PalaeographyAncient scripts, their decipherment and epigraphy

Lesson 2

DECIPHERMENTFrom known unknowns to known knowns*

Bilingual Decipherment

There are many ways in which to decipher an ancient script.

The best and easiest is to use a bilingualepigraph.

The downside

• You need to be incredibly lucky to find one,

• You have to know at least one of the scripts/languages in it.

Exercise 1Top right: Coin of Indo-Greek king Menander

Bottom right: Ashoka’s bilingual Kandahar rock edict

Guess the languages on the coin and the rock.

Statistical DeciphermentYet another way is a statistical analysis of a corpus of texts.

No need for a bilingual epigraph.

The downside

• You need to a lot of texts, of reasonable length,

• You need to understand the basics of statistics

• You need to know a lot of languages, just to rule them out

BILINGUAL DECIPHERMENTAlexander’s first bequest

The original Rosetta StoneFrench soldiers found the Rosetta Stone in 1799. The British later seized it as a war trophy.

Hieroglyphic on top, Demotic in the middle, and Greek at the bottom.

The Greek immediately told scholars what the inscription was about.*

The first crack• Sylvestre de Sacy guessed that since names like

Ptolemy, Alexandria etc were foreign to Egyptians, they must have been spelt phonetically, through the rebus principle

• De Sacy got this clue through a Chinese pupil of his **

• de Sacy, guessed (rightly) the ‘cartouches’ were indeed Ptolemy, Alexander, Cleopatra etc.

• But he didn’t know which was which

Exercise 2: The rebus principle

Exercise 3: The rebus principle

Young releases some stress• Thomas Young (the Young’s modulus wala)

matched the three scripts line by line

• He figured that demotic (middle) was a mix of stylized hieroglyphics and an alphabet

• He effectively deciphered Demotic, so now 2/3rd of the stone was read

Egyptian Hieroglyphic• He also figured out the individual meanings of

the letters in the cartouches, deducing Ptolemy* and his queen Berenice.

• But he failed to recognize that the rest of the hieroglyphics could be alphabetic

• he thought they were mystic symbols (‘Hieroglyph’ does mean ‘sacred symbol’)

• The breakthrough was left to a student of de Sacy, Jean François Champollion

Egyptian HieroglyphicJean François Champollion made a lucky guess – he thought the language of the ancient Egyptians wasn’t too different from Coptic, a language still used by Christian Egyptians.

He knew Coptic (he’d spent 3 years learning it).*

He deciphered a whole lot of Greek cartouches, and then had this bold idea – what about Egyptian names?

He figured what looked like the sun must read as Ra (Coptic for sun), and guessed the cartouche stood for Rameses.**

Another cartouche had similar endings, and had a symbol of the god Thoth – so Thothmes?

Egyptian HieroglyphicNow wherever in the Rosetta stone, ‘mes’ appeared, the equivalent place in Greek was geneqlia, birth. What was Coptic for birth? Misa. 🔔🔔🔔🔔

And so on an on, till he’d read most of the Rosetta stone, and figured the meanings of many hieroglyphics

They turned out not to be mystical at all, but from all the cartouches he got their phonetic values

And then he realized that sometimes they represented what they looked like, i.e. if it looked like a lion, it did mean lion

And some characters had meanings of their own, without a sound attached (like in English we have & ‘and’ and © ‘copyright’

Exercise 6: Guess this pharaoh

The symbol of life

Symbol for Upper Egypt

Symbol for Heliopolis

Symbol for ruler

THEORY OF WRITINGFrom images in the eyes to images in the mind

Evolution of writingIgnace Jay Gelb had helped decipher the Anatolian Hieroglyphic script

He proposed in his book ‘A Study of Writing’, that all writing systems undergo a 3-stepunidirectional evolution

Once a script has evolved, it cannot go back

Indian writing systems, however, didn’t seem to adhere to this theory (and he inexplicably left them out in his book); Many Indian epigraphists still reject this theory

Later Peter J Daniels refined it and added 2 more units, Abjad and Abugida

Pictography

Logography

Syllabary

Alphabet

Abjad

Abugida

Phonography

Each unit represents a sound

Pictography

No concept of sounds or

words

Logography

Each unit represents an idea or word

Purely logographic scripts were considered impossible, until the Millennials invented emoji.

Again, pure logographic scripts are unknown,

unless you count sign language.

1. LogophonographySome purely logographic symbols and some that are phonetic. E.g. Hanzi/Kanji

2. Logopictographyunknown except in Chinese WhatsApp messages.

1

2

3

4

3. Pictophonographye.g. Mayan Hieroglyphs (maybe), most English WhatsApp messages

4. Logo… rehne do e.g. Egyptian Hieroglyphics

Syllabary

Each unit represents a consonant plus a

vowel.

Katakana, Hiragana, Cherokee, Linear B

Linear A

Abugida

Each unit has a consonant and a

diacritical vowel sign, no independent

vowel sign

Ge’ez, Korean

Abjad

Each unit denotes a consonant, vowels

inferred from context

Hebrew, Pahlavi,Phoenician, Syriac

Alphabet

Each unit represents a sound, consonants and vowels written

separately.

Roman, Cyrillic, Greek, Armenian, Georgian, Braille

Quranic Arabic, Persian & Urdu are part Abjad, part Abugida. Some

vowels have signs while others don’t.

Brahmi and Kharosthi are actually Alphasyllabaries, as they have independent signs for vowels

alongside diacritics.

Modern Arabic is part Abjad, part Alphabet as some vowels are written explicitly and the rest have to be inferred.

BILINGUAL DECIPHERMENTAlexander’s second bequest

Kharosthi

What if you didn’t have a Rosetta stone, but 47,000 bilingual coins, with short inscriptions?

And there’s no surviving language to guess from?

And you know that folk take shortcuts with writing on coins?

