Pithru-Karma”

Tilak symbol indicates the word “Pithru-Karma”

The meaning of the word ‘Shraddha' is ''faith''. The ritual performed for the Pithrus with complete faith is known as Shraddha. Shraddhattva Pinda, Pitru Puja (ritualistic worship of deceased ancestors), Pitru Yagna are some of the sacrificial rituals performed for dead ancestors.

Symbol of the firepot

Many of the Indus seals inscriptions show the ‘fire pot' like symbol. This symbol is looking like a firepot yet the word expressed is not ‘Agni', the intended word is ‘Pitru Karma’. The word ‘Pitru Karma' fits very well while reading the sentence in conjunction with nearby symbols. It should be noted here that these IVC seals coincide with ‘Rig Veda" period and during that time Agni was not a significant god, he was a mere facilitator. Only, In the later Vedic period, God Agni becomes an important god.

The above-given seal expresses the idea of ‘fire' very well, and the fire symbol is further explained by the fuelwood marks at the bottom of the fire. But this fire symbol with firewood rarely occurs. This kind of fire symbol occurs only two or three times. The frequency of occurrence is not significant. Hence, it cannot be said that this symbol indicates fire god ‘Agni’. However, there is a possibility that this fire symbol could have indicated the word ‘Yajna’ here in the above-given seal inscription. (or) It could have indicated the fire created for cremation, that again gives the suitable word as ‘pithru-karma’.

Picture courtesy – Sanathan.org

The above-given figures show the Grihapathya fire being carried to the crematorium from the house, which could have been adopted as ‘Pithru-karma symbol’ .

Tilak mark on the forehead

Figure 1Indus seal inscription showing modern-day Hindu Tilak symbol. Picture courtesy -Wikipedia (1).

The second possibility is that this symbol ‘’ ‘’ could be indicating the tilak mark worn by Hindus on their forehead. Some scholars believe that the red colour as symbolism for blood. We are told that in ancient times, in Aryan society, a groom used to apply his blood, on his bride's forehead in recognition of wedlock. The existing practice among Indian women of applying a round- shaped red Tilak called Bindiya or Kumkum is the survival of this practice (1). The above-given statement on the website shows that the red colour of the tilak mark could be because of using blood. In modern days blood has been replaced by red colour mineral soil called vermillion in case of men. In the case of women, the turmeric powder mixed with lime powder gives the red colour ‘Kumkum’.

Man with vaishnavite tilak symbol in his forehead.

Picture courtesy - (2)

The ‘’tilak’’ is a mark created by the application of powder or paste on the forehead. The Vaishnava tilak consists of a long vertical marking starting from just below the hairline to almost the end of one's nose tip, and they are also known as Urdhva Pundra. It is intercepted in the middle by an elongated ‘’U’’.

Figure 2: Picture of Shaiva mendicant with rudra tilak symbol in his forehead.

Picture courtesy - Wikipedia (3)

The other important tilak variant is often worn by the followers of Shiva, known by the names of Rudra-tilak and Tripundra. It consists of three horizontal bands across the forehead with a single vertical line or circle in the middle. This tilak mark is traditionally made with sacred ash from fire sacrifices. This variant is the more ancient of the two and shares many common aspects with similar markings worn across the world (2). The above-said remark made in Wikipedia article that the ‘Rudra Pundra Tilak’ may be ancient than the ‘Vaishnavite Tilak’ may not be correct. Because the mere existence of Vaishnavite tilak symbol among IVC symbols indicates that the Vaishnavite symbol is more ancient than the Shaivite symbol. It is to be noted that the author of this Wikipedia article has also acknowledged the similarity between the modern-day ‘Urdva Pundra tilak’ and ancient symbol of IVC. The above said description given in the Wikipedia article shows that ‘ash from fire sacrifice' was used as a tilak mark. This statement demonstrates that in ancient days blood from sacrificed animals could have been used as a red tilak mark to show the gods and men that a blood sacrifice has been made to honour gods or Pithrus.

Figure 3: Variations of tilak symbols.

Picture courtesy -- (4)

The third possibility is that this symbol could be standing for the word “Kavu" itself. The above-given figures are extracted from the book of Asko Parpola, "Deciphering the Indus script". (4)Out of all the variants, only one variant gives a clue about the sound of the symbol. Note the variant marked as "V", which is obtained from seal number M-1281. The "U" shape has been formed out of two upraised hands. Already, I have explained the upraised hands; it stands for the word” Ka” meaning thereby” Soul”. Refer to the article,” Upraised hands symbol indicates “Ka” (soul) of the dead person” (5). The ‘ka’ symbol read with vertical line in the middle could have specified the word ‘Kavu’. Frequency analysis of ‘Tilak symbol’:

