‘Upraised Hand’ symbol indicates ‘Ka’ (Soul) of a dead person.

Abstract

The symbol of upraised hands is seen in many instances in Indus seal inscriptions. The same symbol appears in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics also, which indicated the ‘Ka’ (soul) of a dead person.

Figure 1: Indus seal showing the word ‘pithru karma.’

Seal courtesy book of Sue Sullivan (1)

The majority of the seals are oriented towards the Pithru Karma ceremony. This finding substantiates my earlier theory that Indus excavation sites are burial grounds and not megapolises as popularly imagined so far.

Symbols / Indus logos
symbol Identified	Ancestors (This symbol looks like an older man walking with a bent back)	Upraised Hands –symbol with a fish symbol inside (composite symbol)	symbol full stop/ yajna	Mountain/ Kur symbol	Man with club
Sanskrit name	Pithru	Ka (soul) -with Matsya inside	Yajna	—	—
meaning	Pithru	Ka+ma = Karma	Yajna	Kur symbol means the nether world	Gatekeeper God with the club as his weapon

The outcome of the analysis is that the inscription reads as ‘Pithru-Karma-ceremony(Yajna) – netherworld -gatekeeper’. ‘Pithru –Karma’ (2) means the ceremony carried out for the benefit of dead ancestors. This ceremony is accompanied by ‘Yajna’ ritual. Modern days “Fire sacrifice” (Yajna) is with vegetarian sacrificial materials. But, it looks like that in olden days animal sacrifice was the main item of “Yajna” ceremony. It is relevant to note here that the upraised symbol indicates the ‘KA’ (soul) of the dead person. With fish symbol inside the KA symbol, it becomes a composite symbol with syllable sound of ‘Karma’.

KA (soul)

D28

ka
in hieroglyphs

Figure 2: ka-symbol

Picture courtesy Wikipedia.

The KA was the Egyptian concept of vital essence, that which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the KA left the body. Depending on the region, Egyptians believed that Heket or Meskhenet was the creator of each person’s KA, breathing it into them at the instant of their birth as the part of their soul that made them alive. This breathing ritual resembles the concept of spirit in other religions. (3)

The Egyptians also believed that the KA was sustained through food and drink. For this reason, food and drink offerings were presented to the dead, although it was the ‘Kau‘ within the offerings that was consumed, not the physical aspect. (Please note that ‘Kavu’ means sacrifice in Tamil, it is the same meaning as assigned by Egyptians as ‘Kau’) (4) The ‘KA’ was often represented in Egyptian iconography as a second image of the king. As seen in the below-given picture, the upraised hands’ symbol on the head of dead Pharaoh’s statue indicates that it is the ‘KA’ (Soul) of Pharaoh. (3)

Figure 3: Upraised hands means the person’s ka (soul)

Source: Wikimedia

For the KA to live forever, it needed a host to live. The perfect host was, of course, the original body, which was why the practice of mummification, preserving the body, came into the cult. Should something happen to the body, however, any surviving image of the person could, in theory, be a host for the ‘KA’. Thus to ensure the preservation of the ‘KA’ specific statues were made as alternative hosts to the mummified body. As the religion grew, however, the ‘KA’ demanded more than just a host. To sustain the ‘KA’ ritual offerings were needed to feed the spirit in the afterlife. From the earliest royal Egyptian tombs, human sacrifice was found as evidence of servants being presented for the ‘KA’ to serve for all eternity (later this practice was replaced with figurines of servants instead). Even in commoners tombs sometimes food or everyday objects can be found buried with the body to accompany the person into the afterlife. (5)

Bibliography

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

2. spokensanskrit.de. spokensanskrit.de. [Online] 2014. spokensanskrit.de.

3. Wikipedia. Ancient_Egyptian_concept_of_the_soul. Wikipedia. [Online], 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_concept_of_the_soul#Ka_.28vital_spark.29.

4. Jeyakumar.R. Kavu_grapheme_indicates_sacrifice_in_Indus_inscriptions. academia.edu. [Online] 2014. https://www.academia.edu/8612715/Kavu_grapheme_indicates_sacrifice_in_Indus_inscriptions.

5. Red, Plaid. The-Role-of-the-Ka-in-Egyptian-Funerary-Practices. plaidred.hubpages.com. [Online], 2014. http://plaidred.hubpages.com/hub/The-Role-of-the-Ka-in-Egyptian-Funerary-Practices.