Charles Masson* left to the Royal Society a huge hoard of bilingual coins, on which he recognized the names of Indo-Greek kings like Menander, Apollodotus, Ermaios, Basileos (King), and Soteros; he also recognised the bits of the other script that had these names

But he was a busy man, too many things to do, and never got around to the painstaking work it takes to compare thousands of coins and the letters on them...

KharosthiFollowing up on Masson’s work was James Prinsep, assay master of the Calcutta mint and editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society.

Which meant he was always getting reports and drawings of coins and inscriptions – it pays to be in the right place at the right time!

In 1837 he had hit pay dirt with the decipherment of Brahmi (which we’ll see later).

KharosthiIn a paper in 1835, he reported that the same character, occurred at the beginning of the names of ,ףApollodotos, Antimachus, Antialkidas, and Azes. He guessed it must be ‘अ’. Likewise he figured out e, ma, ya, pa, and na.

Working parallely in Germany, C. L. Grotefend had identified a, ta, da, pa, ma, ra, la, and ha.

Then both got stuck, because they thought the underlying language was Iranian, and the script therefore an alphabetic one, for who would guess it was Prakrit so far from the Gangetic plain?

Exercise 5:

Work out the Kharosthi name. The Greek name is ANTIALKIDOU

Kharosthi

Then it suddenly struck Prinsep that the language might be Prakrit*

He then figured that the match for BASILEWSmight be Maharajasa, which he then managed to read on the coins

After this he could make rapid progress

He reported the decipherment in a paper in 1838; Working in parallel, another German, Christian Lassen had also come to the same conclusions

Exercise 6:

Work out the Kharosthi that corresponds to BASILEWS

Kharosthi

Prinsep might have worked out the rest, but he dropped dead in 1840*

But work after this progressed quickly:

• Edwin Norris read the Shahbazgarhiinscription

• Cunnigham worked out an alphabet from more coins

• And the two squabbled ever after

Exercise 7:

Work out the remainder of the coin

Earliest Record- 3rd c. BCE

• Ashokan inscriptions-Shabazgarh and Mansera

• Siddhapura near Mysore -Lipikarena

Languages: Gandhari, Indo-Bactrian, Indo-Scythian, Khotanese

Mentioned in

• the Lalitavistara

• Fǎyuàn Zhūlín – the Buddhist Chinese encyclopedia (Kia-lu-shu-ti, and that’s how we know the name)

Kharosthi

Indo-Scythian coins

Indo-Parthian coins

Sino-Kharosthi coins

Kushana coins

Kharosthi tablets from Khotan

(Acquired* by Aurel Stein; now in the National

Museum, Delhi)

Other Kharosthi Sources

Gandharan Buddhist Texts

A set of birch bark manuscripts found in a monastery in Hadda, Afghanistan,

• 80 donated to the British Museum in 1994

• The Senior Collection

• The Schøyen Collection

• The Khotan Dhammapada(location now unknown)

Still More Kharosthi Sources

Written from right to left

Probably derived from the Aramaic script

From khara (donkey) and ostha (lips)*

No known long vowels (which hindered decipherment once they figured it wrote Pali/Prakrit)

Look at

• अ and व• न, ब and र• द and त• ड and झ

Kharosthi

Exercise 8:

Work out the 17th of February

INDIAN PHONETICSThe golden thread to understanding India

का तवम बाल? कचनमालाकसााः पतरी? कणकलताााःककम त हसत? तालीपतरका व रखा? क ख ग घ

Kalidasa, for a challenge requiring him to end a poem in क ख ग घ

The Indian arrangement of letters*

It is organized on an incredibly methodical principle, based on

1. Where the letter is pronounced – throat, palate, tongue, teeth or lips

2. Whether is voiced (from the belly) or unvoiced (from the mouth) or nasal (from the nose)

3. Whether you breath softly (unaspirated) or hard (aspirated)

4. Whether you say it for a short while or a long while

Once you understand this, all Indian scripts become enormously easy to decipher

Varnamala

अघोषunvoicedअलपपराण

unaspirated

अघोषunvoicedमहापराण

aspirated

घोष voicedअलपपराण

unaspirated

घोष voicedमहापराण

aspirated

अननासिक‌nasal

अलपपराणunaspirated

अनतसथ‌approximantअलपपराण

unaspirated

उषम/िघशरीfricativeमहापराण

aspirated

हसवshort

दीघघ long

Throat कणठ क ख ग घ ङ ह अ आPalate तालव च छ ज झ ञ श इ ईTongue मराान ट ठ ड ढ ण र, ळ ष ऋ ॠ

Teeth दत त थ द र न ल स ऌ ॡLips ओषठ प फ ब भ म व उ ऊ

Throat-palate

कणठठतालव ए ऐ

Throat-lipकणठठोषठ ओ औ

Nose अननाससक अ

Open mouth उषठम अाः

Exercise 9

Work in pairs.

One of you articulate the sounds.

The other use your phone flashlight to see the place of articulation.

Then switch places.कणठ

तालव

मराान

दत

ओषठ

Apart from 3 extra characters in Dravidian languages (ன, ற, ழ), no other characters have been added or subtracted from the core Varnamala set

It is probable that the Varnamala pre-dates the advent of post-Indus writing in India

If Kharosthi evolved from Aramaic, it had to have extra letters invented to fit the Varnamala’s requirement

Historic development

Panini’s Ashtadhyayi is dated to the 5th c. BCE ± 100 years, and he cites 10 grammarians who came before him: Apisali, Kashyapa, Gargya, Galava, Cakravarmana, Bharadvaja, Sakatayana, Sakalya, Senaka and Sphotayana

An inscription of Siladitya VII (of Valabhi) mentions Panini was from Salatur (now Lahur* on the Indus-Kabul confluence); this is confirmed by Xuanzang

That means Panini may have been exposed to Kharosthi (or Greek/Aramaic); he does mention lipiand lipikara in his work

