It is generally known that modern Indian scripts such as Devanagari, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, are less than two thousand years old and that they sprang from Brahmi, which, in turn, is at least 2,500 years old. Early writings of Brahmi, discovered in Sri Lanka, have been dated tentatively to about 500 BC; the more commonly known Brahmi records belong to the reign of the Mauryan King Ashoka (250 BC). The Indus script (also called Harappan or Sarasvati) was used widely during 2600-1900 BC. It's beginning has been traced back to 3300 BC and its use continued sporadically into the late centuries of the second millennium BC.
The Brahmi script is the parent not only of the Indian scripts but also of most of other Asian scripts (see map below). It also influenced the development of the Japanese and the Korean scripts.
We know that writing was prevalent in India prior to 500 BC. Written characters are mentioned in the Chhandogya and the Taittiriya Upanishad, and the Aitareya Aranyaka refers to the distinction between the various consonant classes. The voluminous Vedic texts also contain hints of writing in them. For example, Rigveda 10.71.4 says:
utá tvaH páshyan ná dadarsha vaácam utá tvaH shRNván ná shRNoty enaam
One man has never seen Vaak, yet he sees; one man has hearing but has never heard her.
Since Vaak is personified speech, it suggests knowledge or writing. Another verse (RV 10.62.7) mentions cows being marked by the sign of "8".
The Atharvaveda (19.72) speaks of taking the Veda out of a chest (kosha), and although it may be a metaphor for knowledge coming out of a treasure house, it could equally have been meant in a literal sense.
The traditional date for the Rigveda is about 3000 BC, with the later Vedic texts and the Brahmanas coming a few centuries later. The Aranyakas, Upanishads and the Sutras are, in this view, dated to the 2nd and early 1st millennia. The astronomical evidence in the texts is in accord with this view. Furthermore, the currently accepted date of 1900 BC for the drying up of the Sarasvati river, hailed as the mightiest river of the Vedic age with its course ranging from the mountain to the sea, implies that the Vedas are definitely prior to this date.
It is also significant that the Brahmana texts speak of the drying up of the Sarasvati as a recent event.
This brings the Vedas to the period of the use of the Indus script in India. It is also significant that the geography of the Harappan region corresponds to the geography of the Rigveda.
Even if one accepted the colonial chronology of ancient India, the period of the Rigveda corresponds to the later period of the Harappan culture.
This means that the Indus script is likely to have been used to write Sanskrit and other languages spoken in the 3rd millennium India, just as Brahmi was used to represent north and south Indian languages 2,500 years ago.
I personally disagreed with the late Professor R.N. Dandekar on several of his views on ancient Indian culture, but he was right when he said: "There is, indeed, considerable circumstantial and inferential character which enables us to perceive the existence of writing even in the very early periods of Indian cultural history... It is true that the Veda has been handed down from generation to generation through oral tradition. It must not, however, be supposed that on that account, as is often erroneously done, that the art of writing was unknown in the early Vedic age. The practice of oral transmission of Veda was adopted, not because written copies of these texts were not available, but presumably because it was believed that oral transmission alone was more conducive to the preservation of the magico-religious potency and the formal protection of those arts. On the contrary, it may, indeed, be argued that it is almost unimaginable that such an extensive and highly complex literature such as the Veda and its ancillary texts dealing with subjects like phonetics, prosody and astronomy, much of which, again, is in prose form, was produced and propagated without the knowledge of writing."
There are many competing theories about the nature of the Indus script. The main difficulty with "proving" any decipherment is that the texts are very short.
Some historians believe that Brahmi is derived from one of the West Asian scripts and, indeed, there are interesting similarities between their characters for several sounds. On the other hand, there is a remarkable continuity between the structures of Indus and Brahmi. Since a script can be used to write a variety of languages -- even unrelated -- the question of structural relationship is particularly interesting.
Indus and Brahmi connections become evident when one considers the most commonly occurring letters of the two scripts. In a series of articles in Cryptologia, I examined these connections for similarity in form, case endings for inscriptions and the sign for "ten". The parallels are extraordinary and the probability that they arose by chance is extremely small.
Since the technical arguments related to the relationship between the two scripts are beyond the scope of this article, let me reproduce the ten most likely letters from the two scripts (Tables 1 and 2).
Notice that the three most commonly occurring letters in both the scripts are the "jar", the "fish" and the "man". The number of matches in the ten signs is 7; the probability of this happening by chance is less than 10-12
It is also remarkable that the "fish" sign is used as a symbol for "10" in the Indus (used without the gills; it's such use was determined by a statistical analysis) and the Brahmi scripts, although the Brahmi "fish" for "10" is shown sideways.
