The Dholavira signboard

10 signs in reading order; spoked wheel appears 4 times, at positions 1, 4, 8, 9. Tap a sign above to read its entry.

The Dholavira signboard is a ten-sign inscription of unusually large letters, thought to have been inlaid on a wooden board above the north gate of the citadel. [11]
One of its ten symbols is repeated four times. [12]
Its excavator, R. S. Bisht, is quoted on the varnam blog as saying the inscription could stand for the name of the city, the king or the ruling family. [13]
Rekha Rao, in an unreviewed article for the web magazine Indica Today, reads all ten signs as Vedic ritual objects and altars, and says the symbols describe the rituals in vogue in the Vedic and post-Vedic periods. [14]
S. Kalyanaraman, on his blog, reads the board as a catalogue of metalwork by Meluhha metalworkers, each sign a rebus for an ore, a metal or a craft. [15]

Where texts begin and end

6 signs, a group rather than an inscription. Tap a sign above to read its entry.

In a statistical study of Mahadevan's concordance, Yadav and colleagues found the three signs that most often begin a text to be 267, 391 and 293, and the three that most often end one to be 342, 176 and 211; they are shown here in that order. [3]
A text beginner is the sign at the right end of an inscription as pictured, and a text ender the sign at the left end, since the texts read right to left. [3]
The ends of a text are far more constrained than its beginnings: 23 signs account for 80 percent of all text enders, while 82 signs are needed for 80 percent of all text beginners. [3]
The three beginners are more selective about which signs can follow them than the three enders are about which signs can precede them. [3]
The study worked on a filtered copy of the concordance, with every text containing lost, damaged, illegible or doubtfully read parts removed. [3]

On The Dholavira signboard at positions 1, 4, 8, 9 of 10 — 4 times.

Rekha Rao, in an unreviewed article, identifies the six-spoked circle as the Garhapatya, one of the three sacred altars of Vedic ritual. [14]
Rekha Rao, in the same unreviewed article, takes the two wheels side by side at positions eight and nine for Punaradheya, the reinstallation of the sacred fires. [14]
S. Kalyanaraman, on his blog, reads the spoked wheel by rebus from words for nave and spoke as molten cast metal, copper or brass. [15]

On The Dholavira signboard at position 2 of 10.

Rekha Rao, in an unreviewed article, takes the second sign for the pranita patra, a kind of cup with a handle used to fetch holy water in ritual. [14]

On The Dholavira signboard at position 3 of 10.

Rekha Rao, in an unreviewed article, takes the third sign for the dasapavitra, the filter used to strain soma in the soma sacrifice. [14]

On The Dholavira signboard at position 5 of 10.

Rekha Rao, in an unreviewed article, takes the fifth sign for the Ahavaniya, the square altar of the consecrated fire, one of the three principal sacrificial fires. [14]
S. Kalyanaraman, on his blog, reads the lozenge by rebus from a word for corner as bronze. [15]

On The Dholavira signboard at position 6 of 10.

If this is Mahadevan's X-like sign 137, as its form suggests, Mahadevan reads it as to divide or share, as grain, by comparison with the near-identical Egyptian ideogram meaning to divide. [16]
Rekha Rao, in an unreviewed article, takes the two intersecting lines for the catuspatha, the crossroads where four roads meet and an oblation is offered to Rudra. [14]

On The Dholavira signboard at position 7 of 10.

Rekha Rao, in an unreviewed article, suggests the single stroke is idhma, the supply of wood logs for the sacred hearths. [14]