Language-Culture continuum in Bharatam from ca. 6500 BCE Mleccha was the language of the riverine-maritime Sarasvati Civilization from about 6500 BCE and Mlecchita Vikalpa was the script used for the inscriptions of the civilization, using the rebus principle (using glyphs to represent similar sounding words) to convey messages using Sarasvati hieroglyphs (both signs and pictorial motifs). Maritime contacts extended from Ropar at the foothills of Himalayas to the Tigris-Euphrates doab of Mesopotamian civilization area. The legacy of the writing system continued in Bharatam, evidenced by the bilingual inscription of the Sohgaura Copper Plate pre-Mauryan inscription and the devices used on punchmarked coins all over Bharatam, extending from janapada coins of Takshas’ila in the West to Sangm Age coins of Karur in the South.. Many Sarasvati hieroglyphs continue to be abiding symbols of Hindu civilization: symbols such as the svastika and the rim of the short-necked jar; the svastika glyph appears on about 50 inscribed objects including copper plates and the rim of the short-necked jar appears on over 1000 inscribed objects of the civilization. (kand. kanka, rim of jar; rebus: kand. fire-altar, smelter; khanaka ‘mined product’). Svastika even today adorns the doors of many mandirams and the rim of the short-necked jar is found on ancient manuscripts of the Yajurveda Samhita found in Gujarat. Mleccha were island-dwellers (dvi_pava_sinah), were seafaring merchants of Meluhha and were
lapidaries/miners/metallurgists working with mines, furnaces, minerals, producing ingots and artifacts made of metal and metalalloys, creating a Metals Age, transiting from the Lithic Age. Glyphs on Gundestrup Cauldron and parallels with Sarasvati hieroglyphs One of the vivid images of the Gundestrup cauldron is a person seated in penance or in a yogic posture, holding a snake in his left hand. The 'snake' pictograph is equally vivid on the inscribed objects of the Bharatiya (Sarasvati) civilization. While browsing a number of 'pictographs' on inscribed objects and attempting to match the 'pictographs' with 'soundbites' drawn from the lexemes of Bharatiya civilization (Vedic, Mun.d.a and Dravidian languages -- of the extensive linguistic area), an assumption was made that the inscriptions 'convey' metal weapons, tools and equipment of a warrior or a metalsmith -- either as property items possessed by the holder of the object or used as bills of lading of these products traded.
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