Seal impression showing a typical "inscription" of five "characters".

Collection of seals

The term Indus script (also Harappan script) refers to short strings of symbols associated with the Indus Valley Civilization, in use during the Mature Harappan period, between the 26th and 20th centuries BC. It is not generally accepted that these symbols form a script used to record a language, and the subject remains controversial. In spite of many attempts at decipherments and claims,^[1] it is as yet undeciphered. No underlying language has been identified, primarily due to the lack of a bilingual inscription.

The first publication of a Harappan seal dates to 1873, in a drawing by Alexander Cunningham. Since then, over 4000 symbol-bearing objects have been discovered, some as far afield as Mesopotamia. In the early 1970s, Iravatham Mahadevan published a corpus and concordance of Indus writing listing about 3700 seals and about 417 distinct signs in specific patterns. The average inscription contains five signs, and the longest inscription is only 17 signs long. He also established the direction of writing as right to left.^[2]

Some early scholars, starting with Cunningham in 1877, thought that the script was the archetype of the Brāhmī script. Cunningham's ideas were supported by G.R. Hunter, Mahadevan and a minority of scholars, who continue to argue for the Indus script as the predecessor of the Brahmic family. However most scholars disagree^{[citation needed]}, claiming instead that the Brahmi script derived from the Aramaic script.

Corpus[link]

Early examples of the symbol system are found in an Early Harappan context, dated to as early as the 33rd century BC in a BBC report of 1999.^{[unreliable source?][3]} In the Mature Harappan period, from about 2600 BC, strings of Indus signs are most commonly found on flat, rectangular stamp seals, but they are also found on at least a dozen other materials including tools, miniature tablets, copper plates, and pottery.

Late Harappan[link]

After 1900 BC, the systematic use of the symbols ended, after the final stage of the Mature Harappan civilization.

A few Harappan signs have been claimed to appear until as late as around 1100 BC (the beginning of the Indian Iron Age). Onshore explorations near Bet Dwarka in Gujarat revealed the presence of late Indus seals depicting a 3-headed animal, earthen vessel inscribed in what is claimed to be a late Harappan script, and a large quantity of pottery similar to Lustrous Red Ware bowl and Red Ware dishes, dish-on-stand, perforated jar and incurved bowls which are datable to the 16th century BC in Dwarka, Rangpur and Prabhas. The thermoluminescence date for the pottery in Bet Dwaraka is 1528 BC. This evidence has been used to claim that a late Harappan script was used until around 1500 BC. Other excavations in India at Vaisali, Bihar and Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu have been claimed to contain Indus symbols being used as late as 1100 BC.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2007, the Tamil Nadu Archaeological Department found pots with arrow-head symbols during an excavation in Melaperumpallam near Poompuhar. These symbols are claimed to have a striking resemblance to seals unearthed in Mohenjo-daro in the 1920s.^[4]

In one alleged "decipherment" of the script, the Indian archeologist S. R. Rao argued that the late phase of the script represented the beginning of the alphabet. He notes a number of striking similarities in shape and form between the late Harappan characters and the Phoenician letters, arguing than the Phoenician script evolved from the Harappan script, challenging the classical theory that the first alphabet was Proto-Sinaitic.^[5]

Characteristics[link]

Inscription of ten characters from Dholavira

The writing system is largely pictorial but includes many abstract signs as well. The script is thought to have been mostly written from right to left, but sometimes follows a boustrophedonic style. The number of principal signs is about 400-600, comparable to the typical sign inventory of a logo-syllabic script. The prevailing scholarly view maintains that structural analysis indicates that the language is agglutinative, like the Dravidian languages.^[6]

According to a paper by researchers doing a comprehensive analysis of Indus signs at TIFR & published in Korean journal Scripta, it took a significant time & effort, intellect, aesthetics, detailed planning and care to design the Indus script. It was acceptable all across the civilization & combining signs or combining signs with modifiers seems to have been done at all sites.^[7][8]

Decipherability question[link]

In a 2004 article, Farmer, Sproat, and Witzel presented a number of arguments in support of their thesis that the Indus script is nonlinguistic, principal among them being the extreme brevity of the inscriptions, the existence of too many rare signs increasing over the 700-year period of the Mature Harappan civilization, and the lack of random-looking sign repetition typical for representations of actual spoken language (whether syllabic-based or letter-based), as seen, for example, in Egyptian cartouches.