Or perhaps he was high on something really interesting

Historic development

INTUITIVE DECIPHERMENTA subcontinent’s past begins to speak

Attempts to decipher

Feroz Shah Tughlaq

• Had pillars carted to Delhi from Topra & Meerut to Delhi in 1356

• Asked some Sanskrit pandits to read them

• They failed, and I have no clue what happened to them

Sir William Jones

• Founded the Asiatic Society (1784) and triggered the methodical study of inscriptions

• Laboured under the belief that they were Sanskrit

Progressive ProgressDate Decipherer* Inscription Script Period

1785 Pt. Radha Kant Sharma Vishaldev Chauhan, Delhi-Topra pillar Medieval Nagari

1168

1785 Charles Wilkins Narayana Pala, Badal Pillar Proto-Bengali

c. 854 –908

1789 Wilkins; J. H. Harrington Maukhari king Anantavarman, NagarjuniCave

Proto-Nagari c. 575 –600

1834 Capt. A Troyer with MadhavaRao (partial)

Allahabad pillar inscription of Samudragupta

Gupta script c. 335 – 380

1834 J Stevenson Karla caves inscriptions, deciphering ka, ga, ja, ta, tha, da, pa, ba, ya, ra, va, and sa

Early Brahmi Script

3rd – 5th c. BCE

1834 B. H. Hodgson Discovered Mathia & Radiah pillars and noted their striking similarities to Delhi-Topra & Allahabad

Early Brahmi Script

c. 268-232 BC

1836 Christian Lassen Read Indo-Greek Agaqoklhs on bi-script Greek-Brahmi coins

Post-Mauryan

~185 BCE

1837 Dr. W. H. Mill Bhitari pillar inscription of Skandagupta Gupta script c. 455 – 467

James Prinsep… phir aa gayaAs editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society, he managed to put together a vast corpus of inscriptions

pre-dating the 6th c. CE

Doubted that the pre-Gupta inscriptions were Sanskrit, for he didn’t see Sanskrit’s trademark

multi-consonant character stacks (जोडाकषर )

He managed to create a grid of consonants and vowels, identifying the vowel diacritics correctly (except ‘i’ which he read ‘o’), on the basis of his knowledge of the Varnamala

James Prinsep… phir aa gaya1834: In his editorial note on Hodgson’s paper. he reported that the Delhi-Topra, Allahabad and the Hodgson pillars carried the exact same inscription.

He also noticed that two characters looked so similar to the Maukhari script that they must be ya and va.

In 1837, he read some Kshatrapa coins, identifying some जोडाकषर as well as the Prakrit genitive ending –sa.

Then he turned his attention to two dozen brief inscriptions, dating to the 2nd or 1st c. BCE, which had been copied by Edward Smith from the Buddhist stupas at Sanchi.

The decipherment

I was struck at their all terminating with the same two letters, ^1. Coupling this circumstance with their extreme brevity and insulated position, which proved that they could not be fragments of a continuous text, it immediately occurred that they must record either obituary notices, or more probably the offerings and presents of votaries, as is known to be the present custom in the Buddhist temples of Ava; where numerous dwajas or flag-staffs, images, and small chaityas are crowded within the enclosure, surrounding the chief cupola, each bearing the name of the donor. The next point noted was the frequent occurrence of the letter dj, already set down incontestably as s, before the final word:—now this I had learnt from the Saurashtra coins, deciphered only a day or two before, to be one sign of the genitive case singular, being the ssa of the Pali, or sya of the Sanscrit. "Of so and so the gift," must then be the form of each brief sentence; and the vowel a and anuswara led to the speedy recognition of the word danam, (gift,) teaching me the very two letters, d and n, most different from known forms, and which had foiled me most in my former attempts. Since 1834 also my acquaintance with ancient alphabets had become so familiar that most of the remaining letters in the present examples could be named at once on reinspection. In the course of a few minutes I thus became possessed of the whole alphabet, which I tested by applying it to the inscription on the Delhi column. (460-1)47

Written from left to right

The mother of ALL Indian and South-East Asian scripts

Clear, unambiguous characters

Based on simple geometric shapes – circle, line, square, triangle

Complete development of the Varnamala

A numeral system similar to modern Chinese, later replaced by the precursor of the modern Indo-Arabic system

Brahmi

Table from Ojha*

Exercise 10:

Write the dates of February

• This is the Rummindei or Lumbini Pillar Edict

• Read the inscription

• Then make a table of characters

Exercise 11

Devanapiyena Piyadasina lajina visativasabhisitena

atana agaca mahiyite hida Budhe jate Sakyamuni [i] ti

sila vigadabhica kalapita silathabhe ca usapapite

hida Bhagavam jate ti Lumminigame ubalika kate athabhagiye ca

When King Devanampriya Priyadarsin had been anointed twenty years, he came himself

and worshiped (this spot) . He caused to be made [the structure] with the enclosure (or

wall) [to protect] the stone being in its natural condition, i.e. a piece of natural rock

[handed down] that “the Buddha Sakyamuni was born here”, and caused a stone pillar

to be set up. Since the Blessed one was born here, the village of Lumbini was exempt

from taxation, and paying (only) an eighth share of the produce.)

Exercise 11

Stylistic Evolution of Brahmi

Pre-Mauryan?

