Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday threw an ancient unsolved riddle towards the people, sparking amusement around the Indus valley script once again. The Indus valley script remains a mystery for over a century, CM Stalin said and announced a prize of US dollar 1 million to those who can decipher it.
Inaugurating a three-day international conference to mark the centenary of the discovery of the Indus civilisation, Stalin said,"We are still unable to clearly understand the script of the Indus valley civilsation that once flourished."
Efforts are on to this day by scholars to solve the riddle and in order to encourage such efforts, a prize of US dollar 1 million will be provided to individuals or organisations that solves the riddle, he announced.
Why is the Indus valley script a mystery?
The Indus civilsation, one of the earliest, is reputed for its urban culture and its script has not been decrypted yet. The fading away of such a civilisation, and its context, also remains a riddle.
A group of geologists from Kerala University is claimed to have made a significant scientific discovery that may offer a clearer understanding of the events leading to the end of the Indus Valley civilisation. They have claimed that the crater in Luna, Kutch in Gujarat, was caused by a meteor impact, potentially marking the only major one since human beings appeared on Earth.
Melt rock analysis from the crater site has confirmed that the rocks were remnants of a meteor, and the impact occurred within the last 6,900 years, coinciding with the thriving period of the Indus Valley civilisation in the area.
"We can only confirm that the impact happened within the last 6,900 years. We need to conduct precise dating to determine the exact time of the impact," K S Sajinkumar, lead geologist from the team that made this discovery, said.
(With PTI inputs)