Asko Parpola, reviewing the Farmer, Sproat, and Witzel thesis in 2005, states that their arguments "can be easily controverted".^[9] He cites the presence of a large number of rare signs in Chinese, and emphasizes that there is "little reason for sign repetition in short seal texts written in an early logo-syllabic script". Revisiting the question in a 2007 lecture,^[10] Parpola takes on each of the 10 main arguments of Farmer et al., presenting counterarguments for each. He states that "even short noun phrases and incomplete sentences qualify as full writing if the script uses the rebus principle to phonetize some of its signs".

A computational study conducted by a joint Indo-US team led by Rajesh P N Rao of the University of Washington, consisting of Iravatham Mahadevan and others from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, was published in April 2009 in Science.^[11] They conclude that "given the prior evidence for syntactic structure in the Indus script, (their) results increase the probability that the script represents language".^[12] Farmer, Sproat, and Witzel have disputed this finding, pointing out that Rao et al. did not actually compare the Indus signs with "real-world non-linguistic systems" but rather with "two wholly artificial systems invented by the authors".^[13] In response, Rao et al. point out that the two artificial systems "simply represent controls, necessary in any scientific investigation, to delineate the limits of what is possible."^[14] They state that real-world non-linguistic systems were indeed included in their analysis ("DNA and protein sequences, FORTRAN computer code").^[15] Farmer et al. have also compared a non-linguistic system (medieval heraldic signs) with natural languages using Rao et al.'s method and conclude that the method cannot distinguish linguistic systems from non-linguistic ones.^[16] Rao et al. have clarified that their method is inductive, not deductive as presumed by Farmer et al., and their result, together with other known attributes of the script, increases the evidence that the script is linguistic, though it does not prove it.^[17] In a follow-up study^[18] published in IEEE Computer, Rao et al. present data which strengthen their original conditional entropy result,^[19] which involved analysis of pairs of symbols. They show that the Indus script is similar to linguistic systems in terms of block entropies, involving sequences up to 6 symbols in length.^[18]

A discussion of the linguistic versus nonlinguistic question by Sproat, Rao, and others was published in the journal Computational Linguistics in December 2010.^[20]

Attempts at decipherment[link]

Over the years, numerous decipherments have been proposed, but none has been accepted by the scientific community at large. The following factors are usually regarded as the biggest obstacles for a successful decipherment:

• The underlying language has not been identified though some 300 loanwords in the Rigveda are a good starting point for comparison.^[21][22]
• The average length of the inscriptions is less than five signs, the longest being only 17 signs (and a sealing of combined inscriptions of just 27 signs).^[23]
• No bilingual texts (like a Rosetta Stone) have been found.

The topic is popular among amateur researchers, and there have been various (mutually exclusive) decipherment claims. None of these suggestions has found academic recognition.^[24]

Dravidian hypothesis[link]

The Russian scholar Yuri Knorozov surmised that the symbols represent a logosyllabic script and suggested, based on computer analysis, an underlying agglutinative Dravidian language as the most likely candidate for the underlying language.^[25] Knorozov's suggestion was preceded by the work of Henry Heras, who suggested several readings of signs based on a proto-Dravidian assumption.^[26]

The Finnish scholar Asko Parpola led a Finnish team in the 1960s-80s that vied with Knorozov's Soviet team in investigating the script using computer analysis. Based on a proto-Dravidian assumption, they proposed readings of many signs, some agreeing with the suggested readings of Heras and Knorozov (such as equating the "fish" sign with the Dravidian word for fish "min") but disagreeing on several other readings. A comprehensive description of Parpola's work until 1994 is given in his book Deciphering the Indus Script.^[27]

The discovery in Tamil Nadu of a late Neolithic (early 2nd millennium BC, i.e. post-dating Harappan decline) stone celt allegedly marked with Indus script signs has been considered by some to be significant for the Dravidian identification.^[28][29] However, their identification as Indus signs has been disputed.

Iravatham Mahadevan, who supports the Dravidian hypothesis, says, "we may hopefully find that the proto-Dravidian roots of the Harappan language and South Indian Dravidian languages are similar. This is a hypothesis [...] But I have no illusions that I will decipher the Indus script, nor do I have any regret."^[30]

"Sanskritic" hypothesis[link]

Shikaripura Ranganatha Rao claimed to have deciphered the Indus script. Postulating uniformity of the script over the full extent of Indus-era civilization, he compared it to the Phoenician Alphabet, and assigned sound values based on this comparison. His decipherment results in an "Sanskritic" reading, including the numerals aeka, tra, chatus, panta, happta/sapta, dasa, dvadasa, sata (1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 100).