Regarding the similarities between Brahmi and early Semitic scripts, it should be noted that Indic kingdoms, in which Sanskrit names were used, were prominent in West Asia in the second millennium BC. Just as in the Vedic system, the Ugaritics, a people closely related to the Phoenicians and the Hebrews, have 33 gods. More importantly, Yahvah, the name of the God in the Judaic tradition, occurs as an epithet for Agni in the Rigveda a total of 21 times (yahva in RV 10.110; yahvah in RV 3.1, 3.5, 4.5, 4.7, 4.58, 5.1, 7.6, 7.8, 9.75, 10.11; yahvam in RV 1.36; 3.3; 4.5; 5.16; 8.13; 10.92; yahvasya in RV 3.2 and 3.28). Indus ideas on writing may thus have, through the agency of the powerful Mitanni kingdom of Syria, been influential in the various Semitic traditions of the second and first millennia BC.
I hope this note will spur readers to undertake a more extensive study of the statistical and structural connections between Indus and Brahmi writing and also examine the Indic influence in West Asia during the Mitanni age.
External Links:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/9594/brahmi.html : Brahmi-related scripts
http://www.ancientscripts.com/brahmi.html : Brahmi
http://www.ancientscripts.com/kharosthi.html : Kharoshthi
http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/writ.pdf : My IJHS article on the evolution of writing in India (but this web version lacks figures). For details, see:
S. Kak, 1988. A frequency analysis of the Indus script. Cryptologia. 12:129-143.
S. Kak, 1989. Indus writing. Mankind Quarterly. 30:113-118.
S. Kak, 1990. Indus and Brahmi: Further Connections. Cryptologia. 14:169-183.
S. Kak, 1994. Evolution of early writing in India. Indian Journal of History of Science. 29: 375-388.
S. Kak, 1996. An Indus-Sarasvati signboard. Cryptologia. 20: 275-279.
http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/akhena.pdf : The Mitannis in West Asia
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It is astonishing to read some Western "scholars" still harp on the Semitic origin of Brahmi given the evidence in this column! Clearly that is happening because old racist attitudes die hard.
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The latest issue of Frontline carries a story on the early Brahmi inscriptions found in Sri Lanka:
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2112/stories/20040618003109700.htm
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Here's a useful source on later Indian scripts:
http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/scripts.html
although it has many dead links and others that quote outdated theories.
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To me the similarities between the Indus and Brahmi characters in similarly rank-ordered lists is convincing of their relationship. There is further evidence in the Cryptologia papers regarding case endings that is even more impressive. Such connections could not be coincidences; their odds against that are astronomical!
-Bahadur
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Earliest written evidence of Brahmi script available today is from Ashokan pillars;that is about 250 BC. As the engravings on the Ashokan pillars indicate a fully developed script system and widely spread, it can be easily guessed that that evolution of Brahmi must have started 2-3 centuries before.Therefore,Mr.Kak's estimate for age of Brahmi as500 BC appears to be reasonable.Further,Mr. Kak says that there is some evidence of Brahmi script in use in Shri Lanka in 500 BC. If it is so, then antiquity of Brahmi can be pushed back by further two centuries. Now Mr.Kak says that there is some mention about writing systems in some of the Upanishads/Brahman books then it's antiquity can be pushed back further. I would request Mr. Kak to elaborate and give details of the evidences he has found in these books.His evidences from Rigveda and Atharvaveda are not very obvious.
Thanx
CPS
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The following remarks of Raymond Allchin, quoted by Jack Goody in THE INTERFACE BETWEEN THE WRITTEN AND ORAL (London, Cambridge Univ Press, 1987, pp. 301-2) will interest many: "There is a powerful argument against the idea that the Brahmi script was derived from a Semitic borrowing. The whole structure and conception of the script is quite different and must, in my view, have had an independent genesis... I have always thought, the Brahmi script must have been there before the arrival of the Aramaic. In recent years I have been leaning towards the view that the Brahmi script had an independent Indian evolution, probably emerging from the breakdown of the old Harappan script perhaps in the first half of the second millennium B.C."
For those who would like to compare the Harappan seals with later seals from the historical period, see K.K. Thaplyal, STUDIES IN THE ANCIENT INDIAN SEALS (Lucknow, Akhila Bharatiya Sanskrit Parishad, 1972).
