Brahmi script

Also called: Brahmi · Topic: Studying Indian History: Sources, Dating and Historiography · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 5 "The Rise of Empires"; Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"; Class 7, Ch 7 "The Gupta Era: An Age of Tireless Creativity"; Class 9, Ch 4 "Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"

Meaning

Brahmi is an ancient Indian script used to write most of Asoka's inscriptions in the Prakrit language. It is the parent of most later Indian scripts, including Devanagari, and of scripts used for Dravidian languages. [4] James Prinsep deciphered it, and Asokan Brahmi was read in 1838. That made Asoka's edicts readable and opened up India's early history to study.

Explanation

Background: a script nobody could read

• Inscriptions (writing cut into stone, metal or pottery) last almost forever. Manuscripts rot and have to be copied again and again.
• Over the centuries, though, the letter shapes changed slowly, until people could no longer read the old Brahmi letters.
• By the early 19th century, a lot of Brahmi writing was known, on pillars, rocks and coins, but nobody could read it.
• Before the decipherment, Asoka was almost unknown except in Sri Lankan Buddhist chronicles and northern Buddhist works. [2]

Main features

• Script, not language. Brahmi is a way of writing letters. In the Asokan inscriptions it was used to write Prakrit, the everyday spoken languages of ordinary people.
• Where it was used. Most Asokan inscriptions in India are in Brahmi.
• In the north-west, the same Prakrit was written in Kharosthi.

• In Afghanistan, Aramaic and Greek were used.

• Direction. Brahmi is written from left to right, like Devanagari today.

• Letters changed over time. The letter "a" of about 250 BCE looks different from the "a" of about 500 CE.
• This study of old letter shapes is called palaeography.
• It helps date an inscription that gives no year: its letters are compared with dated ones.

How it was deciphered

• The officer. James Prinsep worked in the East India Company mint.
• He was assay master (the officer who tests how pure the metal in coins is) at the Benares mint, 1820–30, and at the Calcutta mint from 1832. [2]

• Testing coins meant he handled thousands of old coins and the writing on them.

• The method: working backwards.

• European scholars, helped by Indian pandits, started from letter shapes they already knew: Bengali and Devanagari.

• Step by step, they traced these back to older and older forms, until they reached Brahmi.

• The early mistake.

• Early attempts failed because scholars thought the language was Sanskrit.

• It was actually Prakrit. Once they understood this, the words began to make sense.

• The result. Asokan Brahmi was read in 1838. Prinsep became the first European scholar to decipher Asoka's edicts. [2]

• Britannica gives the date as 1837. [2] Use the NCERT date, 1838, in the exam.

Results

• Asoka was identified. Most inscriptions call the king devanampiya ("beloved of the gods") and piyadassi ("pleasant to behold"). These are titles, not a personal name.
• A few inscriptions also carry the name Asoka, a king already known from Buddhist texts.
• Scholars compared the content, style, language and palaeography of all the inscriptions. They concluded that one king issued them all.

• So the king of the inscriptions and the Asoka of the books were the same person.

• A boom in epigraphy (the study of inscriptions) followed.

• 1877: Alexander Cunningham published the set of Asokan inscriptions.
• 1886: Epigraphia Carnatica began, and the ASI Epigraphy Branch was set up at Bangalore. [3]

• 1888: Epigraphia Indica began.

• A new kind of history. By the early 20th century, the broad list of dynasties was settled. Historians then turned to economic and social questions, for example by using votive inscriptions (short records of gifts that name the donor and the donor's job) to study weavers, potters and women donors.

• A living legacy. Brahmi is the parent of Devanagari and of scripts used for Dravidian languages. [4] So most Indian scripts used today share one ancestor.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Brahmi was in use by the Mauryan period. It was the main script of Asoka's inscriptions (c. 3rd century BCE; the "a" of about 250 BCE is a palaeography example). Its letter forms kept changing well into the CE centuries.
• Region: Most of the Indian subcontinent. The exceptions are the north-west (Kharosthi) and Afghanistan (Aramaic and Greek).
• Key people:
• James Prinsep: deciphered Brahmi (and Kharosthi).
• Indian pandits: helped trace the letters back from Bengali and Devanagari.
• Alexander Cunningham: published the Asokan inscriptions (1877).

• D.C. Sircar: wrote Indian Epigraphy and Indian Epigraphical Glossary (1965–66).

• Evidence:

• Asoka's rock and pillar edicts.
• Votive inscriptions from the 2nd century BCE onwards.
• Coins handled at the Company mints.
• The ASI's study of writing on stone, metal, wood and shell, used to rebuild history from the Mauryan period onwards. [3]
• ASI estimates that more than one lakh inscriptions have been found in India. [3]

Don't confuse with

• Kharosthi: the script of Asoka's north-west inscriptions, written right to left. It was cracked using bilingual Indo-Greek coins (e.g. king Apollodotus), not by working backwards from Bengali and Devanagari as Brahmi was.
• Prakrit: a language, not a script. Brahmi was the script used to write it. Assuming the language was Sanskrit is what held up the decipherment.
• Devanagari: a later script that descends from Brahmi. [4] It was one of the known scripts scholars used to work back to Brahmi.
• Harappan script: much older than Brahmi and still not deciphered. Brahmi was read in 1838.

Prelims Hooks

• Most Asokan inscriptions use the Prakrit language in the Brahmi script. The north-west used Kharosthi; Afghanistan used Aramaic and Greek.
• James Prinsep, an officer of the East India Company mint, deciphered both Brahmi and Kharosthi. Asokan Brahmi was read in 1838 (Britannica: 1837 [2]).
• Trap: Brahmi was cracked by working backwards from Bengali and Devanagari. Bilingual Greek–Kharosthi coins were used to crack Kharosthi, not Brahmi.
• Trap: early attempts failed because scholars assumed the language was Sanskrit. It was Prakrit.
• Brahmi is the parent of Devanagari and of scripts used for Dravidian languages. [4]
• Order of events: Mackenzie collects 8,000+ inscriptions (1810s) → Prinsep reads Brahmi (1838) → Cunningham publishes Asokan inscriptions (1877) → Epigraphia Indica (1888).

Mains Points

• Decipherment rebuilt early Indian history.
• Reading Brahmi made Asoka's edicts readable and showed that "Piyadassi" was the Asoka of Buddhist texts.

• This joined inscriptions and literature together. By the early 20th century, the outline of dynastic history was settled.

• Colonial knowledge with Indian help.

• Prinsep was a Company mint officer, so the decipherment happened inside a colonial structure.

• But Brahmi was read by working back from Bengali and Devanagari with Indian pandits assisting. Knowledge was produced jointly. This point is useful for questions on colonial history-writing.

• One script, a shared cultural heritage.

• Brahmi is the parent of Devanagari and of scripts used for Dravidian languages. [4] So scripts of both north and south India share one root.
• Brahmi inscriptions also have limits. Only the powerful or the well-off could pay to have stone cut, and kings praised themselves. Historians must check them against texts, coins and archaeology.

Related concepts

• Inscription
• Epigraphy
• Prakrit
• Palaeography
• Votive inscriptions
• Aihole inscription
• Copper plate inscriptions
• Asiatic Society of Bengal
• James Prinsep
• Brahmi numerals

Read more

• Epigraphy: inscriptions and their decipherment