While mainstream scholarship is generally in agreement with Rao's approach of comparison, the details of his decipherment have not been accepted, and the script is still generally considered undeciphered. John E. Mitchiner, after dismissing some more fanciful attempts at decipherment, mentions that "a more soundly-based but still greatly subjective and unconvincing attempt to discern an Indo-European basis in the script has been that of Rao".^[31]

In a 2002 interview with The Hindu, Rao asserted his faith in his decipherment, saying that "Recently we have confirmed that it is definitely an Indo-Aryan language and deciphered. Prof. W. W. Grummond of Florida State University has written in his article that I have already deciphered it."^[32]

Encoding[link]

The Indus script has been assigned the ISO 15924 code "Inds". It was proposed for encoding in Unicode's Supplementary Multilingual Plane in 1999; however, the Unicode Consortium still list the proposal in pending status.^[33]

See also[link]

• Undeciphered scripts
• Bronze Age writing
• Proto-writing

Notes[link]

References[link]

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (November 2010)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Indus script

• Indus Script (ancientscripts.com)
• Indus Script (http://www.shangrilagifts.org/hp/indus.html - Comparison of Indus Valley Harappan 哈拉帕 and Ancient Chinese Jia-Gu-wen 甲骨文 "Bone Script")
• "Discovery of a century" in Tamil Nadu ("Discovery of a century" in Tamil Nadu )
• The Indus Script (From harappa.com)
• BBC - 'Earliest writing' found
• How come we can't decipher the Indus script? (from The Straight Dope)
• Iravatham Mahadevan, Towards a scientific study of the Indus Script
• Script Image;Article
• Collection of essays about the Indus script (Steve Farmer)
• WIRED.com (WIRED.com)
• "Computers Unlock More Secrets Of The Mysterious Indus Valley Script". Science Daily. August 4, 2009. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090803185836.htm .

Indus River
Darya-e Sindh, Sindh, Sindhu, Abāsin, Hindu, Sengge Chu, Yìndù Hé
River
Satellite image of the Indus River basin in Southern Pakistan.
Country	Pakistan (93%) India (5%) China (2%)
Tributaries
- left	Zanskar, Chenab, Satluj
- right	Shyok, Gilgit, Kabul
Source	Confluence of the Sengge and Gar rivers
- location	Tibetan Plateau, Tibet, China
Mouth	Sapta Sindhu
- location	Sindh, Pakistan
- elevation	0 m (0 ft)
Length	3,200 km (2,000 mi) approx.
Basin	1,165,000 km2 (450,000 sq mi) approx.
Discharge	for Arabian Sea
- average	6,600 m3/s (230,000 cu ft/s) approx.

Thal Canal from the Indus river, Pakistan

The Indus River (Sanskrit: सिन्धु Sindhu; Urdu: دریائے سندھ Daryā-e Sindh; Hindi: सिन्धु नदी Sindhu; Sindhi: سنڌو Sindhu; Punjabi: سندھ Sindh; Gujarati: સિંધુ નદી Sindhu; Pashto: اباسين Abāsin "Father of Rivers"; Persian: رود سند Rūd-e Sind‎; Arabic: السند Al-Sind‎; Tibetan: སེང་གེ།་གཙང་པོ Sênggê Zangbo "Lion River"; Greek: Ινδός Indós; Turki: Nilab) is a major river which flows through Pakistan. It has courses through western Tibet (in China) and Northern India.

Originating in the Tibetan plateau in the vicinity of Lake Mansarovar, the river runs a course through the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit, Baltistan and flows through Pakistan in a southerly direction along the entire length of Pakistan to merge into the Arabian Sea near the port city of Karachi in Sindh. The total length of the river is 3,180 km (1,980 mi). It is Pakistan's longest river.

The river has a total drainage area exceeding 1,165,000 km² (450,000 sq mi). Its estimated annual flow stands at around 207 km³ (50 cu mi), making it the twenty-first largest river in the world in terms of annual flow. Zanskar is its left bank tributary in Ladakh. In the plains, its left bank tributary is Chenab which itself has four major tributaries, namely, Jhelum, Ravi, Beas and Satluj. Its principal right bank tributaries are Shyok, Gilgit, Kabul, Gomal and Kurram. Beginning at the heights of the world in a spring and fed with glaciers and rivers in the Himalayas, the river supports ecosystems of temperate forests, plains and arid countryside.