SohgauraCopper Plate

268-232 BC

Ashokan

e.g. GirnarRock Edict

232-224 BC

Post-Ashokan

NagarjuniCave

~113 BC

Sunga

BesnagarGaruda

Pillar

~70BC

Satavahana

NaneghatCave

~150 BC

Kharavela

Hathi-gumpha

~1st c. BCE

Sodasa*

Mathura well

inscription

~1st c. CE

Kushanaperiod

Jayavarmansculpture,

Kathmandu

KARLE CAVES - 1

धनकाकाटा यवनि यिवधनान थभो दान (LEFT ROW , 9th , 1AD)

KARLE CAVES - 2

िोपारका भयतान धमतररयान भाणकि िाततसमति ििरररो थबो दान(LEFT ROW , 9th , 1AD)

KARLE CAVES - 3

धनकाकाटा धम यवनि (LEFT ROW , 4th , 1AD)

KARLE CAVES - 4

धनकाकाटा यवनि सिहधयान थभो दान (LEFT ROW , 3rd , 1AD)

Etymology

Script of learned Brahmins

Preservation of Brahma-jnana

Created by Brahma

• Such tables help identify all the glyphs that make up a script

• Without them, there’s no reading or decipherment

• The table shows one standardisedidiom all across the realm; probably imposed by the emperor

• Negligible regional variation

• Austere characters, no ornamentation

Table of concordances

PalaeographyAncient scripts, their decipherment and epigraphy

Lesson X

THE ORIGINS OF BRAHMIAn emperor’s fiat or a proletarian tradition?

Once we’re done with Ashoka (whose corpus is huge), there are no earlier firmly dated inscriptions

Two sets of theories exist (and keep professors busy at conferences):

1. Ashoka invented Brahmi*

2. It naturally evolved from pre-existing scripts

Brahmi before Ashoka?

Ashokanedicts**

Morals:

Follow dhamma, be kind to

prisoners and animals, be

benevolent… or else

Warnings to rebels:

I killed 100,000 at Kalinga. I’m

following Ahimsa now but what stops me from doing it again?

Propaganda:

I want to conquer you through

Dhamma, but you know I have other

means.

Warnings to monks:

Remember the Buddha’s original

teachings and don’t perpetrate schisms…

I’ve said it nicely, but…

• Prof. S. R. Goyal was a noted palaeographist from Jodhpur University

• In the book The Origin of Brahmi script (ed. S. P. Gupta & K. S. Ramachandran), he put forth nine arguments that Ashoka had it invented

• He later put it out as a book, Brahmi Script : An Invention of the Early Maurya Period

• Let’s look at his arguments and counter-arguments

Ashoka Invention Theory of Prof. S. R. Goyal (Jodhpur University)

No epigraphs or manuscripts are known before Ashoka

Seven epigraphs (copper plates, steles, coins, vases) etc are putatively dated before Ashoka; we’ll discuss these

Of course, there are plenty of punch-marked coins with logograms and pictograms

But post Ashoka, there is a sudden explosion of inscriptions

Argument 1

• Megasthenes, in his Indica observed transactions in Chandragupta’s camp that weren’t written*

• But, this is from Strabo’s book citing Megasthenes; we know Indica is lost

• Later Strabo says Megasthenes’ contradicts himself, because he also mentions the tendency of the philosopher class (Brahmins) to write everything down

• Nearchus reports writing on starched cotton (karpasika)

• But this also doesn’t disprove that Brahmi in particular wasn’t known

Argument 2

Ashoka’s inscriptions have no regional variations, as can be expected for a newly invented script which even the scribes are new to

Argument 3

A few mistakes (reverses and inverses of characters), which again suggest the scribes were still getting used to it

Argument 4

• Brahmi characters match some Sanskrit aksharas (ङ, ञ, ण) not present in Pali*

• Similarly it codes for श, ष & स though सonly exists in Pali; a natural idiom won’t have them

• Nevertheless, Sanskrit inscriptions don’t appear until a couple of centuries later

• Nor do we know of any manuscripts

Argument 5

Some Brahmi characters look like derivatives of other characters. Look at

• ख & ग • न & ण• च & छ• द & र• प & फ etc

This is his main argument against Brahmi evolving from West Asian sources

Argument 6

• Ashoka imported some like architectural elements from the Achaemenids (like pillar capitals); the edict’s opening style is similar to the Achaemenid kings’.

• Most of his scribes and inscribing techniques also came from there*

• Maybe he made Aramaic a reference to create a script from?

Argument 7

• The language of his edicts is Palieverywhere; despite it being spoken only in a small part of his empire.

• Given most people weren’t literate, it wasn’t targeted at them but imperial officers.

• Where people were more literate, it was in Kharosthi, Aramaic, Greek.

Argument 8

• Early Buddhist literature emphasises the need to memorise the scripture and worried about careless monks forgetting them, if writing existed why worry?

Argument 9

1. According to Prof. Siromoney, all Brahmi characters can be derived from two basic sources

2. A Cross-within-a-square, or a line-through-a-circle

3. Angular or curved variations were explained by ‘handwriting’ differences

Theory of Invention from Geometric Formsof Prof. Gift Siromoney (Madras Christian College)

Derive all the Brahmi characters from the geometric bases

Exercise

Reasons to believe it predates Ashoka

Epigraphic evidence

1. The Indus Script had obviously been around for some time, but was it completely extinct by the second urbanisation? (Cuneiform had gone extinct and later civilisations couldn’t read it)

2. Brahmi inscriptions dated before Ashoka

Literary evidence

1. Accounts of the Greeks

1. Nearchus described how Indians prepared paper out of cotton (karpasika patra)

2. Curtius described how Indians used the tender bark of certain trees (bhurjapatra)

2. Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina canon

Logograms & Pictograms

• A number of coins are known from periods well-preceding Ashoka

• They are rich in symbols, not all of which have been acceptably deciphered

• Theories tracing them all the ay back to Harappan Culture abound

• Variations in letters

• Dating of inscribed artifactsto pre-Ashokan times

Epigraphic evidence

• Details activities undertaken for famine relief

• Note the moon and hill symbol controversially attributed to Chandragupta Maurya

• Notice the uppermost line of logographs followed by Brahmi

Sohgaura Copper Plate

• 7 lines talking of famine relief, also attributed to Chandragupta Maurya.

