Draft:Parveen Talpur

Parveen Talpur
پروین تالپور
Occupation(s)	Author, Archaeologist, Historian
Spouse	Suleman Lakhani
Children	Imran Suleman and Jehan Suleman
Parent(s)	Zaib un Nissa and Mir Ghulam Husain Talpur
Website	https://parveentalpur.com/

Parveen Talpur (Urdu: پروین تالپور) is a Pakistani American author, archaeologist, and historian. These careers began for her simultaneously as she tailored her archaeological reports to feature articles and published them in the Dawn and Pakistan Times, the two most widely circulated English newspapers. Talpur has the distinction of being the first Pakistani woman to venture independently in the field of archaeology. She is mostly known for her research on the Indus seals discovered from Mohen jo Daro, Harappa and a few other archaeological sites scattered in Pakistan and India. These sites represent the urban phase of the Indus Civilization (2600-1900 BCE.)

Early life, education, and family

Parveen Talpur is a scion of the Talpur Mirs of Mirpur Khas and the great-great-granddaughter of Mir Sher Mohammad Talpur aka Sher-e-Sindh (Lion of Sindh). Her early years were spent in her ancestral village in the Tharparkar district of lower Sindh. Her father, Mir Ghulam Husain Talpur, a great grandson of Sher-e-Sindh took the bold decision to liberate his daughters from purdah and educate them in English schools. The family hence moved to Karachi and Parveen being the eldest daughter became the first girl of the Mirs of Mirpur Khas to receive a formal education. It was at Karachi University that she earned her master’s, first class with distinction, in history with an Archaeology major. This qualified her to present a research paper at the 1979 International Seminar on Mohenjo Daro held at the National Museum of Pakistan. Talpur was the youngest participant and the only Pakistani woman to present her paper. In 1980, the Mohenjo Daro site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Career

Archaeologist

In 1979 Talpur worked with George F. Dales and his team on labeling and cataloguing Mohenjo Daro pottery. Dales was the Director of the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He was also the last archaeologist to excavate Mohen jo Daro. This was a great opportunity for Talpur to examine hundreds and thousands of original artifacts and this is where she developed her deep interest in seals engraved with strange symbols and iconography. However, much of the decade of 1980 was consumed in writing feature articles for various newspapers and magazines. It was in 1991 that she got the opportunity to conduct research on the seals at the South Asia Program at Cornell University, New York.

Research

Tiny seals engraved with enigmatic images have been discovered from a number of Indus sites scattered in India and Pakistan. In 1922 with the discovery of Mohenjo Daro in Sindh the largest number of seals were unearthed and they have become the hallmark of Indus Civilization which is also called Harappan Civilization. Research on Indus seals has been mainly focused on rows of signs and symbols appearing on the top part of the seals. Many experts feel they represent a form of script of an ancient and unknown language. Talpur began her research with a non-linguistic approach on a small group of seals which until then was not incorporated in the mainstream of Indus seal research. These seals engraved with geometrical designs were labeled as the button seals and were ignored by early archaeologists as votive symbols hence, irrelevant to the mainstream research focused on deciphering the script. Most common designs were swastikas, gammadions, circles, stepped-cross motifs and squares within squares. She observed that the ancient scribes might have used a common template to compose the designs. After much trial and error she was able to verify a 3X3 squares template from which most of the designs could be constructed. She refers to that template as her Principal Figure. Furthermore, she demonstrated that the Principal Figure was composed of 24 equal sized line segments and that each design emerged simply by rearranging the 24 segments. Briefly, it was clear that designs were not randomly drawn but their line segments were well calculated and their numerical value remained constant regardless of the change in design. This was the first part of Talpur’s research; it was published in the Wisconsin Archaeological Reports 1994.

From Sumer to Meluhha: Contributions to the Archaeology of South and West Asia in Memory of George F. Dales, Jr. (Wisconsin Archaeological Reports,)

The second part of Talpur’s research was focused on the signs and symbols engraved on the seals. Mostly appearing in a row and being considered as a form of script, Talpur did not examine these as script but in continuation with her work on the button seals she observed the geometric composition of these signs and symbols, the results of this part of her research were published in 1995 by the Institute of Sindhology, University of Sindh Jamshoro.

Evidence of geometry in Indus Valley civilization, 2500-1500 B.C: Principles of seal designs and signs

In 2014 Talpur published “Moen jo Daro: Metropolis of the Indus Civilization (2600-1900 BCE)” (There is no mistake in the spelling as it comes closest to the Sindhi pronunciation, Talpur explains in her book). It is a well-illustrated book meant for general readers. It describes various aspects of the Mohen jo Daro site and has a chapter on the Indus seals giving an account of her research and an overview of the work on the decipherment of the Indus seals. Moen jo Daro: Metropolis of the Indus Civilization

In 2017 Talpur published a companion book of “Moen jo Daro: The Metropolis of Indus Civilization (2600-1900 BCE)”. It covers the complete iconography of the seals, which, apart from the signs and symbols, are also imbued with images of animals, deities, humans, trees and unidentifiable objects. These images represent the socio-cultural and ideological content of the Indus Civilization and in order to fathom it Talpur ventured beyond geometry, hence the title, “Indus Seals (2600-1900 BCE) Beyond Geometry.”

