A Functional-Metrological Decipherment Framework for the Indus Script: Base-4, Base-12, Base-16 Accounting Systems and Their Continuity in Classical Indian Metrology

For over a century, the decipherment of the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) script (c. 2600–1900 BCE) has remained one of the most persistent deadlocks in historical linguistics and Bronze Age archaeology. Traditional decipherment paradigms have been bottlenecked by the assumption that the script represents a phonetic recording of a spoken language—whether Proto-Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, or Austroasiatic. However, these linguistic frameworks have failed to achieve scholarly consensus, largely constrained by the brevity of the inscriptions (averaging 4.5 signs) and the absolute absence of a bilingual bi-scriptual artifact such as a Rosetta Stone. This paper presents a non-phonetic, functional-metrological decipherment model that treats the Indus script primarily as a standardized administrative, base-scaled accounting shorthand for economic transactions, warehouse control, and fiscal management. By systematically evaluating an extensive corpus of over 400 stress-tested inscriptions (with 60 primary master exemplars detailed below across square steatite seals, copper credit tablets, amulets, and pottery graffiti), we demonstrate that the sign sequences conform to a rigid, standardized administrative syntax: an animal header signifying departmental/regional authority, a series of quantitative modifier ticks, a base-metric scale icon (Base-4 combs/diamonds, Base-12 solar wheels, and Base-16 nested symbols), and a terminal volumetric closure (U, corresponding to the classical Kumbha). Furthermore, this study establishes direct structural, mathematical, and metrological continuity between Harappan quantitative accounting and later classical Indian systems, including the Bhūta-saṅkhyā numerical categorization and the traditional base-16 (ṣoḍaśa) metrological standards articulated in the Arthaśāstra. Re-framing the script as an administrative ledger resolves long-standing epigraphic anomalies and offers a comprehensive empirical foundation for Bronze Age economic history.