Image: Iravatham Mahadevan
Image: Iravatham Mahadevan

In this ideograph, the pictograph of a house is combined with two stylised hands. Two of the house walls double as arms. The hands are coming together, as if to embrace someone. In other words, the house welcomes people. Thus, it can be concluded that Mahadevan's sign number 273 means guest house.


Illustrative Text Reference:

Harappa: Seal: H-1033 a: Asko Parpola, B. M. Pande, and Petteri Koskikallio, 2010: Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions: Volume 3,1: Page 142: New material, untraced objects, and collections outside India and Pakistan: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.

Comment:

There is only one extant example of this Indus sign.


Image Credit:

Indus Script Sign Number 273: Sign List of the Indus Script: Iravatham Mahadevan, 1977: The Indus Script: Texts, Concordance and Tables: The Director General Archaeological Survey of India.