Position of the ‘Tilak symbol’ in the Indus seal inscriptions

Solus Initial Medial Final pair freq Pair freq Pair freq pair freq

12 22 104 3

9 13 18

12 9

3 8

Table 1:Frequency analysis table of Tilak symbol. Courtesy – data provided by Sundar et al. (6) The data given in the above table is extracted out of the analysis table provided in the research paper of Sundar et al. Analysis of the data given in the above-given table reveals certain information. The first obvious point is that -this symbol pair is occurring maximum times, that is 104 times. Yet these two symbols pair is not yielding any single meaning. Both symbols have to be read as separate entities. Number three indicates the ‘third day' after death. whereas the tilak symbol indicates the word ‘karma'. It looks like that the intention of the priest, who made this inscription is not this combination. It is likely that the focal point of the priest was the word ‘Pithru Karma’ not ‘Karma-third day’.

But the fish -karma symbol makes sense. The fish symbol stands for Pithru. Three different kinds of fishes indicate the three generations of Pithrus.

---This fish symbol with chevron cap indicates the third generation Pithru, which had reached heaven.

--- Fish with two horns projection indicates the second generation of Pithru, which is in Yama Loka under the custody of Yama. This second-generation Pithru has not yet washed off its sins to reach heaven.

- Variation of second-generation Pithru.

- Another variation of second-generation Pithru.

--The fish without any appendages could be the first generation Pithru. It is the Parvan of the recently died person. This Parvan had to undergo various trials and tribulations to reach the god in heaven. Now, all these three variants of fish symbols (Pithrus) should be treated in the same way and simply read as

‘Pithru’, when these two symbols appear in combination, it should be read as ‘Pithru Karma'. Then the frequency of this combination of symbols increases. Total frequency of this combination stands at 75. This frequency is definitely significant for sample size under consideration.

Urduva Pundaram

The fourth possibility is that this symbol’’ ’’ could be indicating the goddess Laxmi. The Urdhva Pundra is the tilak used by followers of Vaishnava sect. According to Vaishnavite belief, the ‘’U’’ symbol represents the feet of Narayana, whereas the red middle line represents Goddess Lakshmi (3). This fourth possibility is a later day interpretation, which had come out during the period of “Bhakti movement”. However, it should be taken into cognisance because the Bhakti cult priests were trying to explain a significant religious symbol, which had been in use for generations of Hindus. The above-given narration gives four possibilities for the symbol ‘' '', however, all these possibilities indicate only one ritual, that is the sacrifice of a bull and applying its blood on the forehead of the sacrificer and other participants in the sacrifice.

Assigning the word ‘’Tilak’’ for the ‘’ ‘’ symbol does not give coherent meaning in conjunction with symbols adjacent to the inscription. But, the word ‘'Pithru-Karma'' gives a consistent meaning with contiguous symbols. Hence this symbol ‘’ ’’ could be read as ‘’Karma’; till an appropriate explanation is obtained.

- this ‘Karma’ symbol consists of two components, one is the ‘u’ sign and second is the vertical line in the middle. This ‘u’ symbol indicates the word ’ka’. The word ‘ka’ stands for the soul of a dead person as per Egyptian hieroglyphics. As discussed earlier, vaishnavites explain that the vertical line (Urdva Pundram) indicates goddess Laxmi. What is the word for mother goddess? it is ‘Ma’.

This / -- ‘Ka’ symbol along with ‘Ma’ symbol read together perfectly gives the sound ‘Karma’. It should be noted here that at the beginning of early writing systems, all languages used only consonants to express the sound. The vowels were developed and introduced later only. The IVC inscriptions were in a very primitive stage, the letter ‘r' is missing in this symbol ‘karma', however, we should assume and read the word as ‘karma'.

Pundarika Yajna At this stage, it is necessary to introduce another ritual, which may be relevant here. There is one specific yajna named ‘Pundarika Yajna’. There is a possibility that the tilak symbol could have indicated this pundarika yajna. The details available about this yajna is sparse, however, the details available are collected and produced below, to get some idea about this yajna.

The website Hans India describes the ‘pundarika yajna’ as seven-day yajna, in the name of ‘Lakshmi pundarika yajna’. This yajna was conducted for seven days in the city of Vijayawada from January 23rd onwards in the year 2017. The name of yajna itself gives the detail that the god worshipped in this yajna was ‘goddess Lakshmi’. In his book, Shri. Chattambi Swamigal says that in the ‘pundarika yajna' the coitus between a widow and Brahmachari is permitted by Vedas. (7) It looks like that the situation was similar to the birth of Dhritarashtra and Pandu in the epic of Mahabharata. In the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Dhritarashtra is the King of Kuru Kingdom with its capital Hastinapur. He was born to Vichitravirya's first wife Ambika and was fathered by Veda Vyasa. Veda Vyas impregnated Ambika, even though she was a widow. It looks like that such coitus was allowed after conducting the ‘pundarika yajna’. The website dharmawiki.org informs that a yajna that lasts between 2 to 12 days is called ‘Ahina’ or ‘Sutya’ (8). An example of this kind of sutyaka is poundarika yajna, which lasts for 12 days. Poundarika is another way of pronouncing pundarika yajna. The relevance of discussing ‘pundarika yajna’ is that the ‘tilak symbol’ could have indicated the ‘pundarika yajna’.

