Origin of Sindhi Language

Sindhi is a member of the IndoEuropean family of languages, classified byGrierson (1919: 01) as one of the northwesterngroup of the Indo-Aryan vernaculars. It isspoken in the lower Indus Valley of South Asia,now Pakistan. 

The origin of Sindhi language is buriedsomewhere in the time immemorial. Theacademic research so far conducted byindigenous and foreign scholars about theancestry of Sindhi language still remainsinconclusive as to whether it is the language ofthe great Pre-Aryan Indus Civilization of thethird millennium B.C., or an offshoot ofSanskrit; or has emerged from some preSanskrit Indo-Aryan language.The dilemma is caused mainly becauseof the un-deciphered script of the Induscivilization of the 3rd millennium BC. 

Thehypothesis that Sindhi is the language ofMohenjodaro is based on strong culturalsimilarities still existing between Induscivilization of the 3rd millennium BC and today’s Sindh civilization of the 3rd millenniumAD. 

The well-trimmed beard of King Priest ofMohenjodaro is visible on the face of everysecond or third Sindhi man in the pastoralSindh. The bangles on the arms ofMohenjodaro’s Dancing Girl are still used bythe womenfolk in the legendary desert of Thar. 

The double-edged comb for women, the flourgrinding stone, bullock-cart, pottery, birds likepeacock and stork; and animals like bull andIbex that came to light during excavations atthe world heritage site of Mohenjodaro, can beseen in today’s Sindh too. The crescent-hornedbull of Mohenjodaro is still bred in Thar andBhagnari area of northern Sindh while thecharisma of Ibex still reigns in the westernmountains of Khirthar range. The ornaments ofgold and silver, almost of the same style andfashion of Mohenjodaro, are worn by thewomen of Sindh even today.Hypothetically speaking, there is astrong probability that the present spokenSindhi is the language of Indus Civilization of3rd Millennium B.C. 

The question is, whilethere is continuity of innumerable otherfeatures of the Indus Civilization, still prevalentin Sindh, why not the legacy of the language?It is besides the fact that no such scientificproof has so far been available to the men ofletters in the world. 

The language of the period is still amystery, although several scholars throughoutthe world have attempted to decipher, but they hardly agree to each other’s viewpoint.(Gidwani: 1996: 6)Dr Asko Parpola and Simo Parpola, thescholars of the Scandinavian Institute of AsianStudies also tried to resolve the mystery of theIndus script and attempted to decipher thelanguage of Mohenjodaro but in vain.M. H. Panhwar is critical of all thoseexperts who have so far attempted atdecipherment of the Indus script presupposingthat it is a Dravidian language. He argues thatthose who have worked on the Indus scriptstook for granted an assumption thatMohenjodaro people were Dravidians andspoke a Dravidian language. They went to theextent of feeding data to computers to resolvewhat human brain cannot. The results havebeen total failure. When the Egyptian scriptwas deciphered first, the Egyptologists turnedto rural areas and from their day to daylanguage, they were able to pick words whichbelonged to the period of early dynasties, andsubsequently they were able to translate lines,paragraphs and whole stories. Unfortunately,we have been on the wrong track in ourassumption that Dravidian was the language ofthe people of Indus Civilization. (Panhwar:1988)