An encounter with a Cambridge mathematician at a Bengaluru dinner party led software engineer Bahata Ansumali Mukhopadhyay to decode the arcane script of the Harappan civilization, shedding light on the mercantile culture during this Bronze Age civilization. That was almost a decade ago, and it is thanks to that chance meeting that the world now knows about the commercial activities of the ancient race. Across the ancient world, all writing systems were invented from the needs of accounting and commercial administration. (HT PHOTO)(HT_PRINT) Mukhopadhyay, 42, published her third paper in the peer reviewed journal, Nature on December 19, arguing against the widely-held idea that the Indus Valley script essentially consisted of religious texts or names of people and places and that the inscribed stamp seals and tablets were mainly used as tax stamps and licenses for ancient commerce. Mukhopadhyay’s paper states that the Indus Valley’s growing economy needed a standardised measurement system and a “mercantile script” to control commerce — one that could be understood universally across the distant settlements of the civilization. Wrap up …