Indus Research
Centre
The Indus Research Centre (IRC)
is an initiative to undertake evidence-based
research into various aspects of the Harappan
or Indus Valley Civilisation.
The resources available at IRC include computerised data files, photographic card catalogues of Indus seals, and research papers collected from various sources in India and abroad - all gifted by Iravatham Mahadevan, a well-known researcher in the Indus script and the first Honorary Consultant to IRC. A collection of papers by Dr. Gift Siromoney on Indus script has been added to the IRC. Other resources include books and papers on Indus valley civilisation (IVC) and Dravidian linguistics. These resources are being maintained separately within IRC for easy access. IRC also organises courses and seminars to support research on Indus Script. A bulletin of the IRC is brought out as a biannual periodical.
Picture right - Terracotta figurines
from Mohenjo-daro
Iravatham Mahadevan, epigraphist, Indus researcher and Dravidianist, was the first Honorary Consultant to the IRC, on whose initiative the centre was created.
Bust of Padma Shri
Dr. Iravatham Mahadevan
erected are RMRL
R. Balakrishnan is the current honorary consultant to the IRC. It was Iravatham Mahadevan who led him into the world of IVC. Using geographical Information system tools, Balakrishnan formulated the ‘Korkai-Vanji-Tondi complex’, a ‘place-name complex’ in the Indus geography which was formally announced in 2010. His paper on “High-west, Low-east Dichotomy of Indus Cities” and the IVC’s linguistic paradigm gained wide attention. His Tamil book on the Dravidian foundations of Indus civilisation (சிந்துவெளி பண்பாட்டின் திராவிட அடித்தளம்) received accolades from Iravatham Mahadevan as the best book written in Tamil on IVC.
IRC is open to all bona fide scholars who wish to undertake research in this field.
“ ‘Journey of a Civilization: Indus to Vaigai’ grapples with a little-understood period in Indian history — the centuries that followed the decline of the Indus Valley Civilisation.”
— Tony Joseph, author of ‘Early Indians’
RMRL published Balakrishnan’s magnum opus Journey of a Civilization: Indus to Vaigai, in 2019. This book seeks to establish common grounds and connecting threads that link the riddles of Indology, namely the language of the Indus Valley Civilisation and the origins of Dravidian language-speaking people, particularly those of the old Tamil traditions.
Explore Research Papers
by Mr. R. Balakrishnan