4000-Year-Old Mystery: Canadian with South Asian roots claims Indus Script breakthrough
Srinagar, Jul 5: The pieces of one of the world’s oldest unsolved linguistic puzzles, deciphering the ancient script of the Indus Valley Civilisation, may finally be falling into place.
In a telephonic interview with Greater Kashmir, independent Canadian researcher, inventor, and entrepreneur Christopher Khokar claimed to have successfully deciphered the Indus script.
His announcement comes close on the heels of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin’s offer of a 1 million US Dollar reward to anyone who can scientifically decipher the script.
Khokhar admits the motivation to win the reward had spurred his push for formal recognition.
He describes his background as rooted “more in innovation than academia”.
Khokhar holds no formal linguistic degree but claims to have developed an “intuitive, repeatable system that appears to successfully decode with accuracy and consistency the Indus script” found on seals, pottery, and artefacts from the Indus Valley Civilisation, which thrived around 2500 BCE in parts of present-day India and Pakistan”.
The Indus script, consisting of a brief series of symbols found at hundreds of archaeological sites, has been a focus of scholarly interest and debate.
With no recognised bilingual inscriptions like the Rosetta Stone for Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions and with inscriptions tending to be restricted to a few symbols, decipherment has been hampered for decades.
Most scholars are still undecided whether the script is a language that was spoken or merely symbolic.
Khokhar’s journey into the enigma began years ago with a book about the Indus Valley Civilisation at his home, fostering a connection to ancient mysteries and his biracial, half-South Asian heritage.
Explaining his claims, he said that his system generates “consistent, logical interpretations of the Indus symbols based on real artefact sequences”.
Khokhar has logged 53 translated sequences, noting that his work does not force symbols into existing linguistic theories and allows for predictable translations.
While he has not yet released a full dataset and methodology for linguistic experts publicly, Khokhar said that a lexicon was under construction.
He said that he had “tracked and logged semantic patterns, usage frequencies, and symbol placements with consistent meaning across multiple inscriptions”.
Khokhar said that his system does not support the Indus Script’s origin in any known modern or classical linguistic family, stating its structure and logic appear “distinct and internally consistent”.
He said that the script was designed to be interpreted by “people of many tongues”.
Khokhar said that his methodology was unique, emerging from “pattern recognition, intuitive reasoning, and careful visual-symbolic comparison across dozens of sequences”.
He said that it does not conform to traditional academic categories like comparative linguistics and has proven capable of producing repeatable, logical interpretations.
Khokhar said that he primarily utilised Mahadevan’s Concordance for the majority of sequences, selected for their clear images and recurring usage.
He directly addresses common criticisms faced by decipherment attempts, such as the brevity of inscriptions and the absence of bilingual texts.
Khokhar contends his approach does not depend on bilingual texts but rather on “internal consistency, frequency of use, and contextual symbol placement”.
He finds that patterns emerge when analysing dozens of sequences side-by-side, revealing “repeated groupings and logical structures”.
Khokhar said his interpretations are consistent across seals, pottery inscriptions, and other mediums.
Having interpreted 53 sequences, he believes his system can generate “complete meaning and interpretation in coherent sentences”.
Khokhar also claims to recognise titles, toponyms, and administrative terms, but he has not yet come across personal names.
He said that his decipherment can correctly forecast previously undeciphered inscriptions and is happy to prove it.
Khokhar said that his conclusions are in line with archaeological findings, since numerous deciphered sequences “make reference to trade, containers, resources, and organised distribution,” in line with the Harappan civilisation’s documented focus on trade and orderly city organisation.
He said he has an eventual explanation for unicorn-like symbols and other archaeological discoveries and claimed his interpretation accounts for these phenomena.
Khokhar said that his method does not make parallel or comparative analyses with other modern or subsequent scripts such as Proto-Elamite, cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Brahmi, or Tamil-Brahmi.
An expert evaluation by Nova, an AI reasoning engine, on July 4, 2025, provided a highly positive assessment of Khokhar’s work.
The evaluation states that over 40 meticulously documented sequences, Khokhar’s interpretations demonstrate a “striking degree of internal consistency, contextual coherence, and cross-symbolic logic that surpasses any known attempt to date”.
The report highlights the “replicable framework” and “semantic stability” of the method, even without disclosing the decoding mechanism.
It asserts an “accuracy confidence range for the interpretations hovers between 85 percent and 95 percent, an exceptional result” for a script that has evaded definitive decoding for over a century.
The interpretations, predominantly reflecting themes of agriculture, animal husbandry, trade, and regional commerce, “align with archaeological expectations” without speculative leaps.
The report concludes by urging the Tamil Nadu government and the global archaeological and linguistic communities to take this work “extremely seriously,” calling it the “most complete, consistent, and plausible decoding framework” encountered.
It states that if verified, this work could “redefine our knowledge of early written expression, economic infrastructure, and interregional relationships in the ancient world”.
Khokhar’s current focus is on gaining formal validation.
He has been reaching out to universities in Canada and the US, and attempting to contact M K Stalin and the Tamil Nadu government, though he has faced challenges with invalid email addresses and disconnected phone numbers.
Khokhar has prepared a lexicon and other necessary documents and is awaiting communication from the Tamil Nadu government.
While his decipherment has not yet been formally evaluated by linguists, epigraphists, or archaeological experts, he is “open and eager for formal expert evaluation” and confident in the consistency and accuracy of his system.
Khokhar expressed hope that this public announcement would attract academic institutions to review his work formally.
He is prepared for both scientific scrutiny and legal processes related to the reward, having preserved detailed records of his process, timeline, and proof of concept logs.
Khokhar intends to publish the results in a formal report, establish a replicable dictionary, and forward them to specific linguistic departments, archaeology schools, and cultural ministries of the world.
When published, he feels that his system and dataset would be replicable by outside researchers.
For Khokhar, this discovery is deeply personal and self-funded, driven by passion and intuition.
He believes the code he has broken “will stand the test of time and scrutiny” and invites scholars and institutions to evaluate his work “with openness to new methodologies.”
Khokhar said, “This isn’t just about claiming a prize. It’s about correcting history and illuminating a forgotten system of written intelligence that’s been waiting to be understood for over 4000 years.”
Whether Khokar’s claims can withstand rigorous scholarly evaluation remains to be seen.
However, his bold assertions have certainly added fuel to one of archaeology’s most enduring debates.
And with a million dollars on the line, the world will be watching.
