The Indus Research Centre (IRC) undertakes scientific investigations into the various aspects of the Harappan or Indus Valley Civilisation, particularly the Indus Script, which remains undeciphered. It was started in 2007 under the guidance of Padma Shri Iravatham Mahadevan. He was its first honorary consultant. After he stepped down, R. Balakrishnan, IAS serves as its honorary consultant.
The IRC has collaborated with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, and premier institutions around the world such as University of Washington, Seattle. The IRC publishes an annual bulletin. It has converted Iravatham Mahadevan’s Indus Concordance (1977) into a web application. Available at indusscript.in, it serves as an open online tool for Indus scholars and interested individuals to analyse and interpret the script. The IRC is open to all bona fide scholars who wish to undertake research in this field.
The IRC is planning to hold an international conference in association with the Department of Archaeology, Government of Tamil Nadu. For more information see indus100.com
For the papers of Iravatham Mahadevan and R. Balakrishnan, please access our digital library.
“ ‘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.