The word ‘Pudendum’ and ‘Pundrum’ The word pudendum (Latin) and Pundrum (Sanskrit) sounds similar. The meaning of the Latin word ‘pudendum’ is ‘shame’ however, the same word has been used to indicate ‘the female genitalia’ in English. The urban dictionary, explains that the Latin word ‘shame’ had been misapplied to the female genitalia. However, considering the very close similarity between the Latin word pudendum and Sanskrit word Pundrum, it looks like that the comment of the Urban dictionary may be wrong. It looks like that the original meaning of the word ‘pudendum' is female genitalia, and later day derived meaning is ‘shame'. The Wikipedia article on Kumkuma states on the significance of forehead ‘tilak' mark is that the 'colour' of the womb is yellow and is symbolically represented by turmeric. The bloodstains on the womb are represented by kumkuma (1). However, this particular observation is without any citation. The relevance of the above-given discussion is that the Sanskrit word ‘pundrum' indicates the ‘goddess Lakshmi' as well as ‘tilak sign' in the forehead of Hindus. The conclusion is that the tilak symbol of IVC could have indicated the genitalia of the mother goddess. It is likely that the blood sacrifices could have been done to please the mother goddess. At this juncture, it is pertinent to note that generally Hindu Goddesses are bloodthirsty and Goddess Kali’s ultimate demand is blood, either animal blood or human blood. This tilak symbol could have indicated the ‘Pundarika Yajna' as well as the ‘Mother Goddess’. However, the word ‘Pithru-karma’ is fitting more appropriately to this pair of symbols. Sometimes this tilak symbol ‘’ appearing alone also stands for the twin word ‘Pithru-karma’. This word ‘Pithru-karma’ is appearing in many Indus seal inscriptions. Some of the seals are reproduced below for analytical study. Details are as given below: (Read from right to left)

Kavu ( )

Grihapathya - Yajna

Full stop symbol ( )

-Pithru (fish-ancestor)-

-Karma (Tilak symbol)-

Three generations of Pithru –

Astaka God (God Karkinos) (Arrow symbol) (Read from right to left)

Karkida (Month/God)

Pithru-Karma symbol

Three generations of Pithrus

Bangles Protection symbol

Dvi ‘’ ‘’ (Sacrifice for two) (Gods as well as Pithrus)

Kavu (Sacrifice of Bull shown in the seal)

(Read from right to left)

The first symbol – honeycomb ritual

Messenger god - (God with a stick)

Kedaga (shield – Protection)

Dvi -Kavu ‘’ ’’ (Sacrifice for two) (Gods as well as Pithrus)

Astaka (Pipal leaf -symbol)

Karkida (month/god) (sacrifice in the month of Karkida)

Pithru-karma (Tilak-symbol)-

Kedaga – Protection to Pithrus (read from left to right)

Grihapathya sacrifice

Yajna symbol

Two generations of Pithrus

Pithru-karma

Three generations of Pithrus (or) Third Astaka.

Arrow symbol Astaka

1. www.scribd.com. Bindi-or-Tilak-Mark-on-the-Forehead-Indian-or-Hindu. https://www.scribd.com/. [Online] February 2018. https://www.scribd.com/document/95050158/Bindi-or-Tilak-Mark-on-the-Forehead-Indian-or- Hindu.

2. (Wikipedia)Tilaka. Tilaka. https://en.wikipedia.org. [Online] February 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilaka.

3. (Wikipedia)Urdhva_Pundra. Srivaishnava_Urdhva_Pundra. wikipedia.org. [Online] February 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivaishnava_Urdhva_Pundra.

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

5. Jeyakumar(up-raised-hands-symbol). Upraised_hands_symbol_means_ka_soul_. academia.edu. [Online] 2015. https://www.academia.edu/11419216/Upraised_hands_symbol_means_ka_soul_.

6. Sundar. -The-Indus-Script-Text-and-Context.pdf. http://45.113.136.87/wp- content/uploads/. [Online] http://45.113.136.87/wp-content/uploads/43-The-Indus-Script-Text-and- Context.pdf.

7. Sullivan, Sue. Indus Script Dictionary. s.l. : Suzanne Redalia, 2011.