Indus Seals (2600-1900 BCE) Beyond Geometry: A New Approach to Break an Old Code

Hypothesis/Views

Describing the long journey of the decipherment of the images engraved on the Indus seals, Talpur, in her book, emphasizes on the detours of the journey which misled many archaeologists to distant languages and cultures to search the origins of the seal images. She draws their attention to the languages and culture of the Indus region where the Civilization was born and lost and where chances of hitting upon the relevant clues are stronger.

Talpur’s knowledge of the ancient history, religions, languages and culture of the Indus land provides her with a vast canvas to examine the images. She shares the relevant parts of this canvas and draws attention to three potential areas where clues to understand the seal images can be explored, these areas are: First, the geometry which is at the core of civilization and is clearly seen in its larger cities - the streets intersecting at right angles, drains running parallel to the streets, circular and oval shaped wells, standard size of bricks and the miniaturized images engraved on the seals. Second area is the present day languages and lore of the Indus region, especially the Sindhi language which has preserved the largest percentage of ancient words and sounds which could be related to the seal images. Third area which needs to be explored is the indigenous religions of the region especially Buddhism, Jainism and the nonviolent sects of Hinduism whose symbols are found on the ancient seals indicating that perhaps, the philosophy of nonviolence prevalent in these religions is rooted in the ancient Indus ideology of nonviolence. By doing so Talpur is not asking to abandon the search in South Indian languages and cultures as these too may be holding important clues. She is asking to also explore the socio-cultural and linguistic areas of the Indus region for further clues. Her emphasis is on this new approach to understand and interpret the images engraved on the Indus seals.

Cultural Preservation

Talpur has campaigned for the preservation of the archaeological sites and the historical buildings through many of her feature articles. She has also researched and scripted three documentaries on the subject including ‘Heritage’ which was sponsored by the Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) and made in two languages-English and Sindhi. Being a strong advocate of preserving Mohen jo Daro and keeping pace with modern technology, since 2010 Talpur has been campaigning for the digital preservation of the architectural and artifactual remains of Mohenjo Daro by means of 3D laser technology. https://www.cyark.org/

History

As a historian, Talpur’s focus has been the period of Talpur rule in Sindh (1789-1843). In 1995 after the publication of her book on the Indus seals her affiliation with Cornell was extended for another two years giving her a chance to research the period. Her book Talpur Rule in Sindh was published in 2002 by Ferozsons, Lahore. The book was written under the guidance of N.A. Baloch, historian and vice chancellor of the University of Sindh, and Mir Khuda Baksh Marri, Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court who had translated ancient Baloch war ballads in Urdu and written three books on the history of Baloch tribes and Balochistan. There was yet a dearth of a book on the history of Talpurs in the English language. Hence, for the first time, the scattered information of the Talpurs and their rule was pieced together in a complete story by Parveen Talpur. Beginning from ancient Baloch migrations to the rise of Talpurs (one of the Baloch tribes) as the rulers of Sindh, the book describes their contributions such as adding Karachi, Umerkot and Shikarpur to Sindh; building defensive forts on its borders; constructing irrigation canals; encouraging commerce and above all making Sindh independent of Afghanistan. However, all this was happening in the backdrop of The Great Game and Britain’s defeat in the First Anglo-Afghan war (1838-1842). In the aftermath the British conquered Sindh. Hence, the history of Talpurs and their rule in Sindh mostly comes from the British records and that one-sided record continues to be used by later writers. Parveen Talpur’s book presents the other side of the story.

Writing

Talpur has published both fiction and nonfiction. She has to her credit a children’s novel, short stories, and a collection of poems. In nonfiction apart from the books on archaeology and history she has published a significant number of feature articles and essays in the Pakistani and American newspapers, magazines and anthologies. Most prominent of these are Dawn, Star, Nation Today, Third World, Pakistan Times, Humsafar (official travel magazine of Pakistan International Airlines), Press and Sun Bulletin ( New York).

Teaching

While researching at Cornell she taught at Elmira College, New York and Binghamton University, New York. Her last teaching assignment was in 2007 at the Pakistan Studies Center, University of Sindh, Jamshoro.

Publications and Media

Books

• Evidence of geometry in Indus Valley civilization, 2500-1500 B.C: Principles of seal designs and signs (Institute of Sindhology Publication)
• Moen jo Daro: Metropolis of the Indus Civilization
• Indus Seals (2600-1900 Bce) Beyond Geometry: A New Approach to Break an Old Code

Video Interviews

• Panel discussion on Indus Civilization: LHI -Parveen, Shinde & Mini Menon Perspectives on the Indus Valley Civilization from Pakistan and India
• Mohenjo Daro documentary. LHI- Mini Menon with Parveen A Journey to Mohenjo-daro | Documentary | LHI Circle
• Talpur Rule interview to Sindhi Culture Foundation-Aruna Madnani Talpur Chauyaris: Administered by four brothers | Doorway to Sindh | Season 3
• Parveen Introduction by Ruk Sindhi Indus Civilization Scholar-Parveen Talpur
• Masterclass on Mohenjo Daro (trailer): Parveen LHI Mini Menon A Masterclass on Mohenjo-daro with historian and archaeologist Parveen Talpur | Only on LHI Circle

References

This page will be placed in the following categories if it is moved to the article namespace.

Categories:

• Living people
• Women archaeologists
• Pakistani archaeologists