BRAHMI SCRIPT DERIVATION, DECIPHERMENT & STUDY FROM INDIAN COINS

Mahesh KalraAsst. Prof. / CuratorDinesh Mody Institute for Numismatics & Archaeology

Epigraphy is the study of written matter recorded on hard or durable material.

The term is derived from the Classical Greek epigraphein (‘to write upon, incise’) and epigraph (‘inscription’).

Palaeography (Palaeo ~ Old Graphis ~ write) is the study of ancient scripts to decipher and understand the writings of the people of the past eras

In India, the presence of numerous ancient and medieval inscriptions in stone, metal, objects (seals, coins, copper plates) led the Indologists (a group of interested European and Indian scholars) to seek ways and means to decipher India’s ancient and medieval scripts

Brahmi is the mother of most Indian and South-East Asian scripts which evolved during and after the Mauryan era spreading through traders travelling to these regions

Priorly, this script was tentatively called Indian Pali script by Indologists (including James Prinsep who finally deciphered it in 1837)

to differentiate it from Aramaic Pali (the name given to Kharoshthi)

The name ‘Brahmi’ was given by Georg Buhler (1870) who came across a list of ancient Indian scripts listed in the tenth chapter of the ancient Buddhist text, Lalitavistara (3rd century B.C.) listing 64 Indian scripts under the Art of writing Kavyagranthacharitram

The earliest examples of Brahmi script in the form of Ashokan Edicts are etched out on pillars and rocks found spread through the length and breadth of the Indian sub-continent

This aroused the curiosity of these scholars to decipher this script to understand the History of various Indian dynasties

Brahmi was devised to write Sanskrit and Prakrit with perfect co-ordination between phonetics and writing. The Vedic people’s extraordinary care for reciting Vedic hymns correctly led to the development of phonetics as an important subject of study (called Shiksha, a Vedanga). This same passion must have led to the development of Brahmi in the late Vedic era.

However, there are no Vedic era inscriptions in Brahmi

SITES OF ASHOKAN INSCRIPTIONS

Other examples of Brahmi inscriptions are the Girnar Inscription of Rudradaman I (Western Kshatrapa ruler)

Gupta inscriptions all over North and East India

Satavahana inscriptions in Naneghat, Nashik, etc.

pre-Satavahana inscriptions in early Tamil Brahmi in Nagarjunkonda, Bhatteprolu, etc.

Buddhist inscriptions in Kanheri, Panduleni (Nashik), Karle, etc. made it very attractive

GIRNAR INSCRIPTION OF ASHOKA

The earliest attempt to decipher Brahmi was by Firuz Shah Tughluq (r. 1355-1388) who transported an Ashokan pillar from Topra to Delhi by boat using immense labour

However, much to his surprise and chagrin, the learned Brahmins of the day were clueless about the ancient script and hence unable to read the Pillar Inscriptions

PIPRAWAHA VASE INSCRIPTION