The Indus forms the delta of Pakistan mentioned in the Vedic Rig Veda as Sapta Sindhu and the Iranic Zend Avesta as Hapta Hindu (both sets of terms meaning Seven Rivers). The river has been a source of wonder during the Classical Period. King Darius of Persia sent Scylax of Caryanda to explore the river in 510 BCE.

Etymology[link]

The Sanskrit word Sindhu means river, stream or ocean, probably from a root sidh meaning to keep off. Sindhu is still the local appellation for the Indus River.

In the Rigveda Sindhu is the name of the Indus river. Sindhu is attested 176 times in the Rigveda, 95 times in the plural, more often used in the generic meaning. In the Rigveda, notably in the later hymns, the meaning of the word is narrowed to refer to the Indus river in particular, for example in the list of rivers of the Nadistuti sukta. This resulted in the anomaly of a river with masculine gender: all other Rigvedic rivers are female, not just grammatically, being imagined as goddesses and compared to cows and mares yielding milk and butter.

The word Sindhu became Hindu in Old Persian. Ancient Greek: Ἰνδός Indós (borrowed in turn into Latin as Indus) is a borrowing of the Old Iranian word.^[1] The name Indos is used in Megasthenes's book Indica for the mighty river crossed by Alexander based on Nearchus's contemporaneous account.

The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians (present-day India beyond the Indus River) as Indoi (Ινδοί), the people of the Indus.^[1][2]

Description[link]

The Indus River provides key water resources for the economy of Pakistan - especially the Breadbasket of Punjab province, which accounts for most of the nation's agricultural production, and Sindh. The word Punjab means "water of five rivers" and the five rivers are Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, all of which finally merge in Indus. Indus river also supports many heavy industries and provides the main supply of potable water in Pakistan.

The ultimate source of the Indus is in Tibet; it begins at the confluence of the Sengge and Gar rivers that drain the Nganglong Kangri and Gangdise Shan mountain ranges. The Indus then flows northwest through Ladakh and Baltistan into Gilgit, just south of the Karakoram range. The Shyok, Shigar and Gilgit rivers carry glacial waters into the main river. It gradually bends to the south, coming out of the hills between Peshawar and Rawalpindi. The Indus passes gigantic gorges 4,500-5,200 m (15,000-17,000 feet) deep near the Nanga Parbat massif. It flows swiftly across Hazara and is dammed at the Tarbela Reservoir. The Kabul river joins it near Attock. The remainder of its route to the sea is in plains of the Punjab and Sindh and the flow of the river becomes slow and highly braided. It is joined by Panjnad River at Mithankot. Beyond this confluence, the river, at one time, was named Satnad River (Sat = seven, Nadi = river), as the river was now carrying the waters of the Kabul River, the Indus River and the five Punjab rivers. Passing by Jamshoro, it ends in a large delta to the east of Thatta.

The Indus is one of the few rivers in the world that exhibit a tidal bore. The Indus system is largely fed by the snows and glaciers of the Himalayas, Karakoram and the Hindu Kush ranges of Tibet, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and the Northern Areas of Pakistan respectively. The flow of the river is also determined by the seasons - it diminishes greatly in the winter, while flooding its banks in the monsoon months from July to September. There is also evidence of a steady shift in the course of the river since prehistoric times - it deviated westwards from flowing into the Rann of Kutch and adjoining Banni grasslands after the 1816 earthquake.^[3][4]

The traditional source of the river is the Senge Khabab or 'Lion's Mouth', a perennial spring, not far from the sacred Mount Kailash, and is marked by a long low line of Tibetan chortens. There are several other tributaries nearby which may possibly form a longer stream than Senge Khabab, but unlike the Senger Khabab, are all dependent on snowmelt. The Zanskar River which flows into the Indus in Ladakh has a greater volume of water than the Indus itself before that point.^[5]

"That night in the tent [next to Senge Khabab] I ask Sonmatering which of the Indus tributaries which we crossed this morning is the longest. All of them, he says, start at least a day's walk away from here. The Bukhar begins near the village of Yagra. The Lamolasay's source is in a holy place: there is a monastery there. The Dorjungla is a very difficult and long walk, three days perhaps, and there are many sharp rocks; but it its water is clear and blue, hence the tributary's other name, Zom-chu, which Karma Lama translates as 'Blue Water'. The Rakmajang rises from a dark lake called the Black Sea.

One of the longest tributaries — and thus a candidate for the river's technical source — is the Kla-chu, the river we crossed yesterday by bridge. Also known as the Lungdep Chu, it flows into the Indus from the south-east, and rises a day's walk from Darchen. But Sonamtering insists that the Dorjungla is the longest of the 'three types of water' that fall into the Seng Tsanplo ['Lion River' or Indus]."^[5]

History[link]

Extent and major sites of the Indus Valley Civilization 3000 BC.

