Brick symbol indicates iSTIkRta ceremony:

The Brick symbol gives a very good insight into analysis on the
development of Indus script. The symbol iSTika does not
merely mean brick alone, it stands for a whole concept, and it
stands for the word Istikrta ceremony. First, we can analyse
the inscription where the full name of the ceremony appears.

Figure 1
(Pictures courtesy and acknowledgements Book of Sue Sullivan) (Sullivan, The Indus Script Dictionary, 2011)

symbols

Identificatio brick
n of object
Sanskrit
name

iSTikA

Decoratio
n of
Kavari
Kavari

Syllable
sound

isti

Ka

Ra
symb
ol
ra

Number
three

Quotatio wheel
n mark

tra

bagha

chakra

ra

ta

bagha

Indra

Now, the inscription can be read as Istikrta share to Indra.

As per Spokensanskrit dictionary (spokensanskrit), this word has
the meaning Particular Sacrifice or Festive rite. There is a
second possible meaning also. Before starting any sacrifice the
bricks are made fresh every time. At the time of initiation of brick
making itself, one bull is sacrificed. Such sacrifice animal is
known as Istikrta-pazu. (spokensanskrit). However, both words

are indicating a single situation and could be indicating single

ceremony.
We are very fortunate to have the full word Istikrta in figure -1, in
other seals the same word appears in a shortened form. Now, let
us consider the next inscription.

Figure 2

Symbols
Identification of
object

Bric
k

Decoration of
Kavari

Sanskrit name

iSTik Kavari
A

Syllable sound

isti

Ka

Full stop
mark

bow

kavari

(.)

dhanush

Kavari

(.)

dhanud
har

ka

The inscription in figure -2 could be read as Istika Dhanudharka. Meaning of the words is Istikrta ceremony for Dhanudhar.
Dhanudhar most probably indicates God Rudra. However, god
Rudras name does not appear in the Indus inscriptions so far.
Most probably the Indus name for Rudra was Kronos
(Jeyakumar.R., 2012)

Figure 3

symbols
Identification of object

brick

Decoration of Kavari

Sanskrit name

iSTikA

Kavari

Syllable sound

isti

Ka

The inscription on the seal can be read as Istika/ (or) Istika-ka.

Meaning of the word is bull sacrificed on the occasion of istikrat
ceremony. However, the word is so highly condensed, only
symbol of brick appears. It could have made good sense to Indus
valley priest because their vocabulary was limited to sacrifice and
rituals. Whereas modern man gets confused as we attribute

various meanings to a simple word used by an Indus priest. This is

the typical problem associated with decipherment of Indus script.

Figure 4

The figure -4 shows symbol of Istika in association with symbol

of Goddess Hera. The third symbol is damaged, most probably it
could be fish symbol (tail of fish is visible). The full word is HeraMa meaning thereby Hera-Mother. This inscription shows that
the istikrta ceremony was conducted in honour of goddess Hera.
This inscription gives additional information that Istikrta
ceremony was not restricted to any single god; it can be
conducted to please any god. It can be concluded otherwise also,
it could be that all the gods were appeased in the Istikrta
ceremony. It is a regular practice in Vedic sacrifice that all the
gods are invited to the Yajna and all gods are appeased by
allotting portions of sacrifice materials.
In his book Asko Parpola states, Logo-syllabic scripts are
open systems; their signs may have several values and
represent larger linguistic units with interrelationships
that are not nearly so clearly defined (Chapter -7; first
paragraph) (Parpola, 2000). This statement clearly explains the
problem with Indus scripts decipherment efforts. There are many
meanings for a single logo. At the same time a logo represent a
bigger word than what actually it looks like. Sometime, a single
logo represents a big concept itself. This Indus script word
Istikrta is the best example in this regard.

Pictures courtesy and Acknowledgements: All pictures of seals

used in this article are obtained from book of Sue Sullivan titled
The Indus Script Dictionary.
Bibliography
Jeyakumar.R. (2012).
https://sites.google.com/site/indusharappacivilization/3-indusgods/indus-god-uranus.
Parpola, A. (2000). Deciphering the Indus Script. New Delhi:
Cambridge University Press.
spokensanskrit. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://spokensanskrit.de/.
spokensanskrit. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://spokensanskrit.de/.
Sullivan, S. The Indus Dictionary.
Sullivan, S. (2011). The Indus Script Dictionary. Suzanne Redalia.