• (Jain sources mention a famine at the end of his rule)

Mahasthan Stone Plaque, Bangladesh

• Found in the Piprahva Buddhist stupa, dated to 5th

c. BCE.

• “Sakiyanam” - Is that the Shakyapeople?

• Letters scratched, not inscribed.

Piprahva Vase, Bihar

Eran coin

• Cast coin with Brahmi legend reading right to left

• S. R. Goyal maintains that the caster incorrectly inscribed it the right way, so it produced a mirror coin

• Thus QED-ing his contention

• Jaina inscription dated to the 5th c, BCE

Pillar in Barli, Rajasthan

• Originally found at stupa in Bhattiprolu, AP containing 9 caskets and 1 hexagonal crystal with variant Brahmi letters

• 17 sites in the Bhattiprolu style have been found so far

• Either it was inscribed before standardisation of Brahmi under Ashoka, or it was written in Ashokan times in defiance of the official style

Bhattiprolu Caskets, AP

Look at the letters घ, च, ज, म, ल, ष, ळ

म is ‘upside-down’compared to Ashoka Brahmi while घ, ल, ष, ळare radically different

A consonant without matrasrepresents the consonant alone, not क + अ as usual

Instead, there’s a distinct matra for आ

• Taxila Hoard, 4th c. BCE

• Kharosthi (Kojaka) on obverse

• Brahmi (Negama) on reverse

Taxila Coin

• A mixture of megalithic graffiti and Brahmi-like characters

• Tentatively dated from 1000 BCE to 300 CE

Annaicoddai Seal, Sri Lanka

• Dated to 4th c BCE

Anuradhapura Inscriptions, Sri Lanka

• Excavations in 2013 threw up a 5th c BCE carbon date

• The site includes Tamil & Prakrit inscriptions

Porunthal and Kodumanal, Tamil Nadu

Natural Evolution Theories*

Brahmi

Indigenous origin

Invented from simple geometric forms Siromoney & Lockwood

Invented by Imperial fiat S. R. Goyal

Indus script

Pal, Gadd, Hunter, Pandey, Langdon, Sircar, Raghavan**

Via Megalithic Graffiti – BB Lal, K Rajan

Vedic, from Sanskrit words*** Lassen, Cunnigham

Dravidian Edward Thomas, T N Subrahmanyam

Foreign origin

Greek

Prinsep, Max Muller, Senart

Greek + Aramaic + Kharosthi Helevy

Chinese Terrain de la Couperie****

Phoenician Weber, Benfy, Jenson

Cuneiform Assyrian

Via South Semitic Deecke, Taylor, Rhys Davids

Via North Semitic Prinsep, Buhler, Dani, Weber

Divine origin

Indus origin Semitic origin

Chart from a theory advanced by Rajot N Pal Chart from Asko Parpola (1994),Deciphering the Indus script

WRITING IN ANCIENT INDIACould a society be educated but not literate?

Literary Evidence: Hindu Canon

1. The Vedic Literature: meters, numerals, 8-mark, akshara

2. Panini’s Ashtadhyayi has words like Lipi, Lipikara, Grantha

3. The Arthashastra has a section called Shasanadhikara: 8 types of inscriptions, guidelines of making a good inscription, rules for students, kings and spies

Rg Veda: Mention of the akshara

रचो अकषर परम वोमन ससमन दवा अधर ववशव ननषदाः |सतन न वद कक रचा कररषठनत इत तद ववदसत इम समासत ||

Upon what syllable of holy praise-song, as ‘twere their highest heaven, the Gods repose them,—

Who knows not this, what will he do with praise-song? But they who know it well sit here assembled.

Rg Veda 1-164-39

(tr. by Ralph T.H. Griffith, 1896)

Rg Veda: the eight-marked cows

इनरण जा ननाः सजानत वाघतो वरज गोमनतमसशवनम |सहसर म ददतो अषठटकणठााः शरवो दवषठवकरत ||

With Indra for associate the priests have cleared the stable full of steeds and kine,

Giving to me a thousand with their eightmarked* ears, they gained renown among the Gods.

Rg Veda 10-62-7

(tr. by Ralph T.H. Griffith, 1896)

Literary Evidence: Buddhist Canon

The Brahmajala-sutta of the Digha-nikaya

The Lalitavistara-sutra (3rd c. CE) mentions Buddha as having learned 64 scripts*

References to writing in the Vinaya Pitaka

The Jatakas have words like Phalaka (board), Varnika (Palette)

Gandhara school relief sculpture depicting the young Prince Siddhartha, travelling to school in a cart. Originally from Peshawar, Pakistan and now

in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Digha-nikaya: monks may not play letter games

था वा पनक भोनतो समणबराहमणा सदरादयानन भोजनानन भस‍ जतवा त एवरप जतपपमादटठानानोग अनतता ववहरसनत, सयधथद – अटठपद दसपद आकास पररहारपथ ससनतक खसलक घटटक सलाकहतथ अकख पङगचीर वङकक मोकखधचक धचङगसलक [धचङगलक (क॰ सी॰)] पतताळहक रथक रनक अकखररक‌मनससक थावज ज इनत वा इनत एवरपा जतपपमादटठानानोगा पटटववरतो समणो गोतमो’नत – इनत वा टह, सभकखव, पथज जनो तथागतसस वणठण वदमानो वदय।

Majjhima sila, Brahmajala sutta(nta), Digha-nikaya

(13 Dialogues of the Buddha; Translated by T W Rhys Davids)

The scripts mentioned in the Lalitavistara-sutra

Vinaya Pitaka: Dissuading suicide

लखा सवणठणनत नाम लख‌तिनदतत‌– “ो एव मरनत सो रन वा लभनत स वा लभनत सगग वा गचछती”नत, अकखरकखरा आपवतत दक कटसस। लख पसससतवा मररससामीनत दकख वदन उपपादनत, आपवतत थल लच चसस। मरनत, आपवतत पारासजकसस।