Paleolithic sites have been discovered in Pothohar near Pakistan's capital Islamabad, with the stone tools of the Soan Culture. In ancient Gandhara, near Islamabad, evidence of cave dwellers dated 15,000 years ago has been discovered at Mardan.^{[citation needed]}

The major cities of the Indus Valley Civilization, such as Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, date back to around 3300 BC, and represent some of the largest human habitations of the ancient world. The Indus Valley Civilization extended from across Pakistan and northwest India, with an upward reach from east of Jhelum River to Ropar on the upper Sutlej. The coastal settlements extended from Sutkagan Dor at the Pakistan, Iran border to kutch in easternmost Pakistan. There is an Indus site on the Amu Darya at Shortughai in northern Afghanistan, and the Indus site Alamgirpur at the Hindon River is located only 28 km from Delhi. To date, over 1,052 cities and settlements have been found, mainly in the general region of the Ghaggar-Hakra River and its tributaries. Among the settlements were the major urban centers of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, as well as Lothal, Dholavira, Ganeriwala, and Rakhigarhi. Only 90-96 of the over-800 known Indus Valley sites have been discovered on the Indus and its tributaries. The Sutlej, now a tributary of the Indus, in Harappan times flowed into the Ghaggar-Hakra River, in the watershed of which were more Harappan sites than along the Indus.

Most scholars believe that settlements of Gandhara grave culture of the early Indo-Aryans flourished in Gandhara from 1700 BC to 600 BC, when Mohenjo-daro and Harappa had already been abandoned.

The word "India" is derived from the Indus River. In ancient times, "India" initially referred to the regions along the eastern banks of the Indus river but, by 300 BCE, Greek writers like Megasthenes applied the term to the subcontinent which extends further eastward.^[6]

The Indus has formed a natural boundary between the Indian subcontinent and its frontier with the Iranian Plateau, a region which includes Pakistan's Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well as Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Iran. It has been crossed by the armies of Alexander the Great - His Macedonian forces retreated along the southern course of the river at the end of the Asian campaign after conquering what is now Pakistan and joining it to the Hellenic Empire. The Indus plains have also been under the domination of the Persian empire and the Kushan empire. The Muslim armies of Muhammad bin Qasim, Mahmud of Ghazni, Mohammed Ghori, Tamerlane and Babur also crossed the river to strike into the inner regions of Punjab and further southeast.

The Indus river flows through Pakistan into the Arabian Sea

Geography[link]

Tributaries[link]

• Nagar River
• Astor River
• Balram River
• Dras River
• Gar River
• Ghizar River
• Gilgit River
• Gumal River
• Kabul River
• Kurram River
• Panjnad River
• Shigar River
• Shyok River
• Sohan River
• Tanubal River
• Zanskar River

Geology[link]

Confluence of Indus and Zanskar Rivers. The Indus is the lower river in this picture.

The Indus river feeds the Indus submarine fan, which is the second largest sediment body on the Earth at around 5 million cubic kilometres of material eroded from the mountains. Studies of the sediment in the modern river indicate that the Karakoram Mountains in northern Pakistan and India are the single most important source of material, with the Himalayas providing the next largest contribution, mostly via the large rivers of the Punjab (Jhelum, Ravi, Chenab, Beas and Sutlej). Analysis of sediments from the Arabian Sea has demonstrated that prior to five million years ago the Indus was not connected to these Punjab rivers which instead flowed east into the Ganges and were captured after that time.^[7] Earlier work showed that sand and silt from western Tibet was reaching the Arabian Sea by 45 million years ago, implying the existence of an ancient Indus River by that time.^[8] The delta of this proto-Indus river has subsequently been found in the Katawaz Basin, on the Afghan-Pakistan border.

In the Nanga Parbat region, the massive amounts of erosion due to the Indus river following the capture and rerouting through that area is thought to bring middle and lower crustal rocks to the surface.^[9]

Wildlife[link]

Footbridge on the Indus River in Pakistan

Fishermen on the Indus River, c. 1905

Accounts of the Indus valley from the times of Alexander's campaign indicate a healthy forest cover in the region, which has now considerably receded. The Mughal Emperor Babur writes of encountering rhinoceroses along its bank in his memoirs (the Baburnama). Extensive deforestation and human interference in the ecology of the Shivalik Hills has led to a marked deterioration in vegetation and growing conditions. The Indus valley regions are arid with poor vegetation. Agriculture is sustained largely due to irrigation works.

