Brahmi older than ASHOKA used in ceylon from 800BC

Brahmi older than ASHOKA used in ceylon from 800BC

The Brahmi Script from which all Indic scripts are

derived appeared suddenly and dramatically during

the reign of Asoka, the Mauryan emperor ~250 B.C.

(Salomon, 1995).
Brahmi Inscription – Kusumadasasya(Flowers servant)

- Click to Enlarge
There is no material evidence of any script being used

in the Indian subcontinent until this time. Of course,

ancient writings on parchment, bark and cloth would

not be expected to survive any length of time in the

Indian climate. Strikingly, no supporting evidence

in the form of writing instruments or images of scribes

(e.g., ancient Egypt) have been found, either.

So when and where did Brahmi arise?
There are 3 theories:

1. The Ancient Indian Theory: The Brahmi writing

system predates the Mauryas and evolved in India

without any outside influence.

2. The Mesopotamian Theory: Commerce with

ancient Babylon exposed Indian traders to Aramaic

scripts which they then adapted into Brahmi.

3. The Mauryan Theory: Asoka invented a new

script with the help of the “learned Pandits” at his court.

1. The Ancient Indian Theory: >1000-500 BC
We do have evidence that writing and scripts

were known before Asoka. The early grammarians,

Panini and Katayana, refer to scribes and “yavana-lipi”

(loosely translated as the “script of the Greeks”).

Evidence of scripts is also hinted at by the early

Buddhist Canon. The Buddha, who often provides

good social commentary on life circa 450 BC in the

Indo-Gangetic plains, specifically prohibited members

of his Order from playing a children’s “Lettering” game,

where “letters are traced in the air, or on a

play-fellow’s back”.

One could argue on end about the impossibility of the

existence of a grammatical tradition from ‘old’ Gargi

to Panini without any scripts. However, these savants

were trained to know “by heart” the vast corpus of

Sanskrit literature. Writing may not have been

important. Moreover, severe doctrinal diktats

were in force to keep knowledge a secret (rahasya)

and to never divulge it to ‘impure minds’. Therefore,

if pre-Asokan writing and scripts did exist, they

may have been concealed. Until we have more

evidence we can only speculate – history being

about facts rather than plausibility.

2. The Mesopotamian Theory 800 – 700 BC:
Trading contacts existed between South India

and Babylon. Besides artifacts, South Indian

words for the traded goods entered the local

language in Mesopotamia – rice, ivory, apes and

peacocks. It is possible that the Aramaic script used

in Mesopotamia was modified for Indian purposes

during this cultural encounter (Rhys Davids, 1903).

Ancient Aramiac is a terse language with barely any

vowels, which are “assumed” from knowledge of the

language. Georg Bühler (1896) painstakingly studied

congruences between Aramaic and Brahmi.

He suggested that many of the alphabets were

simple reversals of the Aramaic script for writing

from left-to-right – Aramaic, itself, being written

from right-to-left. (Note that there have been

examples on Brahmi on coins being

written right-to-left.) (more…)