Vinaya Pitaka, Parajikapali, Parajikakandam 176

Vinaya Pitaka: Writing was a high art

ससपप नाम दव ससपपानन – हीन‍ च ससपप उक कटठ‍ च ससपप । हीन नाम ससपप – नळकारससपप, कमभकारससपप, पसकारससपप, चममकारससपप, नहावपतससपप, तस तस वा पन जनपदस ओ‍ ञात अव‍ ञात हीसळत पररभत अधचततीकत। एत हीन नाम ससपप। उक कटठ नाम ससपप – मददा, गणना, लखा, तस तस वा पन जनपदस अनो‍ ञात अनव‍ ञात अहीसळत अपररभत धचततीकत, एत उक कटठ नाम ससपप।

Vinaya Pitaka, Paccittiyapali, Pacittiyakandam 15

Vinaya Pitaka: Writing as a career

तन समन बदरो भगवा राजगह ववहरनत वळवन कलनदकननवाप। तन खो पन समन राजगह सततरसवसगगा दारका सहाका होसनत। उपासलदारको तस पामोकखो होनत। अथ खो उपासलसस मातावपतन एतदहोसस – ‘‘कन न खो उपान उपासल अमहाक अच चन सख‍ च जीवय न च ककलमया’’नत? अथ खो उपासलसस मातावपतन एतदहोसस – ‘‘िच‌खो‌उपासल‌लख‌सिकखयय, एव‌खो‌उपासल‌अमहाक‌अच‌चयन‌िखञ‌च‌जीवयय, न‌च‌ककलमयया’’ नत। अथ खो उपासलसस मातावपतन एतदहोसस – ‘‘सच खो उपासल लख सससकखससनत, अङगसलो दकखा भववसससनत। सच खो उपासल गणन ससकखय, एव खो उपासल अमहाक अच चन सख‍ च जीवय न च ककलमया’’नत। अथ खो उपासलसस मातावपतन एतदहोसस – ‘‘सच खो उपासल गणन सससकखससनत, उरसस दकखो भववससनत। सच खो उपासल रप ससकखय, एव खो उपासल अमहाक अच चन सख‍ च जीवय न च ककलमया’’नत। अथ खो उपासलसस मातावपतन एतदहोसस – ‘‘सच खो उपासल रप सससकखससनत, अकखीनन दकखा भववसससनत। इम खो समणा सकपवतता सखसीला सखसमाचारा सभोजनानन भस‍ जतवा ननवातस सनस ससनत। सच खो उपासल समणस सकपवततस पबबजय, एव खो उपासल अमहाक अच चन सख‍ च जीवय, न च ककलमया’’नत।

Vinaya Pitaka, Paccittiyapali, Pacittiyakandam 502

Vinaya Pitaka: Buddhist nuns could learn writing

अनापवतत लख‌पररयापणातत, रारण पररापणानत, गतततथा पररतत पररापणानत, उममवततका, आटदकसममकाानत।

Vinaya Pitaka, Paccittiyapali, Pacittiyakandam 1016

अनापवतत लख‌वाचतत, रारण वाचनत, गतततथा पररतत वाचनत, उममवततका, आटदकसममकाानत।

Vinaya Pitaka, Paccittiyapali, Pacittiyakandam 1020

Vinaya Pitaka: Notices for wanted criminals

तन खो पन समन अ‍ ञतरो पररसो चोररक कतवा पलानतवा सभकखस पबबसजतो होनत। सो च र‍ ञो अनतपर सलखखतो होनत – तथ पससनत, ततथ हनतबबोनत। मनससा पसससतवा एवमाहस – “अ सो सलखखतको चोरो। हनद, न हनामा”नत। एकच च एवमाहस – “मायो, एव अवचतथ। अन‍ ञात र‍ ञा मागरन सननन बबसमबसारन “ समणस सकपवततस पबबजसनत, न त लबभा ककस‍ च कात, सवाकखातो रममो, चरनत बरहमचरर सममा दकखसस अनतककरराा” नत। मनससा उजझासनत खखयसनत ववपाचसनत –

‘‘अभवरा इम समणा सकपवतता, ननम लबभा ककस‍ च कात। कथस‍ह नाम समणा सकपवतता सलखखतक चोर पबबाजससनती’’नत। भगवतो एतमतथ आरोचस। न, सभकखव, सलखखतको चोरो पबबाजतबबो। ो पबबाजय, आपवतत दक कटससानत।

सलखखतकचोरवतथ ननटटठत।

Vinaya Pitaka, Mahavaggapali, Mahakhandhaka 93

But, T. W. Rhys Davids says:

It is evident, therefore, that writing was in vogue at the time these passages were composed: that it was made use of for the publication of official notices, and for the communication by way of letter between private individuals: that the ability to write was a possible and honourable source of livelihood: that the knowledge of writing was not confined to any particular class, but was acquired by ordinary folk, and by women: and that it was sufficiently prevalent to have been made the basis of a game for children, A long period, probably centuries, must have elapsed between the date when writing first became known to the few, and the date when such a stage could have been reached.

But it is a long step from the use of writing for such notifications, public or private, to the use of it for the purpose of writing down any books, much less an extensive literature. And the very same texts we have just quoted show, and show in a manner equally indisputable, that, for such purposes, writing, however well known, had not yet come into use.

Buddhist India, 1903

He continues:

…if books had been known and used in India at the period in question, then the manuscripts themselves, and the whole, industry connected with them, must have played an important part in the daily life of the members of the Buddhist Order. Now the extant rules of the Order place clearly enough before our eyes the whole of the "personal property" of the community, or of its individuals. Every movable thing, down to the smallest and least important domestic utensil, is referred to, and its use pointed out. And articles in ordinary use among laymen, but not allowed to members of the Order, are mentioned also, in order to be disallowed. But nowhere do we find the least trace of any reference to books or manuscripts.

