Indus Script Comb Sign M176 as a Classifier for Referent Categories: Hypotheses Based on Structural- Semiotic Analysis

DOI

https://www.doi.org/10.59256/ijrtmr.20260605015

Published In

Volume 6, Issue 5 (2026)

Published Online

September-October 2026

Pages

137-144

Article Type

Original Article

Check for updates

This conceptual article presents a Structural-Semiotic analysis of the Comb Sign of the Indus script, Sign M176 in Mahadevan’s concordance, and building on his ideas proposes a new hypothesis about the sign that it likely functioned as a Classifier for referents. The analysis in the article uses three different Semiotics frameworks given by Charles Sanders Peirce, Ferdinand de Saussure, and Roland Barthes to study the sign. The analysis also proposes a hypothesis that the Indus sign system functioned as a meaningful intermediate restricted notation system falling between Glottographic and Semasiographic sign systems. The article also gives a Cognitive motivation argument for the analysis in the article. The present article is perhaps the first work to apply all the three semiotic frameworks to a single sign of Indus script. Contributions of the article are purely theoretical in nature.