The blind Indus River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor) is a sub-species of dolphin found only in the Indus River. It formerly also occurred in the tributaries of the Indus river. According to the World Wildlife Fund claims it is one of the most threatened cetaceans with only about 1000 still existing.^[10]

Palla fish (Hilsa) of the river is a delicacy for people living along the river. The population of fishes in the river is moderately high, with Sukkur, Thatta and Kotri being the major fishing centres - all in the lower Sindh course. But damming and irrigation has made fish farming an important economic activity. Located southeast of Karachi, the large delta has been recognised by conservationists as one of the world's most important ecological regions. Here the river turns into many marshes, streams and creeks and meets the sea at shallow levels. Here marine fishes are found in abundance, including pomfret and prawns.

Economy[link]

The Indus is the most important supplier of water resources to the Punjab and Sindh plains - it forms the backbone of agriculture and food production in Pakistan. The river is especially critical as rainfall is meagre in the lower Indus valley. Irrigation canals were first built by the people of the Indus valley civilization, and later by the engineers of the Kushan Empire and the Mughal Empire. Modern irrigation was introduced by the British East India Company in 1850 - the construction of modern canals accompanied with the restoration of old canals. The British supervised the construction of one of the most complex irrigation networks in the world. The Guddu Barrage is 1,350 m (4,430 ft) long - irrigating Sukkur, Jacobabad, Larkana and Kalat. The Sukkur Barrage serves over 20,000 km² (7,700 sq mi).

After Pakistan came into existence, a water control treaty signed between India and Pakistan in 1960 guaranteed that Pakistan would receive water from the Indus River and its two western tributaries, the Jhelum River & the Chenab River independent of upstream control by India.^[11] The project, Indus Basin Project, consisted primarily of the construction of two main dams, the Mangala Dam built on the Jhelum River and the Tarbela Dam constructed on the Indus River, together with their subsidiary dams.^[12] The Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority undertook the construction of the Chashma-Jhelum link canal - linking the waters of the Indus and Jhelum rivers - extending water supplies to the regions of Bahawalpur and Multan. Pakistan constructed the Tarbela Dam near Rawalpindi - standing 2743 metres (9,000 ft) long and 143 metres (470 ft) high, with an 80-kilometre (50 mi) long reservoir. The Kotri Barrage near Hyderabad is 915 metres (3,000 ft) long and provides additional supplies for Karachi. The Taunsa Barrage near Dera Ghazi Khan produces 100,000 kilowatts of electricity. The extensive linking of tributaries with the Indus has helped spread water resources to the valley of Peshawar, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The extensive irrigation and dam projects provide the basis for Pakistan's large production of crops such as cotton, sugarcane and wheat. The dams also generate electricity for heavy industries and urban centres.

People[link]

The Indus River near Skardu, Gilgit Baltistan

The inhabitants of the regions through which the Indus river passes and forms a major natural feature and resource are diverse in ethnicity, religion, national and linguistic backgrounds. On the northern course of the river in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India, live the Buddhist people of Ladakh, of Tibetan stock, and the Dards of Indo-Aryan or Dardic stock and practising Buddhism and Islam. Then it descends into Baltistan, northern Pakistan passing the main Balti city of Skardu. As it continues through Pakistan, the Indus river forms a distinctive boundary of ethnicity and cultures - upon the western banks the population is largely Pashtun, Baloch, and of other Iranic stock, with close cultural, economic and ethnic ties to eastern Afghanistan and parts of Iran. The eastern banks are largely populated by peoples of Indo-Aryan stock, such as the Punjabis and the Sindhis. In northern Punjab and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, ethnic Pashtun tribes live alongside Dardic people in the hills (Khowar, Kalash, Shina, etc.), Burushos (in Hunza), and Punjabi people.In the province of Sindh, peoples of Sindhi backgrounds form the local populations. Upon the western banks of the river live the Baloch and Pashtun peoples of Balochistan.

