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a. 7H Ry ANAM
hering the Seript
‘There is no doubt that Brahmi script is at the
root of all the seripts of northern India. It
volved gradually, changing its form from
‘Mauryan (third to second century BC) to Sutiga
(second to first century BC), from Suriga to
Kushana (first to second century AD), from
Kushana to Gupta (300 - 550 AD) period and
so on and so forth, It may be stated thae the
form of letters from the Mauryan to the Gupta
period had changed so much that Fa-hsien, the
Chinese pilgrim who stayed! in India between
400 to 410 AD, could nor find any one who
could read the Asokan pillar inscriprions thar he
saw in course of his stay. The Asokan script
could not be deciphered for a long period of
time though several scholars mace attempts to
do so. Finally the credit of deciphering
may be given to James Princep who
accomplished this task in 1837. While examining
the numerous shore inscriptions on pillars ancl
railings of the Great Stupa at Sanchi, he noticed
that practically all the inscriptions had the same
two letters at their end. He guessed, correctly as
it tumed out, that the two letters conveyed the
sense of igift of” and he knew that the most
Brahmi
1. Example of Asokan Brahmi
PSL UL bw So ve Ws aE
tai =f) faa af arn ed srer
2. Example of Kushana Brahmi
xGfeu fwATEW aY4d)
HAUG wows aya
3. Example of Gupta Brahmi
a a wet 44 SbIyB
wad yaaa adwa
A awa
Letters of Brahmi Script in Mauryan,
Kushana and Gupta Periods
common word for it in Sanskrie and Praksit
Janguages is danams. Thus he came (© know: (1)
the form of the letter da, (2) that a-matra was
aclded to the letter in the form of a horizontal
stroke to right at the top of the leer, (3) the
form of the letter na and (4) that the anusvara
was adled to the leter on the right of its cop
and not at the top of the letter as it later came to
be
Then with the help of biscriptual coins of the
Indo-Greek rulers giving their name and ttle in
Greck and Brali, the complete key for Brahmi
letters could be ascertained.
ignificance of Brahmi
| The Devanagari seripr, in which Sanskeit,
Prakrit, Hindi and Marathi are written, has *
evolved from Brahmi, as also many modern
regional scripts such as Gujarati, Bangla and
Oriya, It may be noted that there are some
letters in the Devanagari scripe that are not
represented in the Asokan Brahmi seripe,
although this was probably the ease because in
Pali language of Asokan period they were not
needed. In this script, matras are attached to the
‘consonants; it has eonjoint letters and it does not
1 Separate words within a
single sentence
Bralumi inscriptions have
also been found in some
south-east Asian
countries. Ancient
epigraphs are the most
important source of
history and sinee the
epigraphs are written in
Brahmi script or in
scripts derived from
Brahmi the knowledge
oF this script is of
| utmost importance for
the reconstruction of
history
Kiran Kumar Thaplyal is
1 Former Profesor and
Head, A.LH. and
Archacolegy, Lucknow
— University
Wievas
Notional Mission for Monuscrips
