos/Rudra as well as this symbol indicates the 8^th day of the month, which is the most favourite day of Karkinos/Rudra. Read my article, ‘Indus script Numerals represent various gods as per calendar days’, for more information on this issue. (16) Both these points make it clear that this arrow/spear symbol is the most appropriate symbol for the word ‘Astaka’.

Wikipedia explains the personality of Rudra in the following way:

Rudra is a Rigvedic deity associated with the hunt. (17)One translation of the name is “the roarer”. (18) (19) (20) In the Rigveda, Rudra has been praised as the “mightiest of the mighty”. (21) Rudra is the personification of ‘terror’. Rudra can be the most severe roarer/howler or the most frightening one depending upon the situation. (9) The Wikipedia article does not give much importance to the role played by Rudra, that is, disease and death caused by his arrows; other articles in encyclopaedia Britannica and new world encyclopaedia highlights this aspect. (22) (10). The conclusion is that Rudra was the most feared god because of the disease and death caused by him.

Etymology

The etymology of the theonym Rudra is somewhat uncertain. (23) It is usually derived from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root rud- (related to English ‘rude’), which means ‘to cry, howl’. (23) (6)The name Rudra may thus be translated as ‘the roarer’. (18)

An alternative etymology suggested by Prof. Pischel interprets Rudra as the ‘red one’, the ‘brilliant one’, possibly derived from a lost root rud-, ‘red’ (20) or ‘ruddy’.

Rudra is called ‘the archer’ (Sanskrit: Śarva) (5), and the arrow is an essential attribute of Rudra. (6) The word is derived from the Sanskrit root śarv- which means ‘to injure’ or ‘to kill’. (5) The names Dhanvin (‘bowman’) (7) and Bāṇahasta (‘archer’, literally ‘armed with a hand-full of arrows’) (7) (24)also refer to archery.

In other contexts, the word rudra can simply mean ‘the number eleven’. (5) This point is significant because I have already said various gods of Indus civilization were simply mentioned as days of a calendar fortnight. ‘Astaka’ means ‘eighth day’, which is the day of Rudra. Similarly, the eleventh day of the calendar also belongs to ‘Rudra’. See my article under the heading,’ Indus numerals represent various gods as per calendar days for more information. (16)

Bibliography

1. Parpola, Asko. Deciphering the Indus script. New York. : Cambridge University Press., 2000.

2. Mahadevan.I. Indus script early form of Dravidian. Thehindu.com. [Online] November. 2015. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/indus-script-early-form-of-dravidian-iravatham-mahadevan/article6600394.ece.

3. Belmont, Mike. Mythology-of-cancer.html. Gods-and-monsters.com. [Online] http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/mythology-of-cancer.html.

4. Jeyakumar(Three-different-tree-gods). Three_different_tree_gods_of_Indus_civilization. academia.edu. [Online] https://www.academia.edu/25651400/Three_different_tree_gods_of_Indus_civilization.

5. Apte, Vaman Shivram. The Practical Sanskrit Dictionary . Delhi : Motilal Banarsidass Publisher, 1965. ISBN 81-208-0567-4..

6. Kramrisch, Stella. The Presence of Śiva. . Princeton,New Jersey : Princeton University Press., 1981. ISBN 0-691-01930-4.

7. Chidbhavananda, Swami. Siva Sahasranama Stotram: With Navavali. s.l. : Sri Ramakrishna Tapovanam., 1997. ISBN 81-208-0567-4. .

8. Śarmā, Rāmakaraṇa. Śivasahasranāmāṣṭakam : eight collections of hymns containing one thousand and eight names of Śiva. . Delhi : Nag Publishers. , 1996. ISBN 9788170813507. .

9. wikipedia(Rudra). Rudra. wikipedia.org. [Online] Nov 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudra.

10. www.britannica.com. Britannica.com/topic/Rudra. [Online] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rudra.

11. Sullivan, Sue. The Indus script dictionary. s.l. : Suzanne Redalia (Publisher), 2011.

12. Wikipedia(Cancer-constellation). Cancer_(constellation). wikipedia.org. [Online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_(constellation)#CITEREFWhite2008.

13. White, Gavin. Babylonian Star-lore. s.l. : Solaria Pubs, 2008.

14. Library, World Digital. Flowers of Abu Ma’shar”. World Digital Library. www.wdl.org/. [Online] Flowers of Abu Ma’shar”. World Digital Library..

15. Theoi.com. Karkinos. theoi.com. [Online] May 2106. http://www.theoi.com/Ther/Karkinos.html.

16. Jeyakumar(Indus-gods-calendar). Indus_script_Numerals_represent_various_gods_as_per_calendar_days. Academia.edu. [Online] https://www.academia.edu/31708667/Indus_script_Numerals_represent_various_gods_as_per_calendar_days.

17. Coulter, Charles Russell and Turner, Patricia. Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities. Routledge. ISBN 978-1135963903. Oxfordshire,UK : Routledge, 2013. ISBN 978-1135963903..

18. Majumdar, R. C. The History and Culture of the Indian People: (Volume 1) The Vedic Age. London : George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1951.

19. Zimmer, Heinrich. Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization. . Princeton, New Jersey: : Princeton University Press. , 1972. ISBN 0-691-01778-6..

20. Griffith, Ralph T. H. The Hymns of the Ṛgveda. Delhi. : Motilal Banarsidass. , 1973. ISBN 81-208-0046-X. .

21. Keith., AB. “Yajur Veda”. All Four Vedas. . s.l. : Islamic Books. .

22. Newworldencyclopedia. Newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Rudra. [Online] https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Rudra.

23. Chakravarti, Mahadev. The Concept of Rudra-Śiva Through The Ages. . Delhi : Motilal Banarsidass. , 2002. ISBN 81-208-0053-2. .

24. Śarmā, Rāmakaraṇa. Śivasahasranāmāṣṭakam : eight collections of hymns containing one thousand and eight names of Śiva. . Delhi : Nag Publishers. , 1996. ISBN 9788170813507. .