This is really decisive. It is one of those rare cases where negative evidence, the absence of the mention of something where the mention of it would be reasonably expected, is good evidence. But this is not all. Positive evidence comes in at the precise point where it is wanted. There is pretty constant reference to the texts as existing, but existing only in the memory of those who had learnt them by heart.

Buddhist India, 1903

Evidence from Jaina Literature

The Jaina Pannavanasutta (2nd c. BCE) and Samavayangasutta (3rd c. BCE) mention 18 scripts*

Bhagavati Sutra (वाखापरजञसपत) has the line “namo bhambhiya liviye”

More textual & grammatical evidence

1. The term akshara refers to a syllable rather than a letter, so was there a syllabary in existence when Sanskrit grammar was being devised?

2. A complete body of phonetic theory (varnamala) was in existence before Ashoka came on the scene; even Brahmi adheres to it

3. There are plenty of references to akshara, varna, maatra, lekhaka and lekhani (pen) in the Yajurveda, Jatakas, Upanishads etc

Right: Patralekha surasundari, Indian Museum, Kolkata

WRITING AFTER ASHOKAA continent learns to write

After AshokaAfter Ashoka, the script appears everywhere

• On cast or die-struck coins as punchmarksdisappear

• Private donations of caves, stupas, water cisterns etc

• Religious inscriptions• Royal decrees, grants etc

As speed became more necessary, cursive formsbegan to appear

Scribal ‘hands’ can now be seen, and regional variation becomes sharper

By the Kushana period, it has split into Western and Eastern varieties

The new pen

The Kshatrapas brought with them a new kind of pen –the qalam, and edged reed

It tended to produce serifs while writing on manuscripts –and the serif style began to be reproduced on inscriptions

This kind of Brahmi is now called nail-headed Brahmi

Curved flourishes became popular in writing, especially diacritics for I and u; you’ll see them in Kanheri

By the end of the Kushana period, the serifs became simplified to a short dash headmark, which stayed all the way to Nagari

Brahmi after Ashoka

Brahmi split before the 5th c. into the Northern & Southern styles

The northern styles would remain angular due to the use of dry substrata like birch bark

The southern styles became more cursive since they were written on palm leaves

Spread of Brahmicscripts to East Asia

• Kharosthi and Brahmi are known to have spread to Khotan and other places on the silk route

• Siddham spread into China with Xuanzang, and made its way to Japan where it is still used to ceremonially copy Buddhist manuscripts

• The Pallava script was carried into Sourh East Asia by Cholamerchants

Pallava in South East Asia

Merchant contact with South East Asia in the Pallava and Chola periods took the Pallava-Grantha script continuum thither.

Pyu script (4th - 6th c AD)

http://lionslayer.yoeyar.com/?p=823

Southern Brahmi

The south developed a more cursive form of Brahmi, that by the 3rd c. AD had developed into the proto Kadamba-Pallava script

Chalukya scripts

• The script under the patronage of the Kadambas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Shilaharas and Hoysalas would ultimately evolve into the Halegannada script in the Deccan

• Under the later Western (Kalyani) & Eastern (Vengi) Chalukyas, the Cholas and then the Pandyas, the Kadamba-Pallava script underwent further evolution, to a tighter, less grandiose form, now looking more like modern Grantha

http://www.skyknowledge.com/pallava.htm

Burnell, Elements of South-Indian Palaeography, plate I

Vengi copper plate

http://www.skyknowledge.com/pallava.htm

Burnell, Elements of South-Indian Palaeography, plate III

Chalukya copper plate, 622 AD

http://www.skyknowledge.com/pallava.htm

Burnell, Elements of South-Indian Palaeography, plate IV

Pallava script

• Under Pallava patronage, the script developed into an elaborate form with large strokes

http://www.skyknowledge.com/pallava.htm

Cave temple inscription

• Mahendravadi rock-cut temple of Mahendravarman I Pallava

http://travel.bhushavali.com/2012_11_01_archive.html

Examples

http://www.skyknowledge.com/pallava.htm, http://tamilnation.co/heritage/pallava.htm

Purnavarman

of Java

Fang in North

Thailand, est.

late 7th c. AD

Post-Pallava period

• The Pallava script seems to be the basis for both the later Tamil script and the Grantha script.

• This is a possibly unique case of sympatric evolution of two scripts, each adapted to writing a different language.

• By Vijayanagar times, the Grantha script had stabilised to its current form.

http://www.skyknowledge.com/pallava.htm

HOMEWORKBecause epigraphs never fade

To start

• Divide yourselves into 4 groups

• Ensure each group has Archaeo & AIACS students

• You have 2 weeks’ time

Group 1: Produce a reading of this inscription

Group 2: Treat this as a bilingual inscription and produce a table of glyphs

In Roman script

Group 3

• Make an eye copy of this copper plate

Group 4

• Make table of concordances of all the characters you in the inscriptions from Cave 2

STATISTICAL DECIPHERMENTThe linear progression of non-linear thinking

Linear B

1900: Arthur Evans began excavating the great palace of Minos (circa 1450 BC) in Crete, where about 66 clay tablets were found in 2 distinct scripts – Linear A & Linear B

Evans deciphered the numerical system in Linear B (number systems are usually the first to get deciphered)

Evans insisted that the tablets’ language was not Greek but an unknown (he called it Minoan), and such was his pelf that no one dared disagree; this held everyone up

He compared the signs with tablets found in Cyprus, and through the match nearly read them, but his anti-Greek belief ruined his chances*

Linear B

The non-Greek theory collapsed when about 45 tablets were found on mainland Greece, in Pylos

But nothing in Greek grammar could help anyone crack it, especially the Oxford classicist John Myres

But it did become evident that most of these tablets were accounts of things received/bought or given out/sold

Then came 3 young people, Michael Ventris in London, Emmett Bennet Jr. in Cincinnati and Alice Kober in New York

