The Indus Stamp Seal Concordance will differ in significant ways than the two currently recognized concordances of Iravatham Mahadevan and Asko Parpola.  While Mahadevan and Parpola have attempted to compile an exhaustive concordance including all known Indus inscriptions, the proposed concordance will be comprised only of published stamp seals.  Hence the aim of this project is not to replace these concordances, but rather to serve as necessary supplement.   It is clear that the inscriptions on axe heads, “miniature tablets” and ivory pieces are of a different nature and likely have a different meaning than the stamp seals.  Narrowing the material of the concordance to only stamp seals will allow one to examine the inscriptions in the context of similar materials.  

        In addition to limiting the data to stamp seals, inscriptions will have a traced copy of the actual inscription adjacent to the inscription of the computer-generated inscription.  This format will solve two of the most severe drawbacks to concordance-based studies.  The first of these drawbacks is that the inscriptions in the computer-generated concordances often do not accurately represent the original inscription.  For example, boustrophedon and vertical inscriptions are presented no differently than a single horizontal inscription.  A traced copy of the inscription would allow one to see the inscription in its original form.      

        In the compilation of a concordance another drawback can occur.  One must make the decision whether to "lump" or "split" any number of pictographically related signs.  For example:  Does the sign of a man holding up three fingers qualify as a different sign than the one holding up four fingers?  A traced copy of the inscription adjacent the computer-generated inscription would clarify any ambiguity of the redactor’s decisions in the compilation of the concordance.   

         The concordances of Parpola and Mahadevan are difficult to obtain (and the corpus of the former, quite expensive) by both the general scholar and scholars of South Asian linguistics.  These factors greatly hinder the possible advancements in positional studies of the Indus inscriptions.  Hence the other aim of this project will be to produce a low budget concordance, easily accessible to the public. 

Seals Included in the Concordance

         The ideal seal is one whose surface is free of damage and whose picture is clearly legible.

        Damaged seals, where two or more signs can be clearly seen, have been included in the concordance, for they contain some syntactical value.

Seals Omitted from the Concordance

        Inscriptions with surface damage, such as the seal listed below, were omitted from the concordance.

      Severely damaged seals exhibiting very little useful information have been omitted.  Little valuable syntactical value can be obtained from these seals.

       Seals exhibiting a motif but whose shape are different than the typical square stamp seal have been omitted. 

        While computer-aided techniques for transferring inscriptions from tablet to paper are available, this project will use the less costly means of a light table and basic scanner.  All artwork will be traced manually from the plates of various excavation reports and journals—the primary sources however being those of Marshall, Mackay, and Vats. 

        The concordance will be released in a number of stages.  The first aim of the project is to produce a corpus of inscriptions from the published stamp seal and sealings where a computer generated font accompanies a traced copy of the original inscription. 

       The next phase of the project will be the concordance.  This volume will catalogue the inscriptions by individual signs.

        Finally, if time and funds permit, unpublished material from the catalogues at the Archaeological Survey of India, will be included in both the corpus and concordance.