-SK
Posted by Shaeed on Dec 21, 2003
If Hindus censor criticism of hinduism why DEMOCKEERY of democracy be BELIEVED by thses IItian And Code Coolies And Code specialist Donated Medical College DEGREES
Posted by Manoj 2003 Gupta on Dec 20, 2003
In the U.S. many Hindus are reading about Kak, though in India few know him as he has never published any article in any major Indian newspaper. The few that know Kak in India mention that he is not an honest person and has a clear cut agenda. He lies distorts facts pushes data which undermine the originality of the Indian civilization and tends to create a confusion in the Indian society which could then enable our culture to be manipulated in order to further the interests of foreign elements. These very elements who are backing Kak know that he is an opportunistic person and could switch sides. Kak drinks, eats beaf, lacks guts and is a foriegn propped up plant. It is established beyond doubt that Sanskrit is the mother of all Indo-Euprpean languages and the Aryan Race originated in India. The so-called divide of North-South in India on racial lines is fake and most of us are from the same race. Rajput and others respect all religions (who have written our history) and have regard for all cultures but India is an original civilzation which has not originated from any other civilization be it to the Negro, Mongoloid, Semitic, etc. Also Rajput and collegues know the Negro theory of man is a Western conspiracy for obvious reasons. The West does not even know where an atom came
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Kashmiri PUNDITS without HINDU avid PROPPING and PRivileged SUPPORT could not
SUPRESS subjugate TORTURE and OPPRESS KASHMIRI ..
it is DUMB illogical PUNDITS poor BRAIN who like KAK are SPREADING fanatiscism
extremism and HINDUTVA Communalism
in
INDIA
b/c I have 50years of TEACHING pundits
from K.G. to PH. D writing
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The following remarks of Raymond Allchin, quoted by Jack Goody in THE INTERFACE BETWEEN THE WRITTEN AND ORAL (London, Cambridge Univ Press, 1987, pp. 301-2) will interest many: "There is a powerful argument against the idea that the Brahmi script was derived from a Semitic borrowing. The whole structure and conception of the script is quite different and must, in my view, have had an independent genesis... I have always thought, the Brahmi script must have been there before the arrival of the Aramaic. In recent years I have been leaning towards the view that the Brahmi script had an independent Indian evolution, probably emerging from the breakdown of the old Harappan script perhaps in the first half of the second millennium B.C."
For those who would like to compare the Harappan seals with later seals from the historical period, see K.K. Thaplyal, STUDIES IN THE ANCIENT INDIAN SEALS (Lucknow, Akhila Bharatiya Sanskrit Parishad, 1972).
-SK
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I find the Sulekha editorial decision not to allow any comments on the Victor Menezes/Sulekha publicity blurb masking as an essay both interesting and dangerous.
If indeed that is the decision of Sulekha, and Sulekha wants to stick with it, it is time that the writers and readers who have made Sulekha to a large extent what it is, now should have the courage of their conviction to throw down a gauntlet to Satya Prabhakar.
Mine is this: If Sulekha will not reverse its decision, I will ask that all my essays, poems, articles on Sulekha be removed forthwith.
Ramesh Rao
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The data on Brahmi letters in Table 1 is from the Ashokan inscriptions. Also, the map should have shown an arrow reaching the Philippines. Here's a brief note on that:
Kavi, a borrowed Philippine script
by Hector Santos
The script used in the LCI [Laguna Copperplate Inscription of 900 AD]was Kavi, an extinct Javanese script universally used in Southeast Asia during 600-1500 A.D. Kavi is considered to be the progenitor of most Southeast Asian scripts including Lampong, Rejang, and Batak of Sumatra as well as Buginese and Macassarese of Sulawesi, one of which was probably the source of other ancient Philippine scripts.
All Southeast Asian scripts, including Kavi, are syllabaries which means that each symbol represents one complete syllable. They can ultimately be traced back to Brahmi from India's Ashokan era (200-300 B.C.). Brahmi spawned Grantha ("palm leaf writing") of the Pallava era, the old script of South India used in writing Vedic Sanskrit.
Kavi descended with very little change from Grantha, a "perfect" syllabary in the sense that it had symbols for all the sounds of the language it represented. Grantha had at least 48 basic symbols including a full set of vowels and diphthongs. The system allowed for a very accurate rendering of the spoken language it represented, much better than what our own Latin alphabet does for English.
The script spread from South India and was adopted by many groups in Southeast Asia. Sometimes, it was modified to accommodate the group's language. More often than not, the script was simplified not for linguistic reasons but because of the adopting group's lesser level of cultural achievement. By the time the script reached Sumatra, there were only 19-21 basic symbols left. When it reached the Philippines, only 17 were left.
One of the mysteries posed by the LCI is how a very sophisticated script like Kavi which took root early in the Philippines could be replaced later by a primitive one like the ancient Tagalog script.
Santos, Hector. "Kavi, a borrowed Philippine script" in A Philippine Leaf at http://www.bibingka.com/dahon/lci/kavi.htm. US, October 26, 1996.
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If Hindus censor criticism of hinduism why DEMOCKEERY of democracy be BELIEVED by thses IItian And Code Coolies And Code specialist Donated Medical College DEGREES
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