Linear B

Emmett Bennet Jr., working on the mainland collection, painstakingly compared hundreds of signs on the tablets to finally create a list of 89 distinct signs*

This showed Linear B was a syllabary, not an alphabet (though it has about 200 logograms)

Linear B

In parallel, Kober had figured out some of the grammar of Linear B –that it showed inflection

i.e. they represented the same words in different grammatic contexts (tense, case etc)

Then she died of cancer, just 43

Indo-European

Indo-European languages emerged from a common ancestor not more than 7000 years ago

They share one feature – they are all inflected, i.e. different grammatical features are marked by changing the endings of words*

Other families of languages are agglutinative – they add endings to an unchanged core

Linear B

Knowing words and word-endings allowed Ventris to calculate the frequency* of each sign in the syllabary

Ventris deduced that

the 3 most frequent

Signs that appear at the

beginning of words

Must be pure vowels

Linear B

He looked at words* that looked similar, and guessed they were spelling variations or mistakes**

Through this he guessed that they must have had

• differing vowels (like कक and की) but the same consonant value

• Or similar sounding consonant values (like g/j, k/c, s/z in English)

Now he could speedily group syllables of the same consonant or vowel together in a grid

Linear B

He also went back to matching Linear B with Cypriot tablets, and found Greek-like readings – and then he took a leap in the dark, what if it was Greek, just not the classical version he had read?

This suddenly produced a lot of readable words – and they were similar to Greek!

(So there was a bit of bilingual stuff after all)

Linear B

Another leap of faith – guessing that Kober’s triplets referred to cities in Crete (proper nouns, which will not change by language)

He produced readings of Aminiso, Tuliso, Paito and Lukito, ancient names of Knossos, Tulissos, Phaistos and Luktos.

Linear B

Through mostly statistical analysis, he had cracked Linear B, and now sound values could be assigned to all 89 signs

Using Ventris’ decipherment, one of the tablets from the Pylos collection was read cleanly, proving him right

Ventris then died in a car accident, aged just 34

The Scribes

• Chapada Kayastha- Brahmagiri Edict

• Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela (lekha, ganana, vyavahar, vidhi)

• Lota- Nashik Cave 3 (1 AD) ( Patiharakhiy Lotay ChhatoLekho), Sujivana prepared Pattika

• Amatya Shivagupta, Mahaswamikas : Nashik Cave 3 (1 AD)

• Phalakvare Charitrato ti : Nashik Cave 10 (1 AD)

• Uddam Kayastha, Chaliga Pandit

Further Reading

Shobhana Gokhale: Purabhilekhvidya, Bharatiya Lekhvidya

G S Gai: Introduction to Indian Epigraphy

J F Fleet:

K. Satya Murthy: Textbook of Indian Epigraphy

P L Gupta: Coins

Khare G H: Samshodhakacha Mitra

K V Ramesh: Indian Epigraphy

Richard Salomon: Indian Epigraphy

Sircar D C: Indian Epigraphic Glossary, Indian Epigraphy

C Sivaramamurti: Indian Epigraphy and South Indian Scripts

I J Gelb: A Study of Writing

G H Ojha: Bharatiya Prachin Lipimala

George Buhler: Indian Palaeography

Andrew Robinson: Lost Languages

Ahmed Hasan Dani: Indian Palaeography

Epgraphia Indica Vol I - XXXII

Paramara King Arjunvarman, successor of King Bhoja (c.1210 -1215 CE)

•Sharada Mandapa/Bhoja Shala/ Kamaal Maula Mosque

•Natika ( A Four Act Play as per dramaturgy) , only first two acts are found inscribed on

a stele - (5 feet 8 inches by 5 fee stele)

•Enacted at Sharada Mandapa on Vasant Panchami to commemorate Arjunavarman’s

victory over Chalukya King of Annahilawada Jayasimha in the battle of Pava

• Kamal Maula Mosque /

•E. Hultzsch, 'Dhar Prasasti of Arjunavarman: Parijatamanjari-Natika by Mandana',

Epigraphica Indica 8 (1905-06) pp., 96-122

•2. Dikshit S. K. , Parijatmanjiri alias Vijayashri , 1968

Parijatmanjiri alias Vijayashri, A Natika by ‘Bala Saraswati’ Madana at Dhar -1903

Savinirmadi, the daughter of Nagurjunayya and Nandigeyabbe

was learned in all the sastras .

Social Life Depicted

• Vasishthiputra, Gautamiputra, Kaushikiputra, MadhariputraMatrinomycs

• Wives of Ikshvaku Virapurushadatta , daughters of Santisri & Hammisri

• Wife of Vasishthputra Pulumavi, daughter of Rudradaman, the Saka

• Rudradharabhattarika, wife of Ikshvaku Virapurushadatta

• Vammabhatta , wife of Ehuvula Chantamula

• Avalladevi, the Huna Princess, wife of Kalachuri King Karna

Marriage, Dowry, Types of Marriages, Foreign Tribes

• Palhuka & Rahada’s widows

• ShrideviEnvironmental Concern

• Nagiyakka & Echiyakka

• Savinirmadi (10th Century CE)

• Somaladevi ( CE), Chandaladvi ( CE), Kamaladevi (1147 CE)Education

• Wife of Nagudaustar

• Granddaughter of Sanzayya Brahmana (1010 CE)

• Chatavayya , Wife of Kuvarayya Brahmana (1010 CE)

Female Donees

• Shyavalangi- PrabhavatiDeath, Virgal, Mastikalu, Chhayaprastara,

Govardhana Stone, Sati

• Anjaneri Plates (Second Set) of King Bhogshakti

• Kotavumchagi Inscription (saka 934)

• Shialahara Inscriptions Kumarisahasa danda

• Biyyal, Birakka, Vinapoti, Anukki --lCourtesans

Bodhisiri Chaitya

Epigraphy ka The End