Modern issues[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Satellite images of the upper Indus River valley, comparing water-levels on 1 August 2009 (top) and 31 July 2010 (bottom)

The Indus is a strategically vital resource for Pakistan's economy and society. After India became independent in 1947 and Pakistan came into existence in 1947, the use of the waters of the Indus and its five eastern tributaries became a major dispute between India and Pakistan. The irrigation canals of the Sutlej valley and the Bari Doab were split - with the canals lying primarily in Pakistan and the headwork dams in India disrupting supply in some parts of Pakistan. The concern over India building large dams over various Punjab rivers that could undercut the supply flowing to Pakistan, as well as the possibility that India could divert rivers in the time of war, caused political consternation in Pakistan. Holding diplomatic talks brokered by the World Bank, India and Pakistan signed the Indus Waters Treaty in 1960. The treaty gave India control of the three easternmost rivers of the Punjab, the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi, while Pakistan gained control of the three western rivers, the Jhelum, the Chenab and the Indus. India retained the right to use of the western rivers for non-irrigation projects. (See discussion regarding a recent dispute about a hydroelectric project on the Chenab (not Indus) known as the Baglihar Project).

There are concerns that extensive deforestation, industrial pollution and global warming are affecting the vegetation and wildlife of the Indus delta, while affecting agricultural production as well. There are also concerns that the Indus river may be shifting its course westwards - although the progression spans centuries. On numerous occasions, sediment clogging owing to poor maintenance of canals has affected agricultural production and vegetation. In addition, extreme heat has caused water to evaporate, leaving salt deposits that render lands useless for cultivation.

Recently, India's construction of dams on the river, which Pakistan claims is in violation of the Indus Waters Treaty reducing water flow into Pakistan, has caused Pakistan to take the issue to the international courts for arbitration.

Effects of climate change on the river[link]

The Tibetan Plateau contains the world's third-largest store of ice. Qin Dahe, the former head of the China Meteorological Administration, said the recent fast pace of melting and warmer temperatures will be good for agriculture and tourism in the short term, but issued a strong warning:

"Temperatures are rising four times faster than elsewhere in China, and the Tibetan glaciers are retreating at a higher speed than in any other part of the world... In the short term, this will cause lakes to expand and bring floods and mudflows.. In the long run, the glaciers are vital lifelines of the Indus River. Once they vanish, water supplies in Pakistan will be in peril."^[13]

"There is [sic] insufficient data to say what will happen to the Indus," says David Grey, the World Bank's senior water advisor in South Asia. "But we all have very nasty fears that the flows of the Indus could be severely, severely affected by glacier melt as a consequence of climate change," and reduced by perhaps as much as 50 percent. "Now what does that mean to a population that lives in a desert [where], without the river, there would be no life? I don't know the answer to that question," he says. "But we need to be concerned about that. Deeply, deeply concerned."^[14]

2010 floods[link]

Affected areas as of August 26, 2010

In July 2010, following abnormally heavy monsoon rains, the Indus River rose above its banks and started flooding. The rain continued for the next two months, devastating large areas of Pakistan. In Sindh, the Indus burst its banks near Sukkur on 8 August, submerging the village of Mor Khan Jatoi.^[15] In early August, the heaviest flooding moved southward along the Indus River from severely affected northern regions toward western Punjab, where at least 1,400,000 acres (570,000 ha) of cropland was destroyed, and the southern province of Sindh.^[16] As of September 2010^[update], over two thousand people have died^[17] and over a million homes have been destroyed since the flooding began.^[18]

See also[link]

• Sindhu Darshan Festival
• 1974 Hunza earthquake
• Chura Sharif
• HMS Indus, ships named after the Indus River
• Indus Valley Civilization
• Indus Waters Treaty
• Sindhology

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Albinia, Alice. (2008) Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River. First American Edition (20101) W. W. Norton & Company, New York. ISBN 978-0-393-33860-7.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
• World Atlas, Millennium Edition, pg 265.
• Jean Fairley, "The Lion River", Karachi, 1978

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Indus River

• Blankonthemap The Northern Kashmir WebSite
• Bibliography on Water Resources and International Law Peace Palace Library
• Northern Areas Development Gateway
• The Mountain Areas Conservancy Project
• Indus River watershed map (World Resources Institute)
• Indus Treaty
• Baglihar Dam issue
• Indus
• Indus Wildlife
• First raft and kayak descents of the Indus headwaters in Tibet
• Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting's project on water issues in South Asia

Coordinates: 24°18′43″N 67°45′49″E / 24.312059°N 67.763672°E / 24.312059; 67.763672 (Mouth of the Indus)

Rajesh Krishnakant Rao (born 9 December 1974) is a former English cricketer. Rao was a right-handed batsman who bowled leg break googly. He was born in Park Royal, London.

