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Brahmi Script Assignment

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44 views

Brahmi Script Assignment

notes

Uploaded by

tanyakashyap2605
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Epigraphy is the study of ancient inscriptions or writings on stone, metal, or other durable materials.

Palaeography, which is closely related to epigraphy, focuses on the study of old scripts (the way
characters and letters are written in different time periods)

In ancient India, people relied less on written records, so written scripts were not as widely used.
However, there are lists of ancient Indian scripts, some mentioning as many as sixty-four or eighteen
scripts. Despite these lists, only two early scripts have been found on actual records from around the 3rd
century BCE: Brahmi and Kharosthi. However, some people have suggested other ancient scripts, like
the Sankha (shell script) or Avimisra (mixed script), but researchers haven't fully figured out how these
scripts worked yet.

Later, during the early medieval period, a traveler named Al Biruni visited India in the 11th century CE
and mentioned the existence of many different scripts. Based on his records, some of these scripts have
been identified by modern epigraphists (scholars who study inscriptions). Among the notable scripts
mentioned are Siddhamatrka (which developed into Nagari, Gaudi, and Bhaiksuki), Sarada (used in
Kashmir), and Grantha (used in southern India).

A significant discovery in Indian epigraphy was the unearthing of the Harappa civilization in the 1920s,
which pushed the history of Indian writing back to around 3000 BCE. The Harappa script is pictographic-
logographic, meaning it uses symbols and pictures, but it hasn’t been deciphered yet. This discovery
significantly broadened the understanding of the history of writing in the Indian subcontinent.

The question of how old writing in India is has been a big topic of debate among scholars. Some
believe that the script used in Ashoka's inscriptions (from the 3rd century BCE) must have
developed over time, with an earlier phase of development.

 Some scholars think this earlier phase of writing could date back to the time when the
Vedas (ancient Indian texts) were written, many centuries before Ashoka.
 Others argue that the writing system, especially Brahmi, was developed more recently
during the Mauryan Empire, and was promoted by Ashoka himself.

A scholar named Richard Salomon suggests that if Ashoka supported the creation of Brahmi,
the idea for the script may have come from Old Persian Cuneiform, a writing system used in
ancient Persia. This could be due to cultural exchanges between India and Persia at the time.

Additionally, some researchers, like B.B. Lal, believe there is archaeological evidence showing a
possible link between Brahmi and the much older script of the Harappan civilization (from
around 2500 BCE). This would mean Brahmi could have roots in the ancient Indus Valley
civilization, but since the Harappan script is still undeciphered, this idea is not fully proven yet.

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