Rao made his first-class debut for Sussex against Cambridge University in 1996. From 1996 to 1999, he represented the county in 27 first-class matches, the last of which came against Gloucestershire in the County Championship.^[1] In his 27 first-class matches for Sussex, he scored 874 runs at an average of 20.80, with six half centuries and a high score of 89. In the field he took 7 catches.^[2] With the ball he took 4 wickets at a bowling average of 74.00, with best figures of 1/1.^[3] It was for Sussex that Rao also made his debut in List A cricket, which came against Durham in the 1996 AXA Equity and Law League. From 1996 to 1999, he represented the county in 40 List A matches, the last of which came against Gloucestershire in the Benson and Hedges Cup.^[4]

In 2000, he played his first List A match for the Middlesex Cricket Board against Wiltshire in the 2000 NatWest Trophy. From 2000 to 2002, he represented the Board in four List A matches, the last of which came against Cambridgeshire in the 2nd round of the 2003 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy which was held in 2002.^[4] In his career total of 44 List A matches, he scored 1,038 runs at an average of 24.71, with 7 half centuries and a single century high score of 15. In the field he took 12 catches, while with the ball he took 5 wickets at an average of 33.80, with best figures of 3/31.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Rajesh Rao at ESPNcricinfo
• Rajesh Rao at CricketArchive

Yu Dafu
Born	(1896-12-07)December 7, 1896 Fuyang, Zhejiang, China
Died	September 17, 1945(1945-09-17) (aged 48)
Occupation	Short Story writer and Poet

Yu Dafu (simplified Chinese: 郁达夫; traditional Chinese: 郁達夫; pinyin: Yù Dáfū; Wade–Giles: Yu Ta-fu) (December 7, 1896—September 17, 1945). Born in Fuyang, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, was a modern Chinese short story writer and poet.

Early years[link]

Yu Dafu's father died when he was three, leaving the family poverty-stricken and destitute. He received a number of scholarships through the Chinese government and went on to receive a traditional Chinese education in Hangzhou. Chronologically he studied in Jiangxing-Fu Middle School (before he came to Hangzhou), Hangzhou-Fu Middle School, Yuying Academy^[1] (育英学堂, formerly of Zhejiang University).

In 1912, he entered Hangchow University (later its major part merged into Zhejiang University) preparatory through examination. He was there only for a short period before he was expelled for participation in a student strike.^[2]

He then moved to Japan, where he studied economics at the Tokyo Imperial University between 1913 and 1922, where he met other Chinese intellectuals (namely, Guo Moruo, Zhang Ziping and Tian Han). Together, in 1921 they founded the Chuangzao she 創造社 ("Creation Society"), which promoted vernacular and modern literature. One of his earlier works Chenlun 沉淪, also his most famous, published in Japan in 1921. The work had gained immense popularity in China, shocking the world of Chinese literature with its frank dealing with sex, as well as grievances directed at the incompetence of Chinese government at the time.

In 1922, he returned to China as a literary celebrity and worked as the editor of Creation Quarterly, editing journals and writing short stories. In 1923, after an attack of tuberculosis, Yu Dafu directed his attention to the welfare of the masses.

In 1927, he worked as an editor of the Hongshui literary magazine. He later came in conflict with the Communist Party of China and fled back to Japan.

Second Sino-Japanese war[link]

After the start of the Second Sino-Japanese war, he returned to China and worked as a writer of anti-Japanese propaganda in Hangzhou, and later in Zhejiang. From 1938 to 1942, he worked as a literary editor for the newspaper Sin Chew Jit Poh in Singapore.

In 1942 when the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Singapore, he was forced to flee to Sumatra. Known under a different identity, he settled there among other overseas Chinese and began a brewery business with the help of the locals. Later he was forced to help the Japanese military police as an interpreter when it was discovered that he was one of the few "locals" in the area who could speak Japanese.

In 1945, he was arrested by the Kempeitai when his true identity was finally discovered. It is believed that he was executed by the Japanese shortly after the surrender of Japan.

Works[link]

• Chenlun 沉淪 "Sinking" (1921)
• Riji jiuzhong 日記九種 “Nine Diaries” (1927)
• Guoqu 過去 “The Past" (1927)
• his first novel?? (1928) (moderately successful)
• his second novel?? (1932)
• Chuben 出奔 "Flight" (1935)

His most popular work, breaking all Chinese sales records, was Jih-chi chiu-chung "Nine Diaries", which detailed his affair with the writer Wang Ying-hsin. The most critically acclaimed work is Kuo-ch'u or "The Past", written in 1927.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

• Encyclopædia Britannica 2005 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, article- "Yü Ta-fu"

External links[link]

• Works by Yu Dafu at Project Gutenberg